The note reinterprets an important epigraphic testimony of the Ostrogoth age, published for the first time by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1894. It is a polymetric funeral eulogy commissioned among the Amali royal family, perhaps dedicated by Flavia Amala Amalafrida Theodenanda to one or more relatives, unless one wishes to identify her with one of the dedicatees of the eulogy. After a presentation of supportive material and a new edition of the text, the history of the discovery of the (...) inscription is retraced, involving leading figures of the 19th century political and ecclesiastical culture including cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli and H. Stevenson Jr., a pupil of de Rossi. The contribution dates the artifact between the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th; it studies the hypothesis of identifying Amalafrida with one of the princesses in the family circle of King Theodoric and with the Ostrogothic wife of Flavius Maximus; it illustrates a hypothesis of the intended use of the epigraph for a funeral monument in the cemetery area of the Martyrial Basilica of S. Secondino on the Praenestina. (shrink)

After a short presentation on the figure and work of Novatian to give context to the evidence, this article examines the sources on the episcopal consecration of Novatian as a rival to Cornelius, the bishop of Rome. We learn of this from Photius’ Bibliothecae codices 182 and 280, which preserves fragments of the lost works against the Novatians of Eulogius, Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria, which draw in turn on the lost Acta Nouatiani. This study proposes to identify Tibur (Tivoli) as (...) the episcopal see of one of the three prelates who consecrated Novatian, thus allowing us to include in the episcopal succession of that Church two more names (one certain, the other fictitious, perhaps referring to one of Novatian’s entourage) for the middle of the third century. This is unique for an Italian see outside the city of Rome. (shrink)

The Gelasian letter, Famuli uestrae pietatis, addressed to Emperor Anastasius I (491-518), is famous for the so-called theory of two powers that has enjoyedconsiderable fortune and has received continual attention in the history and thought of the Latin West in view of its arguments about the relationshipbetween the Church and secular power. Scholars have been primarily interested in the Wirkungsgeschichte of the letter. Less frequently studied is the letter's specific religious context, characterized by the Acacian schism (484- 519), the dispute (...) between the episcopal sees of Rome and Constantinople. This article seeks to situate this document from the late fifth-century Roman pontifical chancery in its specific historical and ecclesial context, and to provide a commentary on the entire letter. A brief, final chapter offers a synthetic excursus on the immediate reception of the text in the Early Middle Ages before the Gregorian Reform. (shrink)

This contribution presents some results of recent research carried out on the Spanish manuscript tradition of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great (590-604). After a panoramic review of the present state of philological research and the expectations that such investigations have raised in the last three decades, this article analyses the situation of the Iberian manuscript tradition in general terms and afterwards illustrates the results of the research carried out on the so-called fragment of the Barcelona Dialogues (CLA 1626), a (...) folio in uncial characters that transmits a passage of the Homilies on the Gospels of Gregory but which, nevertheless, offers the opportunity for some reflections on the lexis gregoriana. This article also offers some details concerning three codices in Visigothic characters from the libraries of La Seu d’Urgell, Santo Domingo de Silos and the British Library of London, which are either complete or which conservelarge parts of the text. Finally, this investigation provides some hints concerning Spanish manuscripts in Carolingian characters which, as exemplars of the Vulgate text from the Frankish area, were completely unhelpful for the purpose of preparing a critical edition of the text. (shrink)

Through an analysis of the transmission and the historical context of the text, as well as of the doctrinal content of CPL 1610, this paper substantiates the likelihood of the Gelasian authorship of the letter, which was called into question by Coustant Thiel and Schwartz and supported by Nautin.

This contribution presents some results of recent research carried out on the Spanish manuscript tradition of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great (590-604). After a panoramic review of the present state of philological research and the expectations that such investigations have raised in the last three decades, this article analyses the situation of the Iberian manuscript tradition in general terms and afterwards illustrates the results of the research carried out on the so-called fragment of the Barcelona Dialogues (CLA 1626), a (...) folio in uncial characters that transmits a passage of the Homilies on the Gospels of Gregory but which, nevertheless, offers the opportunity for some reflections on the lexis gregoriana. This article also offers some details concerning three codices in Visigothic characters from the libraries of La Seu d’Urgell, Santo Domingo de Silos and the British Library of London, which are either complete or which conservelarge parts of the text. Finally, this investigation provides some hints concerning Spanish manuscripts in Carolingian characters which, as exemplars of the Vulgate text from the Frankish area, were completely unhelpful for the purpose of preparing a critical edition of the text. (shrink)