Among the Latin dogmatic works in early Christianity there exist only two pieces whose authorship was ascribed to Athanasius of Alexandria: Quicumque [=Athanasian Creed] and De Trinitate. Unlike the former, modern scholarship has not given much attention to the pseudo-athanasian De Trinitate which has been attributed to several ancient authors throughout the ages: Athanasius, Ambrose, Eusebius of Vercelli and Vigilius of Thapsus. Previous scholarship since the late 19th century was mostly devoted to solving the fundamental questions of authorship, date and place of origin with regard to the text in question. Unfortunately, these questions still remain unresolved. The assertion of Bulhart, the editor of its most recent critical edition (CCSL 9) that the treatise was written by Eusebius of Vercelli (d. 370/71) in northern Italy did not settle them but rather stirred up more discussion. In such circumstance, this paper will attempt to revisit the question of the place of origin of the pseudo-athanasian De Trinitate and to explore the validity of its Italtian origin. Since almost nothing is certain of the text, we will look more closely into the content of the text and, at the same time, pay attention to manuscript tradition. On the basis of both codicological and philological evidence, the paper will argue that the pseudo-athanasian De Trinitate did not originate in northern Italy but most likely came from Spain. If this conclusion is true, then we should give up on such attempt to link our treatise to Eusebius of Vercelli. Overall, the present study will contribute to expanding our understanding of the Latin Trinitarian theology in the post-Nicene period.
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