Lorenzo Perrone announces wonderful news for the Patristic Community:
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
on the 21st of May, a day after the first severe earthquake since
centuries began to shake my region, I was asked an expertise on a Greek
manuscript of Munich.
Prof. Anna Meschini Pontani, from Padua University, informed me that Dr.
Marina Molin Pradel, who is preparing the new catalogue of the Greek
manuscripts of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, wished to submit to my
attention a discovery she had made on Holy Thursday. While examining the
content of Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 (11th-12th century), an
anonymous collection of 29 homilies on the Psalms, she discovered that
the manuscript included the Greek text of four of the five homilies of
Origen on Psalm 36 (H36Ps I-IV) translated by Rufinus. Moreover, she
noticed that the list of the other homilies corresponded to a large
extent to that presented by Jerome in his Letter 33 to Paula, the most
important group being the series of nine homilies on Psalm 77.
I worked hastily in the following weeks to go through the considerable
manuscript (371 folios) and check its content. More and more, albeit
still provisionally, I have come to the conclusion that we have to do
with a lot of lost homilies of Origen. My conviction is supported, among
other things, by the exegetical treatment presented by the homilies,
the doctrinal elements they preserve, the stylistic features which are
typical of the great Alexandrian. In addition, a few excerpts of these
homilies were already known to us under his name in some catenae
fragments edited in PG 17 and the «Analecta Sacra» of Pitra, especially
with regard to Psalm 77.
Only a thorough examination of the texts transmitted by the Codex
Monacensis Graecus 314 will permit to extend with reasonable certainty
the attribution to Origen of all the remaining homilies or of part of
them, besides the Homilies I-IV on Psalm 36.
I have already begun with the transcription of the manuscript and hope
to complete it before the end of the summer, in order to make the texts
accessible to scholars. Together with my colleagues Chiara Barilli,
Antonio Cacciari and Emanuela Prinzivalli I plan to prepare without
delay a critical edition of the homilies.
Marina Molin Pradel will present her discovery and offer some samples of
the manuscript in the next issue of «Adamantius», due to be published
before the autumn.
A series of initiatives are planned to announce the discovery of the new
texts to the scholarly world and to promote their knowledge and study.
On monday the 11th of June the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek will release a public statement about the discovery.
A seminar will take place at Padua University the 25th of June and a
day-conference is planned for the 5th of December in Munich at the
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Together with the colleagues of the Italian Research Group on Origen and
the Alexandrian Tradition we plan a conference in Bologna next
February, exactly one year after the one devoted to the prospect of a
new edition of Origen’s commentaries on the Psalms, in cooperation with
the colleagues of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaft.
At the time we were submerged by the snow no less than by the
uncomfortable impression of the heavy task still waiting the editors of
the catenae fragments. Now, in the middle of renewed quakes, we have
been given an unexpected gift that we would like to share with all those
who love Origen.
Lorenzo Perrone
«Alma Mater Studiorum» – Università di Bologna
Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica
Via Zamboni 32
I-40126 Bologna
Italy
LA RICERCA C’È E SI VEDE:
5 per mille all'Università di Bologna - C.F.: 80007010376
http://www.unibo.it/5permille
