CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Gruntar Vilfan, Sibil |
|---|---|
| Title | Quasi nani super humeros gigantum? Reusing Classical and Medieval Quotations in Hagiographic Discourse in the Area of Liege (10th Century) |
| Summary | The present thesis offers a detailed investigation of select passages from the Vita II S. Remacli, a hagiographic text produced in the diocese of Liège in the last decades of the tenth century. The purpose of this investigation is threefold. First, to illustrate the point that in tenth-century Latin hagiographic texts produced in the diocese of Liège quotations from classical and patristic authors were not simply used as petrified forms of frozen ancient wisdom with a mere decorative function, but rather as raw gems which, properly polished and adjusted, so as to fit seamlessly into a new framework, could enhance both the form and the contents of texts closely connected to the political and intellectual realities of their age. Second, to show that nineteenth- and twentieth-century editions of such texts can act as distorting mirrors to modern readers and researchers, since, due to an editorial strategy that privileged classical material over its medieval context, they sometimes completely neglected the way in which quotations from ancient authors were re-worked by the tenth-century hagiographer in accordance with the stylistic requirements of rhymed prose. Third, to suggest as a necessary corrective to this distorting approach a new way of reading, which places classical and patristic quotations in their proper context, by paying due attention to manuscript evidence, to the stylistic requirements of their new context, and to the complex functions they play in their new textual environment. |
| Supervisor | Gaşpar, Cristian-Nicolae |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/gruntar-vilfan_sibil.pdf |
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