Books by Jacopo Bisagni
Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lectures 18, 2020
Early Irish Text Series 1, 2019
Amrae Coluimb Chille is a complex and fascinating Old Irish text. A unique tour de force of lingu... more Amrae Coluimb Chille is a complex and fascinating Old Irish text. A unique tour de force of linguistic inventiveness, the Amrae laments the death of Colum Cille and praises equally his monastic perfection and his intellectual achievements, his asceticism and his pastoral leadership, his rejection of the secular world and his descent from a noble lineage.
This book provides the first ever complete critical edition of Amrae Coluimb Chille. The introduction offers a full study of the text’s manuscript transmission, language and style, as well as a discussion of its historical context. The Old Irish text is accompanied by a new English translation and is followed by a detailed commentary, a glossary and several appendices.
Book chapters by Jacopo Bisagni
Mélanges en l'honneur de Pierre-Yves Lambert, 2015
Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, 2015
Old and Middle Irish sources offer a rich array of terms referring to woodwind instruments. Howev... more Old and Middle Irish sources offer a rich array of terms referring to woodwind instruments. However, terms like buinne, cuisech, cuisle, fetán, pípa, etc. are variously translated as ‘flute’, ‘whistle’, ‘pipe’, ‘bagpipe’, and the like, seemingly without much consideration for the organological reality underlying these lexical items. This article will look at the linguistic and textual evidence relating to some of these terms, with the aim of achieving a more precise identification of the musical instruments in question.
Kelten am Rhein, Akten des dreizehnten Internationalen Keltologiekongress, 2009
Journal articles by Jacopo Bisagni
Études celtiques 46, 2020
Abstract
This article announces first of all the discovery of a hitherto unknown Old Breton gloss... more Abstract
This article announces first of all the discovery of a hitherto unknown Old Breton gloss at fol. 69ra of the computistical manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, written at Avignon in AD 1026. The gloss in question is constituted by a single word: the compound sterdigkiniat, which translates Latin astrologus in the context of a passage concerning the etymology of the word Kalendae. This compound contains the word ster, ‘star’, as well as the noun digkiniat, ‘soothsayer’, and it can therefore be interpreted as meaning ‘soothsayer who can make predictions thanks to the stars.’ Yet, this gloss is not only significant for its linguistic value. The same passage on the Kalendae, as well as several other computistical texts, can be found in a group of six manuscripts, one of which is the ‘Bobbio Computus’, an early ninth-century codex well known for its Hiberno-Latin contents. Moreover, the tract De Kalendis occurs also in two tenth-century manuscripts having demonstrable Breton affiliations (Angers, BM, 476 and Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). As a consequence, the discovery of the gloss sterdigkiniat and these philological correspondences allow us to argue that some of the contents of the Madrid manuscript must derive from a Breton archetype containing Hiberno-Latin textual materials that circulated between Brittany and Northern Francia already during the ninth and tenth centuries.
Résumé
Cet article annonce tout d’abord la découverte d’une glose vieux-bretonne inédite au fo 69ra du manuscrit computistique Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, écrit à Avignon en 1026. La glose en question consiste en un mot unique, le composé sterdigkiniat, traduisant le terme latin astrologus dans le contexte d’un passage concernant l’étymologie du mot Kalendae. Ce composé contient le mot ster, « étoile », et le substantif digkiniat, « devin » ; il peut donc être interprété comme « devin qui fait des prédictions grâce aux étoiles ». Toutefois l’intérêt de cette glose n’est pas exclusivement linguistique. En effet, le même passage concernant les Kalendae, ainsi que plusieurs autres textes computistiques, se retrouvent dans un groupe de six manuscrits, dont le « Comput de Bobbio », un codex du début du IXe siècle bien connu pour ses contenus d’origine hiberno-latine. De plus, le traité De Kalendis est aussi présent dans deux manuscrits du Xe siècle ayant une connexion certaine avec la Bretagne (Angers, BM, 476 et Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). La découverte de la glose sterdigkiniat et ces correspondances philologiques nous permettent donc d’affirmer qu’une partie des contenus du manuscrit de Madrid doit dériver d’un archétype breton contenant des matériaux textuels hiberno-latins qui circulaient entre la Bretagne et la Francie du Nord au IXe et au Xe siècle.
Museikon, 2020
Representatives of the various teams involved in this comparative research gathered at the CESCM ... more Representatives of the various teams involved in this comparative research gathered at the CESCM in Poitiers for a workshop organised by the fesmar Partnership (Deconfundamus linguam eorum: Methodological Overview for the ‘Tower of Bibles’ Project, January 24, 2020), where they discussed the details for future plans and collaborations, deciding, among others things, to continue the experimental collective research concerning the musical instruments terminology in the vernacular translations of the psalms. The main advantage is that it provides an in-depth exploratory survey of the pan-European corpus of texts. The current research also demonstrates that certain translation choices may be related to developments in art history, as the vernacular translations may be a part of a much larger cultural tradition, thus the need to continue the common paper until the subject provides enough theoretical material for a wider methodological debate.
Many discussions already started in the first collective paper (and several linguistic sections) could not be continued, due to the challenging access to libraries during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The current paper simply bridges the extensive presentations from the first paper and the future ones from a third paper, to be published in 2021.
Britannia Monastica 20, 2019
En l'an 818, l'empereur Louis le Pieux, fils de Charlemagne, mena une campagne pour pacifier les ... more En l'an 818, l'empereur Louis le Pieux, fils de Charlemagne, mena une campagne pour pacifier les rebelles bretons. Alors qu'il se trouvait dans le campement principal de l'armée, Louis rencontra l'abbé de Landévennec. Grâce à une charte préservée dans la Vita Sancti Winwaloei de Uurdisten nous savons ce que l'empereur appritet fitlors de cette rencontre : dum Matmonocus abba ex monasterio Landevinnoch nostram adisset praesentiam, et illum sive de conversatione monachorum in illarum partium monasteriis consistentium sive de tonsione interrogassemus, […], cognoscentes quomodo ab Scotis sive de conversatione sive de tonsione capitum accepissent, dum ordo totius sanctae apostolicae atque romanae ecclesiae aliter se habere dinoscitur […], jussimus, ut et juxta regulam sancti Benedicti patris viverent. « … lorsque l'abbé Matmonocus, du monastère de Landévennec, arriva en notre présence, nous lui posâmes des questions au sujet du mode de vie des moines des monastères de ces régions, et nous lui demandâmes de leur tonsure ; après avoir appris qu'ils avaient adopté la façon de vivre et la tonsure des Irlandais (Scoti), alors qu'il est bien connu que la coutume de toute la Sainte Église Apostolique Romaine est différente, nous ordonnâmes qu'ils vivent selon les règles du Saint Père Benoît 1 . » relation ethnique spéciale entre eux-mêmes et les Irlandais à l'époque carolingienne 4 . De même, il ne semble pas qu'il y ait eu une quelconque connexion politique majeure entre les deux pays.
Études Celtiques 44, 2018
Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writ... more Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writings, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale n° 477, offers the largest body of Old Breton glosses ever found. The Old Breton words on f° 36ro, however, are not exactly glosses : these Old Breton words translate a number of labels placed at the head of several columns containing Roman numerals. This table of numerals gives the age of the moon on the date of the main mobile feasts of the liturgical year. The heavily abbreviated head words of columns are in Latin or Old Irish. Léon Fleuriot correctly interpreted most of the Breton words, but did not understand what the table’s purpose was. We explain this table, which occurs also, more or less developed, in other Irish or Breton manuscripts. K(a) l(ann) guiam “ Winter calends” (meaning, All Hallows) is a mistranslation, the abbreviated sam–-being wrongly understood as standing for Irish Samuin “ First of November”, obviously not a mobile feast, instead of sam-chásc “ Summer-Easter”, the sixth Sunday after Whit Sunday, the date which terminated the Second Lent in the Irish monastic year. In addition, ceplit, the first term of the list, is different from caplit “ Holy Thursday”, and may be explained as a borrowing from Latin capitula “ chapters”, or rather capitulationes “ heads of chapters, of columns”.
Études Celtiques , 2018
The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des g... more The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot pointed out the presence of a single, undoubtedly Breton gloss in the manuscript Orléans 182, written possibly at Fleury around AD 900. A new analysis of this manuscript (which contains a substantial number of commentaries and glosses concerning nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament) shows that the vernacular glosses are in fact more numerous : this article offers a discussion of eight newly discovered glosses – five in Old Breton and three in Old English. Moreover, the study of a select number of passages (mostly found in the long commentary on Genesis that opens this exegetical collection) indicates that these materials may have been originally compiled in a scriptorium of North-Western France, and also reveals possible textual connections with the biblical glosses attributed to the school of Theodore and Hadrian of Canterbury, as well as even stronger links with texts produced at the Carolingian school of Auxerre.
Peritia 28, 2017
The Vatican MS, BAV, Reg. lat. 123 (saec. xi, Ripoll), a computistical anthology, contains numero... more The Vatican MS, BAV, Reg. lat. 123 (saec. xi, Ripoll), a computistical anthology, contains numerous excerpta of ultimate Irish provenance. Some of these materials may have reached Ripoll through a route of transmission that brought them first to Brittany, and from there to the scriptoria of Fleury-sur-Loire and Ripoll itself.
Études Celtiques 41, 2015
Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as ... more Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as Audacht Morainn (AM), probably written around AD 700, presents a classification of four ‘types’ of ruler : among these, we find the tarbḟlaith, ‘bull-ruler’, i. e. a violent prince who rules in a context of perpetual warfare. The analysis of the various recensions of AM suggests that the section concerning the tarbḟlaith may in fact represent a relatively late (ninth-century ?) addition to an original tripartite classification. In light of Brent Miles’s recent suggestion that the narrative developments of the bull motif in Táin Bó Cúailnge may represent – at least partially – a deliberate imitation of Classical models, we can now take into account the possibility that the compound tarbḟlaith may have a similar origin : in particular, this Old Irish term could be a calque on the Latin collocation dux taurus, an epithet attributed to the exiled Theban prince Polynices in Statius’s Thebaid. Statius’s poem and the commentary to the Thebaid by Lactantius Placidus may well have been known in Early Medieval Ireland : these texts could thus have provided the Irish ecclesiastical literati with negative exempla of kingship, just like some passages from Virgil’s fourth Eclogue may have contributed to the shaping of the concept of fír flathemon, ‘the justice of the ruler’, which we find in AM. After all, that the Thebaid may have played a role in the definition of the Medieval Irish ideology of kingship should not be particularly surprising, especially if we consider the presence of the phrase rex iniquus in Statius’s work – a phrase also found in the Hiberno-Latin tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, presenting several similarities with AM – as well as the prominence of the incest motif in both the stories concerning Oedipus’s sons and the narrative background underlying Morann’s address to Feradach Find Fechtnach in AM.
Peritia 24-25, 2014
This article investigates the frequent alternation of Latin and Old Irish in several collections ... more This article investigates the frequent alternation of Latin and Old Irish in several collections of early medieval Irish glosses (especially focussing on the glosses to the Epistles of St Paul in Würzburg, Universitatsbibliothek, MS M.p.th.f.12), in the attempt to ascertain how modern language contact and code-switching theories (Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame - or MLF - model in primis) may help us understand this phenomenon, as well as the exact nature of the linguistic relationship between Hiberno-Latin and the vernacular among the medieval Irish literati. Criteria for identifying what can be legitimately defined as ‘written code-switching’ are discussed, and a methodology for the study of code-switching in medieval glosses is proposed.
Peritia 24-25, 2014
The author argues that a section of the newly-discovered eighth-century Irish computistica in Par... more The author argues that a section of the newly-discovered eighth-century Irish computistica in Paris, BnF, lat. 6400B may contain a citation from a (lost?) work of Columbanus.
Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 2012
As is well known, leprechauns make their first appearance in a number of Old and Middle Irish tex... more As is well known, leprechauns make their first appearance in a number of Old and Middle Irish texts, where their name is subject to a remarkable allomorphism, 1 as will be apparent from the following list of attestations: 2 Sex Aetates Mundi (hereafter abbreviated as SAM) 3 §17 [nom. pl.] luchorpain R P, lubprucain C, luchrobanaich Lc, lufrapain M, lucrapáin T §33 [gen. pl.] luchorpan R P, luprucain (with c written over p, and p over c) U, luchrupain C §34 [nom. pl.] luchorpain R P, luchrupain U C B, luchrapanaich Lc §70 (poem Rédig dam, a Dé, do nim) [gen. pl.] luchorpan R P, luchrapan L, luchrapáin B, luchraban Lc O'Mulconry's Glossary (hereafter OM) 4 1 This is not unlike what we find in modern folklore, where the leprechaun is known under a plethora of local variants of the same name: Diarmuid Ó Giolláin lists 16 different names (cf. 'An Leipreachán san Ainmníocht', Béaloideas, 50 (1982), 126-50, pp. 127, 129-31, and 'The Leipreachán and Fairies, Dwarfs and the Household familiar: a Comparative Study', Béaloideas, 52 (1984), 75-150, p. 75), each of which has numerous further variant spellings. 2 Texts are here listed according to the date of the earliest manuscripts preserving them (from the earliest to the latest). The list contains all the instances which I have been able to find in texts dated to the Old and Middle Irish period. 3 I give here all the manuscript readings from SAM for the relevant term. Paragraph numbers refer to Dáibhí Ó Cróinín's edition, The Irish Sex Aetates Mundi (Dublin, 1983). MSS abbreviations also correspond to the ones used by Ó Cróinín (in the following list, the folios or pages in which the relevant readings occur are given in square brackets): U = Dublin, RIA MS 23 E 25, alias Lebor na hUidre (s. xi ex.xii in.), pp. 1-2 [p. 2a]; R = Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 502 (s. xii), fols. 40v-45r [fols 41va, 42rb, 44va]; L = Dublin, Trinity College MS 1339 (H.2.18), alias Book of Leinster (s. xii 2 ), pp. 141b-143a [p. 142a]; C = Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 486 (1370 ca.), fols 67r-74v [fols 68rb, 71rb]; M = Dublin, RIA MS D ii 1, alias Book of Uí Maine (s. xiv 2 ), 48r-49r (early foliation: fol. 104r-105r) [fol. 48ra]; B = Dublin, RIA MS 23 P 12, alias Book of Ballymote (s. xiv 2 ), 2r-5v [fols 2vb, 4va]; Lc = Dublin, RIA MS 23 P 2, alias Great Book of Lecan (s. xiv ex.xv in.), 22r-26v [fols 22vb, 24vb, 26vb]; P = Dublin, NLI, MS G 131 (Phillips 17082) (s. xvii; Ó Cróinín,
Journal of Celtic Linguistics 14, 2012
As is well known, Old Irish presented a morphological and functional distinction between the copu... more As is well known, Old Irish presented a morphological and functional distinction between the copula and the so-called 'substantive verb'. While in the present indicative the former is based on the PIE root *h es-1 and the latter on PIE *steh-2 , all other tenses and moods of both verbs are formed from the PIE root *bhuH-. Although these forms have often attracted the attention of scholars, several details of their prehistory are still unclear. This article will focus on the origins of the preterital forms: in particular, a solution for the striking difference of vocalism between the 3rd singular of the substantive verb (boí) and the copula (absolute ba, conjunct-bo,-bu) will be proposed. It will also be shown that the answer to this specific problem can shed some light on the Irish differentiation of the two forms of the verb 'to be', a process which, as will be suggested, may depend on the same mechanism which brought about the long-debated distinction between absolute and conjunct flexion in Old Irish.
Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 2011
Dieser Aufsatz gibt eine Etymologie für das Wort erdathe in einem Abschnitt von Tírecháns Collect... more Dieser Aufsatz gibt eine Etymologie für das Wort erdathe in einem Abschnitt von Tírecháns Collectanea, wo es sich auf eine anscheinend vorchristliche Vorstellung be züglich des Weltuntergangs bezieht. Es wird vorgeschlagen, erdathe als den Gen. Sg. eines Substantivs *erdath aufzufassen, dessen zweite Silbe einen Reflex der idg. Ver balwurzel *dhueh2-'Rauch machen' enthält. Dazu passen etliche (sowohl heidnische als auch christliche) Textzeugnisse, in denen der Weltuntergang als die Zerstörung der Erde durch gewaltige Feuer-und Wassermassen beschrieben wird.
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Books by Jacopo Bisagni
This book provides the first ever complete critical edition of Amrae Coluimb Chille. The introduction offers a full study of the text’s manuscript transmission, language and style, as well as a discussion of its historical context. The Old Irish text is accompanied by a new English translation and is followed by a detailed commentary, a glossary and several appendices.
Book chapters by Jacopo Bisagni
Journal articles by Jacopo Bisagni
This article announces first of all the discovery of a hitherto unknown Old Breton gloss at fol. 69ra of the computistical manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, written at Avignon in AD 1026. The gloss in question is constituted by a single word: the compound sterdigkiniat, which translates Latin astrologus in the context of a passage concerning the etymology of the word Kalendae. This compound contains the word ster, ‘star’, as well as the noun digkiniat, ‘soothsayer’, and it can therefore be interpreted as meaning ‘soothsayer who can make predictions thanks to the stars.’ Yet, this gloss is not only significant for its linguistic value. The same passage on the Kalendae, as well as several other computistical texts, can be found in a group of six manuscripts, one of which is the ‘Bobbio Computus’, an early ninth-century codex well known for its Hiberno-Latin contents. Moreover, the tract De Kalendis occurs also in two tenth-century manuscripts having demonstrable Breton affiliations (Angers, BM, 476 and Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). As a consequence, the discovery of the gloss sterdigkiniat and these philological correspondences allow us to argue that some of the contents of the Madrid manuscript must derive from a Breton archetype containing Hiberno-Latin textual materials that circulated between Brittany and Northern Francia already during the ninth and tenth centuries.
Résumé
Cet article annonce tout d’abord la découverte d’une glose vieux-bretonne inédite au fo 69ra du manuscrit computistique Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, écrit à Avignon en 1026. La glose en question consiste en un mot unique, le composé sterdigkiniat, traduisant le terme latin astrologus dans le contexte d’un passage concernant l’étymologie du mot Kalendae. Ce composé contient le mot ster, « étoile », et le substantif digkiniat, « devin » ; il peut donc être interprété comme « devin qui fait des prédictions grâce aux étoiles ». Toutefois l’intérêt de cette glose n’est pas exclusivement linguistique. En effet, le même passage concernant les Kalendae, ainsi que plusieurs autres textes computistiques, se retrouvent dans un groupe de six manuscrits, dont le « Comput de Bobbio », un codex du début du IXe siècle bien connu pour ses contenus d’origine hiberno-latine. De plus, le traité De Kalendis est aussi présent dans deux manuscrits du Xe siècle ayant une connexion certaine avec la Bretagne (Angers, BM, 476 et Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). La découverte de la glose sterdigkiniat et ces correspondances philologiques nous permettent donc d’affirmer qu’une partie des contenus du manuscrit de Madrid doit dériver d’un archétype breton contenant des matériaux textuels hiberno-latins qui circulaient entre la Bretagne et la Francie du Nord au IXe et au Xe siècle.
Many discussions already started in the first collective paper (and several linguistic sections) could not be continued, due to the challenging access to libraries during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The current paper simply bridges the extensive presentations from the first paper and the future ones from a third paper, to be published in 2021.
This book provides the first ever complete critical edition of Amrae Coluimb Chille. The introduction offers a full study of the text’s manuscript transmission, language and style, as well as a discussion of its historical context. The Old Irish text is accompanied by a new English translation and is followed by a detailed commentary, a glossary and several appendices.
This article announces first of all the discovery of a hitherto unknown Old Breton gloss at fol. 69ra of the computistical manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, written at Avignon in AD 1026. The gloss in question is constituted by a single word: the compound sterdigkiniat, which translates Latin astrologus in the context of a passage concerning the etymology of the word Kalendae. This compound contains the word ster, ‘star’, as well as the noun digkiniat, ‘soothsayer’, and it can therefore be interpreted as meaning ‘soothsayer who can make predictions thanks to the stars.’ Yet, this gloss is not only significant for its linguistic value. The same passage on the Kalendae, as well as several other computistical texts, can be found in a group of six manuscripts, one of which is the ‘Bobbio Computus’, an early ninth-century codex well known for its Hiberno-Latin contents. Moreover, the tract De Kalendis occurs also in two tenth-century manuscripts having demonstrable Breton affiliations (Angers, BM, 476 and Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). As a consequence, the discovery of the gloss sterdigkiniat and these philological correspondences allow us to argue that some of the contents of the Madrid manuscript must derive from a Breton archetype containing Hiberno-Latin textual materials that circulated between Brittany and Northern Francia already during the ninth and tenth centuries.
Résumé
Cet article annonce tout d’abord la découverte d’une glose vieux-bretonne inédite au fo 69ra du manuscrit computistique Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 9605, écrit à Avignon en 1026. La glose en question consiste en un mot unique, le composé sterdigkiniat, traduisant le terme latin astrologus dans le contexte d’un passage concernant l’étymologie du mot Kalendae. Ce composé contient le mot ster, « étoile », et le substantif digkiniat, « devin » ; il peut donc être interprété comme « devin qui fait des prédictions grâce aux étoiles ». Toutefois l’intérêt de cette glose n’est pas exclusivement linguistique. En effet, le même passage concernant les Kalendae, ainsi que plusieurs autres textes computistiques, se retrouvent dans un groupe de six manuscrits, dont le « Comput de Bobbio », un codex du début du IXe siècle bien connu pour ses contenus d’origine hiberno-latine. De plus, le traité De Kalendis est aussi présent dans deux manuscrits du Xe siècle ayant une connexion certaine avec la Bretagne (Angers, BM, 476 et Paris, BNF, Lat. 6400B). La découverte de la glose sterdigkiniat et ces correspondances philologiques nous permettent donc d’affirmer qu’une partie des contenus du manuscrit de Madrid doit dériver d’un archétype breton contenant des matériaux textuels hiberno-latins qui circulaient entre la Bretagne et la Francie du Nord au IXe et au Xe siècle.
Many discussions already started in the first collective paper (and several linguistic sections) could not be continued, due to the challenging access to libraries during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The current paper simply bridges the extensive presentations from the first paper and the future ones from a third paper, to be published in 2021.