Altus Prosator

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Title	Altus Prosator
Ascribed to	Colum Cille
Manuscripts	Continental manuscripts:[1] Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS M 32 sup, ff. 83—85 Montpellier, École de Médecine, MS 218, ff. 79—81 Orléans, Bibliothéque municipale, MS 169 (146), ff. 300—308 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm. 18665, f. 229 Irish manuscripts: Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 16 (Hodges & Smith 224, 1230) = Leabhar Breac [s. xvin], pp. 237a—238a. Heavily glossed. Text with Irish prose introduction. Altus Prosator proper begins on p. 237b Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1441 (E 4. 2) = Liber Hymnorum [s. xiex-xiiin], ff. 11—13. Heavily glossed. Lacks stanzas 14-21. Dublin, University College, MS Franciscan A 2 = Liber Hymnorum [s. xiex-xiiin], pp. 2—8. Text with preface and some glosses. The hymn proper begins on p. 3. English manuscript: London, British Library, MS Cotton Galba A xiv, ff. 7—19. MS from Winchester
Language	Latin
Date	“written in Ireland or Britain, in his [Columba’s] time or not long afterward” (Carey).[2] “Its affiliations in style and language together with its sources and what may be traced of its early history, are entirely compatible with its having originated in Ireland in the seventh century” (Stevenson).[3]
Provenance	Irish
Description	Latin hymn

Notes

Sources

Editions

Critical editions

Blume, Clemens, “Pars altera: Hymnodia Hiberno-Celtica saeculi V.IX.”, in: Blume, Clemens (ed.), Die Hymnen des Thesaurus Hymnologicus H. A. Daniels und andere Hymnen-Ausgaben. I. Die Hymnen des 5.-11. Jahrhunderts und die Irisch-Keltische Hymnodie aus den ältesten Quellen, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi 51, Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1908. 257—364. 271—283 Internet Archive: [1]

Bernard, J. H., and R. Atkinson (ed. and tr.), The Irish Liber Hymnorum, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society 13, 14, London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1898. Vol. 1, 62—65 (preface), 66—83 (hymn) » Edition based primarily on the Irish manuscripts. Internet Archive: vol. 1 vol. 1 vol. 2 Direct link Direct link

Editions from single manuscripts

Riefferschied, A. (ed.), “Die Ambrosianische Bibliothek in Mailand”, Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil-hist. Klasse 67 (1871): 467—568. 544—546 » Text from Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS M 32 sup.

Boucherie, A., “Mélanges latins et bas latins”, Revue des langues Romanes, 3rd series, 7 (1875): 5—41. 12—26 » ‘Hymne abécédaire contre les antitrinitaires’, text from Montpellier, École de Médecine, MS 218.

Cuissard, C., “La prose de Saint Columba”, Revue Celtique 5 (1882—1883): 205—212, 396, 507.  » Text from the Orléans MS. Internet Archive: [2] [3]

Gilbert, John T. (ed.), Facsimiles of national manuscripts of Ireland, 5 vols, Dublin: Public Record Office of Ireland, 1874—1884. Vol. 4.2 (1884), 131—133 (Appendix XXI). » Text from Franciscan A 2.

Ó Longáin, Joseph, J. J. Gilbert (eds.), Eugene O'Curry, Brian O'Looney (coauthors), and Samuel Ferguson (preface), Leabhar Breac, the Speckled Book, otherwise styled Leabhar Mór Dúna Doighre, the Great Book of Dun Doighre, 2 vols, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1872—1876. Lithographic facsimile edition of a transcript made by Joseph Ó Longáin. 237—238 » Text in facsimile from Leabhar Breac.

Todd, James Henthorn, Leabhar imuinn: the Book of Hymns of the ancient Irish Church, 2 vols, Dublin: Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, 1855—1869. Vol. 2, 201—251 » Text from TCD 1441. Internet Archive: fasc. 1 and 2 fasc. 1 fasc. 2

Muir, Bernard James (ed.), A pre-Conquest English prayer-book (BL MSS Cotton Galba A.xiv and Nero A.ii (ff. 3-13)), Henry Bradshaw Society 103, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1988. 32—39 » Text from Cotton Galba A xiv.

Translations

Carey, John, King of Mysteries: early Irish religious writings, 2nd ed. [1998], Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000. 29—50, 275

Clancy, Thomas Owen (ed.), The triumph tree: Scotland's earliest poetry AD 550-1350, Canongate Classics 86, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1999. 95—99

Clancy, Thomas Owen, and Gilbert Márkus, Iona: the earliest poetry of a Celtic monastery, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.

Bernard, J. H., and R. Atkinson (ed. and tr.), The Irish Liber Hymnorum, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society 13, 14, London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1898. Vol. 2, 23—26, 140—153 » Translation of Irish preface and glosses only, with notes Internet Archive: vol. 1 vol. 1 vol. 2 Direct link Direct link

Secondary sources

Stevenson, Jane, “Altus Prosator”, Celtica 23 (1999): 326—368. Celtica (PDF)

Stevenson, Jane, “Altus Prosator: a seventh-century Hiberno-Latin poem”, Cambridge, PhD dissertation: University of Cambridge, 1985.

Wesseling, Margaret, “Structure and image in the Altus Prosator: Columba's symmetrical universe”, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 8 (1988): 46—57.