دانلود کتاب “Predicationes Palatinae”: The sermons in Vat. Pal. lat. 220 as an insular resource for the Christianization of early medieval Germany

This dissertation provides an in-depth examination of the manuscript Vat. Pal. lat. 220 (written in southern Germany in the early ninth century), which contains a collection of Latin homilies (the Predicationes Palatinae) together with other appended sermons and apocryphal material, much of which displays close connections with Old English homilies and/or Hiberno-Latin and Irish texts. The homilies in Pal. lat. 220 are not connected to any liturgical cycle, consisting primarily of catechesis, moral and ethical instruction, and eschatology, and analysis of the manuscript and its contents suggests that these sermons were intended to be preached to the ordinary lay Christians of ninth-century Germany.

This dissertation therefore argues that Pal. lat. 220 is an important witness to early medieval processes of Christianization, as the very existence of the manuscript demonstrates that certain Carolingian ecclesiastics were interested in pursuing the thorough doctrinal and moral formation of the Christian population of early medieval Germany. This study provides the first detailed examination of the entire contents of the manuscript, so as to gain insight into the concerns and outlook of these Carolingian evangelists, as well as the homiletic resources which they felt could be utilized to effectively implement the process of Christianization in early medieval Europe.

Part I of the dissertation investigates the sources and analogues of the Predicationes Palatinae and other texts in Pal. lat. 220, while also providing a critical overview of the secondary sources which have discussed the manuscript and its contents to date. It demonstrates that Pal. lat. 220 forms part of a larger grouping of ninth-century manuscripts (including Vat. Pal. lat. 212 and Berlin, Phillipps 1716), and examines the many close connections between these homilies and Insular ecclesiastical material, suggesting that this collection of sermons may have originated in Anglo-Saxon England.

Part II provides a detailed overview of the collection's catechesis, moral instruction, and eschatology, and argues that all are united by a common theological vision which emphasizes concretization and theopraxis. Such theopraxis, which focuses on the concrete transformation of ordinary life, promotes an in-depth Christianization intended to permeate every level of Carolingian society.