From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Liber Scintillarum
Liber Scintillarum
Liber Scintillarum (literally "The Book of Sparks") is a late of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, like the Rochester
seventh or early eighth-century florilegium of biblical Bestiary.
and patristic sayings in Latin. It was compiled by Defen-
sor a monk who in the preface identifies himself as a
sor,
member of St Martin’s Abbey at Ligugé, near Poitiers, and
Editions
who wrote the work at the behest of his teacher Ursinus, • J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina 88.
the abbot of St Martin’s. Virtually nothing is known of • Rochais, H.M. (ed.). Liber Scintillarum. Corpus
the monk beyond what the preface offers us. The com- Christianorum, series Latina 117. Turnholt, 1957.
pilation was written sometime between 636, when the • Rhodes, E.W. (ed.). Defensor’s Liber Scintillarum with an
important source Isidore of Seville died, and about 750, interlinear Anglo-Saxon version made early in the eleventh
when the earliest extant manuscript appears to have century. EETS. London, 1889.
been produced.
The "sparks" (scintillae) of the title refer to sayings
(such as maxims and proverbs) of the Lord and his saints,
Studies
which have been excerpted from the Bible and the • Bremmer, Rolf H. Jr, ’The Reception of Defensor’s
Church Fathers, and rearranged into as many as 81 chap- Liber Scintillarum in Anglo-Saxon England’, in ...un tuo
ters. The headings of these chapters refer mainly to vices serto di fiori in man recando. Scritti in onori di Maria
(e.g. avarice, fornication), virtues (patience, wisdom), de- Amalia D’Aronco, vol. 2, ed. Patrizia Lendinara. Udine:
votional practices (confession, prayer) and common Forum, 2008, pp. 75–89.
themes of human life (marriage, feasting).
In the early part of the eleventh century, a copy of the External links
Latin text was accompanied by an interlinear Old Eng-
lish gloss, for which a little space between the lines was • Image from Royal MS 6 D V, f. 46v, British Library.
available. It is found in BL, Royal MS 7 C IV, together • Image from Royal MS 7 C IV, f. 1r, British Library.
with De vitiis et peccatis, again with an interlinear Old Eng- • Image from Royal MS 7 C IV, f. 62v, British Library.
lish gloss. It belonged to Rochester Cathedral Priory and
probably joined the Old Royal Library as part of the spoils
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Categories:
• Proverbs
• Wisdom literature
• Early medieval Latin literature
• Old English language
• British Library Royal manuscripts
• Manuscript stubs
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