A New Manuscript Source for the Legend of Saint Clement in Denmark

Abstract

Among the manuscript fragments in the Norwegian and Danish National Archives in Oslo and Copenhagen, six fragments have been identified from a large manuscript from about 1200 containing texts on St. Clement. These fragments constitute rare medieval witnesses to the work on St. Clement written by Leo of Ostia at the beginning of the twelfth century, transmitting parts of the first and third book: De origine beati Clementis (BHL 1851ab) and De translatione sancti Clementis (also known as Legenda italica) (BHL 2073). Although five fragments are found in Oslo and one in Copenhagen, the manuscript was probably dismembered in Copenhagen in the early seventeenth century, making a Danish medieval ownership more likely than a Norwegian one in this particular case. St. Clement played a significant role in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, and the lack of surviving Latin texts on Clement has previously been puzzling to scholars. Not only do these fragments testify to the dissemination of Leo of Ostia’s work to the northernmost parts of Europe, they also in several cases offer a better transmission of the author’s texts than the manuscripts known up to now. A transcription of the transmitted texts is presented in an Appendix.