Book Series Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, vol. 298

Hugo Eterianus

De sancto et immortali Deo, Compendiosa Expositio, Fragmenta Graeca

Pietro Podolak, Anna Zago (eds)

  • Pages: cii + 393 p.
  • Size:155 x 245 mm
  • Language(s):Latin, Italian
  • Publication Year:2020

  • € 295,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-58641-0
  • Hardback
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An Italian theologian in 12th_century Byzantium and his theological disputes against the Greek church.

Review(s)

"...un volume che, inserendo lo scritto di Ugo Eteriano nella trama dei dibattiti teologici che animano la Costantinopoli del settimo e dell’ottavo decennio del XII secolo, apre ulteriori e molteplici opzioni di ricerca e fa della cultura teologica e filosofica un carattere non esclusivo dell’Europa latina ma proprio del medioevo mediterraneo." (Riccardo Saccenti, in: I castelli di Yale online IX, 2021/1-2, pp. 271-276)

“Die Ausgabe mit ihrem durchdachten Apparat und den Indizes ist ein fein gearbeitetes Werkzeug für ein adäquateres Verständnis der turbulenten philosophisch-theologischen Situation von Hugo Eterianus und seines kulturellen Umfelds.” (Georgi Kapriev, in Deutschen Archiv 79-1, 2023, p. 313)

BIO

Pietro Podolak, Ph.D. (2006) was a Humboldt-Stipendiat (Würzburg) and research fellow in different research institutes (SISMEL, Firenze; Warwick University, UK; University of Pisa). He is currently invited professor at the Istituto Patristico "Augustinianum", Rome. His research activity was focused from the very beginning on text transmission and the ecdotics of late antique, medieval and renaissance philosophical and theological texts (Tertullian, Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, Ficinus and the Platonic tradition). Preceding the present edition, he has published several papers on Hugh Eterianus.

Anna Zago, Ph.D. (2015) is a junior lecturer at the University of Pisa. Her research focuses on the transmission and the ecdotics of late-antique and medieval texts, with particular concentration on grammatical and exegetical works. She has published critical editions of Latin grammatical treatises (Servius, Pompeius) as well as papers on ancient linguistics. Together with Pietro Podolak, she has also produced the first critical edition of another work by Hugh Eterianus, De minoritate ac equalitate filii hominis ad Deum Patrem.

Summary

Hugh Eterianus (1110/1120-1182) was one of the most influential theologians of the 12th century. He was born in Pisa and then moved to Byzantium, where he worked at the court of Manuel Comnenus. He was greatly appreciated for his deep knowledge of both Latin and Greek as well as for his expertise in theology and doctrinal controversies. He wrote many learned works on the relationship between Eastern and Western churches. His main oeuvre is De sancto et immortali Deo, composed around 1176-1177, at the culminating point of the Filioque controversy. In this treatise, Hugh supported the Latin side, arguing in favour the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

Despite his importance both as a historical figure in twelfth-century Constantinople and as a theologian, Hugh Eterianus and his output have remained almost unknown and his works never properly edited. In the wake of Antoine Dondaine’s seminal contributions, Pietro Podolak and Anna Zago have now produced a new critical edition of Hugh’s main treatise, De sancto et immortali Deo, based on a complete and systematic analysis of the manuscript tradition. The edition also includes four epistles transmitted with the treatise, and the editio princeps of the so called Compendiosa expositio, an anonymous commentary on Hugh’s work written by a contemporary. In an appendix, readers will also find the collection of the few extant fragments of the Greek version of the main treatise.