Number

lt.029

Title

Vita sub compendio sancti Johannis, abbatis Montis Synay, dicti Scolastici, qui scripsit spirituales has tabulas, videlicet sanctam Scalam, quam Daniel, humilis monachus Raytu, scripsit.

Name of the Portuguese translation

Vida de São João Clímaco (pt.029)

Author

Daniel Raytu (monk at the Raitu Monastery)

Language

Latin (the original is Greek)

Characterization

Biography of St. John Climacus that mainly describes the religious life and miracles performed by the saint. This work will have been written by a Raitu monastery monk, where the abbot to whom is dedicated the text came from.

Date

Text informations tell us that it was written after the death of St. John Climacus (“he a sua converssaçõ no çeeo” – fl. 122-122v – see Martins, 1962b: 181), and reveal that the text collects testimonies from the ones “que per elle foran cõssolados” (fl. 125 – ver Martins, 1962b: 184), so it should have been written in the seventh century. The Latin translation from which eventually descends the Portuguese translation is from about 1300. The existing copy in Portugal, according to Martins (1961: 403), will have appeared around 1409.

Place

The original text may have been written in the Monastery of Raitu, where the author lived.

Extant tesmonies

The Life of St. John Climacus comes associated with various texts attributed to St. John Climacus, as the Escada Celestial, or the Livro do Pastor. From the Escada Celestial descend manuscripts written in various languages (Greek, Syrian, Arabic, Armenian, etc.), including Latin. The oldest complete Latin translation that is known dates from about 1300 and was made by a Franciscan friar named Ângelo Clareno. This translation has been kept in 51 manuscripts.

The existing Latin text in Portugal has, in addition to the Escada Celestial, the Livro do Pastor and is kept in the Codex Alcobacense CCLXI / 387. It contains the version of Ângelo Clareno, which was copied in Alcobaça about 1409 by Frei Martinho (Martins 1956: 274; Martins, 1962a: 62). According to Martins (1961: 407; 1962b: 181), similarities between the text of this codex and the Portuguese translation in the Codex Alcobacense 213 allow to think that the latter may derive from the Latin text, although it is not certain that this is its origin. In fact, some think that the Portuguese translation may have been made not from the Latin text, but from an Italian version of the same text (Almeida, 2005: 133 Alkimim, 2007: 19 n.30; 24-29).

Studies

References:

MONACHVS, Daniel (1864), De uita S.Climaci. In: MIGNE, J. P. (org.). Patrologiae Graecae. Paris: J.-P. Migne Éd., Vol. 88, 595-610.

MONACHVS, Daniel, Vita compendio conscripta Abbatis Ioannis, http://ebookbrowse.com.

ALKIMIM, Ilma Magalhães (2007) Escada Celestial, de João Clímaco (Cód. Alc. 213): edição e estudo. Dissertação de Mestrado. Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

ALMEIDA, Ana Cristina Rui (2005), “...E dali em diante soube perfeitamente falar o grego...” – um episódio na vida de Ângelo Clareno. MÁTHESIS 14, 129-136.

MARTINS, M. (1956) A Biblioteca de Alcobaça e o seu fundo de livros espirituais. In Estudos de Literatura Medieval. Braga: Livraria Cruz.

MARTINS, M. (1961), A Escada Celestial em medievo-português. Brotéria 62.4, 402-415.

MARTINS, M. (1962a), O Livro do Pastor, Brotéria 75, 62-68.

MARTINS, M. (1962b) Vida de S. João do Monte Sinai por Daniel de Raitu. Brotéria 74.2, 179-186.

MÜLLER Andreas (2002) Die Vita Johannes des Sinaiten von Daniel von Raithu ein Beitrag zur Byzantinischen Hagiographie. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 95.2, 585-601.