Periodic Reporting for period 4 - PASSIM (Patristic sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of late-antique sermons in the medieval Latin West)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-07-01 al 2024-06-30
The PASSIM project studied the medieval reception of the Latin sermons preached by the Early Church Fathers during the so-called golden age of preaching (c. 350-750AD). Its object of study includes both the very famous Fathers of the Church such as Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, Leo the Great, the Venerable Bede etc., and their less famous and anonymous contemporaries. There are thousands of such Latin sermons from late Antiquity preserved, preserved for us in medieval manuscripts, written down and copied many centuries after they were first spoken aloud.
This medieval tradition was substantial and vibrant, with thousands of manuscripts and innumerable variations in their composition and in the texts themselves. Patristic sermon collections traveled the medieval world, not just as relics of early-Christian authorities, but as integral parts of medieval religious life.
Medieval collections of patristic sermons offer unique insights into medieval attitudes toward authority, techniques of appropriation, Church organisation, monastic networks and knowledge exchange. The dynamic tradition of reorganising and rewriting the patristic heritage is largely overlooked by scholars of medieval religious practices, who concentrate on medieval preachers, and by scholars of Early Christianity, whose focus is the reconstruction of the patristic context.
The PASSIM project had two main objectives.
First, we aimed to document, present, and interpret the medieval reception of Latin patristic sermons and give patristic sermons - both authentic and misattributed - their rightful place as part of the corpus of texts that tell us about medieval religious experiences and developments.
Second, we wanted to contextualise medieval manuscripts as witnesses to the medieval interpretation, rather than seeing them as stepping stones toward the reconstruction of the patristic original. We did this in a way that allows us to trace, visualise and interpret transmission patterns on a much larger scale than has been possible thus far.
The project developed a digital dataset of metadata on Latin patristic sermons as authority files and the medieval manuscripts that transmit them. With this dataset and its customised interface as an anchor, the project team pursued three lines of inquiry:
- What does the customising of standard liturgical collections tell us about reception patterns and selection processes for patristic sermons in the medieval context?
- How does the transmission of sermons as part of antique and medieval collections affect their popularity, their textual integrity and evolution, their interpretation?
- How can we access and operationalise the huge corpus of pseudo-epigraphic sermons as revelatory of medieval perceptions of the Church Fathers?
Developing an interdisciplinary methodology with a wide applicability in the study of intellectual history, this project is introducing patristic preaching as a vibrant strand in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition.
This medieval tradition was substantial and vibrant, with thousands of manuscripts and innumerable variations in their composition and in the texts themselves. Patristic sermon collections traveled the medieval world, not just as relics of early-Christian authorities, but as integral parts of medieval religious life.
Medieval collections of patristic sermons offer unique insights into medieval attitudes toward authority, techniques of appropriation, Church organisation, monastic networks and knowledge exchange. The dynamic tradition of reorganising and rewriting the patristic heritage is largely overlooked by scholars of medieval religious practices, who concentrate on medieval preachers, and by scholars of Early Christianity, whose focus is the reconstruction of the patristic context.
The PASSIM project had two main objectives.
First, we aimed to document, present, and interpret the medieval reception of Latin patristic sermons and give patristic sermons - both authentic and misattributed - their rightful place as part of the corpus of texts that tell us about medieval religious experiences and developments.
Second, we wanted to contextualise medieval manuscripts as witnesses to the medieval interpretation, rather than seeing them as stepping stones toward the reconstruction of the patristic original. We did this in a way that allows us to trace, visualise and interpret transmission patterns on a much larger scale than has been possible thus far.
The project developed a digital dataset of metadata on Latin patristic sermons as authority files and the medieval manuscripts that transmit them. With this dataset and its customised interface as an anchor, the project team pursued three lines of inquiry:
- What does the customising of standard liturgical collections tell us about reception patterns and selection processes for patristic sermons in the medieval context?
- How does the transmission of sermons as part of antique and medieval collections affect their popularity, their textual integrity and evolution, their interpretation?
- How can we access and operationalise the huge corpus of pseudo-epigraphic sermons as revelatory of medieval perceptions of the Church Fathers?
Developing an interdisciplinary methodology with a wide applicability in the study of intellectual history, this project is introducing patristic preaching as a vibrant strand in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition.
The project ran from January 2019 until June 2024. At full capacity, the team consisted of the PI, two postdoctoral fellows, a PhD student, research assistant, two ICT developers and several volunteers and student interns. Our work was situated in 4 areas:
1. Development of the PASSIM Research Tool
The central hub of the project is the PASSIM Research Tool, which consists of a web application that allows for the sophisticated querying of a database of medieval manuscripts that contain collections of patristic sermons. Developing the web application and its functionalities was the main scientific goal of the first phase of the project and it has been achieved to full satisfaction. All major elements of the web applications will be completed by the end of 2021. The tool was officially launched in June 2024.
2. International visibility
The continued sustainability of the PASSIM Research Tool depends on access to relevant data and on its functioning as a hub for community building in the field of sermon studies. Therefore, significant energy has been invested in presenting the project at international conferences and to potential partners.
3. Data import
Achieving a clean, representative dataset was the most labor-intensive aspect of the project. To achieve bulk import, we identified key-repositories and set up collaborations for data exchange. Two partnerships, which provide us with the majority of our relevant data, have successfully been completed. We have identified several key datasets and invested specifically in ensuring their quality and completeness.
4. Research and output
Three subprojects examined the source material in detail and developed representative case studies. A key-publication in a highly relevant journal discusses the methodological challenges that PASSIM addressed. Several publications, centred on the three main lines of inquiry have been published or are being prepared for publication. Particular highlights are the publication of the conference proceedings of the 2021 workshop 'On the way to the future of digital manuscript studies' in the Journal of Data Mining & Digital Humanities and the conference proceedings of the 2023 closing conference 'Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages' which is under contract with Brepols to appear in their Sermo series in 2025.
1. Development of the PASSIM Research Tool
The central hub of the project is the PASSIM Research Tool, which consists of a web application that allows for the sophisticated querying of a database of medieval manuscripts that contain collections of patristic sermons. Developing the web application and its functionalities was the main scientific goal of the first phase of the project and it has been achieved to full satisfaction. All major elements of the web applications will be completed by the end of 2021. The tool was officially launched in June 2024.
2. International visibility
The continued sustainability of the PASSIM Research Tool depends on access to relevant data and on its functioning as a hub for community building in the field of sermon studies. Therefore, significant energy has been invested in presenting the project at international conferences and to potential partners.
3. Data import
Achieving a clean, representative dataset was the most labor-intensive aspect of the project. To achieve bulk import, we identified key-repositories and set up collaborations for data exchange. Two partnerships, which provide us with the majority of our relevant data, have successfully been completed. We have identified several key datasets and invested specifically in ensuring their quality and completeness.
4. Research and output
Three subprojects examined the source material in detail and developed representative case studies. A key-publication in a highly relevant journal discusses the methodological challenges that PASSIM addressed. Several publications, centred on the three main lines of inquiry have been published or are being prepared for publication. Particular highlights are the publication of the conference proceedings of the 2021 workshop 'On the way to the future of digital manuscript studies' in the Journal of Data Mining & Digital Humanities and the conference proceedings of the 2023 closing conference 'Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages' which is under contract with Brepols to appear in their Sermo series in 2025.
The general aim of PASSIM was to chart, analyse, and interpret the medieval reception of the Latin sermons of the Early Church Fathers through a bottom-up approach that starts from the testimony of the massive manuscript tradition that preserves and transmits these sermons. PASSIM goes beyond the state of the art by bridging two disciplinary divides, between patristic and medieval sermon studies and between the methods of textual criticism and the requirements of reception studies, history and religious studies. Developing an interdisciplinary methodology with a wide applicability in the study of intellectual history, this project introduces patristic preaching as a vibrant strand in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition.
Specifically, PASSIM impacts the field through the following innovations and results:
- Provide access to material that is difficult to find or investigate at the moment, in particular with regard to pseudo-epigraphical sermons, and present this material in a structured yet flexible way.
- Provide the opportunity to study sermon collections in their manuscript context, without the interference of the classification systems imposed on the tradition in the past. It also produces several examples of such studies.
- Reevaluate the ‘canon’ of patristic sermons and sermon manuscripts from the perspective of medieval, rather than late-antique religious history, restoring thus an imbalance which has long permeated the field.
- Provide a longue-durée perspective on the development and use of patristic sermon collections, in particular liturgical collections, while giving attention to several understudied areas.
The PASSIM Research Tool presents promising opportunities for further use beyond the parameters of the project: the dataset can be expanded to include other types of manuscripts and the methodology, functionalities and structure underlying the web application are applicable far beyond the field of sermon studies and represent a significant step forward in the field of manuscript studies.
Specifically, PASSIM impacts the field through the following innovations and results:
- Provide access to material that is difficult to find or investigate at the moment, in particular with regard to pseudo-epigraphical sermons, and present this material in a structured yet flexible way.
- Provide the opportunity to study sermon collections in their manuscript context, without the interference of the classification systems imposed on the tradition in the past. It also produces several examples of such studies.
- Reevaluate the ‘canon’ of patristic sermons and sermon manuscripts from the perspective of medieval, rather than late-antique religious history, restoring thus an imbalance which has long permeated the field.
- Provide a longue-durée perspective on the development and use of patristic sermon collections, in particular liturgical collections, while giving attention to several understudied areas.
The PASSIM Research Tool presents promising opportunities for further use beyond the parameters of the project: the dataset can be expanded to include other types of manuscripts and the methodology, functionalities and structure underlying the web application are applicable far beyond the field of sermon studies and represent a significant step forward in the field of manuscript studies.