Subproject 1: The Manuscripts of Josephus Latinus

Copying and Reading as Appropriation

Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich, Judith Mania, Anthony Ellis

Our cluster's focus was material philology:  the transmission of the Latin translations and adaptions of Josephus. We examined manuscript production, circulation, annotation, and censorship to reveal how Josephan manuscripts were used in the medieval world, their cultural significance, and what they can tell us about Christian attitudes towards Judaism and Jewish/Christian history. The publications help trace continuities and changes in how Josephus was read and interpreted over some nine centuries between late antiquity and the Renaissance. The project also created an online catalogue (www.legejosephum.ch) which describes a selection of the extant manuscripts of the Latin Josephus, with particular attention to the traces left by generations of later readers, to provenance, and to the mise-en-page of the original text. The database is searchable and has been structured to provide various types of meta-data. 

Publications include: 

Ellis, Anthony (2025) “Editing or Censoring the Latin Text of Josephus? Evaluating the Deletions in BnF Lat. 12511”, in K. M. Kletter and P. C. Hilliard (eds), A Companion to Josephus in the Medieval West. Leiden – Boston: Brill, 194–218.

Ellis, Anthony – Mania, Judith (forthcoming 2025) “A Family of Medieval Glosses on the Latin Josephus: Antiquities Book 1”, Published on Gloss Corpus [...].

Ellis, Anthony (forthcoming 2025) “The Christian Idea of ‘Jewish Heresies’ in Antiquity and the Latin Middle Ages: A Chapter in the Christian Reception of Josephus and Jewish Hellenism”, in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.

Bay, Carson – Ellis, Anthony (forthcoming 2025) “Introduction: The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism in Latin Europe,” in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.

Ellis, Anthony (forthcoming 2025) “Whodunnit? Divine Agency and Human Responsibility in Josephus”, in A. Johnston & R. van Hove (eds), Divine and Human Agency in Greek Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, Anthony – Tröger, Lena (forthcoming) “De l’haeresis à l’hérésie. La traduction des ‘écoles judéennes’ de Josèphe dans la culture latine chrétienne”, in F. Chapot, B. Guion, A. Molinier-Arbo, and J.-L.Vix (eds), Pourquoi traduire? La traduction et ses enjeux de l’Antiquité gréco-romaine à l’âge classique (Paris : Hermann).

Huber-Rebenich, Gerlinde (2018) “‘Titi summa clementia’: Unbeachtete Zeugen für ein sprichwörtliches Herrscherbild”, in Simone Finkmann et al. (eds), Antike Erzähl- und Deutungsmuster. Zwischen Exemplarität und Transformation. FS für Christiane Reitz zum 65. Geburtstag. Berlin – Boston: De Gruyter, 617–635.

Huber-Rebenich, Gerlinde (2020) “Lies den Josephus! – aber welchen? Zur handschriftlichen Überlieferung des Flavius Josephus im lateinischen Mittelalter”, in Claudia Kampmann et al. (eds), Kirchengeschichte. Historisches Spezialgebiet und / oder theologische Disziplin. Festschrift für Wolfram Kinzig. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 119–142.

Huber-Rebenich, Gerlinde (2023) “Ein χρησμὸς ἀμφίβολος im Bellum Iudaicum des Flavius Josephus und seine Deutungen”, in Camille Semenzato and Lucius Hartmann (eds), Von der Antike begeistert! Philologie, Philosophie, Religion und Politik durch drei Jahrtausende. Festschrift für Christoph Riedweg. Basel: Schwabe, 291–297.

Mania, Judith (2023) “Cautus et assiduus lege verba voluminis huius: On the Christian Transmission and Reception of Flavius Josephus in the Latin West”, in NUME – Gruppo di Ricerca sul Medioevo Latino (eds), IX Ciclo di Studi Medievali. Atti di Convegno (Firenze, 6–7 Giugno 2023). Vibo Valentia: Libritalia, 465–470.

Mania, Judith (2024) “Handschriftenfragment Flavius Josephus, De bello Iudaico II, 15.4–16.3”, in Holger Kemkens and Christiane Ruhmann (eds), Corvey und das Erbe der Antike. Kaiser, Klöster und Kulturtransfer im Mittelalter. Petersberg: Imhof, 319–320 (Katalog nr. III.07).

Mania, Judith (forthcoming 2025) “Framing Josephus: Annotations and other Paratexts in the Latin Manuscripts”, in The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism, in C. Bay, A. Ellis, J. Mania, S. Moscone and L. Tröger (eds.), The Medieval Afterlife of Hellenistic Judaism: Reception & Reinvention in Western Europe. Basil: Schwabe.

Mania, Judith (forthcoming), “Flavius Josephus in the Codex Gigas (Stockholm, KB, A. 148)”, Acta Bibliothecae Regiae Stockholmiensis.