The Text and Transmission of Felix’s Life of Guthlac

Abstract

This paper argues that Bertram Colgrave drew a mistaken stemma of the manuscripts of Felix’s Life of Guthlac. In particular the second hyparchetype should be represented not by c (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 389) but by H (London, British Library, Harley 3097), many of whose excellent readings Colgrave ignored. The consequences of this reassessment are illustrated in a series of textual discussions of individual passages. Appendix A gives samples of a new apparatus criticus, in two versions, the second more austere than the first. Appendix B gives new information on Felix’s sources; one item shows that the Vita was written after the completion of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica in 731.
Keywords: St Guthlac, Felix of Crowland, Anglo-Latin, Transmission of texts, Stemmatology