E-Book Overview
In Proba the Prophet: The Christian Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed offers an in-depth study and reappraisal of the Cento of Proba and its reception. Proba's poem belongs to the few extant Latin texts from Antiquity penned by a woman writer, and one of the oldest Christian Latin poems. Schottenius Cullhed surveys and challenges common preconceptions and biographical constructions of the poem's author and early readers, and examines their impact on interpretations and evaluations of the text. The author also develops and puts to use an alternative model for understanding the poem and convincingly shows how the Virgilian source texts form a complex net of internal and external biblical typologies within the Cento.
E-Book Content
Proba the Prophet
Mnemosyne Supplements late antique literature
Editors David Bright (Emory) Scott McGill (Rice) Joseph Pucci (Brown)
Editorial Board Laura Miguélez-Cavero (Oxford) Stratis Papaioannou (Brown) Aglae Pizzone (Geneva) Karla Pollmann (Kent)
volume 378
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mns-lal
Proba the Prophet The Christian Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba
By
Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed
leiden | boston
Cover illustration: Grenoble, Bibliothèque Municipale, 352 (a. 1470) 373v. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cullhed, Sigrid Schottenius, author. Proba the Prophet : the Christian Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba / By Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed. pages cm. – (Mnemosyne supplements ; v. 378) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-26472-4 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-28948-2 (e-book) 1. Proba, active 4th century. Cento. 2. Bible–In literature. 3. Centos–History and criticism. I. Proba, active 4th century. Cento. II. Title. PA6801.A49P828 2015 873'.01–dc23 2014047087
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2214-5621 isbn 978-90-04-26472-4 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-28948-2 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.
To Eric
∵
Contents Acknowledgements List of Figures x Introduction
ix
1
1 Proba the Poet 18 2 Proba and Her Critics
56
3 Proba in the Republic of Women 82 4 The Confessions of Proba 113 5 Centonizing Genesis
137
6 The Gospel of Proba 158 Appendix: The Cento of Proba Bibliography 233 Index Locorum 254 General Index 258
190
Acknowledgements Writing this book would not have been as pleasurable and perhaps not even possible without the support of a number of individuals and institutions, although—as always—the responsibility for any remaining errors is mine alone. I would like to thank Mats Malm, Karla Pollmann, Scott McGill, Nils Rücker, Monika Asztalos, Wim Verbaal, Marco Formisano, Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer