Extra Seriem Kreuz

Gottfried Eugen Kreuz, Pseudo-Hilarius, Metrum in Genesin, Carmen de Evangelio. Einleitung, Text und Kommentar. – Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2006.
There has not been done much research on the smaller, mostly pseudonymic biblical poems of late antiquity yet. One of these, the double poem In Genesin – De Evangelio, written by the so-called Pseudo-Hilary, has now been newly edited, thoroughly commented (more or less for the first time, not taking into account the small book of J. Weitz, 1625) with respect to philological and theological questions, including a translation of the text, which is inserted piece by piece into the commentary, and has thus been made accessible for modern readers. The extensive introduction contains a discussion of the manuscript tradition and printed editions as well as an attempt to define the position of the poem in its theological and literary background (here, the In Genesin-part is of most interest), including date and authorship and some effort to prove the theory of R. Peiper, which has been a remaining desideratum since his vehemently criticized edition of the poem (CSEL 23, 1891), claiming that the two poems are parts of one poetic unity, separated by tradition. Therefore, similarities in usage of language and motives, but especially the subtle polemics against Lucretius, and the fact that the whole double poem can be seen as a liturgical paraphrase that, by some means, anticipates the main principles of medieval tropi, are discussed. Some speculations about the lost final part of De Evangelio, with a side-glance to pieces of contemporary works of arts, complete the author’s attempt to reintroduce an underestimated piece of poetry to the horizon of scholarship.