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The Vita Martini or Life of Martin of Sulpicius Severus is one of the classic Latin hagiographies. Its hero, Martin, was one of the first monks in the Western Roman Empire, and was also one of the first monk-bishops. His life, as presented by Sulpicius, is a series of confrontations: with various Emperors and other leading figures in the Roman state, with members of the 'Arian heresy', Christians whose theology of the Trinity placed them at odds with exponents of 'Nicene' Christianity, with the his lax and venal fellow-bishops in Gaul, and above all with the Devil, whose various shows of strength and guile Martin faces down. The Vita Martini is a brilliant combination of Christian and classical culture, providing allusions both to the Bible and to authors such as Virgil and Sallust throughout. In addition to its intrinsic literary and historical interest, it is also an ideal first example of a 'real Latin' text, with a series of vivid, anecdotal episodes. This edition provides a Latin text with facing English translation, along with a commentary addressing matters of linguistic, literary, theological, and wider cultural interest, taking into account the revolution in the study of 'late antiquity' in the last fifty years.
List of contents
- Note on Background Reading
- Sulpicius Severus: History and chronology
- Martin of Tours: History and chronology
- Hagiography as a Genre
- Typology: a 'literary key' to the Vita Martini?
- Language and Style
- Notes on the text
- Text and translation
- Commentary
- Bibliography
- Indices
About the author
Philip Burton is Reader in Latin and Early Christian Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Summary
An edition of the Life of Martin, written around 397 ce by Sulpicius Severus, an Aquitanian lawyer turned Christian ascetic. It tells the story of a holy man who, against his wishes, eventually becomes Bishop of Tours.
Additional text
The Life of Martin is not as securely heroic as later stories might have suggested, and there are still sufficient mysteries in it to make it a work of real interest to scholars. We should be grateful that they have such a dependable guide to the text as this volume now provides.
Report
Burton's approach, nevertheless, is in many respects refreshingly different ... The work is evidently a welcome and accessible tool specifically to those less familiar with the French language ... Burton's excellent study inspires not one but numerous and repeated re-readings of this classic text Els Rose, Vigiliae Christianae
