Patrick S. Marschner (University of Pavia)

Claudius of Turin’s De sex aetatibus mundi – Manuscript study and first critical edition. A presentation of an almost finished book

Often addressed to as ‘chronicle’, De sex aetatibus mundi is much rather a treatise on computus and the division of history from Creation to the sixth age of the world, respectively the year 814. Compiling this text, Claudius was not just part of the contemporary discourse on the correct Easter date; his work became also relevant in the eleventh century again, when the Bedan Easter tables were supposed to end. Thus, De sex aetatibus mundi is a work with a post-Carolingian reception history, too. Although Claudius and his works were investigated frequently, De sex aetatibus mundi lacks a complete and critical edition. This might be caused also by the fact that the surviving manuscripts containing the entire text differ strongly from each other due to both omissions and interpolations. Furthermore, De sex aetatibus mundi is mostly a compilation. Claudius’s achievement was less the authorship of a new text but rather a unique composition of several already existing and authoritative works.

The here presented book will offer new insights in Claudius of Turin’s De sex aetatibus mundi by first, making some remarks on the text’s literary character, second, offering new insights in the surviving manuscripts, including the introduction of a new finding as well as asking for the role of Claudius’s work in the codices containing it, third, adding information from medieval and early modern catalogues, fourth, comparing it to similar contemporary texts, and fifth, rethinking the role and impact of Claudius’s sources on the text. De sex aetatibus mundi is, thus, for the first time embedded in both the ninth-century and the time of the copists’ discourse on time and history. Finally, the first complete edition and translation of this work make it accessible in its entirety.

If you are interested, please contact Leon Pürstinger for the Zoom link.