Jonas of Bobbio

Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast

Translated with Commentary by Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

The Life of Columbanus is a well-known text, but the current English translation of Book I does not use the latest (1965) edition by Michele Tosi.
Commentary draws on recent archaeological discoveries at Luxeuil, Columbanus' most important foundation in Francia, which have revolutionised our understanding of the saint's actual impact.
First English translation of The Life of John of Reome — an important text as it adds to our knowledge of the monastic movement to which the Life of Columbanus belongs.
Ian Wood is considered to be the world expert on the text.

Jonas of Bobbio

Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast

Translated with Commentary by Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Description

Jonas of Bobbio was an Italian monk, author, and abbot, active in Lombard Italy and Merovingian Gaul during the seventh century. He is best known as the author of the Life of Columbanus and His Disciples, one of the most important works of hagiography from the early medieval period, that charts the remarkable journey of the Irish exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (d. 615), through Western Europe, as well as the monastic movement initiated by him and his Frankish successors in the Merovingian kingdoms. In the years following Columbanus's death numerous new monasteries were built by his successors and their elite patrons in Francia that decisively transformed the inter-relationship between monasteries and secular authorities in the Early Middle Ages. Jonas also wrote two other, occasional works set in the late fifth and sixth centuries: the Life of John, the abbot and founder of the monastery of Réomé in Burgundy, and the Life of Vedast, the first bishop of Arras and a contemporary of Clovis. Both works provide perspectives on how the past Gallic monastic tradition, the role of bishops, and the Christianization of the Franks were perceived in Jonas's time. Jonas's hagiography also provides important evidence for the reception of classical and late antique texts as well as the works of Gregory the Great and Gregory of Tours.This volume presents the first complete English translation of all of Jonas of Bobbio's saints' Lives with detailed notes and scholarly introduction that will be of value to all those interested in this period.

Jonas of Bobbio

Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast

Translated with Commentary by Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Author Information

Dr Alexander O'Hara currently holds a research post at the Institut für Mittelalterforschung in Vienna. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Jonas, and has published three papers on the subject (among other published papers).
Professor Ian Wood is Professor of Early Medieval History in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. His research interests focus on the history and historiography of the early Middle Ages.

Jonas of Bobbio

Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast

Translated with Commentary by Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood

Liverpool University Press

Translated Texts for Historians LUP

Reviews and Awards

"The bulk of the book is a detailed and brilliant philological examination of Jonas's Life of Columbanus and Jonas's purposes, sources, and methods. Rich with examples and insights, the book is scholarship of the highest order by an author in complete command of his subject. O'Hara includes a list of all extant manuscripts of Jonas's Life of Columbanus and an extensive bibliography. The book will be valuable for those specializing in church history and medieval thought.... Highly recommended."-- CHOICE

"This very welcome new translation is also a highly sophisticated scholarly edition. It is particularly rich in bibliography, with an extensive listing of virtually all the secondary literature on Columban and his times." --Terrence Kardong, American Benedictine Review

'Whatever the final outcome of contemporary debates about Columbanus, 'Columbanian Monasticism', and the influence of the Irish in continental Europe in the early Middle Ages, this volume will provide invaluable evidence (for both sides!) for many years to come.' Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Europe

'This very welcome addition to Liverpool University Press's Translated Texts for Historians more than lives up to expectations for this esteemed book series [...] Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood's volume will be an essential companion for its valuable introduction, detailed footnotes, half-dozen appendices, up-to-date bibliography, and, not least of all, high-quality translation of Jonas's often challenging Latin. [...] In sum, this is an important book, not only for the early medieval texts it makes available to a much wider potential readership but also for the exceptional scholarship that went into the presentation and translation of those texts.' Westley Follett, Eolas: The Journal of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies

"The publication of an erudite, readable, and heavily annotated translation of Jonas of Bobbio's hagiographical corpus is a cause for celebration. Although one of the recognized classics of seventh-century hagiography, Jonas's Vita Columbani until now has not been available in an unabridged English translation, while the comparatively brief lives of John of Réomé and Vedast appear for the very first time in English. [...] O'Hara and Wood thus have produced not only an invaluable teaching resource, but a significant contribution to the new wave of Columbanian studies." Gregory I. Halfond, The Mediæval Journal