Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Celtic Studies)

Rating:
Summary: The Notes make Plummer's Classic still worth it
Review: In the first part of the twentieth century, Charles Plummer was the acknowledged doyen of early insular historiography, and the study of early Irish history and literature is indebted to much of his scholarship, including this valuable edition of Irish saints' Lives, which was the standard edition for most of the twentieth century. Plummer's work has, however, begun to show it's age. For example, Plummer based his edition on the Codex Kilkenniensis, while studies by W.W. Heist, and especially Richard Sharpe, have since established the Codex Salmanticensis as the standard text since it seems to contain the oldest recensions of the Lives. Moreover, Plummer's approach to the saints, in which he pervasively saw reflexes of pagan deities, is out-of-fashion in today's scholarship which focuses with much more detail on the historical and societal context of the Lives; as a result, some of Plummer's notes are of limited use. Nonetheless, the comparative study of the Kilkenniensis collection offers the valuable opportunity to examine a medieval redactor at work, and many of Plummer's notes shine in the breadth of their learning and thoroughness of documentation. The _Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae_ thus remains a necessary tool for serious scholars of early Ireland.