Le canon des Pères à l’époque carolingienne et la place de Flavius Josèphe

Abstract

We have little idea who exactly belonged to the category of “Church father” in the early Middle Ages, or how this category was even defined in this period. As such, it remains impossible to confirm or refute claims of Patristic or quasi-Patristic status or authority for a particular author. Indeed, Heinz Schreckenberg claimed that Flavius Josephus (37-100 CE) almost attained the status of a Church father, even though we still have only a sketchy idea of Josephus’ reception. This preliminary article uses quantitative techniques, many borrowed from the history of science, to address the intersecting questions of who (and what) constituted a Church father in this era, what was Josephus’ position alongside them. We examine measures like number of manuscripts, co-appearences in manuscripts, entries in library catalogues, “co-citation” data, annotations, and even some qualitative analysis to paint a broader and more nuanced picture of the early medieval Fathers. Josephus was probably not a “Father” to most, but the range and depth of his authority was surprising.

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