Codex Boernerianus

Codex Boernerianus

This famous Carolingian manuscript from the Saxon State Library in Dresden contains most of the Pauline epistles with the exception of Hebrews in Greek with a Latin translation inserted above the original text. Fol. 23v features a short poem written in Old Irish written by a disappointed pilgrim that translates as: “To go to Rome, much labor, little profit: the King whom thou seekest here, unless thou bring him with thee, thou findest him not. Much folly, much frenzy, much loss of sense, much madness (is it), since going to death is certain, to be under the displeasure of Mary's Son.”

An 1,100-Year-Old Work

Most of the ownership history of this manuscript, which is made of fine vellum, remains unknown, but it likely remained at St. Gall or another monastic institution for centuries. The codex was in the possession of Paul Junius when he died in Leiden in 1670, at which point it came into the hands of Peter Franz (1645-1704) in Amsterdam. It was purchased there in 1705 by its namesake owner, Christian Friedrich Börner (1685–1753), who brought it with him back to Leipzig, where he was a professor at the university. The manuscript remained in Dresden, the place of his birth, after his death and is housed today in the Saxon State Library there.
In 1791, its text was published for the first time in the Meissen printing house of Christian Frederick Matthaei (1744 – 1811), who thought the manuscript was written sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries. However, Ludolph Küster (1670–1716), a Westphalian scholar, philologist, textual critic, paleographer, and editor of Ancient Greek texts, had already correctly dated the manuscript to the 9th century decades earlier. Some like the German classical philologist, medievalist and paleographer Ludwig Traube (1861–1907) have theorized that the author of this work is no less than the famous Irish teacher, grammarian, scriptural commentator, and author Sedulius Scotus (fl. 840–860), However, there is no evidence for this and the assertion remains contested.