{{italic title ''Liber Scintillarum'' (literally "Book of Sparks") is a late seventh or early eighth-century florilegium of

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

and

patristic Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...

sayings in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. It was compiled by Defensor, a monk who in the preface identifies himself as a member of St Martin's Abbey at

Ligugé Ligugé () is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. It is located on the River Clain, south of Poitiers. It is known for its historic monastery, Ligugé Abbey. Twin towns – sister cities Ligug ...

, near Poitiers, and who wrote the work at the behest of his teacher Ursinus, the abbot of St Martin's. Virtually nothing is known of the monk beyond what the preface offers us. The compilation was written sometime between 636, when the important source

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...

died, and about 750, when the earliest extant manuscript appears to have been produced. The "sparks" (''scintillae'') of the title refer to sayings (such as maxims and proverbs) of the Lord and his saints, which have been excerpted from the Bible and the Church Fathers, and rearranged into as many as 81 chapters. The headings of these chapters refer mainly to vices (e.g. avarice, fornication), virtues (patience, wisdom), devotional practices (confession, prayer) and common themes of human life (marriage, feasting). In the early part of the eleventh century, a copy of the Latin text was accompanied by an

interlinear In linguistics and pedagogy, an interlinear gloss is a gloss (series of brief explanations, such as definitions or pronunciations) placed between lines, such as between a line of original text and its translation into another language. When gloss ...

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

gloss, for which a little space between the lines was available. It is found in

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, Royal MS 7 C IV, together with ''De vitiis et peccatis'', again with an interlinear Old English gloss. It belonged to Rochester Cathedral Priory and probably joined the Old Royal Library as part of the spoils of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, like the

Rochester Bestiary The Rochester BestiaryLondon, British Library, Royal MS 12 F.xiii is a richly illuminated manuscript copy of a medieval bestiary, a book describing the appearance and habits of a large number of familiar and exotic animals, both real and legendar ...

Editions

J.P. Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a u ...

, ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'' 88. *Rochais, H.M. (ed.). ''Liber Scintillarum''. Corpus Christianorum, series Latina 117. Turnholt, 1957. *Rhodes, E.W. (ed.). ''Defensor's Liber Scintillarum with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version made early in the eleventh century''.

EETS ''Eets'' (also known as ''Eets: Hunger. It's emotional.'') was a 2D puzzle game developed by Klei Entertainment and first released on March 27, 2006 for Microsoft Windows. It was later released for Mac OS X on December 9, 2010. Both the Windo ...

. London, 1889.

Studies

*Bremmer, Rolf H. Jr, 'The Reception of Defensor's ''Liber Scintillarum'' in Anglo-Saxon England', in ''...un tuo serto di fiori in man recando. Scritti in onori di Maria Amalia D'Aronco'', vol. 2, ed. Patrizia Lendinara. Udine: Forum, 2008, pp. 75–89.

External links

Image from Royal MS 6 D V, f. 46v
British Library.

British Library.

British Library. Latin proverbs Wisdom literature Early medieval Latin literature British Library Royal manuscripts