The Transmission of Augustine's De ciuitate dei in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. A Starting Point for Further Research

The article summarizes the state of the art as regards the late-antique and early medieval direct tradition of Augustine's De ciuitate Dei, with some new critical insights. It aims to provide a solid basis for future research on the topic and to fill a gap in the existing literature, by critically sifting through the information scattered in the bibliography and bringing it together into a coherent and up-to-date picture. The first part deals with a general overview of the earliest dissemination of De ciuitate Dei and its textual history in the early Middle Ages. In the second part, the complete and partial witnesses dated up to the 9th century that may be used to establish the text of De ciuitate Dei are listed. After an outline of the history of Bernhard Dombart's edition and its revision by Alphonse Kalb, the last part deals with the little information available so far regarding the genealogical relations between the earliest copies, with a focus on Florus of Lyon's role in the transmission of the work. Paratexts, readers' annotations, and variant readings are discussed and mutually integrated, also in light of the recently published articles by Emanuela Colombi (2013 and 2019) and Jesse Keskiaho (2019).