Un prosimetro agiografico inedito dal ms. Vat, Arch. S. Pietro A.4: un’opera sconosciuta di Bruno di Querfurt?

this article provides the very first scholarly and literary investigation about a hagiographic prosimetrum on (anti)pope Felix the Second: this Passio Felicis, unpublished and completely unstudied so far, has been found in the ms. Città del Vaticano, biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Arch. S. pietro A.4, fols. 154va-169va. Firstly, the paper supplies an examination of the text from the literary point of view: here is provided the study of the author’s prose style and language, and light is thrown on the sources he relied upon to compose the 84 poetic lines in- terspersed within the text. he drew from some of the most well-known classical and late antique poets in the Middle Ages, such as Vergil, ovid, horace, the Disticha Catonis and Sedulius, as well as from very rare models, like the poetic fragment by parthenius presbyter. Secondly, the paper aims at dating and ascribing the composition. After having shown that this text was most likely produced in the Roman milieu during the so-called ottonian Renaissance, and in particularly under otto III and Silvester II, an attempt is made to argue that its author might have been bruno of Querfurt, mainly on the ground of evidence from the usus scribendi. Lastly, is highlighted the codicological context in which the prosimetrum is conveyed. the St. peter’s Legendary (mss. Arch. S. pietro A.4, A.2 and A.5) is one of the most remarkable witnesses to the hagiographic traditions of Rome, and is liable to transmit a lot of unknown hagiographic redactions: such a feature is brilliantly showcased by the discovery of this Passio Felicis, which further enhances its importance in this respect.