The Ancient Redaction of the Passio Petri Balsami (B.H.L. 6702) in a Manuscript from Bobbio Abbey (Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, F.III.16)

The aim of this paper is to show that the Latin Passio Petri Balsami (BHL 6702) is derived from the narration regarding Πετρός Ἀψέλαμος in Eusebius’ De Martyribus Palaestinae, although the existence of a Latin translation of the treatise cannot be proved yet. The result is achieved by means of comparisons between Eusebius’ text, the Latin passio, and the Latin Martyrologia. Secondly, it will be demonstrated that the manuscript Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale, F.III.16 (from Bobbio) conveys an unknown, prior redaction of the Latin text which originated all the others. There are about forty manuscripts transmitting the passio (the most ancient ones belong to the ninth century AD) and the philological and stylistic surveys reveal that the second redaction, which increases and improves the Latin text, was derived from the version contained in the Turin manuscript.