A Contaminated Edition? The Manuscript Paris, BnF lat. 2876 and the editio princeps of Pseudo-Sisbert of Toledo (Isidorus Hispalensis, Opera omnia, Jacques Du Breul, Paris, 1601)

Abstract

In 1601 Jacques Du Breul published the editio princeps of three Latin works traditionally regarded as Visigothic, today known as the corpus of Pseudo-Sisbert of Toledo (7th-9th c.); they were allegedly transcribed by the scholar Nicolas Lefèvre from a now lost manuscript coming from the abbey of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (Paris). This paper argues that, for the final section of the last work, the exemplar used was actually the extant PARIS, BNF lat. 2876 (12th c.), possibly because the lost manuscript did not transmit the whole text. The identification of the hand of Lefèvre within the marginalia of lat. 2876 proves that it belonged to Lefèvre’s personal library and allows to reconsider the problem of the sources used by Du Breul, suggesting that the text of his edition could be contaminated.