Johannes Hymmonides

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Johannes Hymmonides (Johannes Diaconus), Roman clergyman and writer (* around 825; † between 880 and 882), became known as the biographer of Pope Gregory the Great .

Life

Little is known about the life of the deacon John, nicknamed Hymmonides. We know from his own writings that he probably came from a wealthy background, since he speaks of a larger property in Rome. The year 825 is assumed to be the year of birth, as he is probably the participant in the Roman Synod of 853 named as "Joannes diaconus". It is disputed whether he was a monk in Montecassino during his life. In the regesta from this period there is an indication that Hymmonides, together with Gauderich von Velletri and Stephan von Nepi , was pardoned by Ludwig II in 868 at the instigation of Pope Hadrian II . Apparently they had been banished from Rome as opponents of the emperor.

While his economic situation deteriorated in later years - he had to live on the support of his friends, as he suggests in the last section of the Vita Gregorii - he certainly gained a high reputation under the pontificate of John VIII in the immediate vicinity of the Pope. He had a close relationship with the papal librarian Anastasius , who made translations from the Greek for him.

Hymmonides was also commissioned to write the life story of Gregory the Great. As he writes at the beginning of this biography, Pope John asked his bishops at the vigils of St. Gregory (March 11th) in 873 why there were descriptions of Gregory's life by Anglo-Saxon and Longobard authors, but none from the Roman Church. Shortly after Easter 875 the work was completed. In the same year Hymmonides also took part in the celebrations for the coronation of Charles the Bald in Rome.

He died around 880, but no later than 882, as can be seen in a letter from Gauderich to Pope John VIII.

Works

Last page of the life story of Gregory I (St. Gallen Abbey Library)

From the correspondence with Anastasius and the request for translations from the Greek it emerges that John planned to write a church history, which, however, was probably not carried out.

The main work of Hymmonides is the life story of Pope Gregory the Great, written in the years 873 to 875. Divided into four books, the first two parts describe the life of Gregory before and during his pontificate. The third deals with the teaching activity of the Pope, the fourth with the realization of his weakness, the necessity of daily self-reflection and the miracles that the saint caused after his death. The work was created using the Roman archives, i. H. above all the papal register of letters and the two present papal vites, the Anglo-Saxon and that of Paulus Diaconus .

In the year of the completion of Gregory's biography, at Christmas, on the occasion of the coronation of Charles the Bald, the emperor and the festive society were very pleased to read the satirical text Cena cypriani . Before further readings of this work, Hymmonides redesigned its content and form.

Stylistic and content-related clues suggest that Hymmonides was also the author of a biography of Pope Hadrian II and a collaborator at the Liber Pontificalis .

A revision of the representation of the life of St. Clement of Rome , which he began at the request of Gauderich, the Bishop of Velletri, could no longer be completed.

At first, Johannes was often identified with the author of a letter to a vir illustris named Senarius ( epistula ad Senarium virum illustrem ), who also traded as Johannes Diaconus , but which seems to have been written much earlier, probably in the 6th century.

Web links

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  • Johannes Diaconus: Life of St. Gregory I.
  • Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 14 , Venice, 1769
  • Jean Mabillon : Museum Italicum Seu Collectio Veterum Scriptorum Ex Bibliothecis Italicis , Paris, 1724
  • Ernst Perels , Gerhard Laehr (ed.): Anastasii Bibliothecarii Epistolae Sive Praefationes , MGH, Epistolae Karolini aevi, 1928
  • Böhmer, JF: Regesta Imperii I. The regests of the empire under the Carolingians 751-918 (926). Volume 3: The Regesta of the Regnum Italiae and the Burgundian Regna. Part 1: The Carolingians in the Regnum Italiae Herbert Zielinski [arr.]. - Vienna [u. a.] (1991) Part 2

literature

  • Max Manitius : History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages , Part One: From Justinian to the Middle of the Tenth Century, in: Handbook of Classical Science, Volume Ninth, Part Two, Part 1. Munich 1911
  • Johannes Laudage (Ed.): Of facts and fictions , representations of medieval history and their critical appraisal, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 2003, ISBN 3-412-17202-2
  • Klaus Herbers : History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages , Darmstadt, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89678-698-2

Footnotes

  1. ^ Vita Gregorii 3, 58
  2. ^ Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 14 , 1021
  3. ↑ Manitius, History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages , 689
  4. ^ Böhmer, JF: Regesta Imperii I. The regests of the empire under the Carolingians 751-918 (926). Volume 3: The Regesta of the Regnum Italiae and the Burgundian Regna. Part 1: The Carolingians in the Regnum Italiae Herbert Zielinski [arr.]. - Vienna [u. a.] (1991) Part 2, 285
  5. ^ Ernst Perels , Gerhard Laehr (Ed.): Anastasii Bibliothecarii Epistolae Sive Praefationes 7, 419
  6. ^ Mabillon, Museum Italicum 1 , 2, 79
  7. ↑ Manitius, History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages , 693
  8. ↑ Manitius, History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages , 694
  9. ^ Adolf Jülicher : Ioannes 47 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 2, Stuttgart 1916, column 1806 f.


personal data
SURNAME Johannes Hymmonides
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johannes Deacon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Clergyman, writer
DATE OF BIRTH around 825
DATE OF DEATH around 880