The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in the Latin Middle Ages: Context of Transmission and Use

Abstract

The article investigates the Virtutes apostolorum in their manuscript context. The collection as a whole reflects an increasing interest in and importance of the apostles as Christian saints, both as individuals and as a group. The texts themselves, particularly the prologues that precede many of the narratives, give us information on how and why the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles were rewritten and/or translated into Latin in the early Middle Ages. The variety in the presentation of the individual texts in the manuscripts gives rise to a re-assessment of the early modern approach to the Latin apocryphal Acts as a collection, attributable to ‘Pseudo-Abdias’, and justifies a shift in approach: the manuscripts do not support the idea of a coherent collection, just as little as the authorship of (Pseudo-)Abdias. Both the liturgical character of a great number of manuscripts in which the Virtutes apostolorum are found and the presence of marks of liturgical use in almost all of them ask for a more detailed investigation of the role of the Virtutes apostolorum in medieval liturgy, and the reception of these texts in liturgical compositions such as prayers for Mass and chants for the Liturgy of Hours.