Abstracts
Notes on the critical edition of the Prologue to Pelbartus of Themeswar’s Rosarium
Alexandra Baneu, Babeș Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoc
For the last few years I have been working ona the critical edition and translation into Romanian of Pelbartus of Themeswar’s, a 15th century Hungarian Observant Franciscan, theological encyclopedia, the Aureum sacrae theologiae rosarium. The four volume work was written at the very end of the 15th century, and published four times: between 1503-1508 in Haguenau, in 1586 in Venice, in 1589 in Venice and in 1590 in Brescia. This text explicitly follows the four volumes of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the first volume dealing with Trinitarian issues, the second with creation, the third with Christology and the fourth with the sacraments. Still, the order that can be found within each of the volumes is an alphabetical one, the Prologue appearing under the entries Ab auro and Abyssus of the first volume.
During my work on the critical edition I have encountered the following difficulties that would benefit greatly from the discussions during the seminar:
(1) The critical edition follows the 1503-1508 Haguenau text, which was partially published during the life of the author, and reportedly from his own manuscript, but how should the other editions be used? What is the procedure when one of the newer texts offers a better variant?
(2) How much of the structure of the initial text should be preserved in the critical edition? Is the editor obligated to also mark the paragraphs as done by the Haguenau editors, or is the mention of the folios enought?
(3) Should only the explicit and implicit sources be accounted for, or must the critical edition also present the reader with the implicit sources of the sources?
Writing Military Strategy for a Humanist Pope: Lampugnino Birago's Strategicon adversum Turcos (cca 1454).
Iulian-Mihai Damian, Babeș Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
The recent edition of Lampugnino Birago's Strategicon adversus Turchos(Lo Strategicon adversum Turcos di Lampugnino Birago, saggio introduttivo ed edizione di I. M. Damian, Roma: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 2017, pp. CXXII, 224) is an excellent example that brings to light the limits of modern textual philological method established by Karl Lachmann. This work, published for the first time in a critical edition, displays several specific details, which, juxtaposed, allow a wider debate over the entire genre it pertains to. Its genesis is special: as a curial product, dedicated to Pope Nicholas V and a limited number of his collaborators, it reflects the intellectual environment with a high philological culture of the Greek translators who were active around the first humanist pope.
The textual tradition of this work, characterized by a relatively large number of manuscripts preserved in the same environment, almost with no dissemination, is atypical. Frequent contaminations present in the text were dictated by a series of options closer to modern philological norms than those used for the editing of medieval texts, determined by the necessity of apprehending the author’s ultimate will based on the criticism of variants.
The identification of the author’s handwriting and a better concurring with the context allow a wider discussion on the working mechanisms of this particular humanist and, generally, of the entire generation of Greek translators active in Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century. This relatively little-known environment appears to be an important one for the birth of the modern "philological" culture that will produce the printed editiones principes. Lachmann’s doubts regarding the latter appear to derive, paradoxically, not from a significant methodological difference, but rather from the misunderstanding of the philological culture of the fifteenth century.
Churchwardens’ Accounts and Literacy in Late Medieval Transylvania (14th to 16th century)
Adinel C. Dincă, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Churchwardens (vitrici) were the elected (and theoretically unpaid) lay representatives of the parish community, charged with administering parish funds for their term of office, usually one or two years. Being responsible not only for collecting and spending a communal pot of money, but also for giving reports (rationes) about these actions, it naturally involved the keeping of detailed registers with records of sums coming in (perceptae) and payments going out (expensae). Churchwardens’ accounts are found frequently in medieval England and on the continent, while for the Central Eastern Catholic world, and especially for rural communities, such sources are without doubt a real rarity. This type of source is a distinctive expression of medieval pragmatic literacy and, as such, poses great significance for many historical analyses, but primarily for research concerned with the development of medieval administration. However, because of their many peculiarities of palaeographical and lexicographical nature, testimonies of this sort may offer interesting details for scholars who pose different questions.
The paper I propose now aims to discuss this type of fiscal record according to the virtually unknown sources preserved in late medieval Transylvania from the 14th century up to the beginning of the 16th century. Two opposite examples will be presented: on the one hand, the churchwardens’ fiscal reports from the city of Sibiu (Cibinum, Hermannstadt), initiated as early as the 1360’s, on the other hand, the unique 15th century register from Jelna (Zsolna, Senndorf), a small rural community situated in Northern Transylvania, in the neighbourhood of the important urban centre of Bistrița (Romania).
From the perspective of an edition project, I will critically address in the proposed paper especially the issue of local literacy as reflected by such unusual source material. One central question is of paleographical nature: What was the type of writing used for this account books and what can be learned from these personal/informal writing forms of the later middle ages? A second key element in my research concerns language and the vocabulary of these administrative registers, as a suitable way of examining the early progression of vernacular in written context.
Between single texts and multi-text manuscripts. Clusters of works stemming from the same author or milieu
Paolo Divizia, Masaryk University, Brno
Concerning a period, such as the late middle ages, in which multi-text manuscripts are to be considered the ordinary, standard form of book, the modern editor's single-text approach has proved several times to be fallacious. Not only because it disregards important features of textual transmission (which range between the chance to draw a more consistent stemma codicum and find less reachable witnesses), but also because some of the recurring clusters of works which appear in more than a witness might stem from the same author or milieu, thus challenging the stemmatic textual scholar to choose the most appropriate editorial strategy: single text edition or edition of textual clusters?
A few examples of textual traditions will be shown which share the cluster issue, including the little circulated Italian vernacular translation of Seneca's three Consolations, which is quite likely to come from the milieu of Florentine librarian Vespasiano da Bisticci's workshop. Stress will be put on a newly discovered witness to the translation (the fifth to the Ad Marciam and Ad Helviam consolations, the second to the Ad Polybium).
Editing the Sermones Socci
Katrin Janz-Wenig, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Behind the memorable name Sermones Socci a sermon collection is hidden that was widely spread in Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The texts were used as model sermons. There are at least 300 extant manuscript witnesses. Evidence suggests that the texts were compiled in the Cistercian Abbey of Heilsbronn by abbot Konrad of Brundelsheim around 1300. The large corpus consists of two volumes of Sermones de tempore and one volume of the Sermones de sanctis. The collection comprises 379 scholastical sermons with several texts for every Sunday and the most important saint`s days of the ecclesiastical year. Some are based on treatises and expanded by extensive quotings from the Church Fathers. The collection offers numerous references to liturgical texts. The three volumes are provided with comprehensive and detailed indices. These model sermons were not only the starting point for various vernacular texts, but also became part of younger and more widely distributed sermon collections, such as the Discipulus.
Currently an edition of the texts is being prepared. Due to the large number of witnesses a critical edition will not be possible, thus the sermons will be edited on the basis of the oldest manuscripts. In addition to a detailed scientific commentary, it will be necessary to show in detail the numerous references to different liturgical texts and the indices, as well as the reception of the texts. While preparing the edition many questions have arisen: What will be the best way to present the described features of the text collection? How can the traditional editorial approach be combined with new digital possibilities? In which way can digitization of manuscripts be integrated into digital or hybrid editions? In my paper I would like to discuss these questions using selected examples of the sermon collection.
Heresy Trials in the Register of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Włocławek (1480): Structure and Functions
Paweł Kras, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
The register of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Włocławek (1473-1481, from 1481 Archbishop of Gniezno), called the Younger to distinguish him from his better known uncle Zbigniew Oleśnicki (bishop of Cracow, 1423-1455, from 1449 Cardinal Presbyter of St Prisca), is one of the most precious sources for a study of religious dissent in fifteenth century Poland. From the late nineteenth century, after its fragments had been first published, Polish and Czech historians (A. Prochaska, E. Maleczyńska, J. Macek, J. Mikulka, and recently S. Bylina, F. Šmahel, P. Kras and A. Szweda) studied these materials which provided them with detailed information about the communities of Polish Utraquists operating in Cuyavia in the second half of the fifteenth century. Indeed, a careful examination of these records offer a good insight into the emergence and functioning of small groups of people bound by family or neighborhood, who felt dissatisfied with the Roman Church and adhered to the Hussite doctrine. Some of them travelled to Bohemia, other had direct contacts with Czechs or read Czech books. Criticizing wealth and privileges of the clergy of these days they became exponents of anticlericalism and promoters of new lay piety. The key element of their religious practice was constituted by masses celebrated in private houses during which the Eucharist was administered sub utraque.
The register of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Włocławek is preserved only in small fragments as the first part of the early sixteenth century manuscript ABKP2-01 (107) in the Archive of the Diocese of Włocławek. In unknown circumstances 5 folios of the original register containing depositions and sentences against individuals suspected of heresy in 1480 were torn out and bound together with early sixteenth century records of various ecclesiastical activities of bishops of Włocławek and their officials.
The paper is aimed at presenting the register as a primary source for any study of religious persecution against fifteenth century Polish dissidents. My purpose is to examine its structure and the technology of record-keeping which enabled Bishop Oleśnicki and his associates including Dominican inquisitor and Włocławek canons, to collect information (interrogatory), extract depositions from heresy suspects, and make judgments about their guilt. In addition, I intend to discuss principles adopted for a critical edition of the records of heresy trials.
Editing Cracow medieval grammatical texts. John of Głogów and his predecessors
Krystyna Krauze-Błachowicz
John of Głogów (c.1445–1507) was one of the best known professors of the Faculty of Arts at Cracow University. Besides other topics falling within the range of artes liberales he delivered lectures on grammar. His accomplishments in this fields include two significant grammar elaborations: Declaratio Donati minoris and Exercitium secundae partis Alexandri. Both works testify to the interests of late medieval Cracow scholars in the tradition of the Modist grammar. Unfortunately no manuscripts of these texts survived but there are some old prints of them available. In my paper I will say a few words about my on-going work on the critical edition of Glogoviensis’ grammar. Next I will turn to my editions of the couple of minor anonymous Modist manuscripts preserved in Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, which I published in my book Jan z Głogowa i tradycja gramatyki spekulatywnej (John of Głogów and the Tradition of Speculative Grammar), Warszawa 2008.
Debita nostra. Œuvres inédités de Jacobellus de Stříbro
Helena Krmíčková, Masaryk University, Brno
De nos jours, les oeuvres de Jacobellus de Stribro, premier théologien du hussitisme, sont à moitié imprimés. Il y a quelque temps que cette information a été mentionnée. Pendant les derniers vingt-cinq ans, le nombre de ses publications a encore augmenté. Cependant, ce nombre n’est toujours pas suffisant, étant donné que le 600ème anniversaire de son decès s’approche (en 2029).
Actuellement, nous avons la possibilité de publier les oeuvres de Jacobellus de Stribro dans la maison d’édition belge Brepols publishers et cette possibilité devrait être utilisée le plus possible.
L’article réfléchit sur la question si nous avons besoin de Magistri Iacobelli de Misa Opera ce qui est le cas de Jean Hus.
Chez Hus nous voyons qu’il est difficile de respecter le plan qui a été créé il y a des dizaines d’années.
C’est la raison pourquoi nous avons besoin d’une idée générale comment les oeuvres devraient être liés en faisceaux pour éviter que certains éditeurs ne travaillent sur les mêmes oeuvres. Et bien sûr, nous avons besoin le plus de ces éditeurs.
LOST IN EDITION – Publishing Acta iudicialia terrestria from the beginning of the 15th century
Agnieszka Maciąg-Fiedler, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow
I would like to share my experiences and discuss problems and challenges related to publishing court books from the beginning of the 15th century. These books are not at the highest level, from a linguistic point of view. There are many errors (e.g. grammatical, syntactical) resulting from the writer's lack of education.
I would like to focus on what is usually corrected or thrown out in editions, for various reasons. My goal is to discuss to what extent we can interfere in the text, correct errors, standardize, and introduce publishing standards. What we gain and what we lose (from the point of view of historical truth, the image of culture and education of the times) preparing the text?
The Intertextuality of Late Medieval Philosophical Commentaries in the Critical Apparatus
Monika Mansfeld, University of Łódź
The specific feature of medieval philosophical commentaries that arguably causes the greatest problems for contemporary scholars, both editors and readers, is their intertextuality. Commentaries are intertextual by nature as they are texts written in order to explain other texts, usually with help of still other texts.
The direct references found in medieval philosophical commentaries, i.e., the ones made by authors themselves, vary from literal quotations of the commented text, through paraphrases, conclusions, opinions, correctly or incorrectly attributed to someone else, ending with references to the texts that have not survived to our times, remain anonymous or even to non-existing books. Sometimes other texts are incorporated into commentaries without mentioning their source. Although these “silent” references look like intellectual piracy for us, in the Middle Ages such practice was not considered to be blameworthy.
If the “silent” references contain further references, the critical apparatus becomes a multi-level construction. In my paper I would present some solutions of the following questions: to what extent should the editor of a late medieval commentary show the doctrinal background of the text? How many levels of the critical apparatus can still be legible for the reader? Is showing the “silent” references in extenso – especially when the text referred to was not critically edited yet – always the best solution? In brief: where to say ‘stop’.
Medieval Utraquist sermons and their editions
Jindřich Marek, Charles University, Prague
The three generations of Czech Utraquists created many postils until 1526. Contemporary knowledge of this material is limited, as earlier researchers paid attention to only a few sermon collections, especially those written in Czech. They observed the period events or the Utraquist Church’s doctrine as reflected in these postils and usually neglected the comparison of individual sermons between different collections.
This paper aims to assess Utraquist sermon collections. I will show the number of collections attributable to individual authors and generations and I will try to define the typology of sermons. I will pay a particular consideration to the preaching on the feasts of the saints, because more individual elements were manifested here, facilitated by the free choice of pericopes.
A preliminary analysis of about 130 Utraquist sermons on Czech saints has revealed trends prolific in the whole corpus of Utraquist preaching. Given that the Utraquists preferred exegetical homily as a preaching genre, the chosen pericopes predetermined the image of the saint presented in sermons. Preachers of the first Utraquist generation, in particular Jakoubek of Stříbro, had a great influence on the next generations of Utraquist preachers with their sermons. I will draw new conclusions on the popularity of the individual saints in Utraquists. This first analysis will have to be extended to all saints appearing in Utraquist sermons, because the preachers often used the same pericopes for various (less important) saints.
Besides Utraquist sermons, I will discuss the editorial practice regarding the electronic environment.
Interlinear version of a medieval text as an editorial problem. The example of The Augustinians’ sermons
Dorota Masłej, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
The aim of the paper is to propose a new way of editing a unique type of medieval vernacular writing which is called interlinear version. It is intended to be made by the example of an unknown Polish-Latin manuscript, The Augustinians’ sermons, dated for the latter half of the fifteenth century.
Three basic areas can be distinguished in the preserved fragment: 1. Latin sermons; 2. infrequent interlinear Latin glosses that primarily serve to clarify or complement the Latin text; 3. Abundant Polish-Latin notes and jottings, placed in margins and partly in the interline spaces of the three successive sheets that comprise the bilingual text. It is the third area that is of my particular interest and which is called The Augustianians’ sermons.
The Augustinians’ sermons had been written between the lines and on margins on the three successive sheets of the manuscript. The scribe used the blank space on a leaf to a different degree, depending on the amount of material to be written down on a given page. To put some order to the non-linear notation and to make linear reading of the text possible, the scribe invented a system of cross-references that binds particular fragments of the text and the Polish-Latin text with the main text.
The edition of this kind of text has always been an interpretation of an editor, which can be seen while analysing previous editions of this manuscript. The analysis is the aim of the first part of the paper. In the second part a new type of scholarly edition will be proposed, containing an unusual transliteration prepared as a ‘spatial transliteration’ what can facilitate further research of the manuscript.
Preparing a scholarly edition of the manuscript is a part of my PhD project realised at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and at the Institute of Medieval Research in Vienna (scholarship realised in September 2018 – January 2019; PhD supervisor: prof. Tomasz Mika).
On idealization and other editorial attitudes towards medieval texts
Tomasz Mika, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
The term “idealization”, proposed by the present author, represents a research and editorial attitude that is based on the belief that the medieval text under scrutiny is in some respect (and more often than not, in a number of respects) more perfect than it seems from a simple reading of its written form as it is preserved in a manuscript. This attitude can be manifested by changes in the transcription made by editors that go far beyond the basic scope of editorial interference arising from the essence of this form of transmission. The paper lists numerous examples of transcriptions of Old Polish texts which illustrate the editorial interference that exceeds far beyond the boundaries of accepted practice. The author proposes that as long as it is possible to understand the text in the medieval vernacular language, editors should refrain from correcting it, even if (from today’s perspective) it does not show content’s conformity with form or semantic and structural coherence.
Contra cantores Francigenas in ecclesia
Jana Nechutová, Masaryk University, Brno
Diesen Titel trägt ein kleiner Traktat, der in einer einzigen Handschrift vom Anfang des 15. Jahrhundert erhalten von Jan Sedlák im Jahre 1911 ediert und mit höchster Wahrscheinlichkeit dem böhmischen Reformator Jan Hus zugesagt worden ist. Der Text besteht aus zwei Hauptteilen, nämlich aus einem längeren Zitat, dem Schreiber (Autor) nach dem Werke Bernards von Clairvaux entnommen, dann folgen vier Sittenkritische Absätze, in denen die in den Gottesdiensten zur Geltung kommende musikalische „ars nova“ abgelehnt wird. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass die einführenden Zeilen nicht vom Bernard, sondern von zwei anderen theologischen Schriftstellern des 12. Jahrhunderts, Aelred von Rievaulx und Hugo von Feuillée, stammen. Weiter bemüht sich die Autorin, die Hauptideen des Textes im Zusammenhang mit der älteren Geschichte solcher Kritik (die Bulle Johannes XXII Docta sanctorum patrum), wie auch mit den böhmischen kritischen Tendenzen Hus´ Zeit zu behandeln.
A cento sermon? A curious case of Henry Totting’s sermon on Virgin Mary
Jan Odstrčilík, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Henry Totting of Oyta (✝1397) can be arguably seen as one of the most important Central European theologians of the Middle Ages. He was active at Studium generale in Erfurt and at the Universities of Prague, Paris and Vienna. He wrote many theological treatises and more than 30 sermons are attributed to him. One of the most peculiar cases is the sermon on Virgin Mary on the theme from Canticum canticorum Murus est, edificemus super. It is preserved only in two manuscripts (Erfurt and Prague) and it does not actually speak about the Virgin Mary at all (at least not at the literal level). Instead, it is a complicated mythos like sermon about human’s desire for knowledge, and the role, importance and hierarchy of various university disciplines. Moreover, it is not only the content of this sermon, which is unusual, but also its form: It borrows tacitly phrases from various sources. Among them most notably from Alanus ab Insulis. As a result, it resembles a cento poem: a complicated structure patched together from various pieces in order to create a new work. The paper will discuss both the contents and the form of this remarkable and previously unstudied sermon.
Editing Late Medieval Texts: Sources and Quotations in some Waldensian Treatises
Joanna Poetz, Trinity College Dublin
The Waldensians, a group of religious dissidents with links to Reformation, are well known for their translation of the Bible, their preaching and manuscripts. They have left behind a number of manuscripts written in their vernacular language – a dialect of Old Occitan – which include a translation of the Bible, sermons, poems, treatises and various fragments. The manuscripts are preserved in several libraries across Europe and remain largely inedited. My doctoral research aims at editing Waldensian treatises or fragments which are uniquely preserved in the Manuscripts from the Old Library of Trinity College. Particularly interesting are three texts which are adaptations of materials written by Luke of Prague, a member of the Unity of the Brethren and Czech Reformation. These texts are challenging for the modern editor because they raise crucial questions around textual circulation, translation and late medieval editorial practices. In this paper, I will explore some of these aspects.
This paper aims at analysing two of the problems that an editor faces, namely how to deal with the primary source(s) of the text and how to best edit textual borrowings and quotations within the text. The analysis will be based on three yet inedited Waldensian texts with links to the Czech Unity of the Brethren: Qual Cosa sia antichrist (TCD MS 267), De la Causa del nostre departiment de la gleysa romana (TCD MS 262) and Epistola al Serenissimo Rey Lancelau (TCD MS 262) which are based on or heavily rely on the works of Luke of Prague. Firstly, I will look at the primary sources of the texts and their relationship with the known Waldensian versions. Then I will address the use of quotations – and how to best edit them – within the Waldensian texts. I will aim to demonstrate that the quotations, and in particular the use of quotes from the Bible, helps to understand the genesis of the texts.
Best Version or False Friends? Two Case Studies of Autograph Manuscripts.
Michał Rzepiela, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN Kraków
The paper discusses some negative implications which editorial approach focused on autograph as on the main base of edition may sometimes have for critical establishing of the text. It argues that autographs of medieval works of significant size or complex structure not always correspond to ‘standardized’ definition of autograph. Two modern editions of the works from 15th century considered of fundamental importance for the Polish Middle Ages, the chronicle of Jan Długosz Annales Regni Poloniae and Jan Dąbrówka's the Commentary to the „Chronicle” by Master Vincentius Kadłubek, are more in detail discussed. One analyzing structure and content of two related autographs and trying, in addition, to reproduce the circumstances under which they could have been arisen outlines that the authority of autograph should not, as it often occurs, be almost automatically accepted by editors.
Towards a new edition of the Wycliffite Bible
Elizabeth Solopova, New College, University of Oxford
The paper will report on the progress of work on a new edition of the Wycliffite Bible currently undertaken at Oxford University. The Wycliffite Bible is the first complete translation of the Vulgate in English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John Wyclif. It survives in over 250 manuscripts and is the most widely disseminated and arguably the most complex of all medieval English works. The only available edition of the complete text of two surviving versions of the translation is by J. Forshall and F. Madden, published in 1850. It is now considerably out of date due to the discovery of new manuscripts, and textual and historical research on the Bible undertaken in the 20th century and more recently. The work currently underway in Oxford is funded by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council and involves further research into the manuscripts and textual tradition of the Bible, as well as preparation of a selective new edition comprising several Old and New Testament books. The edition will be published in print and online, and the paper will include an account of research on the text of the translation, editorial methodology and a demonstration of the digital edition.
Variability of Polemics: Editing anti-indulgence leaflets from 1412
Pavel Soukup (Centre for Medieval Studies, Prague)
The spring and summer of 1412 saw large-scale protests in Prague against the crusading indulgences of Pope John XXIII. Bohemian Wycliffites led by Jan Hus objected to the purpose of the campaign and to the very concept of indulgences. Their disapproval materialized in demonstrations, street riots, as well as a backlash in written form. A number of longer and shorter treatises, expert opinions, sermons and pamphlets survive. This paper will focus on several short polemical texts of which the recent research has brought to light previously unknown manuscript versions. It will ask whether situating these versions in the course of historical events can help us to classify the variant readings. It will also deal with the question of how the presumed stages of rewriting relate to the material text.
What to do with unfinished questiones? Some problems with edition of Jean de Jandun's commentary on Averroes' De substantia orbis
Łukasz Tomanek, University of Silesia in Katowice
John of Jandun (1285/9–1328) is agreed to be the most significant 14th century Latin Averroism representative and one of the most important figures of late Medieval Philosophy and his expositio cum questionibus on De substantia orbis remains arguably the most comprehensive commentary on this Averroes' treatise. Moreover, its critical edition based on critical analysis of manuscript tradition sheds some light on “genuine” form and division of the text which is entirely different of what we know from widespread rennaisance edition. Jandun's text known from old prints presents some additional questiones of which authorship we have no information and that doctrinally do not fit the rest of author's corpus. Furthermore, in a number of manuscripts, we could also find a collection of infinite questiones placed at the end of Jandun's text. So there are some indications that the work might have been unfinished. What should editor do in this situation? In which way such findings change our perspective when working on a critical edition? Do they clearly indicate an unfinished status of given work? I want to share some of these considerations in a paper I would like to provide at the conference.
A Curse of Erudition. Identifying sources of Henry Bitterfeld’s treatise De formatione et reformatione Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum
Anna Zajchowska-Bołtromiuk, Cardinal Wyszyński University in Warsaw
The De formatione et reformatione Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum written around 1390 is a typical late medieval treatise. It was the first work of this type written for the needs of the Observant reform of the Dominican Order starting at the end of the fourteenth century. Like the other Bitterfeld’s works, the De formatione is like a patchwork sewn from fragments of the Bible, works of the Church fathers, ascetic texts and scholastic works. Bitterfeld does not only quote those texts but he cuts into pieces in order to combine them in a new way, mixes texts coming from different authors, summarizes chosen texts instead of literally quoting etc. This impressing erudition of the author can be a challenge for the editor. In my paper I would like to present some issues concerning problems of identifying sources of Bitterfeld’s treatise and presenting them in the most suitable way in the printed edition. I hope it will be occasion to discuss how far does a responsibility of editor for identifying the quotes goes? Where does the editor’s task end and the researcher begins? How to construct apparatus fontium to make it useful for the reader?