Ronchey, S. Indagine sul martirio di San Policarpo. Critica storica e fortuna agiografica di un caso giudiziario in Asia Minore. Introduction by G. Clemente. (Nuovi Studi Storici, 6). Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 1990.

As with all hagiographic sources, the Martyrdom of Polycarp presents textual and chronological challenges of historical placement and philological exegesis. And as a forerunner of Byzantine hagiographic literature, it adheres to doctrinal demands expressed in a formally complex metaphorical key. Further, as an emulator (epigon) of Alexandrian judicial literature, it wraps its content in an apparently neutral trial package that is, in reality, politically charged.

The author’s dual intention is to, on the one hand, analyse the actual aims of the text through a formal, rhetorical and literary analysis of its inner features (deep text), and, on the other, map out their chronological placement through an examination of the historical, doctrinal, cultural, and literary aspects connected to its composition, in addition to a comparison with martyrological documents from the same world, such as the Martyrdom of Pionius and the Acts of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice. The textual analysis is accompanied by an interest and awareness of cultural history, and from this wider perspective is derived an investigation, which revisits the question of the dating and merit of the text in relation to the evolution of the more localised Asian context and relations between Christianity and the Roman Empire.  The sections devoted to institutions, the social fabric, economic life in Pagan, Judaic, and Christian Smyrna accompany the re-examination of Trajan and Antonine judicial rules and regulations in light of the procedures adopted both in the trial of Polycarp and in those of Lyon.

 

REVIEWS

T. D. Barnes in Journal of Theological Studies 43 (1992), pp. 237-8.

A. Barzanò in Aevum 65: 1 (1991), pp. 198-9.

G. Chiarini in Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 120: 4 (1992), pp. 483-9.

A. Della Casa in Civiltà Classica e Cristiana 3 (1990), pp. 321-2.

J. Den Boeft and J. Bremmer in Vigiliae Christianae  49 (1995), pp. 146-51.

B. Dehandschutter in Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 93: 3-4 (1998), pp. 489-90.

G. Eichberg in Giornale italiano di filologia 45: 2 (1993), pp. 320-2.

B. Flusin in Revue des études byzantines 50 (1992), pp. 318-20.

W. Gessel in Gnomon 65 (1993), pp. 369-70.

R. M. Grant in Cristianesimo nella Storia 13 (1992), pp. 433-5.

V. Milazzo in Orpheus 14: 1 (1993), pp. 206-7.

R. Pillinger in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 42 (1992), pp. 354-5.

J. Shamp in Latomus 52 (1993), pp. 208-9.

M. Sordi in Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia 44 (1990), pp. 505-6.

D. E. Trout in Speculum:  A Journal of Medieval Studies 68 (1993), pp. 251-3.

M. van Esbroeck in Oriens Christianus 75 (1991), p. 263.

CITED BY

Dizionario di spiritualità biblico-patristica, vol. 52, Preghiera nei Padri dei primi secoli. Roma: Borla, 2009, pp. 58-9.

A. Monaci Castagno, L’agiografia cristiana antica: testi, contesti, pubblico. Brescia: Morcelliana, 2010, p. 62, no. 113.

Polycarpiana: Studies on Martyrdom and Persecution in Early Christianity. Collected Essays, by B. Dehandschutter, edited by J. Leemans. Leuven: University Press, 2007, p. 85, 117, 267.