Compilation as Palimpsest

Abstract

Abstract This article offers an initial assessment of the multiple and varied uses of a manuscript of the Liber Floridus as a source of the early thirteenth-century Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. The material deriving from Lambert de Saint-Omer’s twelfth-century encyclopaedic compilation ranges from idiosyncratic chronologies and genealogies to his abridged versions of Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia and the Epitome of Julius Valerius. Uncovering the origins of these passages compiled in the Liber Floridus alters our understanding of the composition of the Histoire ancienne and provides new evidence of the wider legacy of Lambert’s compilation.