The Life and Afterlife of Attila – According to the Mysterious Coelius Calanus and His Even More Obscure Copyists

Abstract

Providing a brief overview of the publication and research history, the authors prove that a critical edition of Juvencius Coelius Calanus’ Life of Attila – adorned with the mysterious epithet ’the Dalmatian’ – is not only much-needed and timely, but that the collation of the manuscripts may also shed light on aspects whose thorough examination has so far been neglected (perhaps in part due to János Horváth’s scathing critique of the work’s early reception). After locating and cataloguing all available manuscripts, the authors present a preliminary account of their research conducted along three lines: the plan for their collation, a systematic palaeographical analysis hitherto neglected, and finally, a closer inspection of the internal arguments (some of which were already known earlier). Relying on this research, we can state that an investigation, which surpasses the complexity of previous studies, will bring us closer not only to the original text of Calanus’ Life of Attila, but also to the date of its composition.