The Gothic palimpsest of Bologna

Abstract

In 2013, a newly discovered addition to the very limited corpus of the Gothic language was published. This fragmentary manuscript, the scriptio inferior of a palimpsest, contains fragments of theological writing with extensive citation of the Old and New Testaments, likely one or two sermons. The editio princeps, a subsequent reading, and further analysis have concentrated on the identification of the cited passages, comparison to the Gothic Bible as we have it, the significance for textual criticism, and the presence of new linguistic forms. This paper evaluates what can be said about the theological content of the document(s), with special reference to the ‘Homoianism’ of the Goths.