University of Birmingham backs cultural discussion series

The earliest Latin Commentary on the Gospels, lost for over 1500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time. The work, which was written by a bishop in North Italy, Fortunatianus of Aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century. Despite references to it in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until a researcher from the University of Salzburg identified the commentary in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in Cologne Cathedral Library. Dr Hugh Houghton , of the University of Birmingham's Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE), has been collaborating with Dr Lukas Dorfbauer , who discovered the manuscript in 2012, to produce an English translation in conjunction with the first-ever edition of this Latin text, which is published this week. Dr Houghton, University of Birmingham, said: 'Most of the works which survive from the earliest period of Latin Christianity are by later, more famous authors such as St Jerome, St Ambrose or St Augustine and have attained the status of classics. To discover a work which predates these well-known writers is an extraordinary find. 'One of my contributions was to compare the biblical quotations in the Cologne manuscript with our databases here in Birmingham.