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Peter Lombard: historian and orator
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Date
2026-06-30
Authors
Madden, Margaret
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Publisher
University College Cork
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Abstract
This thesis presents a philological and stylistic analysis of Peter Lombard's De Hibernia Insula Commentarius Stromaticus, a petition addressed to Pope Clement VIII in 1600/1601 on behalf of Hugh O'Neill. The Commentarius was written in order to seek support for the conflict that was then raging in Ireland which Lombard expressed as a war of religion. While several influential studies of the historical context of this work have previously been undertaken, they were based on unreliable editions of the text and paid scant attention to the language, genre and style of the work. As a prolegomenon to further research, this thesis offers an examination of the manuscript tradition and what it reveals about the composition of the treatise. Two distinct recensions of the text are identified, produced within one year of each other by the author himself. Material not contained in either of the two posthumously printed editions has been identified. A critical edition of the text is presented as an appendix to this thesis. The two authorial recensions represent distinct moments in a rapidly evolving political and ecclesiastical context, but the revisions also illuminate the stylistic and compositional preoccupations of Lombard, which must be assessed prior to ascribing political motivation to textual emendations. An examination of the vocabulary, syntax and style of the Commentarius reveals an eclectic writer who, while imbued with Ancient Latin, nevertheless writes pragmatically in a style that is eloquent but eschews elaborate ornamentation. The historical core of the work (the commentarius proper) is sandwiched between a praefatio and a peroratio that reflect the origins of the text as a formal address at the papal court and reveal Lombard in the guise of an orator presenting a humble petition to the pope. By contrast, the central portion of the text is written in a style and form that artfully masquerades as artlessness, presenting the ethos of the author, not as a rhetorical historian, but as a reliable witness to the truth. The care that Lombard took to create this effect is demonstrated through close examination of the text, as are the occasions upon which the mask slips. The thesis therefore offers a foundation for subsequent historical investigations and demonstrates the value of detailed stylistic analysis of Neo-Latin texts that appear, at first sight, to have been rather casually or hastily composed.
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Keywords
Peter Lombard , Hugh O'Neill , Neo-Latin rhetoric , Nine Years War
Citation
Madden, M. M. 2026. Peter Lombard: historian and orator. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.