Vergilius

Vergilius of Echternach (fl. 709–721/2) was one of two early named insular scribes (the other is Laurentius) attached to the monastery of Echternach, Luxembourg, founded in 698 by the Anglo-Saxon monk Willibrord (qv). Vergilius is attested as the scribe of Echternach charters from 709 to 721/2. He also penned part of a copy of the Old Testament minor prophets Jeremiah to Malachias (Paris, BN lat. 9382); at the end of Jeremiah (f. 45v) he addressed the reader in a verse subscription (falso qui fungor Vergili nomine), declaring his use of the name Vergilius as an alius. The similarity of his hand to that of the other scribes in this manuscript, and their collective similarity to the scripts found in other manuscripts known to have been at Echternach in Willibrord's time, makes it almost certain that Vergilius either accompanied Willibrord from Ráith Melsigi (Clonmelsh, Co. Carlow) to Frisia in 690, or followed him to the Continent shortly thereafter. He is very likely the author of the acrostic and telestich verses appended to the Augsburg (formerly Maihingen and Harburg) gospels (Augsburg, Uni-bibl., Cod. I.2.4o 2, f. 157v); the first and last letters of every line resolve into the words Laurentius uiuat senio (‘May Laurentius live into old age!’). Laurentius was probably the master of the scriptorium at Ráith Melsigi, for whom Vergilius composed the praise poem. Vergilius also contributed to the Calendar of Willibrord (Paris, BN lat. 10837) and to the martyrology in the same manuscript. His elegant insular majuscule and minuscule scribal hands are clear evidence of a training somewhere in Ireland or England; the fact that his name may be a Latinisation of the Irish name Fergal renders an Irish origin the more likely. One of the Echternach charters (no. 32*, 721–2) is subscribed by the peculiar name ‘Laurentius Virgilius’ (if one can trust the manuscript transmission); it is perhaps a mistaken conflation of the two men named above.