Notes and Documents
Monasterium Niridanum
Abbot Hadrian, the companion of Archbishop Theodore, is said by Bede to have resided in monasterio Niridano, quod est non longe a Neapoli Campaniae.[1] The name was given in two of the oldest manuscripts as Hiridano, but John Smith made a note in the passage that other copies had Niridano and that this was correct: it is in fact the reading found in the great majority of manuscripts. Smith added that the place was near Monte Cassino;[2] but no such place is known to exist. Bede's later editors either repeat Smith's statement[3] or leave the name unexplained.[4]
1. At one time it occurred to me that Niridano might stand for Neritino (more properly Neritio), from Neritum (now Nardo) in Calabria. If this were so, it would be necessary to assume that Bede's informant described the locality in the most general terms and thought that to an Englishman any place in the south of Italy might be called 'not far from Naples'. There is in fact evidence of a flourishing school at Nardo at a later date, but I am afraid there is nothing to show that it was there in the seventh century. Antonio Ferrari, or Antonius Galateus (1444-1517), speaks of it as formerly (quondam) having been famous for its Greek studies and in particular for the beauty of its Greek handwriting. He adds that after the province passed from the Greeks to the Latins the school enjoyed great celebrity.[5] The
- ↑ Hist. Eccl. iv. 1.
- ↑ Codices primaevae auctoritatis in hoc voce differunt. Alii enim habent Niridano, et guidem recte. Locus est iuxta Montem Cassinum: adnot. ad Hist. Eccl. iv. 1, p. 141, Cambridge 1722.
- ↑ So J. E. B. Mayor and J. R. Lumby, Ven. Bedae Hist. eccles. gentis Angl. libr. iii, iv. 292 (3rd ed., Cambridge, 1881), and Mr. C. Plummer, Baedae Opera hist. ii. 202 (Oxford, 1896).
- ↑ Thus G. H. Moberiy, Ven. Baedae Hist, eccles., p. 212 (Oxford, 1869), leaves the place unidentified. The suggestions he quotes of Aretiano and Hadriano are unsupported conjectures.
- ↑ 'In hac urbe de qua nunc eloquimur, et gymnasium quondam fuit Grecarum disciplinarum tale, ut cum Mesapii Graeci laudare Graecas literas uolunt, Neritinas esse dicunt. Sunt enim hae literae perpulchrae, et castigatae, et iis quibus nunc utuntur impressores Orientalibus ad legendum aptiores. Inclinante Graecorum
