La réécriture des Actes apocryphes des apôtres au Moyen Age latin

The early medieval interest in the apostles as founding figures of the universal Church and martyrs of faith is reflected by the presence of Latin rewritings of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in a large number of manuscripts from the late eighth century onwards. The stories on the life and mission of the apostles after Pentecost, often crowned with martyrdom, are embedded in a hagiographic and liturgical context: most of the manuscripts under consideration are passionaries to be used in the liturgical cycle of commemoration. However, the rewriting of the narratives is not confined to textual practice. Performative practices as well as visual sources in different forms are equally important witnesses of the transmission of these stories. As in the process of textual rewriting, the narrative traditions are not copied without modification. Rather, they are adapted to the needs of local communities and temporary concerns. Three stages of rewriting the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles are subject of this article. In the first place, the motivations of the Latin rewriters of the apocryphal Acts are studied as they are traceable in the prologues to the Latin rewrites (Virtutes apostolorum). Secondly, the commemorative aspects of rewriting are studied with the help of liturgical texts, in which the Virtutes apostolorum are incorporated for a performative practice of commemoration. Finally, the visual rewriting of the narrative traditions is studied, particularly in thirteenth-century stained glass windows in European cathedrals. A multidisciplinary approach of the concept rewriting turns out to be helpful to explore not only the traces of origin of the Virtutes apostolorum, but also the Sitz im Leben of the ancient apocryphal Acts in the commemorative and performative culture of medieval Christianity.