The Text of John in Fortunatianus of Aquileia’s Commentary on the Gospels

In 2013, Lukas J. Dorfbauer identified an anonymous work in a ninth-century manuscript belonging to Cologne Cathedral Library as the Commentary on the Gospels written in the middle of the fourth century by Fortunatianus, Bishop of Aquileia. Although a couple of short extracts have been passed down from this, one of the earliest Latin gospel commentaries, mentioned by Jerome, it was otherwise believed to have been lost. The present study analyses the text of the Gospel according to John in Dorfbauer’s provisional edition of the commentary. It first treats the illustrative quotations, then the biblical text in the chapter titles and finally the verses of the Gospel cited in Fortunatianus’ exposition. Comparison of these with all surviving early witnesses to the Latin text of John confirms that they have an Old Latin affiliation, with numerous similarities to other North Italian witnesses of the time. It therefore seems likely that, by and large, the Cologne manuscript transmits the text of John used by Fortunatianus. A reconstruction of this text is supplied in an Appendix.