Remigius of Auxerre - Authorship Controversy

Authorship Controversy

Initial studies of Remigius’ commentaries on ancient philosophical texts revealed that much of his work seemed to be plagiarized. Specifically, it became apparent that he had drawn extensively from the works of John Scotus Eriugena, an Irish monk who had introduced the French Court and schools to Neo-Platonism a generation before. Remigius was accused by E. K. Rand of applying “scissors and paste” to Eriugena’s work, based on the fact that while Eriugena was a philosopher, Remigius was merely a grammarian. However, more recent scholarship has shown that not only are such condemnations unfair, neither are they entirely true.

Remigius was greatly influenced by Eriugena, and certainly wrote his commentaries with his predecessor’s ideas firmly in mind. In fact, Remigius is known to have written his commentaries on Martianus Capella’s work with the help of two books, one by Eriugena, and the other by Martinus Hiberniensis. However, Remigius’s glosses are likely his own, given that examination of the documents indicates they were written at Auxerre. The problem with claiming that Remigius plagiarized is simply that at that time and in that place, most scholars were quite familiar with Eriugena’s work, and made use of his ideas in their own work with the understanding that his ideas would be easily distinguished from their own. Furthermore, Remigius’s commentary tends to be more concerned with grammatical matters than those of detailed philosophy, despite his belief that philosophy and religion were joint paths to wisdom. It is likely then, that he began with the Eriugena’s philosophical base, and added his own interpretation of texts. This seems even more likely when the difficulty of learning ancient Greek is taken into account.

Until the 13th century, no proper book of Greek grammar existed, requiring scholars to apply what they knew of Latin grammar, from reading Donatus, Priscian, and Isidore of Sevilla, to ancient Greek texts. Eriugena learned enough Greek to write commentary on the texts, and it seems plausible that a grammarian like Remigius would build his understanding of the language based on the work of another. Taking all of this into account, the controversy over Remigius’s supposed plagiarism appears, to modern scholars, to be a matter of early medieval scholastic circumstance rather than intent.