07 — Sources
The source-critical core of the collection. Almost everything known of Genevieve descends from one text, the Vita Genovefae, which claims to have been written about 520 — within living memory of her death — but whose date and reliability have been fiercely debated, from Bruno Krusch’s thesis that it is a forgery to the defence of its early date by Heinzelmann, Poulin, and others. This section lays out the text and its debate, and then separates the firm core of what can be known from the legendary accretion.
Tradition: Western (pre-Schism, Gallo-Roman Gaul)
This section is where the collection states its evidentiary situation plainly and applies METHODOLOGY §3.5 at full strength. The first file is a study of the Vita Genovefae itself: what it is, what it claims about its own date, and the long scholarly argument over whether that claim can be trusted — the central source-critical question on which the standing of every episode in Genevieve’s life finally depends. The second file draws the practical conclusion: given the debate, what can be affirmed as firm, what must be reported as the Vita’s testimony, and what is later accretion. Together they are the interpretive key to the whole guide.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-vita-genovefae.md | The Life and its claim to composition c. 520, within living memory of Genevieve’s death; the scholarly debate over its date and reliability — Krusch’s “forgery” thesis, the defence by Heinzelmann and Poulin, and the bearing of its use of the Martin cult (McKinley); what the text can bear; §3.5. |
| what-can-be-known.md | The firm core against the legendary accretion: what can be affirmed of Genevieve independently of the Vita’s contested episodes, and how the collection dispositions each layer. |
See Also
- Attila and the Deliverance of 451 — the episode most dependent on the Vita’s date
- The Blessing of Saint Germanus — the attestation problem at the start of the life
- METHODOLOGY.md — the repository citation and verification standard, esp. §3.5
References
- Vita Genovefae, ed. Krusch, MGH SRM 3 (1896), 204–238.
- Krusch, “Die Fälschung der Vita Genovefae,” Neues Archiv 18 (1893).
- Heinzelmann and Poulin, Les vies anciennes de sainte Geneviève de Paris (Champion, 1986).
- McNamara, Halborg, and Whatley, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages (Duke University Press, 1992).