Abstract: The "Vienna Collection" (AN h Esc) is a collection of sixty Latin sermons discovered by Leroy in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 4147, dated 1435, that are transmitted under the name of John Chrysostom. Leroy considered these sixty sermons to be a pre-baptismal catechesis delivered by a Donatist, probably a bishop, because, first, he attributed AN h Esc 39 to a Donatist and, second, he supposed the homogeneity of the collection, due to similar style and content of these sixty sermons. At first, this attractive hypothesis was widely accepted, to the extent that researchers claimed to derive data on Donatism from this collection. However, this hypothesis is now being questioned because of its philological weaknesses. This article critically analyzes the complex state of research on the "Vienna Collection," in four areas: the philological history of these texts (manuscript dissemination and editions); the location and the date of the sermons; the authorship and the compilation; and their problematic link to Donatism. It outlines the many avenues that remain to be explored and concludes by urging caution: Given the current state of research, it is impossible to draw any information about the Donatists from the "Vienna Collection."
Marie Pauliat (Tue,) studied this question.
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