The Glossa ordinaria on the Bible stands as one of the prime achievements of the period in western intellectual history known as the Renaissance of the twelfth century. In spite of the great number of still extant manuscripts very little is known about the circumstances around its composition. This state of affairs is partly explained by the lack of modern and critical editions of the books of the Glossa ordinaria. The present work is the first critical edition of the Glossa ordinaria on the Book of Lamentations, and consists of the forewords, or prothemata, and the first book (of five) of this text, which was compiled early in the twelfth century by the theologian and Ciceronian rhetorician Gilbert the Universal (†1134), schoolmaster at Auxerre and subsequently Bishop of London. The introduction includes a background sketch of the environment in which the Glossa ordinaria was conceived – the school of Laon – with a short biography of Gilbert the Universal, as well as a study of the sources to this particular part of the Gloss, chief among them the ninth-century commentary of Paschasius Radbertus. It is shown that Gilbert’s major improvement to his source, apart from drastically rewriting it, consists of the introduction of Ciceronian rhetorical loci to the verses of Lamentations. The introduction furthermore provides the reader with an analysis of the manuscript tradition of the early twelfth century and a selective analysis of the later manuscript tradition (some 86 manuscripts have so far been traced). One of the conclusions reached is that the Gloss on Lamentations exists in two textual recensions, the one original, the other a later redaction made once the Gloss had become a success and preserved in nearly all the later manuscripts. The manuscripts of the first recension, which is the one edited in the present work, may be organised into a stemma codicum consisting of two major families originating in a single archetype. It is possible to reconstruct this archetype on the basis of the five oldest manuscripts. An English translation of the edited text is included, as well as a ‘semi-critical’ edition of the text of the second recension. An important part of the present work consists of an effort to combine the sophisticated mise-en-page of the glossed manuscripts with the standards of presentation to be expected of a modern critical edition.

La tesi prende in considerazione i tre trattati dallo stesso titolo, De corpore et sanguine Domini, sull’eucaristia composti nel IX secolo da Pascasio Radberto, Gotescalco d’Orbais e Ratramno di Corbie, analizzandoli sotto due diversi aspetti. In una prima parte se ne ricostruiscono i rapporti interni e i loro legami con le controversie teologiche e filosofiche dell’epoca, soprattutto con quella della predestinazione e della nascita verginale di Maria. A conclusione di questa analisi viene proposta una datazione relativa della composizione dei trattati differente da quella comunemente accolta, valorizzando un frammento del trattato di Gotescalco testimoniato da un solo manoscritto nella Biblioteca Reale di Bruxelles. In una seconda parte, a partire da una rilevazione sistematica di tutti i passi biblici e patristici citati nei tre trattati (riportata nelle tabelle in appendice), si prendono invece in considerazione le pratiche esegetiche in essi attuate, cercando di mettere in luce la metodologia di lavoro degli autori nei confronti delle fonti patristiche. In particolare viene svolta l’analisi dell’interpretazione di un passo di Ambrogio, presente nel De Mysteriis e nel De sacramentis, che risulta cruciale per l’argomentazione di ciascuno dei testi in causa. / The thesis considers three treatises of the same title, De corpore et sanguine Domini, on the Eucharist composed in the ninth century by Paschasius Radbertus, Gottschalk of Orbais and Ratramnus of Corbie, analyzing them under two different aspects. In a first part the internal relations and their ties with the theological and philosophical controversies of the period are reconstructed, above all with that of predestination and the virginal birth of Mary. At the end of this analysis a different date, relative to the composition of the treaties, is proposed from the one commonly accepted, valuing a fragment of the Gottschalk treaty testified by a single manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels. In a second part, starting from a systematic survey of all the biblical and patristic passages mentioned in the three treatises (shown in the tables in the appendix), the exegetical practices implemented in them are taken into consideration, trying to highlight the methodology of authors' work towards their patristic sources. In particular, the analysis of the interpretation of a passage by Ambrose, present in De Mysteriis and in the De sacramentis, which is crucial for the argumentation of each of the texts in question, is carried out.