“바를람과 조사팥” 라틴어 판본의 필사본 전통 연구

Abstract

Barlaam and Iosaphat is a story about a prince named Iosaphat, who is converted to Christianity, becomes a hermit in his later life and is canonized after his death. It is written or rather translated in many European languages and the striking similarity between the Barlaam and Iosaphat and the Buddha legend has attracted the attention of many scholars since the nineteenth century. The Latin version of the Barlaam and Iosaphat first appeared in the eleventh century, translated from the Greek version. It belongs to the genre of ‘legenda’ in the Middle Ages, which comprises biographies, passions, confessions and miracles of the saints. The Latin Barlaam and Iosaphat is handed down to us in two different versions: the version I survives in a single manuscript, Napoli, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, VIII. B. 10 (s. xiv), and the version II or the ‘vulgata’ version is found in more than sixty manuscripts dating from the twelfth century to the sixteenth century, of which the manuscripts of the twelfth century is the most numerous. This ‘vulgata’ version seems to have been translated from the Greek version, too, but the possibility that it might be derived from the version I cannot be ruled out. Both the version I and II are anonymous, though we learn from the prologue of the version I that it is translated in Constantinople in 1048. The version I has the prologue and the epilogue, but the version II has neither, and we have no evidence so far when and how the version II was made. Researches such as on the relationship between the two versions, and why the version I survives only in single manuscript whereas the version II survives in more than sixty, on which version so many epitomes of the Barlaam and Iosaphat are based, and the influence of the Latin Barlaam and Iosaphat on other versions in Romance languages would shed light on the understanding of the Latin Barlaam and Iosaphat.