Project

OPA. Lost and Anonymous Works (III-XV Century)

A large portion of Late Antique and Medieval Latin literature has been transmitted to us anonymously or as pseudepigrapha; furthermore, countless works have either been lost or have survived in only small fragments. These texts are significant witnesses – at times even more significant than works of known as well as renowned authors – of the gradual cultural change that took place from the decline of the Ancient world to the end of the Middle Ages; and yet, they still remain by and large uninvestigated.

OPA. Lost and Anonymous Works in the Latin Tradition from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (3rd–15th centuries) originated as a project funded from 2021 to 2024 by the Italian Ministry of University and Research through the Special Supplementary Fund for Research (FISR; FISR2019_03352). The project was carried out by three research groups based at the Department of Classical and Italian Philology (FICLIT) of the University of Bologna, the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the University of Udine, and the Department of Humanities of the University of Salerno, in collaboration with the Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (SISMEL), Florence.

At present, OPA continues its research activities thanks to the support of SISMEL (Florence) and the FICLIT of the University of Bologna, pursuing its investigation into anonymous, pseudepigraphical, lost, and fragmentary texts with the aim of producing research tools that foster a deeper understanding of late-antique and medieval Latin culture and textual transmission.

In addition to promoting a scholarly series devoted to the study and edition of anonymous works – now in its tenth volume – one of the project’s main objectives is the development of a database that currently hosts approximately 6,000 records relating to anonymous and pseudepigraphical texts. The database is available online and accessible in open access via Mirabile. Furthermore, a volume devoted to the pseudepigraphical works attributed to Thomas Aquinas, including critical editions and a comprehensive repertory, is currently in preparation.

OPA Database

The OPA project is primarily aimed at creating a scholarly digital repertory of anonymous and pseudepigraphical texts. While until a few years ago a comprehensive mapping of such works was hindered by the lack of an adequate digital infrastructure, it is now possible to draw on the rich databases of the Integrated Archive for the Middle Ages (AIM) of SISMEL, which has provided – and continues to provide – the initial bibliographical data used for cataloguing.

Each record includes textual identifiers (titles, incipit, explicit), literary genre, complete bibliography, chronotope of production and circulation, modes of transmission, and a list of manuscript witnesses.

Such a repertory offers scholars a reliable and up-to-date starting point for undertaking their own specialized research.

Current records (updated 15 January 2026): 5,700

Pseudo Bonaventure

During the first phase of the OPA project, the phenomenon of pseudepigraphy was investigated in an innovative way through the corpus of spurious works attributed to Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. This research resulted in the publication of the volume Pseudo-Bonaventure: Studies, Editions, and a Repertory of Texts and Manuscripts, edited by F. Santi (Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2024). The first stage of the research consisted in cataloguing the pseudo-Bonaventurian texts within the database, on the basis of the fundamental editorial and bibliographical tools (the Quaracchi edition and the repertory by the Capuchin scholar Distelbrink). A second phase of the project led to the critical edition of selected texts included in the repertory, which proved instrumental in clarifying key aspects of Bonaventurian pseudepigraphy.

Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas

In line with the previous undertakings of the OPA project, the focus on the pseudo-epigraphic phenomenon continues with the study and cataloging of works attributed to Thomas Aquinas. The work is structured in two phases: the first involves cataloging the pseudo-Thomistic texts within the database, adhering to the inclusion and cataloging criteria that have characterized OPA thus far, based on previous scholarly and erudite bibliography, along with new scientific findings. The second phase involves the study and edition of selected texts, chosen to represent the full range of writings related to the pseudo-epigraphic phenomenon associated with the Doctor Angelicus.