In basilica beatae Mariae semper virginis

"A curious feature of the poem is that it is concluded (lines 13-31) by some 19 lines which appear to have been lifted whole from the Carmen de Virginitate (lines 1691-1709). If so, CE II must presumably post-date the Carmen de Virginitate; but - unfortunatly - it is impossible to assign even an approximate date to that poem (...). Another possibility may be mentioned: that it was not Aldhelm himself but a later scribe who added the 19 lines from CdV to CE II. In support of this supposition one may note that the ninth-century Angers scribe of Berlin Phillipps 167 - who was ... following an Insular exemplar - did not, in transcribing CE II, transcribe any of the final 19 lines from CdV ... This might suggest that the Insular exemplar used by the Angers scribe lacked the interpolated lines from CdV, and hence that the interpolation was not made by Aldhelm himself. But the matter is far from clear." [Lapidge/Rosier (1985), S. 39f.]

Ed.: Aldhelmi Opera, hrsg. v. Rudolf Ehwald, Berlin 1919 [MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi 15], S. 12f.

"A poem of 31 lines, which - to judge only from its length - could conceivably have been inscribed in a church." [Lapidge/Rosier (1985), S. 39.]

• Aldhelmi Opera, hrsg. v. Rudolf Ehwald, Berlin 1919 [MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi 15].