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From Passio Perpetuae to Acta Perpetuae. Recontextualizing a martyr story in the literature of the Early Church. By Petr Kitzler . (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 127.) Pp. xiv + 159. Berlin–Boston: de Gruyter, 2015. €99.95. 978 3 11 041942 9; 1861 5996

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From Passio Perpetuae to Acta Perpetuae. Recontextualizing a martyr story in the literature of the Early Church. By Petr Kitzler . (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 127.) Pp. xiv + 159. Berlin–Boston: de Gruyter, 2015. €99.95. 978 3 11 041942 9; 1861 5996

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2016

Judith Lieu*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the account of the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas for its witness, i.e., to the development of the idea and the textualisation of martyrdom, its North African cultural and theological context, its attention to the role of women and its representation of gender. However, the stated interest of this short monograph, a substantially revised version of a study published in Czech in 2012, is in the subsequent reception and reinterpretation of the text from the work of the initial editor through to Augustine and his successors in the fifth century. In practice almost half of the book does address those familiar critical, historical, literary and ideological debates regarding the foundational account, leaving just sixty pages for the Nachleben, paying particular attention to Tertullian, to later North African martyr accounts, and then to the Augustinian tradition, with a final section discussing the two recensions of the Acta Perpetuae. Kitzler avoids detailed discussion of the Greek version because of the complex critical issues this would introduce, although he assumes it to be secondary to an original (or earlier) Latin version, and he does briefly survey the evidence for the spread of a cult of Perpetua in the Mediterranean, including in the Greek East, filling the fourth-century lacuna in his literary sources. A brief conclusion summarises the conclusions and the way in which the account was reinterpreted at each stage. The footnotes and bibliography are full, displaying a thorough knowledge of the relevant texts and of the history of scholarship as well as of the most recent debates. Despite its brevity, the investigation demonstrates persuasively how far the continuing reception of an early martyrdom account such as the Passio Perpetuae belongs to its effective power – although some may question whether this justifies the price of so slim a volume. None the less, it may be hoped that this book will stimulate further such analyses of this and other early martyr acts.