BOTO DI PRÜFENING

BOTO of PRÜFENING. – A Benedictine of the 12th century, from Prüfening (Regensburg), previously misread as *Prumienis* and thus identified with a supposed forger of the same name from Prüm (Trier). He distinguished himself as a copyist of manuscripts and as the author of various works; two of these appear in the *Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum Lugdunensis* (XXI [1677], pp. 489-516): *De statu domus Dei libri quinque*, an appeal to Eugenius III for a reform of the Church «secundum exemplar Coelestium» (*ibid.*, p. 489), for the restoration of peace disturbed by external and internal enemies; and *De magna domo sapientiae*: creation and the economy of salvation.

Among his unpublished writings (Munich, Latin ms. 13097, in his own hand) are noteworthy the 29 homilies on the prophet *Ezechiel*. Other works are known to us only from ancient catalogues. The *De miraculis s. Dei genitricis Mariae* (often copied; edited by B. Pez in 1731, later prohibited and sequestered; re-edited by Th. T. Crane, London 1927) is spurious; only chapter 37 is an authentic addition by the copyist B.

BIBL.: J. A. Fabricius, *Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis*, VI, Florence 1859, p. 315; J. A. Endres, *B. von P. und seine schriftstellerische Thätigkeit*, in *Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichte*, 30 (1905), pp. 603-646; P. Lehmann, *ibid.*, 38 (1913), pp. 550-558; M. Manitius, *Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters*, III, Modena 1931, pp. 313-314, 606.