The Prebiarum de multorum exemplaribus is a Hiberno-Latin interrogatory florilegium of the mid-8th century, written as a dialogue in a series of 93 short questions and answers. The word prebiarum seems to be a corruption of breviarium, though the work is not a breviary in the usual sense; the title is not customarily translated into English, but would mean something like "A Breviary of Examples from Many Sources." The Latin dialogue makes use of triads, a tripartite form of expression characteristic of early Irish literature. Its subject matter is exegetical or didactic; that is, it seeks to explain or teach, often through an enumeration of its points.
Contents
The Prebiarum is mostly of comparative interest, and has been dismissed as an example of texts, often written by monks, that "display a vulgarization of religious subjects, treating them as popular trivia, meant more for fun and humour than for any overly didactic, serious purpose." This characterization may represent an elitist view not evident to all readers of the Prebiarum. Like other catechetical Hiberno-Latin writings, the Prebiarum with its modest aims seems intended to help ordinary people with Bible study.
The text's 20th-century editor regarded the Prebiarum as "a handbook useful to the itinerant preacher, the teacher, or even to the spiritual father charged with the obligation of giving spiritual conferences or instructions. … In no sense is the work sophisticated; it is rather simple, direct, even somewhat archaic in spirit."
Triads
The Prebiarum provides an enumerative response to many of the questions it poses, often in the form of a triadic utterance, including triads on greed (cupiditas) and martyrdom. One pair of triads is of a type circulated in other florilegia of moral extracts:
What are the worst things in this world? There are three. The soul of a sinner after death, the demons coming into his path, and not getting well rid of them for eternity.
What are the best things in this world? There are three. The soul of a just man after its departure from the body, and angels coming into his path, and to possess the eternal kingdom without end.
The text
The Prebiarum exists in a single manuscript that was most likely transcribed in the scriptorium of Bishop Arbeo of Freising. It thus originated in southeast Germany around Salzburg, probably within the circle of St. Virgilius, which had a strong Irish presence. It is bound with five other minor works, four of which are of Irish provenance. Orthography and linguistic aspects date the work to the mid-8th century. Given this setting, it may be Arbeo who is addressed in the dedication as a "spiritual brother."