Sulle tracce di un Valentinianesimo 'perduto' di metà II secolo: il problema della datazione della 'Lettera dottrinale valentiniana' (Epiphanius, Panarion 31 5-6)

The mysterious and problematic 'Valentinian doctrinal letter', transmitted by Epiphanius, Panarion Haeresium 31.5-6 , is one of the few original documents of Valentinianismus. In spite of his quality of a direct source, among scholars is dated about the middle of the third century and considered entirely ancillary. However, the doctrine contained in it was known to Irenaeus, who mentions it in Adversus Haereses I 12,1-3. This doctrine could refer to a kind of 'lost' Valentinianism, distinct from that defined as 'classic Valentinianism' , and probably closer in many respects to the original thought of Valentinus. The 'Valentinian doctrinal letter' is a valuable document of a Valentinianism more 'orthodox', probably overshadowed by the more 'heretic' doctrine of Irenaeus' Adversus Hareses I 1-8 and of the Hippolytus' report, that better adapts itself to be used by heresiologists as polemical target. Indeed, it is a response to certain tendencies within the Valentinian circles towards a gradual and ever increasing pleromatic hypostatization. The 'Valentinian doctrinal letter' don't depend on the coptic treatises of Nag Hammadi Eugnostos and Sophia of Jesus Christ and can be dated at the latest shortly after the middle of the second century.