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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
A passing reference to pagan gods in the preface to the Merovingian Vita Landiberti inspired a number of poetic elaborations in the reworkings of the Life of St. Lambert during the late Carolingian period. These include the opening chapters of the Carmen de Sancto Landberto, which deal exclusively with pagan myths; the Versus in Laude Beati Landberti; and passages in the Vita Landberti of Stephen, Bishop of Liege (901–920). This paper is concerned primarily with the first two of these reworkings, which contain the more elaborate treatments of pagan mythology. The inspiration for the inclusion of these passages, as well as the sources for their information about the pagan gods, form a curious chapter in the survival and transformation of the pagan gods in medieval Latin literature.
1 The Merovingian Life is edited by Krusch, B., MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum VI 353–84.Google Scholar
2 Carmen de Sancto Landberto , ed. von Winterfeld, P., MGH Poetae IV 141–57; Versus in Laude Beati Landberti, ibid., 157–59. Partial editions of Stephen's Vita Landberti are found: ibid., 232–33; and in Krusch (above, n. 1) 385–92. The complete text is in PL 122.643–60; there is no critical edition of the complete text.Google Scholar
3 Our discussion of the sources alluded to in these two poems supplements the extensive work done by von Winterfeld in his editions. Only rarely are sources mentioned here which he identified already.Google Scholar
4 Krusch 353. On the various versions of the life of Lambert cf. Kupper, J.-L., ‘Saint Lambert: De l'Histoire à la légende,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 79 (1984) 5–49.Google Scholar
5 The preface to the Vita Landiberti is based on the Vita Eligii (ed. Krusch, B.; MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum IV 663–65). The use of Sedulius in the Vita Eligii was noted by the editor; however, he overlooked the borrowings from Juvencus in this same passage (cf. Vita Eligii 663.35: ‘discurrat gloria quae veterum nectunt mendacia’ and Juvencus, Pref. 11 and 16). Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–1931) I 704–705, names Sedulius as the source for verses 35ff. in the Carmen de Sancto Landberto; von Winterfeld (above, n. 2) 144 correctly cites the older Vita Landiberti, which is the immediate source.Google Scholar
6 On the passages in Sedulius and Juvencus, cf. Curtius, E., Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (5th ed.; Bern 1965) 453–57; Gompf, L., ‘Figmenta Poetarum,’ in: Literatur und Sprache im europäischen Mittelalter: Festschrift für Karl Langosch zum 70. Geburtstag (Darmstadt 1973) 53–62.Google Scholar
7 The question of authorship has been frequently discussed. See Demarteau, J., ‘Saint Lambert. Vie en vers par Hucbald de Saint-Amand et documents du xe siècle,’ Bulletin de l'Institut archéologique liégeois 13 (1877) 383–519; von Winterfeld (above, n. 2) 141–42; Krusch (above, n. 1) 329; Manitius, , Geschichte I 704–705; Auda, L., L'École musicale liégeoise du x e siècle, Étienne de Liège, Mém. Acad. Royale de Belgique 2.1 (1923) 128–136; Wattenbach, W. and Holtzmann, R., Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Die Zeit der Sachsen und Salier I 1 (rev. ed. Schmale, F.-J.; Darmstadt 1967) 127–28; Masai, F. and Gilissen, L., Lectionarium Sancti Lamberti Leodiensis tempore Stephani episcopi paratum (901–920), Umbrae Codicum Occidentalium (Amsterdam 1963) xxv; Genicot, L. and Tombeur, P., Index scriptorum operumque Latino-Belgicorum medii aevi, Première partie: VII e –X e siècles (Brussels 1973) 145. The most complete discussion is by Jonsson, R., Historia: Études sur la genèse des offices versifiés (Stockholm 1968) 130–40. Jonsson concludes that neither of the two prime contenders for authorship, Hucbald of St. Amand and Stephen of Liege, is in fact the author.Google Scholar
8 In verse 8 the punctuation follows the correction of Strecker, K., MGH Poetae IV 1130.Google Scholar
9 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 143.Google Scholar
10 The etymology in Isidore is also found in Cicero, De natura deorum 2.25.64 (2nd ed. Ax, W. [Stuttgart 1933/1961] 74) and in the Second Vatican Mythographer, ch. 1 (ed. Bode, G.; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini tres Romae nuper reperti [Celle 1834/Hildesheim 1968] 75).Google Scholar
11 Cf. Macrobius, , Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis 1.14.5–8 (ed. Willis, J. [Leipzig 1970] 56). Macrobius also includes the following statement, which should be compared with verse 4 of the Carmen: ‘… ad mentem, quem Graeci υου appellant …’ 1.2.14 (Willis 6).Google Scholar
12 De natura deorum 2.25.64 (Ax 74).Google Scholar
13 Cf. Bede, , De temporum ratione ch. 8 (ed. Jones, C. W.; CCL 123b.301.49–51).Google Scholar
14 De lingua latina 5.73 (edd. Goetz, G. and Schoell, F. [Leipzig 1910] 23) Cf. also Isidore, , Etymologiae (ed. Lindsay, W. M.; Oxford 1911) and the Second Vatican Mythographer, ch. 29 (Bode 84). Though the wording in Varro is the closest to the Carmen, the limited circulation of Varro at this time makes it probable that the author of the Carmen has used an intermediary source — as yet unidentified — rather than Varro.Google Scholar
15 Etymologiae 5.33.5. The fact that this etymology appears in Isidore's account of the Roman months, rather than in his discussion of the Roman gods, may explain why the source was not earlier identified.Google Scholar
16 Rabani Mogontiacensis episcopi De computo 32 (ed. Stevens, W. M.; CGcm 44.238.51–55). The italics in the quotation are mine. On Rhabanus' sources in the De computo , see Rissel, M., Rezeption antiker und patristischer Wissenschaft bei Hrabanus Maurus: Studien zur karolingischen Geistesgeschichte (Bern/Frankfurt 1976) 30–72, esp. 33–34. She does not mention the use of Isidore in De computo 32, but it is cited by Stevens in his edition. See also Rissel, M., ‘Hrabanus’ Liber de Computo als Quelle der Fuldaer Unterrichtspraxis in den Artes Arithmetik und Astronomie,' Hrabanus Maurus und seine Schule: Festschrift der Rabanus-Maurus-Schule 1980, ed. Böhne, W. (Fulda 1980) 138–54. Four of the manuscripts cited by Stevens — though not necessarily the best ones — read voluptatem, the reading of Isidore. If Rhabanus did not write voluptatem, it is interesting that the scribes (at least some of them independent of one another) reintroduced the reading from Isidore into the text.Google Scholar
17 That this etymology is linguistically indefensible (see Walde, A., Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [3rd ed. Hofmann, J. B.; Heidelberg 1954] 2.43–44) has little bearing on the discussion here; the derivation of Mars from mas was a perfectly respectable medieval etymology.Google Scholar
18 Though an element of eroticism is hinted at in the verb gestio. Google Scholar
19 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 144.Google Scholar
20 Manitius, , Geschichte I 705.Google Scholar
21 In Aen. 11.5 (edd. Thilo, G. and Hagen, H. [Leipzig 1881–1887/Hildesheim 1961] II 482). A variant of the story is found ibid. 6.714 (Thilo–Hagen II 98). In each of the later versions it is possible that the authors combined various sources to write their accounts. Few of the later versions are based exclusively on one earlier text; some of them (e.g., Isidore) clearly synthesize various sources. The discussion here of the transmission of the myth assumes that the major source for each writer can be identified, but in most cases this is not the only source the writer knew.Google Scholar
22 Etymologiae 5.30.8. See Fontaine, J., Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique (Paris 1959) 407–408. Fontaine also cites the version in Macrobius, Comm. in Somn. Scipionis 1.12.14 (Willis 50). A discussion of the myth, including references to Greek versions, is found in Bouche-Leclercq, A., L'Astrologie grecque (repr. Brussels 1963) 321–25; cf. also Flamant, J., Macrobe et le néo-platonisme latin à la fin du IX e siècle (Leiden 1977) 557–58.Google Scholar
23 Isidore, , De natura rerum 3.4 (ed. Fontaine, J., Isidore de Séville: Traité de la nature [Bordeaux 1960] 185).Google Scholar
24 Isidore's discussion should be compared with the illustration printed by Fontaine (Isidore et la culture, pl. 3), which pictorially represents the zones of the planets and their respective gifts to humanity.Google Scholar
25 Ch. 8 (Jones 301.36–50). Bede also relates this legend in his earlier and shorter De temporibus liber, ch. 4 (ed. Jones, C. W.; CCL 123c.586.4–8). As Jones notes in his editions, the shorter version in the De temporibus liber is based on the Etymologiae, while the longer version in the De temporum ratione is based on the fuller account in Isidore's De natura rerum. Google Scholar
26 Jones, 302.57–63. Cf. Bede's comment, ibid. 301.36: ‘… tametsi diuerso ordine putantes.’ Google Scholar
27 The biblical ‘quotations’ in the Carmen (e.g., verses 49, 51) give an indication of the amount of change the poet allowed himself in the quotation of a source.Google Scholar
28 Remigii Autisiodorensis Commentum in Martianum Capellam, libri I–II (ed. Lutz, C. [Leiden 1962] 91.14–20). Bolton, D. K., ‘Remigian Commentaries on the “Consolation of Philosophy” and their Sources,’ Traditio 33 (1977) 392, cites a quotation of this myth in a revised version of Remigius' commentary in a twelfth-century manuscript (Cambridge University Library, Kk 3 21). The wording indicates that either Bede or Rhabanus was the reviser's source.Google Scholar
29 Ch. 26 (Stevens 230.20–23).Google Scholar
30 Jones, C. W., Bedae Opera de temporibus (Cambridge, Mass. 1943) 5.Google Scholar
31 Ed. Lutz, C. (Cambridge, Mass. 1939) 53. The uniqueness of the account may be the result of quotation from memory rather than an allusion to an unknown source.Google Scholar
32 Cf. Carmen 543–45. On Stephen's education, see Manitius, , Geschichte I 603.Google Scholar
33 In Aen. 1.47 (Thilo–Hagen I 32); Comm. in Somn. Scipionis 1.17.15 (Willis 69); Etymologiae 8.11.69; De civitate dei 4.10 (edd. Dombart, B. and Kalb, A., 5th ed. [Stuttgart 1981] 157).Google Scholar
34 Manitius, So, Geschichte I 705. There is no specific proof of this.Google Scholar
35 E.g., Augustine, , Ennarrationes in Psalmos 103.3.19–21 (edd. Dekkers, E. and Fraipont, J.; CCL 40.1516–17); Prosper of Aquitaine, Expositio Psalmorum 103.19–20 (ed. Callens, P.; CCL 68a.24–25); Jerome, , Tractatus in Psalmos 103.19 (ed. Morin, D.; CCL 78.186); Cassiodorus, , Expositio Psalmorum 103.19 (ed. Adriaen, M.; CCL 98.934). This figure is so common that it is impossible to suggest a specific source for the author of the Versus; the citations here provide only an indication of the type of comment the passage is based on. On verse 5, cf. Macrobius, Comm. in Somn. Scipionis 1.20.4 (Willis 79).Google Scholar
36 PL 111.267d.Google Scholar
37 PL 111.268a.Google Scholar
38 Etymologiae 3.71.2.Google Scholar
39 Ch. 37 (Stevens 248.19). On Maiugena , see Strecker, K. (MGH Poetae IV 1130), who cites Martianus Capella 1.92 as the source.Google Scholar
40 See the facsimile edition by Masai, and Gilissen, (above, n. 7) fol. 18r .Google Scholar
41 Von Winterfeld, (158) cites pariter as the reading of Vaticanus latinus 8565, but as the Vaticanus is generally the least reliable of the manuscripts, he did not follow what he thought was its authority alone. Cf. Demarteau, (above, n. 7) 418–19. The use of the so-called manuscrit belge, ‘the corrected pages of an earlier edition,’ as printer's copy is discussed by Kenney, E. J., The Classical Text (Berkeley 1974) 26.Google Scholar
42 Ed. cit. (above, n. 2) 158.Google Scholar
43 Ax 17.40–41. One could also cite, e.g., Servius, , In Aen., 1.47: ‘physici Iovem aetherem, id est ignem volunt intellegi’ (Thilo–Hagen I 32).Google Scholar
44 ThLL 8.580.21–32; Blaise, A., Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens (Strasbourg 1954/Turnhout 1975) 521.Google Scholar
45 The phrase fabilis ore adds to the confusion. Only DuCange cites an occurrence of the word fabilis; he defines it as dicendus, memorandus. The poet has construed the word — perhaps by analogy of ablative constructions with facilis or difficilis — with an ablative object, ore. Translate: ‘Mercury, noteworthy for his voice/mouth …’ Google Scholar
46 See Blaise, , Dictionnaire 521.Google Scholar
47 Ed. cit. (above, n. 2) 158, ad versum 15.Google Scholar
48 Cited from Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem (2nd ed.; Stuttgart 1975).Google Scholar
49 On the symbolism of the number seven, and on references to further mediaeval commentaries on these passages in the Apocalypse, see Meyer, H. and Suntrup, R., ‘Zum Lexikon der Zahlenbedeutungen im Mittelalter. Einführung in die Methode und Probeartikel: Die Zahl 7,’ Frühmittelalterliche Studien 11 (1977) 1–73, esp. 59–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50 PL 100.1097b–c and 1099a–b. Alcuin's authorship of this commentary has been questioned; cf. Wilmart, A., Auteurs spirituels et textes dévots du moyen âge latin (rpt. Paris 1971) 52, n. 6. The uncertainty about the authorship has no bearing on the discussion here since this commentary's interpretation is also common elsewhere (for other references see Meyer–Suntrup, 59–60).Google Scholar
51 Cf. Meyer–Suntrup, 27.Google Scholar
52 Moralia in Iob, 16.51.64 (ed. Adriaen, M.; CCL 143a.835). Cf. also Rhabanus, , PL 112. 970b. On the metaphorical meaning of water/rain, see the discussion by Spitz, H.-J., Die Metaphorik des geistigen Schriftsinns: Ein Beitrag zur allegorischen Bibelauslegung des ersten christlichen Jahrtausends (Munich 1972) 104ff.; and the list of passages collected by Schaller, D., ‘Zur geistlichen Metaphorik des Bewässerns und des Regens,’ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 1 (1964) 59–64, esp. 60–61.Google Scholar
53 See above, n. 2.Google Scholar
54 See above, n. 7.Google Scholar
55 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 232.Google Scholar
56 Aldhelmi Opera , ed. Ehwald, R., MGH Auctores antiquissimi XV 353.Google Scholar
57 Ed. Clausen, W. V., Appendix Vergiliana (Oxford 1966) 15–36. Stephen's quotations from the Culex have not been identified earlier. On the text tradition of the Culex , see Reeve, M. D., ‘Appendix Vergiliana,’ Texts and Transmission. A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. Reynolds, L. D. (Oxford 1984) 437–40. On the Culex in the Middle Ages, cf. Préaux, J., ‘Du Culex de Virgile à son pastiche par Thierry de Saint-Trond,’ Présence de Virgile, ed. Chevallier, R. (Paris 1978) 195–208.Google Scholar
58 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 233.Google Scholar
59 Isidore's advice is repeated by Matthew of Vendôme, Ars Versificatoria 4.21 (ed. Faral, E., Les Arts poétiques du XII e et du XIII e siècle [Paris 1924/1962] 185).Google Scholar
60 PL 101.693–94. On the writing of prose and verse versions of saints' lives, Walter, E., Opus Geminum: Untersuchungen zu einem Formtyp in der mittellateinischen Literatur (Diss. Erlangen–Nürnberg 1973); Godman, P., ‘The Anglo-Latin Opus Geminatum from Aldhelm to Alcuin,’ Medium Aevum 50 (1981) 215–29; Wieland, G., ‘Geminus stilus: Studies in Anglo-Latin Hagiography,’ Herren, M. (ed.), Insular Latin Studies: Papers on Latin Texts and Manuscripts of the British Isles 650–1066 (Toronto 1981) 113–33. Cf. Kupper (above, n. 4) 30.Google Scholar
61 Even though selected verses from the Carmen were later used in the Office of St. Lambert; see Jonsson, (above, n. 7) 154ff. Google Scholar
62 This paper was written during a stay at the Institut für mittellateinische Philologie, Freie Universität, Berlin, under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. It is a pleasure to express my gratitude to the AvH-Stiftung. My thanks are also owed Prof. Dr. Fritz Wagner, Dr. Wolfgang Maaz, Udo Wawrzyniak, Prof. Francis Newton, and an anonymous reader for Traditio; all criticized and improved versions of this article. I also thank Diane Warne and Leo Hodlofski for generous aid with bibliography.Google Scholar
