Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours: Poetry and Patronage

chapter 2 Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours: Poetry and Patronage

Michael Roberts

2.1 Introduction 2.2 Relations with Gregory 2.3 A Poet for the Times 2.4 Conclusion

2.1 Introduction

Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, to give him his full name, was born in Duplavis (modern Valdobbiadene), near Treviso, some time in the 530s. After receiving the literary education traditional in late antiquity in the still thriving schools of Ravenna, he left his native Italy for reasons that are somewhat obscure and traveled across the Alps to the Merovingian kingdoms of Frankish Gaul, probably in 565. His first datable poem written in his new home is an epithalamium for the marriage of the Austrasian royal couple Sigibert and Brunhild in the spring of 566, though a number of poems written for bishops in northern Gaul also date to this period. Subsequently he moved on to Paris, where he wrote a panegyric for King Charibert (561–567), finally settling in Poitiers in late 567 or 568. Perhaps too it was at this time that he first visited Tours and made the acquaintance of the then bishop Euphronius. From that time on Poitiers remained his main base of operations, though his poetry gives evidence of other journeys, for instance, to Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Nantes, and later a second visit to the Austrasian court at Metz. At Poitiers Fortunatus made the acquaintance of the formidable founder of the Convent of the Holy Cross, Radegund, princess of the Thuringian royal family and former wife of Chlothar i, and of her abbess, Agnes. His poetic cor- pus shows the close relationship he enjoyed with both women. It contains fifty-five short personal poems written to one or both of the women, as well as a further thirteen that convey the greetings or speak in the voice of the holy couple or represent the convent’s interests. Fortunatus’ longest work, a four- book hexameter epic, the Life of St. Martin, begins with a preface in elegiac couplets addressed to the two women. He was to write a Life of St. Radegund after the saint’s death (she died in 587).

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In addition to its verse preface to Radegund and Agnes, Fortunatus’ Life of Saint Martin also carries a dedicatory letter addressed to Gregory of Tours, thereby bringing together the figures that Fortunatus relied on most heavily for friendship and patronage during his years in Gaul. Only the women of the Holy Cross surpass Gregory in the number of poems they received from Fortunatus. The collection contains twenty-six verse epistles written to the bishop, most clustered in Book 5 (8–17), published ca 576, and Book 8 (11–21), probably col- lected in 590 or 591.1 In addition eight other poems were either requested by Gregory or serve his interests. Gregory’s initiative is explicit in the case of an epigram written for the cell where Martin clothed a poor man with his own cloak (1.5) and in a narrative poem celebrating Bishop Avitus’ conversion of Jews at Clermont in 576 (5.5). It is a natural inference that epigrams for the oratory where Gregory kept the robe in which the relics of the cross had been wrapped (2.3), for the bishop’s restoration of an oratory at Artanne (10.5 and 10), and for the rebuilt cathedral at Tours (10.6) owe their existence to Gregory’s prompting. Poem 5.3 celebrates the adventus of Gregory to Tours as its new bishop, and 5.4 his natalis dies, presumably the anniversary of his episcopal consecration.2 To these might be added 10.15, which praises Gregory’s mother Armentaria for the distinction of her offspring. Two other poems owe their origin to occasions mentioned by Gregory in his Histories in which his or the city of Tours’ interests are at stake. Poem 9.1 is a panegyric of King Chilperic, delivered at the trial of Gregory before the king and a council of bishops at Berny-Rivière in 580 (Hist. 5.49). Poem 10.11 addresses envoys sent to Tours by the royal couple Childebert and Brunhild. The poem identifies the time of year of the event, Easter, but gives no clue about the purpose of the mission. Its superscription, however, provides the missing information: “Verses composed at table in a villa of Saint Martin before tax inspectors” (ante discriptores).3 The occasion has been plausibly identified with one recorded by Gregory in 589 (Hist. 9.30), when royal tax inspectors attempted unsuccessfully to reimpose taxes on Tours. A more distant connection with Gregory is evident in three of Fortunatus’ epitaphs, which celebrate the bishop’s relations: his great-grandfather, Gregory of Langres (4.2), that bishop’s son Tetricus of Langres (4.3), and Gallus

1 The full list of verse epistles is 5.8, 5.8a, 5.8b, 5.9–5.17, 8.11–21, 9.6, 9.7, and 10.12a. Poem 9.7 is in Sapphics, in response to a request from Gregory that Fortunatus try his hand in that meter, but its content is essentially that of an extended letter. I cite Fortunatus’ poetry (with occa- sional minor changes of punctuation and orthography) from the edition of Marc Reydellet, Venance Fortunat, Poèmes, 3 vols (Paris, 1994–2004), hereafter cited as Reydellet. 2 So Reydellet 2:167. 3 The full superscription is “In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi. Versus facti in mensa in villa sancti Martini ante discriptores.”