Peter Dronke, Sacred and Profane Sacré Et Silence Profane Dans La Poésie Thought in the Early Middle Ages

360 Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 Peter Dronke, Sacred and Profane sacré et silence profane dans la poésie Thought in the Early Middle Ages. Mil- médiévale.” Let me give an account of lennio Medievale: Strumenti e Studi, these in order. 109. Florence: SISMEL/Edizioni del Sensuality and/or sexual delight could Galluzzo, 2016, pp. XXXIV, 298, 4 ill. not have existed between Adam and With these seventeen retrospective es- Eve—so argues Augustine—but later says (all dating from 1988–2015) peer- poets transfigured human sexuality, cele- less medieval Latinist Peter Dronke un- brating physical love as evoking a divine- earths certain links between sacred and ly blessed and unifying epithalamium. profane notions and images, as well as Christianizing Ovid and Apuleius occurs Christian-Platonic motifs, particularly most noticeably in the eleventh-century from the early Middle Ages. The first German allegorical annotations (citing two parts of the book dwell on aspects (in Manegold of Lautenbach in a Munich the widest sense) of Christian Platonism, manuscript, then sermons by Alan of focusing on themes like sensuality, alle- Lille, and the influential commentary by gory, and the theme of silence, whether Arnulf of Orleans). In these, the World- in the Latin tradition or in the vernacular Soul, moral and euhemeristic meanings (Old French or Middle High German, for and a quest for wisdom are elaborated example). The second (middle) segment in a cosmological turn. Analysis of the touches on some of the greatest thinkers Christianizing process continues with the in the Latin world, from Boethius in the scrutiny of the nine Muses as viewed by sixth century to John Scotus Eriugena, Martianus Capella, Fulgentius, Hermann Hildegard of Bingen, William of Conch- of Reichenau, Boethius, and Alan of es, and Thierry of Chartres in the twelfth. Lille (in his epic Anticlaudianus). Lastly, The emphasis throughout is on transfor- sacred silence, Dronke observes, may mations and syncretisms far more than lead to exultant intellectual ascent, while on disjunctions. The final group of es- profane silence may take us to human says is concerned with poetic texts, Latin error and remorse. In religious terms, si- and vernacular, in which non-sacred el- lence can be taken as a sin, in the world ements make their way into the sacred, of courtoisie as a blemish. The most trou- the biblical and the saintly realms. A bling is that seen in Chrétien de Troyes’s brief Epilogue glances at early medieval Perceval and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s profane poetry outside (Japanese) as well Parzival, whose hero most strikingly as within Europe. lacks compassion. Seven further contri- The generous introduction permits the butions (under “Authors”) come next, author to revisit the publications (mindful with reference to Boethius and they of Retractiones) found in a wide variety reach down to Thierry of Chartres. The of venues. The first section, leading off first is in Spanish—“Imágenes mitológi- with a delightful essay in Italian, con- cas en la poesía de Boecio,” followed by cludes with a piece in French on the me- “From the Hermetica to Eriugena,” “Les dieval poetics of silence. These are: “La conceptions de l’allégorie chez Jean Scot sessualità in Paradiso,” “Metamorphoses: Érigène et Hildegarde de Bingen,” “Fur- Allegory in Early Medieval Commentar- ther Lyrics by Hildegard of Bingen?,” ies on Ovid and Apuleius,” “The Muses “The Four Elements in the Thought of and Medieval Latin Poets,” and “Silence Hildegard of Bingen: Cosmology and Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 361 Poetry,” “William of Conches and the voice, knowledge/veins, and sense per- New Aristotle,” Postscript 2015, “Thier- ception/bones). Dronke provides in this ry of Chartres” Postscript 2015. Again, I context a severe but generous corrective will give an account of these in order. to a defective 2010 edition of her quite Dronke argues that four lyrics of dense Physica. Boethius in his Consolatio rely in an William of Conches and Thierry of unprecedented way on interrelated and Chartres close out this section. Dronke unified myths that are fused into a felic- offers a brief riposte to the new (1999) ity of contemplation. Myths and themes edition of William’s commentary on the like that of Ulysses and Circe, Orpheus Consolatio of Boethius (in re: cosmic and Eurydice, Hercules and his Labors, love and the anima mundi). The argu- a distinction between the physical sun ment turns on William’s own exegetical and the divine Sun—each, for Boethius, revisions of his work, influenced by the subsumes a definition of all-comprehend- ca. 1160 translation of several of Aristot- ing eternity. In “From the Hermetica to le’s works. The longest essay in this work Eriugena,” we learn that the work at- (167–199) is devoted to the substantial tributed to Hermes Trismegistus (Her- legacy of Thierry of Chartres, for it draws metica), known to Dionysius, appears on Dronke’s 1988 History of Western to have influenced Eriugena, if only in Philosophy. Explored are Thierry’s life, images and motifs, by means of “heart- influences (John Scotus Eriugena espe- words” (p. 102) which are explicated here cially), background, speculative writings, by Dronke. Now on to John Scotus and and particularly his exceptional character, Hildegard of Bingen: allegory, symbolic as seen in the volume on the seven liberal or mysterious, whether pagan (via Eriu- arts, the Heptateuchon. gena channeling Martianus Capella in a The work’s final third, From Sacred to mythopoetic or epistemological mode) or Profane, features five more articles, “The biblical (for Hildegard, Matthew 8. 1–13), Latin and French Eulalia Sequences,” “Jo- the two named authors illustrate well the nah in Early Medieval Thought: Some Lit- intellectually complex medieval notion of erary and Artistic Testimonies,” “La ma- a subtle allegory of the human soul. Next, ternité de Marie dans la poésie médiévale,” Dronke edits, with commentary, six short, “Latin and Vernacular Love-Lyrics: Roch- newly discovered lyrics by Hildegard, ester and St Augustine’s, Canterbury,” easily identified by their familiar distinc- “The Land of Cokaygne: Three Notes on tive imagery, which are found scattered the Latin Background.” on four haphazard manuscript leaves. The No doubt performance based, yet inde- “Sibyl of the Rhine” is again examined pendent in content, the Latin and the Old in “The Four Elements in the Thought of French sequences dealing with St. Eulalia, Hildegard of Bingen: Cosmology and Po- the one sacred the other profane, diverge etry,” this time in particular to discuss the dramatically from the fourth-century influence of Lucan’s Pharsalia, its Stoic work by Prudentius. Each in themselves depictions, interpreted by her in mythical poetically different, the vernacular, an and metaphysical terms. The four ele- early specimen of French verse, propos- ments frequently referred to by Hildegard es an account of the virgin’s martyrdom, are fire, air, water, and earth (correspond- while the Latin emphasizes concord and ingly reason/human marrow, intellect/ harmony. Dronke edits, translates and 362 Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 explicates each work. In “Jonah in Ear- ing reach. One loses count of the range ly Medieval Thought: Some Literary and of his scholarship—philology, iconogra- Artistic Testimonies,” the author exam- phy, palaeography, Biblical commentary, ines, using ekphrasis on a fourth century Middle English, Middle Dutch, Greek, pagan mosaic (illustrated), a work imag- Anglo-Saxon, Occitan…, a dazzling ex- inatively appropriated and Christianized hibition by a single scholar at the peak with a new symbiosis, and, as well, illu- of his form. The exuberance and range of minated by a dramatic and ironic Greek Dronke’s analyses are simply breathtaking. and Latin sermon by Ephraem of Syria. A challenging book? Yes, and certainly Some comedy continues in non-sacred not to be skimmed. To list the few typos treatments of an anxious Virgin Mary I found would be tantamount to throwing (“La maternité de Marie dans la poésie pebbles at the Louvre. médiévale”), as seen in Anglo-Saxon, Raymond Cormier, Emeritus, Longwood early Greek and Latin apocrypha, Hrots- University (VA), Department of English vitha’s works, and later Latin prose and and Modern Languages; cormierrj@ Romance vernaculars. One could say longwood.edu these humanizing accounts are like the other side of the Pietà coin. For the following essay (incorporates an argument plagiarized in 2004), much Patron Saints of Early Medieval Italy, AD more than scholarly pique is at stake. c. 350–800: History and Hagiography in “Latin and Vernacular Love-Lyrics: Roch- Ten Biographies. Translated with an in- ester and St Augustine’s, Canterbury” is a troduction and commentary by Nicholas daring demonstration of derivation for the Everett. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Dutch and Latin love verses. It is main- Mediaeval Studies, 2016, x, 276 pp. tained convincingly that the theme is a Like a modern-day Gregory the Great, woman’s unfulfilled love-longing. We en- Nicholas Everett has assembled a col- ter the realm of laughter and parody with lection of little-known saints’ lives from “The Land of Cokaygne: Three Notes early medieval Italy: the Life of Gau- on the Latin Background,” the origin of dentius of Novara; the Life of Barbatus which fantastic locale arose, Dronke ar- of Benevento; The Sermon of the Notary gues, among the lower orders of the cler- Coronatus on the Life of Zeno, Bishop and gy. The fabled world is mindful of the land Confessor; The Book Concerning the Ap- of Pococurante in Voltaire’s Candide; here parition of St. Michael on Mount Garga- we have flying saints and an evocation of no; the Life of Senzius of Blera; the Pas- legendary Prester John. Finally, in the sion of Cetheus of Pescara; the Passion Epilogue, Dronke revisits a foreword he of Vigilius of Trent, Bishop and Martyr; contributed to the Japanese edition of his the Passion of Apollinaris of Ravenna; the 1968 Medieval Lyric (19963), incorporat- Passion and Life of Eusebius of Vercelli; ing parallels among love songs by women and the Life of Sirus of Pavia.

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