¹ The Dialogue of Solomon and Saturnus, ed. Kemble, J.M. (London, 1848).Google Scholar

² The Poetical Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn, ed. Menner, R.J. (New York and London, 1941), pp. 21–35.Google Scholar

³ ibid. p. 26. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to the text of Solomon and Saturn II are to this edition.

⁴ ‘Lo, I have heard that wise men contended in the days of old, princes of the world contended about their wisdom.’

⁵ Ong, W. J., Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the Word (London and New York, 1982), pp. 31–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ Cf. ibid. p. 42: ‘An oral culture has no vehicle so neutral as a list.’

⁷ For a study of the catalogue in Widsith, see Howe, N., The Old English Catalogue Poems, Anglistica 23 (Copenhagen, 1985), esp. 174–5.Google Scholar

⁸ The Exeter Book, ed. Krapp, G.P. and Dobbie, E.V.K., ASPR 3 (New York and London, 1936), 151Google Scholar. Subsequent citations of Widsith are from this edition. ‘So I travelled many foreign lands over the spacious earth. There, deprived of my kin, I experienced good and evil, far from my kinsmen I was in service in many places. Therefore, I may sing and recount a tale, declare before many in the meadhall how the noble benefited me with generosity. I was with the Huns and with the Hreðgotan, with the Swedes and with the Geats and with the South-Danes. With the Vendils I was and with the Warne and with the Vikings. With the Gefthan I was and with the Wends and with the Gefflegan. With the Angles I was and with the Swabians and with the Ænenas.’ On the names of these tribes, see Widsith, ed. K. Malone, Anglistica 13 (Copenhagen, 1962), 92.

⁹ ‘I was with the Israelites and the Assyrians, with the Hebrews and with the Indians and with the Egyptians. I was with the Medes and with the Persians.’

¹⁰ Widsith, ed. Malone, , pp. 45–7.Google Scholar

See also Widsith, ed. Malone, , pp. 37–8.Google Scholar

¹² Widsitb, ed. Malone, , p. 112Google Scholar: ‘The author of Widsitb was a cleric, at home in vernacular poetry sacred and profane … With the accuracy of a scholar and lover of the past he put three old thulas into the mouth of his scop of olden days and in the added parts (which he himself composed) he kept strictly to the limits of the heroic age …’

¹³ In the Old English poem Daniel, for example, we find a particular interest in the rule of the Chaldeans and their subsequent overthrow by the Medes and Persians.

¹⁴ On decontextualized lists as a characteristic feature of early writing, see Goody, J., The Interface between the Written and the Oral (Cambridge, 1987), p. 99Google Scholar. See also Goody, J., The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge, 1977), p. 75.Google Scholar

¹⁵ See O'Keeffe, K. O'Brien, Visible Song: Transitional Literacy in Old English Verse, CSASE 4 (Cambridge, 1990), 71–3.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Following Menner's conventions, italics signal emendations for existing letters, parentheses mark emendations of illegible letters, and square brackets indicate conjectures for scribal omissions. ‘He travelled throughout all lands: the Indian ocean, the East Corsias, the kingdom of the Persians, Palestine, the city Nineveh, and the North-Predans [Parthians?], the treasure-halls of the Medes, Marculf's native land, Saul's kingdom, as it lies south at Mt Gilboa and north at Gadara, the dwelling of the Philistines, the stronghold of the Greeks, the forest of Egypt, the waters of Midian, the rocks of Horeb, the kingdom of the Chaldeans, the skills of the Greeks, the race of Arabia, the learning of Libya, the land of Syria, Bithinia, Buthanasan, Pamphilia, Porus's borders, Macedonia, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Christ's [?native land], Jericho, Galilea, Jerusalem …’

¹⁷ See The Poetical Dialogues, ed. Menner, , pp. 118–20Google Scholar, and The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. Dobbie, E.V.K., ASPR 6 (New York and London, 1942), 164.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Wild, F., Solomon und Saturn, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse: Sitzungsberichte 243 (Vienna, 1964), 40–4.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Pliny. Natural History, ed. Rackham, H. et al. , 10 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1938–1962).Google Scholar

²⁰ Pomponii Melae de Chorographia, ed. Frick, C. (Leipzig, 1880).Google Scholar

²¹ C. lulii Solini Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium, ed. Mommsen, T., 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1895).Google Scholar

²² Anonymi de Situ Orbis, ed. Manitius, M. (Stuttgart, 1884).Google Scholar

²³ Dicuili Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae, ed. Tierney, J. J., Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 6 (Dublin, 1967), 27Google Scholar: ‘As Parthey points out in his preface, Dicuil personally consulted, apart from the work of the commissioners of Theodosius and the Cosmography of Caesar, only Isidore, Pliny, Priscian, and Solinus.’

²⁴ Pauli Orosii Historiarum Aduersum Paganos Libri VII, ed. Zangemeister, C. (Leipzig, 1889).Google Scholar

²⁵ Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum siue Originum, libri XX, ed. Lindsay, W.M., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1911).Google Scholar

²⁶ Martianus Capella. De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, ed. Willis, J. (Leipzig, 1983)Google Scholar. For a translation, see Stahl, W. H. and Johnson, R., Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, 2 vols. (New York, 1971–1977), esp. vol. II.Google Scholar

²⁷ See Geographi Latini Minores, ed. Riese, A. (Heilbrun, 1878).Google Scholar

²⁸ Both poets were translating the Greek coastal survey of Dionysus Periegetes. See La Périégèse de Priscien, ed. Van de Woestijne, P. (Bruges, 1953)Google Scholar and La Descriptio Orbis Terrae d' Avienus, ed. Van de Woestijne, P. (Bruges, 1961)Google Scholar. On the contraction of geographic information available to early Christian Europe, see Laistner, M.L.W., ‘The Decay of Geographical Knowledge and the Decline of Exploration, A.D. 300–500’, in Travel and Travellers of the Middle Ages, ed. Newton, A. P. ([n.p.], 1926), pp. 19–38, at 23 and 26Google Scholar; see also Beazley, C.R., The Dawn of Modern Geography, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1897–1901) I, 244.Google Scholar

²⁹ Die Kosmographie des Istrier Aithikos im lateiniscben Auszüge des Hieronymus, ed. Wuttke, H. (Leipzig, 1853).Google Scholar

³⁰ For defence of Aethicus as a genuine author, see Wuttke, H., Die Aechtheit des Auszugs aus der Kosmograpbie des Aithikos (Leipzig, 1854)Google Scholar. Hillkowitz, K., Zur Kosmographie des Aethicus, 2 vols. (Cologne, 1934 and Frankfurt am Main, 1973) I, 69Google Scholar, proposes a date for composition at the end of the eighth century. Löwe, H. (Virgil von Salzburg und die Kosmographie des Aethicus Ister, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, Abhandlung der geistes-und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 11 (1951), 903–88)Google Scholar identifies Virgil of Salzburg as the author of the Cosmographia, although this identification has been disputed in recent years. Michael Richter discusses ‘Hiberno-Latin’ elements in the Cosmographia in ‘Sprachliche Untersu-chung der Kosmographie des Aethicus Ister’, Virgil von Salzburg: Missionar und Gelehrter, ed. Dopsch, H. and Juffinger, R. (Salzburg, 1985), pp. 147–53.Google Scholar For an evaluation of the current state of Aethicus scholarship, see Herren, M., ‘Wozu diente die Fälschung der Kosmographie des Aethicus?’, in Lateinische Kultur im VIII. Jahrhundert, ed. Lehner, A. and Berschin, W. (St Ottilien, 1989), pp. 145–59, at 146 and 159.Google Scholar

³¹ Aethici Istrici Cosmographia Vergilio Salisburgensi rectius adscripta. Codex Leidensis Scaligeranus 69, ed. Bishop, T.A.M., Umbrae Codicum Occidentalium 10 (Amsterdam, 1966)Google Scholar. Lapidge, M., ‘The Present State of Anglo-Latin Studies’, in Insular Latin Studies: Papers on Latin Texts and Manuscripts of the British Isles, 550–1066, ed. Herren, M. W., Papers in Med. Stud. 1 (Toronto, 1981), 45–82Google Scholar, at 57–8, regards it ‘very probable’ that Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1260 was the exemplar for Scaliger 69.

³² Aethici Istrici Cosmographia, ed. Bishop, , p. xii.Google Scholar

³³ For a selection, see Itineraria et Alia Geographica, ed. Geyer, P. et al. , 2 vols. CCSL 175–6 (Turnhout, 1965).Google Scholar

³⁴ See Campbell, M. B., The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing, 400–1600 (Ithaca, NY and London, 1988), pp. 20–33, on some narrative features in Egeria's Peregrinatio.Google Scholar

³⁵ PL 23, 903–76.

³⁶ Nomina locorum ex beati Hieronimi presbiteri et Flavi Iosephi collecta opusculis, ed. Hurst, D., CCSL 119 (Turnhout, 1962), 273–87.Google Scholar

³⁷ Nomina regionum atque locorum de Actibus Apostolorum, ed. Laistner, M.L.W., CCSL 121 (Turnhout, 1983), 167–78Google Scholar. , Bede'sDe locis sanctis is a description of pilgrim sites heavily derivative of Adomnan, Jerome, Hegesippus and pseudo-Eucherius; it is ed. Fraipont, J., CCSL 175 (Turnhout, 1965), 245–80, at 247.Google Scholar

³⁸ On the popularity of Orosius's Historia, see The Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, J., EETS ss 6 (London, 1980), lv–lvi.Google Scholar

³⁹ In Asia: India, Persia, Media, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Arabia, Cappadocia, Aegyptus, Syria and Palestina; in Europe: Macedonia; in Africa: Libya Cyrenaica. ‘Attica’ occurs in the first list, but ‘Graecia’ is not named until later (I.11). Other relevant names mentioned later in the Historiae include Pamphylia (III.23), Bithinia (IV.20) and Hierusalem (VII.2). Porus, king of India, is treated with Alexander (III.19). Crete, Corsica and Parthia all occur in the list – an interesting fact in view of potential emendations for lines 177b, 179b and 183b.

⁴⁰ See Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , pp. 9–12 and 18–20Google Scholar. In order of occurrence: [in Asia] India (p. 9.29), Persida (p. 10.3), Media (p. 10.3), Caldea (p. 10.11), Mesopotamia (p. 10.11), Arabia (p. 10.15), Egypte (p. 10.18), Palestina (p. 10.20), Syria (p. 10.21), Capodocia (p. 10.22); [in Europe] Creca land (p. 12.21) (and separated by the report of Ohthere and Wulfstan); Macedonie (p. 18.10); [in Africa] Libya Cirimacia (p. 19.33). Later in the Old English text are found: Pamphilia (p. 77.28), Bippinia (p. 118.7), Hierusalem (p. 125.24) and Poros (p. 72.13–23). The names suggested by emendation – Parthia, Crete and Corsica – all occur in the early list (pp. 10.3, 20.29 and 21.12).

⁴¹ Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. ex and Bately, J., ‘The Old English Orosius: the Question of Dictation’, Anglia 84 (1966), 255–304Google Scholar, at 294, where she suggests that the dictator of the OE Orosius ‘may well have been’ a Welshman.

⁴² Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , p. 118Google Scholar. 7. In Solomon and Saturn II, the writing of ‘Cofor’ for ‘Chebar’ and ‘Choreff[es]’ for the genitive of'Choreb’ shows a normal use off to represent intervocalic Latin ‘b’. See Pyles, T., ‘The Pronunciation of Latin Learned Loan Words and Foreign Words in Old English’, PMLA 58 (1943), 891–910, at 901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴³ ‘Creca cræftum’ appears, in the Old English Orosius, in an account of Hercules's campaign against the Amazons: ‘… hie gecuron Ercol pone ent bæt he sceolde mid eallum Creca cræftum beswican …’ (ed. Bately, p. 30.14–16).

⁴⁴ Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , p. 929Google Scholar. The expression is fairly common; for example, Mela, ‘ex illo oceano quern Indicum diximus’ (1.9); Avienus: ‘indicum ab eois mare feruere…’ (line 153); and Orosius, Historiae, ‘Indico oceano’ (1.2.15–16).

⁴⁵ Cf. Etym. IX.ii.20 and 58. Here ‘Philistim’ is a city, whereas ‘Philistiim’ refers to the people. Hence ‘Filistina flet’?

⁴⁶ Parthia is mentioned in connection with Media. Crete and Corsica are mentioned under the heading ‘De insulis’ in Etym. XIV.vi. 15–16 and 41.

⁴⁷ CCSL 119, v.

⁴⁸ In Bede, the relevant entry on Saul simply reads: ‘Gabaath in tribu Beniamin ubi erat domus Saul’ (CCSL 119, 280). This definition significantly reduces the information contained in Jerome's De situ (PL 23, 948).

⁴⁹ CCSL 119, 280.269–70: ‘Gelboe montes alienigenarum in sexto lapide a Scythopoli in quibus et uicus est grandis qui appellatur Gelbus’; p. 280.295–6: ‘Gadar urbs trans Iordanen contra Scythopolim et Tiberiadem ad orientalem plagam sita in monte …’

⁵⁰ CCSL, 119, 277. Bede is using Jerome's compilation (PL 23, 935). If Menner's emendation of MS ‘claudas Coreffes’ to ‘cludas Coreffes’ is correct, then the ‘rocks of Horeb’ echoes Jerome's explanation of the word as it occurs in Judges: ‘Sur Choreb, quod interpretatur, petra Choreb’ (PL 23,969). ‘Petra Choreb’ may well have been available to the Old English poet ina marginal gloss in one of his source manuscripts.

⁵¹ These are: ‘Caldea cyn’: Dan 42a; ‘Egypta cyn’: Exo 145a; ‘Isra(h)ela cyn(n)’: Az 147b, Dan 23a and 69a, Ex 198b and 265b, PPs 77.59 3a and 80.13 1b; ‘Faraones cyn’: Exo 14b; ‘swa he Fresena cyn’: Beo 1093b; ‘Isra(h)eles cyn(n)’: PPs 104.9 4b, 113.1 lb and 134.4 2b; ‘Iudea cyn(n)’: And 560a, El 209a. Given these instances, the unique order of ‘cynn Arabia’ in Solomon and Saturn II 186b is striking.

⁵² Menner scans the line as ‘a D-type with resolution of Arab-.Arabia had the chief stress on the first syllable, for the Latin stress is not followed in the anglicization of such names’ (The Poetical Dialogues, p. 120).

⁵³ See Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, p. 10.15 and note. Zangemeister's text of Orosius lists Arabia as part of a group including Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Chaldaea and ‘… nouissime Arabia Eudaemon, quae inter sinum Persicum et sinum Arabicum angusto terrae tractu orientem uersus extenditur. In his sum gentes xxviii’ (1.2):‘… last of all, Arabia Eudaemon, which stretches towards the east in a narrow tract of land between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Gulf. Isidore (Etym. XIV.iii.13) simply lists ‘novissime Arabia εὐδαíμων’.

⁵⁴ Solinus: ‘verum haec Arabia procedit ad usque illam odoriferam et divitem terram, quam Catabani et Scaenitae tenent Arabes’ (xxxiii.2: ‘indeed Arabia extends all the way to that fragrant and rich land, which the Catabanes and the Scenitae tribes of Arabs hold’). Pliny: ‘haec Cattabanum et Esbonitarum et Scenitarum Arabum vocatur …’ (V.xii.65: ‘This bears the name of the Cattabanes, Esbonitae and Scenitae tribes of Arabs…’ p. 269) and elsewhere, ‘multis gentibus eorum [i.e. Arabum] deductis illo a Tigrane Magno’ (VI.xxxii.142: ‘many of the Arabian races having been brought to that country by Tigranes the Great’ p. 445).

⁵⁵ Nomina regionum, ed. Laistner, p. 167. ‘Arabia: the region between the gulf of the Red Sea called “Persian” and that called “Arabian” has many peoples: Moabites, Ammonites, Idumaeans, Sararcens and many others …’

⁵⁶ In contrast to the combination ‘cynn Arabia’, the pattern gen. + rice(s) is very common. Half-lines with rice include: ‘heofnarice’: GenB 512b; ‘englarice’: El 1230b, Creed 11b; ‘rodera rice’: GuthA 682a and 792a, Pboen 664a; ‘eorban rice’: Wan 106b; ‘gumena rice’: Wid 133b, Met9.41b; ‘hælepa rice’: Beo 912b; ‘maga rice’: Beo 1853a; ‘Gotena rice’: Met 1.5A [gen. pi. by emendation from ‘Gotene’]. Half-lines with rices include: ‘he(o,a)f(e,o)na rices’: GenA 33b, Dan 441b, And 1683b, M.Sol 37b and 52a, Exhort 21a, KtHy 29b; ‘eorðan rices’: Dan 762b, ChristB 879b, Sea 81b, LPr III 11b, Instr 157b and 205b; ‘rod(e,o)ra rices’: Sat 346a and 687a; ‘Gotena rices’: Deor 23a; ‘Creca rices’: Met 26. 11a; ‘Indea rices’: M.Sol 4b. No instances of rice + gen. are recorded in Bessinger, J.B. and Smith, P.H., A Concordance to the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (Ithaca, NY and London, 1978).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Bosworth, J. and Toller, T.N., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898), p. 1277, senses I.I and 1.2.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ See Pliny, , Naturalis bistoria XIII. xivGoogle Scholar. 57 (‘materies’); Solinus, , Collectanea xxxii. 35Google Scholar (‘materia’); Augustine, , De civitate Dei XXI. 5 (‘lignum cuiusdam ficus Aegyptiae’)Google Scholar; Isidore, , Etymologiae XVII. viiGoogle Scholar. 17 (‘cuius lignum in aquam missum ilico mergitur …’).

⁵⁹ Kosmographie, ed. Wuttke, , p. 82Google Scholar: ‘In that place there are huge trees which are calledpicini, from which twice a year they cull the fleeces and make from them excellent clothes.’ Hillkowitz, K., Zur Kosmograpbie I, 41Google Scholar, traces some of the vocabulary of the passage to Isidore, Etymologiae XIV. iii. 27–30Google Scholar, but Aethicus's odd, pitched trees appear to be his own fantasy.

⁶⁰ Isidore, , Etymologiae XIV.vi.16Google Scholar. See also Mela, Pomponius, Chorographia II.112Google Scholar; Solinus, , Collectanea xi.4Google Scholar; Pliny, , Naturalis historia IV.xii.58Google Scholar; Bede, , Nomina regionum, CCSL 121, 169.77.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Kosmographie, ed. Wuttke, , VIGoogle Scholar. xci.‘… in the middle is Anthiopolis, a highly fortified city and a most famous and celebrated centre, where the value of its arrows and the many useful javelins [each] attest that its smiths and craftsmen are expert.’

⁶² Parthia, Crete and Corsica are also mentioned.

⁶³ ‘Liber generationis’, in Geographi Latini Minores, ed. Riese, , pp. 160–9, at 166Google Scholar; Fredegarii et aliorum chronica, ed. Krusch, B., MGH, SS rer. Merov. 2 (Hanover, 1888), 1–193, at 23.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ In the Solomonic dialogues other than those composed in England, Solomon's opponent is Marculf: ‘… there can hardly be any doubt that both Marculf and Marcolfus are equivalents and substitutes for Marc(b)olus (Morcholus), the deity identified with Saturn by Aethicus’, Poetical Dialogues, ed. Menner, , p. 119Google Scholar. See O'Keeffe, , Visible Song, pp. 68–9, on Menner's editorial decision to move lines 170–9 of Solomon and Saturn I to the end of Solomon and Saturn II.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Kosmographie, ed. Wuttke, p. 19. ‘They made a great pile in stone, cemented with bitumen, building colossal pillars of great size and drains assembled from below in marble, joining a stone fountain, and named it ‘Morcholon’, that is, ‘star of the gods’ by which derived name they invoke Saturn.’ Wuttke emends his text to read ‘fonte[m] glutinantes’ and, further on, ‘quo’, but gives no apparatus to indicate the manuscript readings. Kemble, Dialogue, p. 119, cites the late manuscript London, BL, Cotton Caligula A. iii as reading ‘pyrrham fortem et glutinatam’ and ‘quod derivato nomine Saturnum appellant’. Both Leiden Scaliger 69 and Cotton Vespasian B. x read quod as well. Wuttke's reading might be translated ‘by which derived name they invoke Saturn’. With quod the translation would awkwardly be ‘which, by a derived name, they call Saturn’. A full collation of the manuscripts would indicate the degree of instability of transmission at this point.

⁶⁶ Isidore's widely available Etymologiae identifies Saturn with an idol of the Babylonians: ‘Bel idolum Babylonium est, quod interpretatur vetus. Fuit enim hie Belus pater Nini, primus rex Assyriorum, quern quidam Saturnum appellant; quod nomen et apud Assyrios et apud Afros postea cultum est, unde et lingua Punica Bal deus dicitur. Apud Assyrios autem Bel vocatur quadam sacrorum suorum ratione et Saturnus et Sol’ (VIII.xi.23: ‘Bel, which translates as ‘old’, is an idol of the Babylonians. This Belus was indeed the father of Ninus, first king of the Assyrians, whom some call Saturnus; in this respect the name is reverenced among both the Assyrians and later the Africans, whence in the Punic language Bal is said to be a god’). He later indicates the connection of Babylon with Chaldea: ‘Babyloniae regionis caput Babylon urbs est, a qua et nuncupata, tam nobilis ut Chaldaea et Assyria et Mesopotamia in eius nomen aliquando transierint’ (XIV.iii.14: ‘The capital of the region of Babylon is the city Babylon, from which it is named; it is so celebrated that Chaldaea, Assyria and Mesopotamia in their time left it untouched in its name’).

⁶⁷ See An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany (British Library Cotton Tiberius B. V part I), ed. McGurk, P., Dumville, D.N., Godden, M.R. and Knock, A., EEMF 21 (Copenhagen, 1983), 83. McGurk tentatively assigns the miscellany to Christ Church, Canterbury (p. 109).Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Campbell, A., Old English Grammar (Oxford, 1959), § 519.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Three Old English Prose Texts in MS. Cotton Vitellius A. xv, ed. Rypins, S., EETS os 161 (London, 1924), 5–6.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Orosius, ed. Zangemeister, , III.xix.3–4Google Scholar; Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , p. 72.13–23.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Kosmograpbie, ed. Wuttke, , Vl.cvi (p. 79)Google Scholar: ‘We learned about the extraordinarily fortunate regions of India, that in those parts Eden was located, the sacred grove of the god of heaven and garden inaccessible to any fleshly creature. We bid farewell to the gods and goddesses of India and to the royal court of king? Ferzes, who treated us well, who showed us his palace and its upper chambers of gold and gems.’

⁷² Hillkowitz, , Zur Kosmograpbie des Aethicus I, 65 and II, 35–6.Google Scholar

⁷³ Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , p. 72.13–23.Google Scholar: ‘Porose Þæm strengstan Indea cyninge.’

⁷⁴ Kosmograpbie, ed. Wuttke, , VI. lxxix (pp. 59–60)Google Scholar: ‘who at that time in the whole of Greece stood out most eminent among the rest [of the philosophers]. For this reason, the aforementioned philosopher Aethicus, having heard of his fame, went there and took up residence for five years, and they debated in many enigmata very often and also by testing each other repeatedly, but in all disputed points and propositions Aethicus was victorious. And he refuted everyone by fighting it out in many most precise figures; they could not interpret so many most difficult questions, either being unable or unwilling. But he rebuked the ignorant.’

⁷⁵ Kosmograpbie, ed. Wuttke, , VI.cv (p. 79)Google Scholar: ‘Submotus ab his eminentissimis montibus, aureis iugis noctem cum facibus adfui propter metum draconum et strucionum. Grifas et serpentes inibi iugiter invigilant. Formicas more canum rapacissimas centauriasque lacertas venenatas Katberine O'Brien O'Keeffe valde reliqui cum sociis meis viris Achademicis et inquiens retuli: O inaccessibiles thesauros maximos, tarn avaros et crudeles habentes custodes!’ (‘Having left these loftiest of mountains, I arrived at the golden mountains during the night with torches for fear of dragons and ostriches. Griffins and serpents are on guard there continually. I, along with my philosopher companions, left behind ants ravenous in the manner of dogs, centaurs and exceedingly venomous lizards, and I made a report, saying, “O most abundant and inaccessible treasure-troves, having such cruel and avaricious guardians’”.)

⁷⁶ Solomon and Saturn II, 218b–19a.

⁷⁷ In Primam Partem Samuhelis libri IV, ed. Hurst, D., CCSL 119 (Turnhout, 1962), v.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Poetical Dialogues, ed. Menner, , p. 26.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ The Interdisciplinary Group for Historical Literary Study (Texas A&M University) provided me with research time during which I was able to complete this article. I am very grateful to Professor Michael Lapidge both for his helpful criticism of the argument and his many useful suggestions for its improvement.