1 On Gerson's personality, cf. Delaruelle, Etienne, Labande, Edmond-René, and Ourliac, Paul, L'Eglise au temps du Grand Schisme et de la crise conciliaire , Histoire de l'Eglise depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours 14, 2 (Paris, 1964), 837–69; Matteo Roccati, G., “Gersoniana,” Wolfenbütteler Renaissance–Mitteilungen 9 (1985): 40–46; idem, “Aspetti umanistici dell'opera poetica latina di Jean Gerson,” Protrepticon, ed. Prete, Sesto (Milan, 1989), 117–24; De Libera, Alain, La philosophic médiévale (Paris, 1993), 477–78; Hobbins, Daniel, “The Schoolman as Public Intellectual: Jean Gerson and the Late Medieval Tract,” American Historical Review 108 (2003): 1308–37. I am very grateful to Kathleen Daly for the time she spent revising my English text.Google Scholar

2 Only the Josephina — the most important poetical work, a Vergilian poem on the Holy Family (2936 hexameters) — is available in a modern critical edition: Gerson, Jean, Josephina , ed. Roccati, G. M. (Paris, 2001). For the other poems, the most recent edition is in Gerson, J., L'œuvre poétique, vol. 4 of Œuvres complètes , ed. Glorieux, Palémon (Paris, 1960–73), but the edition of the Opera omnia by Ellies Du Pin (Antwerp, 1706), is still useful. A new critical edition of the Latin poems can be found in Roccati, G. M., “Jean Gerson: Œuvre poétique latine“ (Thesis, Paris, Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1980). Some short poems have been published in different articles: Gilbert Ouy, “Gerson, émule de Pétrarque: Le ‘Pastorium Carmen,’ poème de jeunesse de Gerson, et la renaissance de l'églogue en France à la fin du XIV^e siècle,” Romania 88 (1967): 175–231, at 224–31; idem, “Le thème du ‘Taedium scriptorum gentilium’ chez les humanistes, particulièrement en France au début du XV^e siècle,” Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Études Françaises 23 (1971): 9–26, at 25–26; Roccati, G. M., “Note a proposito delle poesie latine di Jean Gerson,” Studi Francesi 22 (1978): 341–49, at 343–46; idem, “En marge de l'édition critique de l'œuvre poétique de Gerson: le manuscrit Paris, B.N. lat. 3624,” Pluteus 6–7 (1988–89, printed 1994): 79–95, at 93–95.Google Scholar

3 In Glorieux's edition, this poem has been arbitrarily divided into three independent texts: vv. 1–24, n° 183 (Quisquis Amas); vv. 25–46, n° 124 (Desipit An); vv. 47–100, n° 174 (Prebe Fidem).Google Scholar

4 Cf. Roccati, G. M., “Gerson e il problema dell'espressione poetica: note su alcuni temi e immagini ricorrenti nelle poesie latine,” Studi Francesi 26 (1982): 278–85, at 279 and 285; idem, “Jean Gerson lettore di Albertino Mussato? La testimonianza dei testi poetici,” Franco-Italica 18–19 (2001): 175–205.Google Scholar

5 On this personage, see Lieberman, Max, “Chronologie gersonienne: VI,” Romania 79 (1958): 339–75 (362–75); idem, “Chronologie gersonienne: VII,” Romania 80 (1959): 289–336 (335–36); Ouy, G., “Enquête sur les manuscrits autographes du Chancelier Gerson et sur les copies faites par son frère le célestin Jean Gerson,” Scriptorium 16 (1962): 275–301; idem, “La ‘Deploratio super civitatem aut regionem que gladium evaginavit super se,”’ Miscellanea André Combes 2 (Rome, 1967): 351–87 (also printed in Divinitas 11 [1967]: 747–84), at 353–54; idem, “Gerson et la guerre civile a Paris: La ‘Deploratio super civitatem,”’ Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 71 (2004): 255–86; idem, “Manuscrits jumeaux et copies en facsimile: Deux couples de manuscrits gersoniens,” Codices manuscripti 11 (1985): 124–35; idem, “Le célestin Jean Gerson copiste et éditeur de son frère,” La collaboration dans la production de l'écrit medieval: actes du XIII ^e colloque du Comité international de paléographie latine (Weingarten, 22–25 septembre 2000), ed. Spilling, Herrad (Paris, 2003), 281–308; Roccati, G. M., “Recherches sur les poèmes contenus dans les ‘Tractatus de canticis’ de Gerson,” Le Moyen Français 8–9 (1983): 149–82.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 151–52.Google Scholar

7 L'œuvre doctrinale, vol. 9 of (Euvres complètes , ed. Glorieux, , n° 485–86.Google Scholar

8 Cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 160–63.Google Scholar

9 L'œuvre doctrinale , ed. Glorieux, , 9, n° 460.Google Scholar

10 Cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 151–57.Google Scholar

11 MSS BNF, lat. 3624 and 3638: cf. Roccati, G. M., “A propos de la tradition manuscrite de l'œeuvre poétique latine de Gerson: les manuscrits Paris, B.N. lat. 3624 et 3638,” Revue d'histoire des textes 10 (1980): 277–304.Google Scholar

12 Cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 154–56.Google Scholar

13 A centilogium, according to a terminology used for other texts, e.g., the Centilogium de meditatione cruris (L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 134; here for one hundred distichs).Google Scholar

14 See below, n. 43.Google Scholar

15 On the Song of Songs in the Middle Ages, see the works of Ann W. Astell, The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages (Ithaca and London, 1990), and Matter, Edith Ann, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia, 1990), particularly on The Marriage of the Soul, 123–50. Gerson composed a Tractatus super Cantica Canticorum (L'œuvre spirituelle et pastorale, vol. 8 of Œuvres complètes, ed. Glorieux, n° 422, 565–639).Google Scholar

16 This translation is the result of a close collaboration with Kathleen Daly. My sincere thanks to the editors of Traditio for their critical reading.Google Scholar

17 Quisquis amas: “you, whoever like.” Gerson remembers here, for his beginning, Ovid and perhaps Petrarch (see below the apparatus of literary allusions).Google Scholar

18 Prosa has undoubtedly here the medieval meaning of poetry and not the classical meaning of prose: Gerson's terminology is very often medieval (see below, n. 66), and, furthermore, we find this word in some of his titles: Prosa sub cantu “Lauda Sion Salvatorem” (L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 148), Prosa in circumcisione Domini (ibid., n° 112).Google Scholar

19 The theme of the spontaneity of inspiration is to be connected to the theme of furor (see below, n. 46).Google Scholar

20 Lepos: charm, attractiveness, profane beauty.Google Scholar

21 In the sense here of poetry in general.Google Scholar

22 First intervention of the accuser: a traditional reference to Ovid, the example of pagan lascivious poetry; see also n. 35 below.Google Scholar

23 Topos of the pulchra captiva: see de Lubac, Henri, Exègèse médiévale 1 (Paris, 1959), 290–304. Among the authors whose culture resembled that of Gerson, we find the topos particularly in Boccaccio, Geneal., 14.18: “et potissime ex figura mulieris captive, raso capite, deposita veste, resectis unguibus et pilis ablatis, Israelite matrimonio copulanda” (ed. Romano, Vincenzo [Bari, 1951], 736, lines 15–17). See also Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema” (n. 4 above): 281.Google Scholar

24 See Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 281. The topic of benefits brought by versified expression is traditional; see, for example, Marbode, , Liber decern capitulorum, vv. 39–40 (di Rennes, Marbodo, De ornamentis verborum: Liber decern capitulorum , ed. Leotta, Rosario [Florence, 1998], 30; PL 171:1693).Google Scholar

25 The reference is here to Prov. 31:10–31: Encomium mulieris fortis. Gerson follows the traditional opinion, according to Isidore of Seville, who refers to these names and writes that biblical authors had already composed many different sorts of verses (Etym., 1.39; see also Curtius, Ernst Robert, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages [New York, 1953], 451–52). Petrarch, too (Le Familiari, 10.4.48–52 [ed. Vittorio Rossi, 2 (Florence, 1934), 302]), refers to these names, but he also cites other authors, the Fathers, and Christian poets. Perhaps Gerson takes his inspiration here from Albertino Mussato; see Roccati, “Jean Gerson lettore” (n. 4 above) 183–91.Google Scholar

26 Brevius: on “Brevity as an Ideal of Style,” see Curtius, , European Literature , 487–94.Google Scholar

27 The opposition of prose and poetry is traditional, too, but it is frequently used to prove the superiority of prose, more natural than verse.Google Scholar

28 On the topos of puer senex, see Curtius, , European Literature , 98–101; at 100 on the reverse formulation (senex puer) that appears here. Gerson used the same themes and the dialogue form in the Carmina super Magnificat (L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 153), vv. 21–80, and he likes to remind us of this topos; see, in the Super Cantica canticorum, the following phrase: “Gratus insuper accipiat pro succincto quasi prohemio in auxilio memoriae decadem versuum elegiacorum in qualibus nunc oblectat se otiosa senectus mea, studii memor puerilis” (L'œuvre spirituelle et pastorale, ed. Glorieux, 8, n° 422, 577). The link between youthful studies and classical culture — in fact the term poetry includes this aspect — in opposition to the religious concerns of old age, is traditional. See Ouy, , “Le thème du ‘Taedium scriptorum gentilium”’ (n. 2 above), and Roccati, , “Jean Gerson lettore,” 180–81.Google Scholar

29 Literally: “a former life wishes to return.” Gerson himself gives a paraphrase of this passage in the De canticordo (Tractatus de canticis [L'œeuvre doctrinale, ed. Glorieux, 9, 578]).Google Scholar

30 See below, n. 46.Google Scholar

31 The elegy as a lamentation is a theme frequent in the Middle Ages, dependent on a false etymology of the word; see Mengaldo, Pier Vincenzo, “L'elegia umile (‘De vulgari eloquentia,’ 2.4.5–6),” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 143 (1966): 177–98, at 187–91.Google Scholar

32 Vel: “so as.” Google Scholar

33 Allusion to the topos of noxia carmina, inspired by pagan muses — the scenicae meretriculae of Boethius (Consolatio philosophiae 1, Prosa 1.28) — which Gerson puts in opposition to carmina pia, inspired by love of God (see Esto Peregrinis [L'œoeuvre poétique, ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 131], v. 4: “Carmina divinus … modulatur amor”); see Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema” (n. 4 above) 280–81, 283, and the prologue of the Josephina (my edition [n. 2 above] and L'œeuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 138), vv. 8–12; cf. Roccati, G. M., “Humanisme et préoccupations religieuses au début du XV^e siècle: le prologue de la ‘Josephina’ de Jean Gerson,” Préludes à la Renaissance , ed. Bozzolo, Carla and Ornato, Ezio (Paris, 1992), 107–22, at 114–16. See also Roccati, , “Jean Gerson lettore,” 188–89.Google Scholar

34 Literally: “who would find fault with pious subjects reduced to meter?” Google Scholar

35 On the opposition prodesse/delectare, see Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 281; Di Stefano, Giuseppe, “Il Trecento,” Il Boccaccio nella cultura francese , ed. Pellegrini, Carlo, Atti del Convegno di studi L'opera del Boccaccio nella cultura francese, Certaldo, 2–6 settembre 1968 (Florence, 1971), 1–47, at 16–21.Google Scholar

36 Ornatus: the technical term that indicates the qualities of rhetorical style; see Curtius, , European Literature (n. 25 above), 71.Google Scholar

37 Gerson's concept of otium is a positive one and it often implies literary activity; explicitly subordinate to prayer and the active life, it is nevertheless clearly recommended: “Redde prius Domino quod debes, deinde vacabis / Scripto vel studio, seu meditare silens” ( Carmen de laude canendi [L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 188, vv. 23–24]). On the theme of otium in this period see Cecchetti, Dario, chap. 3: Clamanges lettore di Petrarca: “vita solitaria” et “otium,” Petrarca Pietramala e Clamanges (Paris, 1982). To write in order to occupy idleness is a traditional theme; see, for example, de Bourgueil, Baudri, Carmina , ed. Hilbert, Karlheinz (Heidelberg, 1979), 1.56–62.Google Scholar

38 Literally: “during them (the otia), wisdom (sapientia) is to be given to writings.” Google Scholar

39 Probably Matt. 12:36–37.Google Scholar

40 Literally: “That God, praise to you, gave us.” Google Scholar

41 The Psalterium decachordum, including different schemes and figures; see Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes” (n. 5 above), 178–79, and the manuscripts quoted (these works have been edited, in part and incorrectly, in L'œuvre doctrinale , ed. Glorieux, , 9, 704–18).Google Scholar

42 Literally: “our mind.” Google Scholar

43 Gerson refers to the works he offered to the king; on the autobiographical value of this passage see Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 160–63.Google Scholar

44 Literally: “nothing.” Google Scholar

45 All manuscripts, except V and S (see below, n. 82), have the adjective mistica; V and S have musica. This variant may be correct: musicus may be an adjective and perhaps Gerson was uncertain in his composition. Nevertheless, as in v. 54, we follow the testimony of the other copies, more reliable when all agree against V and S .Google Scholar

46 The term fervor could perhaps refer to the theme of furor, very frequent in the humanistic defenses of poetry (see Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema” [n. 4 above], 283, particularly the bibliography quoted in n. 38). Gerson reconsiders the terms of the “debat” in order to eliminate any ambiguity: furor could convey an unorthodox interpretation; in place of it, he prefers fervor .Google Scholar

47 Literally: “entire, whole, he loves through love.” Google Scholar

48 Literally: “is coming.” Google Scholar

49 Canore: harmonious, melodious sound or song.Google Scholar

50 Caveat … quid … redire: the construction is perhaps difficult, but it seems to me preferable to an interrogative one: “Sed caveat puer hic quid? … redire.” Google Scholar

51 Ebrietas is a technical term to designate mystic rapture; see Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 283, particularly the text quoted n. 40 (Vernum Tempus [L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 204]).Google Scholar

52 Literally: “in him rapture be temperate.” Google Scholar

53 Literally: “let him be.” Google Scholar

54 From v. 70 to v. 96 Gerson gives a paraphrase, where we find a bucolic style, and at the same time an allegorical reading of the Song of Songs; the biblical text is followed, the words are repeated and explained. The Song is seen as an example of elegia spiritualis that Gerson wants to compose, as he says at the end of his explanation and in the conclusion of the poem (vv. 95–100).Google Scholar

55 Spes patrie: the hope of fatherland.Google Scholar

56 Literally: “she throws herself in the arms.” Google Scholar

57 Querendi studium: “zeal, ardor for searching, seeking.” Google Scholar

58 Literally: “she melts at [her] husband's voice.” Google Scholar

59 See above, n. 37. Here, and not only in these verses, Gerson is using a passage of Ovid that furnishes him with several words and expressions. In Remedia amoris, vv. 579–82, Ovid exhorts the lover to flee from solitary places in order to alleviate the pains of love: “Quisquis amas, loca sola nocent: loca sola caveto! / Quo fugis? in populo tutior esse potes. / Non tibi secretis (augent secreta furores) / Est opus; auxilio turba futura tibist.” The expression that opens the poem is taken from this passage, and the idea of flight (v. 77) is common to this text and to the Song of Songs. But it is noteworthy that here Gerson is using Ovid's words to contradict Ovid's ideas — he exhorts the lover to cultivate God's love far away from the noise of people. We can find an analogous play on words and ideas in the prologue of the Josephina; cf. Roccati, , “Humanisme et préoccupations religieuses” (n. 33 above), 113–15.Google Scholar

60 A labiis … malis: from evil lips.Google Scholar

61 Cf. Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 279 and 285. Nevertheless, Gerson does not borrow precise passages from Boccaccio's text; especially from chapter fourteen of the Genologie, he refers to traditional topoi. See also Roccati, , “Jean Gerson lettore” (n. 4 above).Google Scholar

62 Cf. Di Stefano, , Il Trecento (n. 35 above), 18–19; Jung, Marc-René, “Poetria: Zur Dichtungstheorie des ausgehenden Mittelalters in Frankreich,” Vox Romanica 30 (1971): 44–64; Roccati, G. M., “Mito classico e storia antica nella cultura del Trecento francese,” L'analisi linguistica e letteraria 6 (1998): 7–29.Google Scholar

63 Cf. Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 281.Google Scholar

64 Cf. ibid. and n. 35 above.Google Scholar

65 Cf. ibid., 282 and n. 25 above.Google Scholar

66 The adjective misticus or spiritualis, frequently used, removes any possible ambiguity; see Roccati, , “Gerson e il problema,” 283. For this reason, Gerson prefers terms and concepts belonging to the Christian tradition, for example the terms designating the poems themselves (see ibid., n. 27), some important concepts such as fervor/furor (see n. 46 above), or poetical inspiration interpreted as mystic ebrietas (see n. 51 above).Google Scholar

67 Cf. ibid., 281 and n. 23 above.Google Scholar

68 As codified particularly in the De doctrina Christiana; see Marrou, Henri Irénée, Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris, 1958), 402–3 and passim.Google Scholar

69 Cf. Simone, Franco, “La ‘reductio artium ad Sacram Scripturam’ quale espressione dell'umanesimo medievale fino al secolo XII,” Convivium 6 (1949): 887–927.Google Scholar

70 The traditional position of the Church on this problem is concisely, but effectively, explained by Meersseman, Gilles-Gérard, “‘In libris gentilium non studeant’: L'étude des classiques interdite aux clercs du moyen âge?” Italia medioevale e umanistica 1 (1958): 1–13.Google Scholar

71 Cf. below, the edition of the text.Google Scholar

72 Prebe (-ˇ), v. 47; petit (ˇ-), v. 79; liquefit (ˇ-), v. 91.Google Scholar

73 On this problem, cf. Gerson, , Œuvre poétique latine (n. 2 above), XLVIII-XLIX; idem, Josephina (n. 2 above), 67–73; Roccati, G. M., “Problemi prosodici e metrici nel primo Umanesimo francese: un'esperienza di scansione automatizzata,” Res Publica Litterarum 13 (1990): 229–38; idem, “La métrique de la Josephina de Jean Gerson (1418): premiers résultats obtenus par l'application d'un programme de scansion automatisée,” Le Moyen Français 29 (1991): 99–113. In our poem particular scansions appear perhaps in elegia (- -ˇ), v. 3, 97; Ieremias (ˇ- -), David (ˇ), Moyses (ˇ - or ˇ), v. 12; poesis (ˇ-), v. 37; Ihesus (ˇ -), v. 46; Ariona (ˇ-ˇ), v. 47.Google Scholar

74 On Jean the Celestine, see n. 5 above.Google Scholar

75 Cf. Roccati, , “A propos de la tradition” (n. 11 above), 290–97.Google Scholar

76 Cf. ibid., 302–3.Google Scholar

77 In a similar way, a copy of the Pastorium Carmen had been communicated and copied in MS BNF, lat. 3638, cf. Ouy, , “Gerson, émule de Pétrarque” (n. 2 above); idem, “Charles d'Orléans and his Brother Jean d'Angoulême in England: What Their Manuscripts Have to Tell,” Charles d'Orléans in England, 1415–1440 , ed. Am, Mary-Jo (Woodbridge, 2000), 47–60, at 54–57.Google Scholar

78 MS 3638 (unknown to Glorieux). It is certain that the second part is not considered to be an independent text. In the other cases, when there is no title, the separation between the poems is marked by explicit or amen at the end of the preceding text and by at least two blank lines.Google Scholar

79 MS BNF, lat. 3624 (Q in Glorieux). There is no rubric, but space has been left for an initial at the beginning of the second part. Nevertheless, this does not imply that this is the start of a new text. Normally the space reserved for this initial is larger and the incipit is written in a different form; cf. Roccati, , “En marge de l'édition” (n. 2 above).Google Scholar

80 Cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes” 154, n. 30.Google Scholar

81 MS BNF, lat. 14905 (D), cf. ibid., 155; see also Calvot, Daniele and Ouy, G., L'œeuvre de Gerson à Saint-Victor de Paris: Catalogue des manuscrits (Paris, 1990), 102–17; Ouy, G., Les manuscrits de l'Abbaye de Saint-Victor: Catalogue établi sur la base du répertoire de Claude de Grandrue (1514) (Turnhout, 1999), 1, 44–45; 2, 329–31.Google Scholar

82 MSS BNF, lat. 17487 (S) and Tours, B.M. 379 (V), cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes” (n. 5 above), 155; see also Ouy, , “Manuscrits jumeaux” (n. 5 above), 5–8.Google Scholar

83 But they are never treated as independent poems. In addition to the separation between v. 24 and v. 25, appearing in all manuscripts, the Tractatus copies have a blank line between v. 46 and v. 47. This division has probably been introduced because the first two verses (vv. 47–48) appear identical in the poem De laude musice ( L'œuvre poétique , ed. Glorieux, , 4, n° 160; vv. 65–66), inserted in the Tractatus de canticis, too. Moreover as the first eight verses were originally the dedicatory epistle of the Scacordum, they constitute a special entity. Only in the Saint Victor manuscript has a rubric (De eodem) been added on the blank line, but it has been written after the copy was made, with a second, clearer, ink. In the model, the verses were considered part of the same text. In the model for the S and V copies, the text was considered a single poem. Some details of the S copy, which could suggest a real separation between different poems and not strophes, are in fact innovations of this manuscript. The red verse initials of the three parts are on two lines as they were three independent texts. The copyist of these leaves in manuscripts S and V (the same copyist, maybe Thomas Gerson), has innovated: in V, the first copy made (cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 155), the three parts are not considered as independent texts, the red verse initial being on one line only.Google Scholar

84 The special status of initials is marked in the manuscripts in different ways (rubrics, paragraph signs, or just spaces for initials — the models were probably not perfectly homogeneous), but all give a special status to the initials of vv. 47, 57, 63 (D excepted), and 97. In MS Q, some marks (.) have been written in the margin of vv. 40, 60, 65, 71, but their interpretation is not clear. Initials of vv. 31, 35, 39, 45, 55, and 61 have similarly received a new status in the poem De laude musice — also inserted in the Tractatus de canticis .Google Scholar

85 The interlocutor's interventions in the dialogue are marked by some rubrics (questio and responsio), and by the special character of the initial (vv. 25, 27, 29, 31, 33). In the dialogue in MS Q, two punctuation marks (/) at the end of v. 30 and v. 32 indicate the end of two interventions.Google Scholar

86 See v. 40, 49, 95, 100; some analogous notes appear in the other poems. On the circumstances of this work, cf. Roccati, , “Recherches sur les poèmes,” 156.Google Scholar

87 On Gerson's editions, see Roccati, G. M., “Geiler von Kaysersberg et la tradition imprimée des œuvres de Gerson,” Revue française d'histoire du livre n. s. 47 (1985): 271–93. Glorieux's edition does not contribute any useful element to the constitution of the text; for this reason, the edition that follows has been established using only the manuscripts and the first (by Geiler von Kaysersberg, 1488) and the last (by E. Du Pin, 1706) of the earlier editions of the text. The printing of i (j) and u/v has been standardized.Google Scholar

88 Cf. Roccati, , “En marge de l'édition” (n. 2 above), 87.Google Scholar