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The Scholia to Lucan in Beinecke MS 673
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
When Heloise took up the veil, she broke out through her tears into the lament of Cornelia from Lucan's Bellum civile (8.94–98). The story illustrates the extent to which the Bellum civile appealed to the imagination of its medieval readers. Indeed, evidence for the popularity of Lucan in the Middle Ages is abundant. Manuscripts of the work are listed in medieval library catalogues. Lucan was a standard author in the school curriculum from the tenth century. Quotations from Lucan are found not only in the works of Abelard and other writers, but in compilations of history, geography, and even natural science: the poet was regarded as a source for a wide range of knowledge.
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References
1 On Lucan in medieval library catalogues, see the index to Becker, G., Catalogi bibliothecarum antiqui (Bonn 1885) 316. It is especially notable that Bobbio had four manuscripts of Lucan, Peter, St. in Salzburg three, Durham and Corbie four each. On Lucan in the school curriculum cf. Glauche, G., Schullektüre im Mittelalter: Entstehung und Wandlungen des Lektürekanons bis 1200 nach den Quellen dargestellt (Munich 1970) passim. Quotations from Lucan are collected by Manitius, M., ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte römischer Dichter im Mittelalter: Lucanus,’ Philologus 51 (1892) 704–19; cf. also von Moos, P., ‘Lucan und Abaelard,’ Mélanges Boutemy, A. (1976) 413–43 and Sanford, E. M., ‘Quotations from Lucan in Mediaeval Latin Authors,’ American Journal of Philology 55 (1934) 1–19.Google Scholar
2 On the manuscripts and transmission of the text of Lucan cf. Munk Olsen, B., L'Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XI e et XII e siècles (Paris 1985), and Tarrant, R. J., ‘Lucan,’ Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics (ed. Reynolds, L. D.; Oxford 1983) 215–18.Google Scholar
3 For a survey of the medieval commentaries on Lucan cf. Arnulfi Aurelianensis Glosule super Lucanum (ed. Marti, B. M.; Rome 1958) xxx–xxxi.Google Scholar
4 M. Annaei Lucani Commenta Bernensia (ed. H. Usener; Leipzig 1869; repr. Hildesheim 1967); Adnotationes super Lucanum (ed. J. Endt; Leipzig 1909; repr. Stuttgart 1969).Google Scholar
5 Marti, , as above, MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, lat. fol. 34 preserves the commentary on Lucan which Manitius (Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters [Münich 1931/1973] 238) attributes to Anselm.Google Scholar
6 Cf. especially Cavajoni, G. A., Supplementum adnotationum super Lucanum, 1:1–5, 2:6–7 (Milan 1979/1984). Cf. also, by the same author, ‘Scholia inediti a Lucano del Codex Bernensis Litt. 45 saec. x,’ ACME 28 (1979) 79–114; Endt, J., ‘Ein Kommentar zu Lucan aus dem Mittelalter,’ Wiener Studien 32 (1909) 122–55, 272–95; Genthe, H., Scholia vetera in Lucanum (Berlin 1868); Manitius, M., ‘Scholien zu Lucan aus einer Dresdener Handschrift,’ Philologus 61 (1902) 317–20; Wilson, W. J., ‘Manuscript Fragment of a Mediaeval Commentary on Lucan,’ Speculum 8 (1933) 327–34. The hope is that the publication of the Beinecke scholia will lead to the discovery of relationships with other as-yet-unpublished scholia. Google Scholar
7 Cf., for example, the gloss at 1.413 with the Commenta; 2.164 with the Adnotationes; 2.554 with the Supplementum Adnotationum and Commenta. Google Scholar
8 At 2.173–74, the scholiast identifies a certain Marius as the nephew of the famous general; then, by imposing an unhistorical parallelism, he makes Catulus (consul in 78 B.C.) the nephew of Sulla. The versions in the Commenta and Adnotationes are closer to the truth. Again, at 3.160 the scholiast writes that Fabricius resisted a bribe from Attalus. The king who offered the bribe was Pyrrhus, not Attalus: it looks as if a gloss on Asiae tributum (by which Lucan means the bequest of Attalus) in 3.162 has mistakenly found its way into the note about Fabricius.Google Scholar
9 Servius Danielis on Aen. 3.334; Mythogr. 1.41, 2.208 in Scriptores rerum mythicarum (ed. Bode, G. H.; Celle 1834; repr. Hildesheim 1968).Google Scholar
10 Perdet Croesus Halyn transgressus maxima regna, Chalcidius Comm. 169. Arnulf and the Beinecke MS read Croesus perdet. Google Scholar
11 2.18 (on laws concerning the attire of nobles); 2.252 (on laws against theft being inoperative in wartime); 3.302 (on the official compact when the consuls declared war).Google Scholar
12 The fifteenth-century scholiasts in the Beinecke MS frequently point out figures with such glosses as comparatio, arguit a minori, apostrophat, exclamat, yronice dicit, and so on. Similar concerns are apparent in the medieval commentaries and in the other collections of scholia. Google Scholar
13 For Greek etymologies see 1.12; 3.189; 9.711; 9.725. The corrupt gloss on Symplegas (2.718) is also probably an etymology.Google Scholar
14 The note on 10.187 treats Caesar and the Greek astronomer Eudoxus as writers on heavenly phenomena (an inference drawn from the poem, where Caesar boasts that his calendar is better than that of Eudoxus). Lucan's mention of Plato six lines earlier prompted nothing more than the explanatory gloss that Plato inquired into the religion of Egypt.Google Scholar
15 2.571, Oceanumque uocans incerti stagna profundi, evidently baffled the scholiast. He mentions a St. Michael, who seems to have made a statement about that which is elemental being Ocean.Google Scholar
16 The script conforms closely to the characteristics of the period 1050–1110 described by Petrucci, A., ‘Censimento dei codici dei secoli XI–XII: Istruzioni per la datazione,’ Studi medievali 3 Ser. 9 (1968) 1115–26. The manuscript is listed by Munk Olsen, B., L'Étude des auteurs classiques latins as no. 107. Cf. the facsimile of fols. 91v–92r in Kraus, H. P., Catalogue 165 (Cimelia: A Catalogue of Important Illuminated and Textual Manuscripts Published in Commemoration of the Sale of the Ludwig Collection) (New York 1983) no. 34.Google Scholar
17 Thorpe, Thomas, Catalogue pt. 2 (1836) no. 800.Google Scholar
18 A map ornamented with decorative abstractions in red and yellow rather than with realistic geographical features illustrates the fauces, lingua, and cornua of the harbor of Brundisium (2.613–21) on the verso of fol. 21. On fol. 87v, a circular T-map (now erased) showed the continents and the winds belonging to each, to accompany the long description of the world beginning at 9.411.Google Scholar
19 The epitaph reads:Google Scholar
corduba me genuit; rapuit nero; prelia dixi
que gessere pares hinc socer inde gener.
continuo numquam direxi carmina ductu,
que tractim serpant: plus mihi coma placet.
20 The word genera is barely visible in one of the first lines, making it possible that this first note constituted a typical explanation of the three or four kinds of war. For some comments on prefatory material in the MSS of Lucan, see Sanford, E. M., The Manuscripts of Lucan: Accessus and Marginalia,’ Speculum 9 (1934) 290.Google Scholar
21 I would like to thank Babcock, R. G. for his advice at every stage of this project, and Goold, G. P. and Johnson, W. A. for several textual suggestions.Google Scholar