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Astrology and Pagan Gods in Carolingian ‘Vitae’ of St. Lambert

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Robert G. Babcock*
Affiliation:
Mississippi State University

Extract

A passing reference to pagan gods in the preface to the Merovingian Vita Landiberti inspired a number of poetic elaborations in the reworkings of the Life of St. Lambert during the late Carolingian period. These include the opening chapters of the Carmen de Sancto Landberto, which deal exclusively with pagan myths; the Versus in Laude Beati Landberti; and passages in the Vita Landberti of Stephen, Bishop of Liege (901–920). This paper is concerned primarily with the first two of these reworkings, which contain the more elaborate treatments of pagan mythology. The inspiration for the inclusion of these passages, as well as the sources for their information about the pagan gods, form a curious chapter in the survival and transformation of the pagan gods in medieval Latin literature.

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Articles
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Copyright © The Fordham University Press 

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References

1 The Merovingian Life is edited by Krusch, B., MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum VI 353–84.Google Scholar

2 Carmen de Sancto Landberto , ed. von Winterfeld, P., MGH Poetae IV 141–57; Versus in Laude Beati Landberti, ibid., 157–59. Partial editions of Stephen's Vita Landberti are found: ibid., 232–33; and in Krusch (above, n. 1) 385–92. The complete text is in PL 122.643–60; there is no critical edition of the complete text.Google Scholar

3 Our discussion of the sources alluded to in these two poems supplements the extensive work done by von Winterfeld in his editions. Only rarely are sources mentioned here which he identified already.Google Scholar

4 Krusch 353. On the various versions of the life of Lambert cf. Kupper, J.-L., ‘Saint Lambert: De l'Histoire à la légende,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 79 (1984) 549.Google Scholar

5 The preface to the Vita Landiberti is based on the Vita Eligii (ed. Krusch, B.; MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum IV 663–65). The use of Sedulius in the Vita Eligii was noted by the editor; however, he overlooked the borrowings from Juvencus in this same passage (cf. Vita Eligii 663.35: ‘discurrat gloria quae veterum nectunt mendacia’ and Juvencus, Pref. 11 and 16). Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–1931) I 704–705, names Sedulius as the source for verses 35ff. in the Carmen de Sancto Landberto; von Winterfeld (above, n. 2) 144 correctly cites the older Vita Landiberti, which is the immediate source.Google Scholar

6 On the passages in Sedulius and Juvencus, cf. Curtius, E., Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (5th ed.; Bern 1965) 453–57; Gompf, L., ‘Figmenta Poetarum,’ in: Literatur und Sprache im europäischen Mittelalter: Festschrift für Karl Langosch zum 70. Geburtstag (Darmstadt 1973) 53–62.Google Scholar

7 The question of authorship has been frequently discussed. See Demarteau, J., ‘Saint Lambert. Vie en vers par Hucbald de Saint-Amand et documents du xe siècle,’ Bulletin de l'Institut archéologique liégeois 13 (1877) 383519; von Winterfeld (above, n. 2) 141–42; Krusch (above, n. 1) 329; Manitius, , Geschichte I 704–705; Auda, L., L'École musicale liégeoise du x e siècle, Étienne de Liège, Mém. Acad. Royale de Belgique 2.1 (1923) 128–136; Wattenbach, W. and Holtzmann, R., Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Die Zeit der Sachsen und Salier I 1 (rev. ed. Schmale, F.-J.; Darmstadt 1967) 127–28; Masai, F. and Gilissen, L., Lectionarium Sancti Lamberti Leodiensis tempore Stephani episcopi paratum (901–920), Umbrae Codicum Occidentalium (Amsterdam 1963) xxv; Genicot, L. and Tombeur, P., Index scriptorum operumque Latino-Belgicorum medii aevi, Première partie: VII e X e siècles (Brussels 1973) 145. The most complete discussion is by Jonsson, R., Historia: Études sur la genèse des offices versifiés (Stockholm 1968) 130–40. Jonsson concludes that neither of the two prime contenders for authorship, Hucbald of St. Amand and Stephen of Liege, is in fact the author.Google Scholar

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11 Cf. Macrobius, , Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis 1.14.5–8 (ed. Willis, J. [Leipzig 1970] 56). Macrobius also includes the following statement, which should be compared with verse 4 of the Carmen: ‘… ad mentem, quem Graeci υου appellant …’ 1.2.14 (Willis 6).Google Scholar

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15 Etymologiae 5.33.5. The fact that this etymology appears in Isidore's account of the Roman months, rather than in his discussion of the Roman gods, may explain why the source was not earlier identified.Google Scholar

16 Rabani Mogontiacensis episcopi De computo 32 (ed. Stevens, W. M.; CGcm 44.238.51–55). The italics in the quotation are mine. On Rhabanus' sources in the De computo , see Rissel, M., Rezeption antiker und patristischer Wissenschaft bei Hrabanus Maurus: Studien zur karolingischen Geistesgeschichte (Bern/Frankfurt 1976) 30–72, esp. 33–34. She does not mention the use of Isidore in De computo 32, but it is cited by Stevens in his edition. See also Rissel, M., ‘Hrabanus’ Liber de Computo als Quelle der Fuldaer Unterrichtspraxis in den Artes Arithmetik und Astronomie,' Hrabanus Maurus und seine Schule: Festschrift der Rabanus-Maurus-Schule 1980, ed. Böhne, W. (Fulda 1980) 138–54. Four of the manuscripts cited by Stevens — though not necessarily the best ones — read voluptatem, the reading of Isidore. If Rhabanus did not write voluptatem, it is interesting that the scribes (at least some of them independent of one another) reintroduced the reading from Isidore into the text.Google Scholar

17 That this etymology is linguistically indefensible (see Walde, A., Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [3rd ed. Hofmann, J. B.; Heidelberg 1954] 2.43–44) has little bearing on the discussion here; the derivation of Mars from mas was a perfectly respectable medieval etymology.Google Scholar

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19 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 144.Google Scholar

20 Manitius, , Geschichte I 705.Google Scholar

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22 Etymologiae 5.30.8. See Fontaine, J., Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique (Paris 1959) 407408. Fontaine also cites the version in Macrobius, Comm. in Somn. Scipionis 1.12.14 (Willis 50). A discussion of the myth, including references to Greek versions, is found in Bouche-Leclercq, A., L'Astrologie grecque (repr. Brussels 1963) 321–25; cf. also Flamant, J., Macrobe et le néo-platonisme latin à la fin du IX e siècle (Leiden 1977) 557–58.Google Scholar

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27 The biblical ‘quotations’ in the Carmen (e.g., verses 49, 51) give an indication of the amount of change the poet allowed himself in the quotation of a source.Google Scholar

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29 Ch. 26 (Stevens 230.20–23).Google Scholar

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37 PL 111.268a.Google Scholar

38 Etymologiae 3.71.2.Google Scholar

39 Ch. 37 (Stevens 248.19). On Maiugena , see Strecker, K. (MGH Poetae IV 1130), who cites Martianus Capella 1.92 as the source.Google Scholar

40 See the facsimile edition by Masai, and Gilissen, (above, n. 7) fol. 18r .Google Scholar

41 Von Winterfeld, (158) cites pariter as the reading of Vaticanus latinus 8565, but as the Vaticanus is generally the least reliable of the manuscripts, he did not follow what he thought was its authority alone. Cf. Demarteau, (above, n. 7) 418–19. The use of the so-called manuscrit belge, ‘the corrected pages of an earlier edition,’ as printer's copy is discussed by Kenney, E. J., The Classical Text (Berkeley 1974) 26.Google Scholar

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43 Ax 17.40–41. One could also cite, e.g., Servius, , In Aen., 1.47: ‘physici Iovem aetherem, id est ignem volunt intellegi’ (Thilo–Hagen I 32).Google Scholar

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51 Cf. Meyer–Suntrup, 27.Google Scholar

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53 See above, n. 2.Google Scholar

54 See above, n. 7.Google Scholar

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58 Von Winterfeld, (above, n. 2) 233.Google Scholar

59 Isidore's advice is repeated by Matthew of Vendôme, Ars Versificatoria 4.21 (ed. Faral, E., Les Arts poétiques du XII e et du XIII e siècle [Paris 1924/1962] 185).Google Scholar

60 PL 101.693–94. On the writing of prose and verse versions of saints' lives, Walter, E., Opus Geminum: Untersuchungen zu einem Formtyp in der mittellateinischen Literatur (Diss. Erlangen–Nürnberg 1973); Godman, P., ‘The Anglo-Latin Opus Geminatum from Aldhelm to Alcuin,’ Medium Aevum 50 (1981) 215–29; Wieland, G., Geminus stilus: Studies in Anglo-Latin Hagiography,’ Herren, M. (ed.), Insular Latin Studies: Papers on Latin Texts and Manuscripts of the British Isles 650–1066 (Toronto 1981) 113–33. Cf. Kupper (above, n. 4) 30.Google Scholar

61 Even though selected verses from the Carmen were later used in the Office of St. Lambert; see Jonsson, (above, n. 7) 154ff. Google Scholar

62 This paper was written during a stay at the Institut für mittellateinische Philologie, Freie Universität, Berlin, under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. It is a pleasure to express my gratitude to the AvH-Stiftung. My thanks are also owed Prof. Dr. Fritz Wagner, Dr. Wolfgang Maaz, Udo Wawrzyniak, Prof. Francis Newton, and an anonymous reader for Traditio; all criticized and improved versions of this article. I also thank Diane Warne and Leo Hodlofski for generous aid with bibliography.Google Scholar