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Two Poems of Hugh Primas Reconsidered: 18 and 23

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

C. J. McDonough*
Affiliation:
Trinity College, University of Toronto

Extract

The poems of Hugh Primas deserve to be better known, and the announcement by Teubner of an edition in preparation to replace the fundamental but incomplete text of Wilhelm Meyer is welcome news to students of medieval Latin poetry. The studies which appear below discuss certain problems in two of Primas' longest rhythmical productions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Meyer, Wilhelm, Die Oxforder Gedichte des Primas (Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-hist. Klasse 1907); all references are to the reprinted edition of Darmstadt 1970. J. R. Williams, ‘The Cathedral School of Reims in the Time of Master Alberic 1118–1136,’ Traditio 20 (1964) 93–114; Sten Ebbesen, ‘Zu Oxforder Gedichten des Primas Hugo von Orléans,’ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 3 (1966) 250–53.Google Scholar

2 Ebbesen 251.Google Scholar

3 Full details in the article by Derek Baker, ‘Popular Piety in the Lodevois in the Early Twelfth Century: The Case of Pons de Léras’ in Religious Motivation (Studies in Church History 15; Oxford 1978) 3947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Quis noster Salomon, nisi Jesus Christus? Ipse est pax nostra, ipse qui fecit utraque unum.’ Gilbert In cantica sermo 16 (PL 184.80d).Google Scholar

5 Ebbesen 250.Google Scholar

6 Meyer 34; Ebbesen 251 for modification of this view.Google Scholar

7 See Baldwin, John W., ‘The Intellectual Preparation for the Canon of 1215 Against Ordeals, Speculum 36 (1961) 628–29, for an instance of a man charged with the theft of a precious vessel undergoing the iudicium ferri candentis.Google Scholar

8 Cf. Du Cange s.v. ferrum candens 3.447.Google Scholar

9 For a case of a heretic put to the stake, cf. Baldwin 630–31.Google Scholar

10 Meyer 30–31.Google Scholar

11 Langosch, K., Profile des lateinischen Mittelalters (Darmstadt 1967) 270–72, 288–89; Hymnen und Vagantenlieder (Basel 1954) 298.Google Scholar

12 Meyer 31; Langosch, Profile 271.Google Scholar

13 Witke, C., Latin Satire: The Structure of Persuasion (Leiden 1970) 201, 208.Google Scholar

14 Cf. Godet, M., DHGE 2.1264.Google Scholar

15 Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France II 522; cf. also 520. See also Poole, R. L., Iohannis Saresberiensis Historiae pontificalis (Oxford 1927) 9396; M. Chibnall, John of Salisbury's Memoirs of the Papal Court (London 1956) 5 n. 1. A contemporary parallel to the process envisaged here in vv. 19f. is Pope Coelestinus’ injunction of 1144 to Hugh of Sens to acknowledge the primacy of Amedeus, bishop of Lyons. and to show obedience to him; cf. Gallia Christiana 12.47.Google Scholar

16 The formula of v. 21 was common in medieval letters; cf. Ivo of Chartres, Ep. 194 (PL 162.203c), ‘Mandastis mihi per litteras vestras quod Reginaldus Canardus meum se negat esse parochianum.’Google Scholar

17 So too after his trial at Soissons Abelard was hauled off to the cloister of St. Médard, cf. Historia calamitatum, ed. Monfrin (Paris 1967) 906f.; after his condemnation at Sens, Abelard was sentenced to keep silence by the Pope, cf. Otto of Freising, Gesta Fred. 1.51, ‘… eique tamquam heretico perpetuum silentium imposuimus.’Google Scholar

18 Meyer 35; Langosch, Profile 271; Witke 208–9.Google Scholar

19 On this convention and its use in classical poetry, cf. F. Cairns, Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry (Edinburgh 1972) 222; Primas uses this convention again at 23.168 and 15.90.Google Scholar

20 The view of William 98; Witke 209.Google Scholar

21 Historia calamitatum 31f.Google Scholar

22 Meyer 33.Google Scholar

23 See Austin, R. G., ‘Roman Board Games, Greece and Rome 4 (1934) 2434; and H. J. R. Murray, ‘The Mediaeval Games of Tables,’ Medium Aevum 10 (1941) 58–69.Google Scholar

24 Text in Meyer, Die Oxforder Gedichte des Primas 83f. All references are to the reprint edition, Darmstadt 1970. F. J. E. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages (2nd ed.; Oxford 1957) 2.173f.; idem, The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse (Oxford 1959) 251; R. Ten Kate, ‘Hugo Primas XXIII: Dives eram et dilectus,’ Classica et Mediaevalia 25 (1964) 205–14; H. Naumann, ‘Gab es eine Vaganten-Dichtung?’ Der altsprachliche Unterricht 12 (1969) 77–88; J. Klowski, ‘Catull, Vaganten, Beatniks,’ Der altsprachliche Unterricht 19 (1976) 63–80.Google Scholar

25 Eine Vagantenliedersammlung des 14. Jahrhunderts in der Schlossbibliothek zu Herdringen (Kr. Arnsberg), Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 49 ns 37 (1908) 169, 218.Google Scholar

26 This accounts for K. Langosch's ambivalence in assigning a title to the poem; in Profile 264, there is ‘Ausweisung aus dem Krankenhaus,’ whereas on 287 there appears ‘Ausweisung aus dem Kapitelhaus’ (cf. 266: ‘Ausweisung aus dem Kapitelkrankenhaus’).Google Scholar

27 Hauréau, B., Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bibliothèque Nationale 6 (1893) 132.Google Scholar

28 Meyer 97–100.Google Scholar

29 Viz. C. Witke 228.Google Scholar

30 For classical examples of dissolutus in this sense cf. ThLL 5.1496.73f. For medieval examples cf. Godefroy de Saint-Victor, Fons philosophiae, ed. Michaud-Quantin (Louvain and Lille 1956), proemium 33–36, ‘omnes quidem veniunt gratia salutis, / Sed dum nimis hauriunt labiis pollutis, / Hic fit paralyticus membris dissolutis, / Alius hydropicus, huic inflatur cutis’; R. H. Rodgers, Petri Diaconi: Ortus et vita iustorum cenobii Casinensis (Berkeley 1972) 3 lines 17–19, ‘monachum omnibus membris contritum et dissolutum confestim sanum reddidit’; and ibid. 5 lines 2–3.Google Scholar

31 The words are those of Peter the Venerable, Ep. 6 (ed. G. Constable 12).Google Scholar

32 Ten Kate 210f. tried to distinguish two expulsions, one temporary (signalled at vv. 6 and 13), the other final (vv. 23, 31, 98); v. 104, also cited as evidence of a final expulsion, clearly refers to the ejection of the cripple.Google Scholar

33 Thus does Einhard describe the churches to be renovated by Charlemagne in his Vita Karoli 17: ‘Praecipue tamen aedes sacras ubicumque in toto regno suo vetustate conlapsas conperit… .’ In a story of intrigue dated to the eleventh century, a servant suggests that an amount of money be deposited in a church for safekeeping (‘in ede sacra’); Petronius Redivivus 5.30, in Analecta Dublinensia, ed. M. Colker (Cambridge, Mass. 1975) 201.Google Scholar

34 Both letters are cited in Häring, Nikolaus M., ‘Hilary of Orleans and His Letter Collection, Studi Medievali Ser. 3 14 (1973) 1115, 1118. See also P. Delhaye, ‘L'organisation scolaire au XIIe siècle,’ Traditio 5 (1947) 223–24.Google Scholar

35 Cf. Walther, H., Proverbia 14603; Colker, Marvin L., ‘Proverbia non centum, Classical Folia 32 (1978) 180.Google Scholar

36 Cited in Bömer, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 49 ns 37 (1908) 198 stanza 12.Google Scholar

37 Cf. Meyer 90; Raby, History 2.173 n. 4; Ten Kate 209f.; Langosch, Hymnen 171, translates; ‘Bin verachtet, übersehn, / Musste von den Kranken gehn’; Klowski 72, deiecti, ‘den Ausgestossenen (den Insassen des Altenspitals).’Google Scholar

38 I cite at random Cyprian, De zelo et livore 4, ed. G. Hartel (CSEL 3.1; Vienna 1868) 421; Claudius Marius Victor, Alethia, Precatio 59f.; 1.479f.; ‘invida mens, coluber, qui caelum intrare creatos / deiecisti homines,’ ed. P. F. Hovingh (CCL 128; Turnhout 1960) 145; Abelard, Comm. Rom. 1 (3.16–18) line 422 ed. E. M. Buytaert (CCL CM 11; Turnhout 1969) 109; Gilbert of Hoyland, Tractatus ascetici 7.1.3 (PL 184.278a), of Lucifer: ‘indebitum gradum usurpasti: propterea dejectus es de gradu tuo, et de statione tua.’Google Scholar

39 Cf. also Cyprian of Gaul, Heptateuchos: Iesu Nave 262f., ed. R. Peiper (CSEL 23; Vienna 1881) 166; Rabanus Maurus, Commentaria in Exodum 3.4 (PL 108.130–31).Google Scholar

40 Text in Bolte, J., ‘Dyalogus de Divite et Lazaro, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 35 (1891) 257f. Google Scholar