Among the many treasures of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, there is an interesting miscellany of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century texts (MS 996).Footnote 1 Included within this manuscript's curious and varied content is a Latin text, in prose and verse, entitled: Dominici Cerbonii Tifernatis TERtheus Magus (‘The Triple God Magus of Domenico Cerbonio from Città di Castello’, fols 7r–10v). These folios purport to document a necromantic ritual in which a ‘Magus of the Triple God’ (TERtheus Magus), conjures the shades of Cicero and Virgil from the pagan underworld to admire the Renaissance city of the early sixteenth century. References within the text to the recent (nuper, fol. 8v, l.1) passing of the antiquarian and polymath Pomponio Leto (Pomponius Laetus, 1425–98) and the celebration of the Roman festival of the Parilia (or Palilia) on Rome's birthday (21 April; see below) strongly suggest that ritual can be associated with the Roman Academy founded by Leto (see below).Footnote 2 Indeed, it would be tempting to take the enactment of this pagan rite as proof of the charges of conspiracy and heresy levelled at members of the Academy by Pope Paul II Barbo (r. 1464–71; see below). However, internal references suggest a dramatic performance with scenery (or at least theatrical backdrop: veteris scenae apparatus, fol. 8v, l.3). A marginal note (Exeunt duae umbrae: ‘two shades appear [from the Underworld]’, fol. 8r, l.65) is here interpreted as a stage direction. This further supports the hypothesis that the text records a performance staged by the members of the reformed Academy c. 1501 as part of their annual celebrations of the Palilia in which plays and recitals of Latin poetry formed an essential element. The reiterated theme of ‘Rome Reborn’, that is, of contemporary achievements rivalling the grandeur of the ancient city, would justify a stage presentation in which the shades of such eminent literary figures as Cicero and Virgil return to marvel at the splendour of the papal city.Footnote 3
With the definitive return of the papacy to Rome and the end of the schism, from the mid-fifteenth century onwards, a series of popes set about transforming the city into a capital worthy of Christendom and the cultural centre of Europe. Scholars and the sons of well-to-do families with literary aspirations were attracted to the city by the variety of employment and career possibilities that the curia offered. As a result of papal patronage, the centre of humanist scholarship gradually moved from Florence, and the courts of northern Italy and Naples, to Rome. Pope Nicholas V Parentucelli (r. 1443–55) gave liberal support to scholars and, as a keen book collector, created the Vatican Library. Pius II Piccolomini (r. 1458–64) had been a humanist with an international reputation before his elevation to the Holy See. There was, however, a brief and vicious backlash against the humanist circles of Rome during the reign of his successor Paul II who charged the Academicians with conspiracy and heresy and threw them into Castel Sant'Angelo during Lent, 1468.Footnote 4 The pope also abolished the College of Abbreviators where many of the city's scholars earned their living. Yet, despite this hiatus, Paul II's immediate successors, Sixtus IV Della Rovere (1471–84) and Innocent VIII Cibo (1484–92), were enthusiastic patrons of literature and the Arts. Sixtus IV re-established both the Roman Academy and the College of Abbreviators soon after his election and appointed Bartolomeo Sacchi (il Platina) as librarian of the newly re-founded Vatican Library. As Kenneth Gouwens (Reference Gouwens1997: 43) has succinctly observed:
by the late quattrocento, humanist scholars saw the papacy as an ally of their new classically-based culture and increasingly placed their rhetorical skills in its service. Linking Renaissance Rome to classical Rome, they fashioned a rhetoric that dignified the city's historic role as cultural exemplar of Europe and infused this identity with religious motifs suitable to the papacy.
Beyond the curia there existed learned academies and sodalities.Footnote 5 These were literary circles where prelates, curial officials, poets and artists met regularly to exchange ideas and discuss each other's work. Their meetings, held in the garden or vigna of one of its most influential members, were convivial affairs and often accompanied by musical performances (Cummings, Reference Cummings2009: 583–600). From contemporary references, it seems that these meetings were modelled upon classical prototypes and the participants thought that they were recreating the symposia of fifth-century Athens or the literary evenings of the age of Caesar and Augustus.
The earliest of the Roman academies was the group that centred upon Pomponio Leto. Although their meetings had been cruelly suppressed by Paul II when various members including Leto himself had been incarcerated in Castel Sant'Angelo, the group reformed during the pontificate of Sixtus IV Della Rovere (r. 1471–84). From 1483 onwards they met annually on 21 April to celebrate the anniversary of Romulus’ founding of the city in a ceremony modelled upon the ancient Parilia.Footnote 6 The Roman diarist Jacopo Gherardi da Volterra (1434–1516) notes that during the first celebration of this revived ancient festival, a privilege granted by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III (r. 1452–93) was read to those assembled for permission to revive secular theatre and for the presentation or recitation of a play (or plays) (Da Volterra, Reference Da Volterra and Caruso1904: 163).
In his encyclopaedic Commentaria Urbana the humanist and theologian Raffaele Maffei (1451–1522) gives an impression of the founder and their meetings:
Also, at that time Pomponio Leto, Porcellio and Chalcidius gave public lectures in Rome. Pomponio was born in Calabria yet he did not know Greek, but he had made himself a great scholar of the past, and if he had discovered any ancient and important inscriptions, he was often showing them to his students. He taught the young men of Rome, with continual labour, he stayed awake through the night, regularly copying out the books himself, and so was both learning and teaching at the same time. From his salary and his students’ fees he provided himself with a small plot of land and a little house on the Quirinal hill where he set up a ‘sodality for literary men’ as he himself called it.Footnote 7
Pomponio's academy was continued after his death by the apostolic secretary Paolo Cortesi (1465–1510) and then, after Cortesi's death, by Angelo Colocci (1474–1549), who also seems to have acquired Leto's house on the Quirinal hill and inherited a number of his books.Footnote 8 The poet Vincenzo Calmeta (c. 1460–1508) has left a brief account of these later gatherings frequented by the literati of the Borgia court including (among others) the Catalan humanist Cardinal Juan de Vera (1453–1507), Cesare Borgia's secretary Agapito Geraldini (1450–1515), Pope Alexander VI's secretary Adriano Castellesi (c. 1460–c. 1521) and the poet Michele Ferno (1463–1513):
At the same time at Rome our academy also flourished at the house of Paolo Cortesi, whose learning, ability and affability was beyond his years, and he was held in great esteem at the papal court, in such a way that the academy was not a house of manners but a workshop of eloquence and a repository of every respectable virtue that could be named. Every day a great crowd of educated people gathered there: Gianlorenzo Veneto, Petro Gravina, the bishop of Montepiloso, Agapito Geraldini, Manilio, Cornelio and other scholars, into whose orbit, younger scholars, who wanted their talents to increase, took themselves to stay and take delight. Among the vernacular poets Aretino's passions were of the greatest renown, nor yet were our fragments held in little esteem.Footnote 9
It has long been recognized that Leto's Academy was the prime mover behind the revival of classical theatre in late fifteenth-century Rome (Licht, Reference Licht1996: 8). In his biography of Leto, the Venetian humanist Marcantonio Sabellico (1436–1506) notes the important role that theatrical performances played in Leto's pedagogy:
With equal enthusiasm Leto revived the ancient tradition of the spectacle for the unaccustomed citizens, using the courtyards of important clerics for theatres, in which certain stories of Plautus, Terence and also of more recent authors were performed, which he himself both taught to the honest youths and directed those acting.Footnote 10
As noted above, Cerbonio's text suggests a theatrical performance with the Magus adopting the role of ‘Master of Ceremonies’ much in the manner of Leto himself. The text is divided into four parts or ‘acts’: a propitiatory ritual performed by a Magus (in verse) to summon the shades of Cicero and Virgil; a speech by Cicero (in prose); a speech by Virgil (in hexameters); and two concluding Sapphic stanzas.
While poets and literary figures at other Italian courts composed in both Latin and the vernacular, at Rome Latin was de facto the common language of an increasingly international curia. A pure Latin style stripped of the ‘barbarisms’ of the Middle Ages, with Cicero as the model for prose and Virgil as the model for verse, was the ultimate goal. Indeed, in his De Elegantiis (1449) the humanist Lorenzo Valla (1407–57), who worked in the papal chancery and had exposed the so-called Donation of Constantine as an eighth-century fraud, went so far as to proclaim a new imperium of pure Latinity. Success in Rome, both at the curia and in the literary circles that grew up around the city demanded not only a profound knowledge of the classical canon but also an ability to imitate their style. Cerbonio's text exemplifies this. Cicero and Virgil both speak lines from their own works reformulated to provide a new commentary upon contemporary events. Although in theory the fifteenth-century ideal of imitatio aimed at something greater, in practice it was often, as here, little more than a loose patchwork of quotations, artfully stitched together.Footnote 11
The propitiatory ritual and sacrifice to the infernal deities is spoken by a ‘Magus of the Triple God’ (TERtheus Magus): that is, a magus of the goddess Hecate in her triple forms (see below).Footnote 12 His preparations echo Odysseus’ rites to summon the dead heroes in Homer (Odyssey 11.23–50), Aeneas’ preparations to visit the Underworld in Virgil (Aen. 6.1–263) and the witch Erictho's reanimation of a soldier's corpse in Lucan (De Bello Civile 6.569–830). Other epic passages, such as Dido's curse upon the Trojans (Verg., Aen. 4.362–92), the construction of her funeral pyre (Verg., Aen. 4.509–21) and Medea gathering poisons (Ov., Met. 7.179–349; Valerius Flaccus 7.349–406), are also referenced.Footnote 13 In the manner of ‘Round about the cauldron go; | In the poison'd entrails throw’ (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4.1.4–5) avant la lettre, much of the ritual catalogues the grim contents of the Magus’ magic brew. As the spell takes effect the hexameter breaks into strange howling and the Magus speaks in tongues (Greek and then Hebrew) as the spirits approach.
Am I deceived or did the ground seem to shake and the earth bellow? I am not mistaken! Now, now it must be pressed home with an effective spell. The snake beats you Erebus, and chastises you Furies. I also hound you, Manes; you have not yet promptly obeyed my commands. Pluto, Persephone and all you other demons, open now the gates of Erebus to the spirits!
(Two shades appear.)
Now we must hear what we asked of them. They will speak. Let us follow slowly and in silence.)
The Magus is thus presented, albeit in a grotesque context, as the humanist ideal of a man of culture competent in the three classical languages (trium linguarum gnarus, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew).Footnote 14 Whereas in the Odyssey, Aeneid and Bellum Civile the encounter with the spirits of the dead is to gather knowledge of the future (a safe route home for Odysseus; the future greatness of Rome for Aeneas; the outcome of the battle of Pharsalus for Sextus Pompeius), here the spirits of Cicero and Virgil are summoned to confirm the present achievements of Rome and its citizens.
The shade of Cicero delivers a speech that is a collage of quotations from his philosophical works, mainly from the manual of civic virtue known as De Officiis (‘On Duties’ or ‘On Obligations’). Here, Cicero's ‘theoretical treatment of the obligations which a citizen should render to the Commonwealth’ has been recast as a celebration of papal Rome under the Borgia:Footnote 15
Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa. iuventutem virtutis emulam magistratibus caeterisque honoribus decorate.
(Parents are dear; dear are children, relatives, friends; but one fatherland embraces all our nearest and dearest. Honour youth, emulous of virtue, with civic offices and other awards.)
As becomes obvious later in Virgil's speech, the patria here is no longer Republican government but the universal Church under the Borgia papacy and the iuventus to be honoured is Alexander's infamous son Cesare (1475–1507), then at the height of his power and influence (see below).
Virgil's speech is also a pastiche of quotations from the author's own works. This is made clear in the subtitle: Cento (‘A Cento’, fol. 9r): that is, a poem re-combining verse fragments of Virgil to generate a new meaning.Footnote 16 Scott McGill (Reference McGill2005: xv) defines the genre as: ‘a patchwork text […] comprised of unconnected verse units taken from the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid and pieced together to create narratives that differ from Virgil's own. These units may consist of a segment of a hexameter line; an entire line; a line and some section of the following line; and rarely two or three entire lines’.Footnote 17 Here, the poet expands a single passage (Verg., Aen. 5.49–58: Aeneas’ celebration of an annual festival upon the anniversary of his father Anchises’ death) to create a panegyric on Cesare Borgia and, in particular, his second campaign in the Romagna (October 1500–June 1501) (Gwynne, Reference Gwynne2015, vol. 1: 285–312; vol. 2: 3–95).
(Yet I will soon gird myself to celebrate the blazing battles of Cesare (the second hope for the future greatness of Rome), and how huge he rises behind his shield, with what a whirr he spins his javelin as he now has subdued the people of Faenza in savage war.)
The two concluding Sapphic stanzas are addressed by the Magus to the Triple Deity of the Underworld. In the second stanza it is made obvious that the rite has been a performance in honour of the Palilia, the feast of Pales, the shepherd festival celebrated on 21 April, the foundation of Rome:
(You Rome attend, mindful of your fate, and with ancient custom, celebrate these birthdays every year; and thou shalt remember that you are Rome, master of the whole world.)
The intertextual reference to Pompey's fate seque memor fati (‘mindful of his career’, Lucan, De Bello Civile, 8.10) within a general rifacimento of Anchises’ injunction to future Romans (Verg., Aen. 6.851) is a chilling reminder of the transience of mundane affairs and ends the performance on a sobering note.
THE AUTHOR
The author can be identified as Domenico Scribonio dei Cerboni (or dei Cerbi). He is described as Tifernatis: that is, ‘from Tifernum Tiberinum’, a Roman colony on the Tiber, now Città di Castello in northern Umbria. The Cerboni were a leading family in Città di Castello. Domenico Cerbonio was appointed Bishop of Imola on 10 February 1511 by Julius II Della Rovere (r. 1503–13). He served with distinction as bishop until his resignation in 1533.Footnote 18 Otherwise, very little is known about his early career. We may assume that our author, like so many educated young men in late fifteenth-century Italy, was attracted to Rome by the opportunities for employment that the vast bureaucracy of the papal court and administration afforded talented men of letters and where, as we have noted above, humanist culture was at its height.
DATE
Internal references to contemporary events allow the date of composition to be established with some degree of accuracy. The shade of Cicero claims that Pomponio Leto had but recently (nuper, fol. 8v, l.1) descended into the Underworld. Leto died on 9 June 1498. The shade of Virgil mentions Cesare Borgia's siege of Faenza, which occurred from autumn 1500 to spring 1501. The city fell to Cesare's forces on 25 April 1501. No mention is made of the successful outcome to this campaign, nor of Cesare's return to Rome later that year (17 June). This suggests that the text was composed during the winter months 1500/01 for the next annual gathering of the Roman Academicians at the Palilia on 21 April 1501. Although disbanded by Paul II, as we have noted above, the Academy reformed during the reign of Sixtus IV on the model of a religious confraternity. The group assembled on Rome's Birthday at Santa Maria in Aracoeli, attended mass before the altar of their patron saints, Victor, Genesio and Fortunata, and then adjourned to Leto's house on the Quirinal for a banquet and a poetic contest. As mentioned above, the dramatic nature of the text and length of the speeches suggests that the piece was performed, perhaps by the younger members of the academy on this occasion. Unfortunately, there is no indication of the location. It may be that Cellini's famous séance in the Colosseum recalls a performance such as this.Footnote 19
A NOTE ON THE TRANSCRPTION
The text is transcribed and translated here for the first time. As far as I am aware, the manuscript in the Biblioteca Riccardiana is the only copy of this intriguing and enigmatic text. The script is evenly written in a neat humanistic cursive, with rubrication for the titles which suggests a fair or presentation copy (by the author himself?). The text has simply been transcribed with minimal editorial intervention. Renaissance orthography has been retained, for example using quom for cum (fol. 8v, l.21); soboles for suboles (fol. 9v, l.23). The distinction between consonantal and vocalic u has been indicated by v and u respectively. Similarly, medial i has been preferred to j. The standard palaeographical abbreviations, suspensions (e.g. the horizontal stroke for m and n) and contractions have been written in full. All proper names have been capitalized. The diphthong æ, ampersand & and the abbreviation –q, for the conjunction -que, have been silently expanded. The fact that the text is preserved in a single manuscript inevitably means that some textual problems (such as Θριμω [for τριμορος?] fol. 7r, l.13) are virtually insoluble. Pace Fred Nichols (Reference Nichols and Tuynman1979: 835–50), the punctuation has been slightly amended, following the principles laid down by Josef IJsewijn and Dirk Sacré (Reference IJsewijn and Sacré1998: 460–78).
A commentary on the two original compositions has also been included. This does not aim to be exhaustive and is limited for the most part to poetic echoes of classical authors for comparison. Points of grammar or syntax are rarely commented upon. The classical references in the speeches by Cicero and Virgil, essentially mosaics of quotations of these authors’ own works, can be found in the footnotes.
TEXT
TRANSLATION
The Triple God Magus of Domenico Cerbonio from Città di Castello.
‘This idea has now long lurked in my mind that, if in our day Rome has reached that peak where once it had been at its greatest, then its shades, recalled from the Stygian springs, will present themselves. First, I sprinkle a dead body with water, in the very moment when the constellations suggest. Here I will dig a pit a cubit square and I will set up the altars here, plucking the consecrated fleeces and pouring wine on to their heads.
[7]“You gods, who have eternal care of pale Tartarus, hear these prayers. First, you Great Pluto, if our rich sacrifices have ever pleased you, do not allow a light breeze to carry off our words without any effect; and you Hecate, Queen of Erebus, if you have a hundred divine presences, if you have triple faces, if you have three-fold power, help me; and you, whether you are the same, whether you are another, O Triple-formed. And you, Cerberus, who watches carefully the Tartarean kingdom's threshold, be tame at this time and we will give you holy grain smeared with sweet honey. Charon too, put aside your severe expression; you also, most just Minos, soften to my prayers. We are asking here for two spirits from Erebus, who do not lurk in Tartarus’ deep cavern and vale but wander the lawns of the Elysian fields. For these spirits this sacrificial animal falls to you from our hands. Receive it for yourselves, you infernal gods, blood is sprinkled, and honey and fresh milk; a sacred herb is offered to you, and masculine incense, and holy grain spiced well with oil, and what wines they serve, and breathing entrails are offered to your flames.”
[28] Yet the flame glows a little bigger and trembles. Perhaps the sacrifice was acceptable and turned out well. Now the time demands that I gird myself with magic spells; and we arrange three circles into a ring, around which I will tie these three enchanted threads to myself and in this dust, we will mark signs with magic art.
[34] “These are the herbs we have gathered with the right hand by moonlight; I cut these with a sickle; we plucked these with the left hand, and these the Caucasus mountains gave me, these Mount Pindar, these lofty Pelion. A holm-oak blasted by lightning flames gave these branches; a nut-tree these, first enchanted by my dire spell. This is the slaver of a rabid dog; a thousand poisons are preserved in this little urn. Look at these innards of an unlucky owl; and stones which a crow, cherishing as eggs, long warmed with her breast. Here are the entrails of a lynx and a wolf. Here is a father's blood which a lawless sword shed and that which flowed from fraternal murder and the heinous slaughter of a father-in-law. This jar contains accursed mare-slime; this is the savage skin of a tigress bereft of her cubs. This, a serpent's slough, and these are bones we have gathered from graves. This snake here is accustomed to our spells. You Tully, and you Maro, whom that age once produced, when mighty Rome ruled on the highest peak, we are seeking you. Let my spells force you to this place, so that we may learn by your eloquence what the future may hold: whether this city, which is now the greatest, was even greater, or whether antiquity having been surpassed will yield to new achievements. Undertake these, my commands, with a calm expression, we beg, which compel you to Rome, not gloomy Tartarus.”
Quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, quec, cu cu
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, bow wow.
[59] Am I deceived or did the ground seem to shake and the earth bellow? I am not mistaken! Now, now it must be pressed home with an effective spell. The snake beats you Erebus, and chastises you, Furies. I also hound you, Manes; you have not yet promptly obeyed my commands. Pluto, Persephone and all you other demons, open now the gates of Erebus to the spirits!
(Two shades appear.)
[66] Now we must hear what we asked of them. They will speak. Let us follow slowly and in silence.’
The Shade of Cicero
Lilith, Lilith, Lilith, Ashmedai, rupon badui.
[8v] ‘So, Virgil, Pomponio Leto did not recently bring us “fake news”. He confirmed that Rome has been made great again and has entirely discarded that barbarousness which had long taken hold of it. Look! I recognize ancient stage sets, virtually the same crowds of men and the same interests of the people. (5) O what joy, my fellow Romans, will there now be in the Elysian Fields, when the Bruti, Decii, Scipiones, Maximi, Pauli and all our other citizens hear from me that Rome is reborn and that your spirits are not degenerate, who show in military affairs magnitude of spirit (with which the Greatest Republic excelled), although it may certainly be difficult for you (10).Footnote 112 You have devoted yourselves to glorious erudition and learning; indeed, you have pursued the very best things. For royal powers and military commands, nobilities of birth and political office, wealth and influence, and their opposites, depend upon chance and are controlled by circumstances. Wisdom alone commands Fortune. (15) What, in the name of heaven, is more to be desired than wisdom? What is more to be prized? What is more worthy of a human being? You have achieved this, renowned senators, you have achieved this; you are free men! For what is liberty other than to be able to live as you wish? Yet that man lives as he wishes who follows the right path, who obeys the laws, but not through fear. Thus, he follows those things and cultivates them. Let everyone embrace the Republic according to his ability; (20) so that it may be brought about, what Pythagoras desires in friendship, that several are united in one. But when with a rational spirit you have surveyed everything, there is no social relation among everyone more close, none more dear, than that which links each one of you with the Republic. Parents are dear; dear are children, [9r] relatives, friends; (25) but one fatherland embraces all our nearest and dearest. Honour youth, emulous of virtue, with civic offices and other awards. For in no other way this City obtained World Empire, by rewarding each man according to his worth. You have achieved this, and I say that I hope you will shortly arrive at that peak in which we saw ourselves once at Rome.’
The Ghost of Virgil. A Cento.
‘O happy people of Saturn's realm, sons of old Ausonia, so many years have already slipped away; days such as these shone and went their way, I can well believe, at the dawn of the infant world when Saturn lived upon the earth.
The day is now at hand, if I am right, which I will always hold in honour, in the depths of my heart, for so the gods have willed. If only Jupiter would give me back the years that are past, I would spend this day in exile among the Syrtes of Gaetulia, yet I would still offer up these annual vows, perform these processions in ritual order and lay due offerings on altars. Come then, let us celebrate these rites with joy, put a crown of leaves around your hair since you are here as friends. The master himself keeps holiday in the depths of the earth; boys and unmarried girls sing around the annual sacred rites which it would be sinful to postpone; Quirinus and his brother bring gifts; this is the only honour in the depths of the Underworld. Some take exercise on grassy wrestling-grounds, others pound the earth with dancing feet and sing songs in our mountains; only Augustus Caesar kept his misery deep in his heart, lamenting on the broad fields of air: you, Caesar, greatest of all, dear child of the gods, great offspring of Jove. But he is first minded to bear the news to the aged king and put an end to his cares.
“I have seen for myself”, I will say, “recalled to the upper air, a young man, noble in appearance and in gleaming armour, like a gem sparkling in its gold setting. He looks after the earth; these events do not happen without the approval of the gods; rejoicing, he imitates Caesar's path. Have no fear; he buckles on his shield and breastplate of triple-woven gold and defies the heavens with his weapons.” Yet I will soon gird myself to celebrate the blazing battles of Cesare (the second hope of mighty Rome), and how huge he rises behind his shield, with what a whirr he spins his javelin as he has now subdued the people of Faenza in a savage war; my shade will be with you wherever you may be, both the people and the senators, the Roman masters of the world, the race that wears the toga, and I will say: “It is not that my thirst for praise is gone, or my glory has departed, driven away by fear; Rome has become the fairest thing in the world.
For the moment, however, complete the task you have begun, great-hearted young warrior, Roman offspring, above all, worship the gods and scrape together all your resources of spirit and skill, pray to sprout wings and fly to the stars of heaven, and mend the wreckage of the ruined race, no divine powers beset you; Jupiter is the same king to all men; Fortune favours the bold.
Now prepare your hearts, not ignorant in the works of wisdom, and make ready your weapons with all your spirit. All life is brief, and time once past can never be restored. But the task of the brave man is to enlarge his fame by his actions. Now let us see that renowned courage and spirit, (trust me) Fortune has returned.”
But time is flying, flying beyond recall. The gates are thrown open; see! once again the cruel Fates are calling us back; again and again great peals of thunder; now, now there is no delay, I am following and wherever you lead, there shall I be, and now my great spirit will go beneath the earth. Remember, Roman, to govern the peoples in your empire.’
Triple God
Deities of the deep kingdom, we give you thanks and thankful offer holy incense to the fires; because my mind was able to get the fulfilment of the vow.
You Rome attend, mindful of your fate, and with ancient custom, celebrate these birthdays every year; and thou shalt remember that you are Rome, master of the whole world.
The End.
COMMENTARY
Title
TERtheus: a neologism composed of Latin ter (‘triple’) and Greek θεός (‘god’). The triple divinity is Hecate (see below); there may also be a covert reference to (Hermes) Trismegistos.
1. Iam satis hoc: hexameter incipit at Luc. 3.388.
2. Crevit in id culmen: Cicero confirms this in the last line of his speech; see above, Umbra Ciceronis.
3. dabunt: with reflective sense ‘to make oneself or one's services available’; see OLD, 21.
Stigiis … fontibus: found at Valerius Flaccus 7.364.
4. corpus aqua spargam: cf. occupat Aeneas aditum corpusque recenti | spargit aqua, Verg., Aen. 6.635–6 (Aeneas anoints himself at the threshold of the Underworld).
dum sidera suadent: perhaps somnos is also understood, as at Verg., Aen. 2.9; 4.81. The translation would then read: ‘while the stars urge sleep’; thus giving a temporal location after dusk.
5. scrobem fodiam cubitalem: echoing the preparations at Hom., Od. 11.25: ‘I dug a pit, of about a cubit in each direction’ (trans. Richmond Lattimore).
6. fronti (= in frontem): with reference to the black sheep used in the ritual sacrifice performed by the Sibyl at the entrance to the Underworld:
7. pallida Tartara: ‘pallid Tartarus’, ‘the pale regions of hell’; cf. tacitas Erebi sedes Ditisque profundi | pallida regna, Luc. 1.455–6.
8. Has audite preces: echoing Verg., Aen. 4.612 (Dido's curse upon Aeneas).
Maxime Pluto: Pluto, king of the Lower World, has precedence and is invoked first.
9. Recalling Helenus’ description of the Sibylline prophecies written on leaves and scattered by the winds; cf. Verg., Aen. 3.445–51.
levis … ventus: cf. tenuis ventus, Verg., Aen. 3.448.
10. nostra … irrita dicta: cf. Verg., Aen. 10.244 (the words of the sea nymph Cymodocea).
11. Hecate: a chthonic deity often identified with Diana, and Luna (the Moon). The goddess became associated with the lower world and night and was often represented with three heads, hence the designation triplex facies and terna potestas in the following line; cf. tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae, Verg., Aen. 4.511.
Herebi: Erebus, the Lower World; cf. Verg., Aen. 4.26; 6.247.
numina centum: perhaps recalling the Carthaginian sacrifices to Juno before the statue of Dido:
12. Sunt tibi: hexameter incipit at Verg., Aen. 12.22.
terna potestas: as a line-end at Verg., Aen. 10.18.
13. Adsis: hexameter incipit at Verg., Aen. 4.578 and elsewhere.
Θριμω: contracted form for vocative τρίμορος, (‘triple’)? Perhaps with reference to Trivia, the epithet of Diana as goddess of the crossroads, and thus identifying her with the triple-formed Hecate. The line is heavily elided to add resonance to the summons to the shape-changing deity.
14–15. Tartarei custodis limina regni: Cerberus, identified in the following line (cf. Sil., Pun. 2.552). The Magus calls upon three deities of the Underworld and then three of their supernatural assistants: Cerberus, Charon and Minos.
15. Cerberus: the triple-headed guard dog Cerberus; cf. Verg., Aen. 6.417.
16. molam: mola was grits or grains of spelt, coarsely ground and mixed with salt, which it was customary to strew on the victims at sacrifices; cf. Verg., Ecl. 8.82.
dulci melle perunctam: cf. cui uates horrere uidens iam colla colubris | melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam |obicit. Verg., Aen. 6.419–21.
17. Charon: recalling the ferryman's anger at Verg., Aen. 6.407.; cf. also Dante, Inf. 3.82–99.
18. Minos: one of the judges of the Underworld; see Verg., Aen. 6.432; also Dante, Inf. 5. 4–24.
19. geminas animas: the twin spirits are the shades of Cicero and Virgil; identified at l.49.
22. cadit hostia nostris: cf. nostra cadet hostia dextra, a line-end at Verg., Aen. 1.334.
23. Accipite hic: Accipite haec, a hexameter incipit at Verg., Aen. 4.611 (Dido's prayer to the Furies).
24. multum mellis cum lacte recenti: that is, melikraton, the traditional offering in the sacred ritual of necromancy; cf. the rituals performed by Odysseus before the pit: ‘and poured it full of drink-offerings for all the dead, first | honey mixed with milk, and the second pouring was sweet wine, | and the third, water, and over it all I sprinkled white barley’ (Hom., Od. 11.26–8; trans. Richmond Lattimore).
25. et mascula thura: a hemistich at Verg., Ecl. 8.66; according to Pliny (HN 12.61) there was a particular kind of incense named ‘masculine’.
26. mola: see above, l.16.
vina ministrant: cf. Bacchumque ministrant, a line-end at Verg., Aen. 8.181.
27. spirantia viscera: cf. Verg., Aen. 4.64.
28. Nescio … quid maius: cf. Prop. 2.36.? on the imminent publication of Virgil's Aeneid. The line recalls the success of the love charms at the end of Eclogue 8:
30. carminibus magicis: found at Luc. 6.822.
tempora poscunt: a line-end at Ov., Fast. 2.861.
31. in orbem | Quem circum: cf. Culex, 396–7.
33. magica … arte: cf. Verg., Aen. 4.493.
34. ad lunam: cf. Verg., Aen. 4.513.
35. Falcibus has secui: cf. Verg., Aen. 4.513. (Dido's ritual pyre).
36. Caucasus: the Caucasian mountains in Asia between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Pindus: Mount Pindus in Thessaly, home of the Muses.
Pelion: Mount Pelion in Thessaly, now Zagora.
37. quercus adusta: cf. Ov. Tr. 4.9.14.
39. spuma canis rabidi: cf. non spuma canum quibus unda timori est, Luc. 6.671.
40. bubonis corda sinistri: cf. Luc. 6.689; owls were considered unlucky and omens of death in the ancient world.
41–2. A rifacimento of Quaeque sonant feta tepefacta sub alite saxa , Luc. 6.676.
42. lincisque lupique medullae: cf. viscera … lyncis, Luc. 6.672.
43. impius ensis: a line-end at Sil., Pun. 1.10.
44. cede nephanda: a line-end at Ov., Met. 15.174.
45. hyppomanes: lit. ‘horse-madness’; a slimy humour that flows from a mare when on heat and which was used to excite desire; cf. Verg., G. 3.280; Tib. 2.4.58; Prop. 4.5.18.
46. Tigridis … orbae: the tigress was a byword for ferocity in ancient literature; cf. Verg., Aen. 4.367.
47. ossa sepulchris: a line-end at Verg., G. 1.497.
49. Tulli: the Roman statesman, lawyer and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC).
tuque Maro: the Roman poet, Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC).
50. summo regnabat culmine Roma: the Capitol.
54. superata vetustas: a line-end at Claud. In Ruf. 1.283.
55. placido vultu: cf. Stat., Theb. 1.202.
56. tristia Tartara: cf. Verg., Aen. 4.243.
57–8. The verse breaks into unnatural sounds as the spirits approach; cf. immugit tellus rumpitque horrenda per umbras | sibila, Sil., Pun. 1.95; also the strange sounds heard as the conjured corpse of the dead soldier is brought back to life by the witch Erictho:
The effect here is surely intended to be humorous. The comic potential is reinforced by the direct address to the audience in the following lines.
57. quec quec cu cu: a spondaic hexameter (or perhaps iambic trimeter) recalling the various animal choruses in Aristophanes. Keith Sidwell suggested to me (private correspondence) – and I believe correctly – that quec might be a representation of κοάξ the croaking of Aristophanes’ frogs; cf. Ar. Ran. 209. Aristophanes would be entirely appropriate in this context. The Frogs enacts a katabasis to resurrect a playwright. In the fifteenth century ‘Aristophanes was regarded highly for the purity of his diction and was believed to offer material useful in forming the character of the reader because of the criticisms of moral failings made in his comedies’ (Wilson, Reference Wilson1992: 36).
58. vu vu bof bof: a catalectic hexameter (breaking at the end of the third foot ˗ ˗ | ˗ ˗ | ˗̆̆) to imitate the dogs’ barking. Due to betacism (the sound change from the plosive Greek β to the fricative Latin v in fifteenth-century pronunciation) the vu may represent bau from the dog's trial in Aristophanes, Wasps (Ar., Vesp. 903). Again, I owe this suggestion to Keith Sidwell. Note that howling dogs herald the approach of Hecate at Verg., Aen. 6. 257.
61. Herebum te verberat anguis: cf. verberat inmotum vivo serpent cadaver. Luc. 6.727.
62. Eumenides: lit. ‘the kindly ones’; a euphemistic name for the Furies who are, of course, chthonic deities.
Manes: the deified shades of the dead; gods of the Lower World.
64–5. The Magus begins to speak in barely comprehensible tongues to effect his final commands. The Greek verses are a little confused and could perhaps be rendered thus:
Πλοῦτον περσεφόνη τε καὶ δαίμονες ἄλλοι τε πάντες
τοῦ ἐρεβεῦς ψυχαῖς ὄτι (sic) τάχιστ' ἀνοίγετε πύλας
This still does not explain why Πλοῦτον is in the accusative and περσεσόνη, δαίμονες are in the vocative: ‘I summon Pluto, you Persephone and all you other demons’.
65a. Exeunt duae umbrae: (literally ‘two shades exit’). The marginal note acts as a stage direction. However, there is no indication in the text how or whence the shades appear.
66. Iamque audire sat est: cf. Verg., Aen. 2.103.
67. Again, the line acts as a stage direction.
Hebrew inscription
The Hebrew inscription reads: ‘Lilit, Lilit, Lilit, Ashmedai, btrvy dyfdn’ erroneously transcribed into the Roman alphabet as ‘Rupon badui alsamadech lilit lilit lilit’.
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lilit: לילית lilith, lit. a screech owl; Tibullus associates screech owls with the ghosts that hover around his witch (1.5.51–2). It could also refer to the Jewish tradition of Adam's first wife, sent out of Eden and replaced by Eve because she would not submit to him.
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alsamadech: אַשְמְדּאָי: Ashmedai in Judeo-Islamic lore, the king of earthly spirits mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, in which he is the primary protagonist.
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badui rupon: Patrick M. Owens notes (in private correspondence) that this is ‘very unclear mostly because of the position of the letter he. It is likely that there is some misspelling for bachadey which would mean “in praise” or “with rejoicing” or it could be bachadadey “toward each other”. It could even be (with another misspelling) baduy from the root for “he created”.’
He adds: ‘Rupon might come from a root rapap, and mean something like “shaking” or “vibration”. It is certainly weird, and almost assuredly something demon related.’ He suggests further that ‘the final words could also be a mystical acrostic, which are common in Hebrew Kabbalistic texts and prayers’, and concludes, ‘It goes without saying that Renaissance margins and monuments are often adorned with Hebrew gibberish’ and concludes, ‘the best transcription into the Roman alphabet is Lilit Lilit Lilit Ashmedai btrvy dyfdn (or Lilith depending on the convention of transliteration) and after that it is anybody's guess.’
Tertheus
A short propitiatory prayer in two sapphic stanzas in the manner of Hor. Carm. 1.30.
Title
Tertheus: a neologism composed of Latin ter (‘triple’) and Greek θεός (‘god’); see above.
1. agimus damusque: a variation upon the formulaic veniam petimus damusque vicissim, Hor. Ars P. 11.
2. pia thura: a common phrase found throughout classical literature; for example, Tib. 2.2.3; Ov., Met. 6.161; Luc. 9.996; Mart. 8.8.3; 8.66.1.
3. profundi | Numina regni: cf. Stygii … … numina regni, Luc. 7.169.
5. memor fati: cf. Luc. 8.10 (Pompey).
7. orbis caput: cf. Roma, orbis caput, Ov., Fast. 5.93.
8. Roma memento: cf. Verg., Aen. 6.851 (Anchises’ injunction to future Romans).
Reproduced with the kind permission of Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996 c. 7r, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996 c. 7v, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996 c. 8r, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996c. 8v, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996c. 9r, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996c. 9v, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996c. 10r, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Ricc. 996c. 10v, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture.
