The Textual Tradition of the Carmen de uentis (AL 484) : Some Preliminary Conclusions with a New Edition

Abstract

The Carmen de uentis (AL 484) is a school poem on the names of the winds, considered by Traube and Diaz y Diaz to be a seventh-century Visigothic composition. It achieved a wide manuscript circulation throughout the Middle Ages, and can be found in over fifty manuscripts, sometimes embodied in wind diagrams. The earliest branch, the oldest witnesses to which date from the early eighth century, circulated mainly in Visigothic milieux and northern Italy. The descendants of a more recent archetype, possibly a revision by a Carolingian scholar which presents a more 'classical' text, are mostly found in Reims, Fleury, Germany and connected centres, from the early ninth century onwards; this archetype is the source for most later copies. This article is the first attempt to provide a full description of the textual tradition of the poem and suggests that Riese's text should be reconsidered.