De Nuptiis Research Articles

A Brief History of Liberal Education in Ancient and Medieval Europe－Focusing on the Formation and Evolution of Liberal Arts

This paper examined the history of liberal education in ancient and medieval Europe, focusing on the formation and evolution of liberal arts using materials concerning the history of education, history of university, history of philosophy, and history of science. The elementary form of liberal education emerged at Greece in the fourth century BC. The philosophers’ tradition and the orators’ tradition made two approaches to liberal education. Greek scholarship was accepted in the form of encyclopedic publications in the Roman era, and <i>Disciplinarium libri novem</i>, the first work which contained the idea of liberal arts, was written in the first century BC. In the early medieval ages, so called dark ages, secular scholarship maintained its existence through the medium of liberal arts. In the fifth century, liberal arts became actualized into the seven liberal arts through <i>De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii</i>. Since the sixth century, the seven liberal arts were divided into trivium and quadrivium. In the Renaissance of the twelfth century, ancient writings were extensively translated including Aristotelian works, and the attempt to relate Greek philosophies and the seven liberal arts was tried. Circa 1250, some universities were set up in the major cities of Europe, and medieval universities were mostly organized with the faculties of arts, theology, law, and medicine. Since the late thirteenth century, the arts faculty extended the scope of liberal arts by adding three philosophies to the existing seven liberal arts: natural philosophy, metaphysics and ethics. Based on the above examination, this paper showed that the scope of liberal arts was not fixed but continuously changed, and that humanities and science were not separated in ancient and medieval Europe.

Note minime sul ius dotium in Marziano Capella

Summary Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, 9.898, echoes ancient jurisprudence, not only because the divinity Saturnus is depicted as a jurist, but because the passage also refers to a jurisprudential rule on dowries. The text suggests that dotem dicere is possible after a marriage has been celebrated. Legal authorities (both imperial constitutions and works by jurists) show that Saturnus’ words are consistent with principles of Roman law on dowries.

Augustine and the Problem of Bodily Desire

In what sense did Augustine attribute desires to the human body itself? Scholars disagree substantially about how to answer this question, yet it has rarely been treated as anything approaching a scholarly quaestio disputata. Some hold that bodily desire is in principle impossible according to Augustine’s anthropology. Others hold that bodily desire is of marginal significance in Augustine’s system. Still others hold that bodily desire is a central problem in human life according to Augustine. This essay is an intervention intended to prompt further exchange about the interpretation of Augustine’s thought on the issue of bodily desire. To achieve that goal, the essay closely examines two texts from Augustine’s writings against Julian of Eclanum in the early 420s. In book I of De nuptiis et concupiscentia, Augustine argues that the body does have its own desires and they are an extensive problem in human life. Furthermore, in Contra Iulianum we find that Augustine himself responds to three crucial objections that might be raised against my interpretation. In short, late in his life Augustine treated bodily desire as a grave and pervasive problem. The essay does not address his views in his earlier works. As an intervention, the essay inevitably prompts important questions it cannot fully address, especially around Augustine’s philosophy of mind, the development of Augustine’s thought, and the implications of Augustine’s claims about the body for other elements of his theological project. Future investigations will hopefully take up these topics in the scholarly exchange this intervention intends to foster.

Unity and Parody, or how to read a Menippean Satire: On Martianus’ <i>De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii</i>

The present paper aims to propose the study of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii from a literary perspective, combining Theory of Genres and Functionalist Discourse Analysis. In order to disarticulate previous opinions on the work—which reduce menippean molds to a minimum, considering De nuptiis a didactic text—we state two main categories that work as axes in our interpretation: the unity of the work, and the presence of parody as the dominant register and unifying bond. In this framework, De nuptiis is no longer a failed encyclopedia, but a perfect Menippean satire.

Psique y Cupido, Filología y Mercurio: diálogo y metamorfosis entre Apuleyo y Marciano

La sátira menipea de Marciano (segunda mitad del siglo V d. C.) es una obra desestabilizadora y antididáctica. Reutiliza discursos e ideas previas de manera paródica para convertirlos en objeto de burla, atacando las convenciones y tradiciones pasadas, en un claro proyecto disolvente del saber y el discurso de la cultura clásica. En este contexto, estudiamos las metamorfosis discursivas operadas por Marciano sobre las Metamorfosis de Apuleyo, su función y cómo contribuye al objetivo desestabilizador de la obra en su totalidad. En el diálogo entre ambos textos podemos encontrar una clave más de lectura para De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii.

Discourse and Silence in Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii


 
 
 
 The present paper analyzes Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii from a generic point of view, departing from Systemic Functional Linguistics, in order to establish parody as its main feature, in consistence with its generic adscription to Menippean Satire. As a result, we expect to prove that Martianus is attacking discourse and discursive knowledge, and proposing silence as an alternative category for the characterization of transcendence and truth. This perspective intends to show De nuptiis as a Menippean Satire which subverts all values exposed along the work, turn ing thus into an anti-didactic text.
 
 
 

Sagesse, poésie et matière de Troie au XIe siècle

During the eleventh century, as attested by the poetics of Godfried of Rheims or by the anonymous poem De nuptiis, poetry was considered as the supreme way of knowledge, as it was the case in certain milieus throughout the Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In this regard, the matter of Troy was elevated to the highest poetic rank and those poets dealing with the Trojan imaginary are seen as alter Homerus or alter Orpheus, that is, representatives of the supreme wisdom.

The Metamorphosis Goliae Episcopi: A Revised Edition,Translation, and Notes

The Metamorphosis Goliae Episcopi, unlike most twelfth-century “Goliardic” poems, can be grounded in place and time. It was written in the early 1140s, shortly before or after the death of Peter Abelard, and aims to vindicate the secular element in the intellectual culture of the cathedral schools of Paris and northern France. The action is framed by the allegory of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis, which presents the liberal arts curriculum in an idealized form, and the large cast includes a number of magistri of the time renowned for their mastery of the liberal arts. The poem builds toward a condemnation of Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians, whose role in suppressing Abelard’s theological writings is made to epitomize the hostility of the religious establishment to liberal and innovative scholarship.

Martianus Capella’s calculation of the size of the moon

The eighth book of Martianus Capella’s famous De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii deserves a prominent place in the history of astronomy because it is the oldest source that came down to us unambiguously postulating the heliocentrism of the inner planets. Just after the paragraph in which Capella asserts that Mercury and Venus revolve around the Sun, he describes a method for calculating the size of the Moon, as well as the proportion between the size of its orbit and the size of the Earth. It is possible to find some descriptions of the argument in general histories of astronomy or in books dedicated to Capella’s work, but usually they do not try to make sense of the argument. Rather, they limit themselves to describe or paraphrase what Capella says. As far as I know, there is no single study of the argument itself. The explanation for this absence is simple: the calculation offers many difficulties in its interpretation, for it shows obvious inconsistencies in the steps of the argument and apparent arbitrariness in the selection of the data used. In this article, I offer an interpretation that tries to discover, behind Capella’s confusing presentation, a well-sound argument for calculating the Moon’s absolute size. Interestingly, we have no records of this argument in other sources, at least in the form described by Capella.

Martianus Capella and Saint Benedict: The critical arts of encyclopedic satire and new-old forms-of-life

Addressing the shortcomings of North America’s prevalent model of higher education, this essay hazards that two late-antique figures may provide avenues for rejuvenating the network of humanities research and pedagogy (critical/liberal/arts) in institutions of higher education (IHEs). Making a foray into examples of alternative IHEs, past and present, I move from Benedict of Nursia’s late-antique labors to more recent para-academic endeavors. Martianus Capella’s De Nuptiis is then mined for both a transitional comportment (encyclopedic satire) and two scholarly practices or ‘critical arts’ (periergia and parecbasis) that, though tangential, can be deployed productively in the meantime, as we labor among the ruins. In closing, I draft a preliminary visualization of the actor-networks within and between educational entities.

The geometry in codex 80 (XII century) of the cathedral of Tortosa

The geometry in codex 80 of the Capitular Archive has traditionally been understood as a complete text and attributed to Gerbert of Aurillac ( c . 940-1003). From a new reading of the text, we can say that it is a miscellaneous writing about geometry, composed of three independent parts: one containing the Geometria Incerti Auctoris apocryphical by Gerbert of Aurillac ( c . 940-1003); another one is a fragment of De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella (fl . 430) from Ergasticis Schematibus of Book VII of the Geometry; and finally there is a gloss to the Elementa by Euclides ( c . 325- c . 265 bC.) by Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar (786-833). The interpretation of the geometrical propositions provides knowledge about the indirect measure of places which are inaccessible using medieval instrumental, the astrolabe, mirrors, cane and squares.

Agustín sobre el matrimonio. Una comparación del De bono coniugali y De nuptiis et concupiscentia

In recent literature, it has regularly been suggested that, in his later years, Augustine of Hippo became more and more pessimistic with regard to marriage and sexuality. At the same time, Augustine was praised for his nuanced view on this issue in about 401, when he developed a middle position between the optimistic approach of Jovinian and the rather denigrating view of Jerome with regard to marriage. While Jovinian was of the opinion that (because of baptism) a life in abstinence and marriage were equally meritorious, Jerome developed an outspoken and negative view on marriage in favor of the consecrated life. For his part, Augustine considered a life of abstinence as superior in comparison to marriage but explicitly stated that marriage was a bonum in its own right. In this contribution, it is made clear that the positions of Augustine in De bono coniugali (about 401) and De nuptiis et concupiscentia (418/19) are substantially the same. In other words, qualifications such as being wise or pessimistic do not really do justice to Augustine’s position, which remained the same through the years. In De nuptiis et concupiscentia, in the midst of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine made much more use of Scriptural texts in order to underpin his view on marriage and concupiscence in relation to the doctrine of original sin: in the controversy with Julian of Aeclanum he had to defend himself against accusations such as innovation and heresy. In the two works, the ethical criterion par excellence for the evaluation of human beings moral behavior remained the propter Deum attitude.

Two 12thcentury-commentaries on Martianus Capella and Virgil

The commentaries on Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae and Vergil’s first six books of the Aeneid, which represent typically medieval allegoric interpretations of two ancient texts of high importance for scholarly formation in medieval Western Europe, are obviously written by the same author to be used in cathedral schools of the twelfth century in order to demonstrate the unity of what he calls philosophy, which comprises both knowledge of the universe and ethics. The author composed his commentary on Vergil, as can be shown by an analysis of quotations, only after that on Martianus, with anagogic intention: the destination of man, that is to say of the microcosmus, according to his conviction, aims at surpassing the material world, the macrocosmus, the understanding of which is provided by the Liberal Arts, their knowledge granting the ascension to the sphere of eternity. This is why the commentary on the Aeneid, like the interpretation given by John of Salisbury, ends within the sixth book, where Aeneas, during his visit to the underworld, arrives at the Elysium, the region, where the blessed dwell. This arrangement of the commentaries points to the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris, the first part of which deals with the creation of the universe, whereas its second part concentrates on the creation of man, according to the sequence in the relative report in the Biblical Book of Genesis. Thus it is not improbable, that Bernardus Silvestris is really the author of both commentaries.

Creative Translation in Medieval Catalan: Bernat Metge

Creativity in the translation of a literary work is as difficult to quantify as it is to define. Insofar as inuentio, dispositio, and elocutio play a part in such a process, the result is bound to ...

Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella: Ninth-Century Commentary Traditions on 'De nuptiis' in Context ed. by Mariken Teeuwen and Sinead O'Sullivan (review)

Reviewed by: Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella: Ninth-Century Commentary Traditions on 'De nuptiis' in Context ed. by Mariken Teeuwen and Sinead O'Sullivan David Daintree Teeuwen, Mariken and Sinead O'Sullivan , eds, Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella: Ninth-Century Commentary Traditions on 'De nuptiis' in Context (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 12), Brepols, Turnhout, 2011; hardback; pp. viii, 396; 17 b/w figures; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503531786. This is a collection of fourteen papers derived from a conference, organised by Mariken Teeuwen in 2008, that considered aspects of the scholia and glosses associated with the ninth-century transmission of Martianus Capella's De nuptiis. The collection is preceded by a useful and lucid Introduction by Teeuwen herself. The book is eminently readable in its own right, for the team of authors assembled is a strong and distinguished one, but there is a sense in which it might be regarded as no more than a comprehensive series of footnotes to a much larger enterprise. Six years before the conference took place, Teeuwen began her 'Martianus Project', the development of a digital tool called eLaborate, the aim of which was to facilitate the 'collaborative transcribing [End Page 234] and editing of texts'. I recommend a visit to the project's web site at <http://martianus.huygens.knaw.nl> before reading this review further. Readers who visit the site will discover an exciting new approach to the editing of commentary, that most elusive, fugacious, and insubstantial branch of ancient and medieval literature. Here is a kind of apotheosis of a Wikipedia article: it offers the reader all the available information and invites contributions from those scholars who wish to take part in its workshop in the Cloud! It also discloses a high degree of scholarly cooperativeness: Sinead O'Sullivan was engaged in another field of research on Martianus when she heard of Teeuwen's work and agreed to join forces. Most works of this kind have been, in the past, quite literally closed books: the scholar or scholars write their book, print it, and wait (for months and probably years) to see what reception it receives. Nowadays - surely one of the genuine blessings of the internet age - a 'book' such as this one is a work in progress, to which scholars from all over the world, already distinguished or quite unknown, can make their own contributions. It is fitting that this kind of approach should be adopted for the editing of scholia and commentary. Teeuwen clearly recognises that a collection of commentaries cannot be a closed book, but rather something more akin to a growing organism, whose component parts have been invented, borrowed, and transcribed (sometimes inaccurately) by many hands. Only when such a set of commentaries is printed does it assume the appearance of something that it is not, a finished and integrated literary work. Teeuwen summarises thus: 'the search for a single author should be abandoned, since the gloss tradition shows characteristics of being the work of multiple authors … and the scholarly nature of the gloss tradition should be reconsidered and viewed outside the old frames of the schoolbook discussion' (p. 5). Much as one admires the diligence and intelligence of the great scholars of the nineteenth century, there is no doubt that much of their work on commentary was flawed by their perception that there was a single 'author' behind each collection. Having formerly edited scholia on Virgil, I found this book and its associated web site particularly exciting. I recall the difficulty of explaining the nature of the commentary as well as Teeuwen has succinctly done. The invention of the modern printed volume has taught us to see books as final objects, the productions of scholarship, and all authors like to think (or at least hope) that their book will be the last word on their subject. Only those who have worked with manuscripts can appreciate how little respect (in a sense) the scholars of the past had for the written word. It is a strange paradox: books were vastly more expensive and precious than they are today; yet nobody hesitated to write and draw in the margins, to disagree with...

Two literary encyclopaedias from Late Antiquity

This paper aims to offer a new perspective on two fifth-century texts: Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii and Macrobius’Saturnalia. Both were transmitted and received throughout the Middle Ages as methodical sources containing an account of the ancient sciences and disciplines, and highly criticised in modern times for their supposedly poor level of scientific knowledge. Setting aside the recent focus on the Neoplatonic ascription of some of their content, I claim that these texts still contribute to a traditional educational ideal. They put forward a kind of amateur, dilettantish encyclopaedic lore as the appropriate ‘further education’ for young Latin men of the higher class that would allow them to acquire material for excellence in discourse within the framework of a basically rhetorical education. With their literary sophistication and informal approach, they also illustrate the means of acquiring this broader knowledge in a non-professional way, by individual reading/listening and excerpting, as something distinct from the formal schooling available in grammar and rhetoric. Such an approach could help us to avoid the still rather widespread and sometimes undeservedly excessive criticism of the level of their ‘science’ and, especially, blaming this dubious characteristic on the prejudiced assumption of the decline of science in the ‘obscure times’ of Late Antiquity.

John Scottus and Greek Mythology: Reprising an Ancient Hermeneutic in the Paris Commentary on Martianus Capella

The essay opens with a brief discussion of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, and sets out some possible reasons for its popularity with medieval scholars. De nuptiis was known in Ireland by the seventh century, and John Scottus Eriugena might have read it there. In any case, he wrote two versions of a commentary on the work, the longer of which (P = Paris, BnF, MS lat. 12960) is considerably more interesting for its exegetical method. The allegoresis of secular texts had been largely neglected since Fulgentius (sixth century), and was only reprised in the diffuse commentary tradition on Martianus that preceded Eriugena’s study of that text. However, in the P commentary John appears to be working towards a sophisticated exegetical system that embodies what the author himself calls “the laws of allegory.” John employs the terms fabulose and physice (“in the mythical sense”and “in the physical sense”), which, as is argued, correspond to Neoplatonic psychological allegoresis and Stoic physical allegoresis respectively. Although the terms appear to be similar to those used by Augustine in the De civitate Dei (drawing on Varro), John uses them differently. The source of his terminology remains problematic, though one might speculate on the use of a Greek work.

The Sacred and the Obscure: Greek and the Carolingian Reception of Martianus Capella

Carolingian scholars paid considerable attention to the Greek found in Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, a late antique Latin work full of obscurities in language and imagery. This article, focusing on glosses on De nuptiis from the oldest gloss tradition, demonstrates that a range of material was available to ninth-century scholars to elucidate Martianus’s Greek and that Greek seems, at times, to have served as a means to obscure. I argue that their interest in obscurity reflects a widespread epistemology and strategy of concealment, hence their intellectual investment in Martianus. For ninth-century readers, then, the Greek in the glossed Martianus manuscripts, however decorative it may have been, also operated at the core of medieval hermeneutics.

Martianus Capella 935 and Its Carolingian Commentaries

Research Article| October 01 1999 Martianus Capella 935 and Its Carolingian Commentaries Charles M. Atkinson Charles M. Atkinson Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Musicology (1999) 17 (4): 498–519. https://doi.org/10.2307/763930 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Charles M. Atkinson; Martianus Capella 935 and Its Carolingian Commentaries. Journal of Musicology 1 October 1999; 17 (4): 498–519. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/763930 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Musicology Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 2001 Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Polyphony of the Spheres

"The Polyphony of the Spheres." Every student of music history learns that the earliest extant description of the polyphonic performance of Western music is found in an anonymous Carolingian music theory treatise, Musica enchiriadis, from around A.D. 900. What seems to have gone unnoticed, however, is that the procedure is also mentioned in Remigius of Auxerre's contemporary commentary on Martianus Capella's encyclopedic work that has come to be known as De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. The reference does not occur, as one would expect, in the section containing glosses of Martianus's book on harmony, but in the commentary on the sustained allegory, informed by Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean metaphysics, that Martianus presents in books 1 and 2. The identification of a contemporary practice in the performance of liturgical music as an exemplum of one of Martianus's most striking metaphors is explained as a polyphonic variation on a theme first stated 1500 years before Remigius undertook the exposition of De Nuptiis the Pythagorean-Platonic theory of the harmony of the spheres.