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Commenta Bernensia in Lucanum

  • Latin
  • prose

Medieval Latin commentary on Lucan’s poem De bello civili (al. Pharsalia) as preserved in manuscripts now in Bern (MSS 370 and 45). It is closely related to the Adnotationes super Lucanum, with which it is associated in MS 370. It is a matter of some debate to what extent the Commenta and Adnotationes might have been based on late antique material.

One scholium which has attracted attention from scholars of Gaulish and comparative religion is that on 1.444-446, the passage where Lucan describes sacrifices to the gods Teutates, Esus and Taranis. The scholium engages in an interpretatio romana and describes the manner of sacrifice in terms of drowning, hanging and burning, which scholars have associated with an Indo-European motif of ‘threefold death’.
Manuscripts
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 370
ff. 2v–125v, 125v–128v
The commentary in this manuscript is written continuously. Parts of the Adnotationes have been incorporated (see Werner). On ff. 125v-128v, it is followed by an extract from Orosius, which Werner (1994) considers part of the commentary as it stands in for the argumentum to Book 10.
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 45
The commentary occurs here in the form of marginal scholia.
Montpellier, École de Médecine, MS 362
Selection of scholia only.
Language
  • Latin
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
(Possible) sources: De bello civiliDe bello civiliEpic poem on the civic war between Julius Caesar and Pompey.
Related: Adnotationes super LucanumAdnotationes super Lucanum

Medieval Latin commentary to Lucan’s poem De bello civili (al. Pharsalia). It is closely related to another commentary, the Commenta Bernensia in Lucanum, with which it is associated in Bern MS 370. The nature of this relationship remains unclear as does the degree to which they might preserve a core of late-antique exegetical material.

Classification

Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] Usener, Hermann, Scholia in Lucani Bellum civile. Pars prior: M. Annaei Lucani, Commenta Bernensia, Leizpig: Teubner, 1869.
Internet Archive: <link> DigilibLT: <link>
Edition based on Bern MS 370, with selections of variants from Bern MS 45.
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
November 2019, last updated: July 2023