Texts

Glossae in Martianum (anonymous)

Incoming data

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Anonymous Carolingian commentary on parts of the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella. In most of the surviving manuscripts, it is presented by way of marginal and interlinear scholia to the main text. In spite of earlier suggestions by scholars that attribute the commentary to Dúnchad or Martin of Laon, no single author can be pinpointed. More recently, a joint effort by multiple authors has been offered as the most plausible scenario (see esp. Teeuwen). The work was quickly followed by new, more comprehensive commentaries, one by John Scottus Eriugena and another by Remigius of Auxerre.

Manuscript witnesses

Text

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 153

Contains glosses in Old Welsh.

Text

Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 87

Text

Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 88

Text

Leiden, University Library, MS VLF 48

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.] OʼSullivan, Sinéad, Glossae aeui Carolini in libros I-II Martiani Capellae De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 237, Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.

abstract:

This edition presents a comprehensive view of the oldest gloss tradition on books I-II of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, a key text for Carolingian scholars. It furnishes descriptions of all extant manuscripts transmitting these glosses and outlines their stemmatic relationship. The relevant centres of glossing activity are indicated. The glosses are accompanied by an apparatus of variants both to text and gloss as well as by a source apparatus and traditio textus to the glosses. The edition of glosses is organized by lemma and in categories according to the nature of the content. Additions of second and third hands are noted. The comprehensiveness made possible by thorough examination of all extant manuscripts brings into focus the layering of annotations over time, the close cooperation between scribes, the presence of a ‘core’ corpus of annotations and the range and variety of material across the tradition. More generally, the glosses provide insight into how Martianus was read and understood in the ninth and tenth centuries. Martianus’ rich blend of astral religion, classical mythology and pagan tradition had an enormous impact on Carolingian commentators. The earliest tradition of glossing on De nuptiis thus supplements our knowledge of how pagan culture was received in the early medieval West, raising important questions about the nature of this reception.

[ed.] Lutz, Cora E. [ed.], Dunchad glossae in Martianum, Philological Monographs, 12, Lancaster, Pennsylvania: American Philological Association, 1944.

Part of the text only.

Secondary sources (select)

Teeuwen, Mariken, and Sinéad OʼSullivan (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, Turnhout: Brepols, 2012.

abstract:

It is well known that the Carolingian royal family inspired and promoted a cultural revival of great consequence. The courts of Charlemagne and his successors welcomed lively gatherings of scholars who avidly pursued knowledge and learning, while education became a booming business in the great monastic centres, which were under the protection of the royal family. Scholarly emphasis was placed upon Latin language, religion, and liturgy, but the works of classical and late antique authors were collected, studied, and commented upon with similar zeal. A text that was read by ninth-century scholars with an almost unrivalled enthusiasm is Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, a late antique encyclopedia of the seven liberal arts embedded within a mythological framework of the marriage between Philology (learning) and Mercury (eloquence). Several ninth-century commentary traditions testify to the work’s popularity in the ninth century. Martianus’s text treats a wide range of secular subjects, including mythology, the movement of the heavens, numerical speculation, and the ancient tradition on each of the seven liberal arts. De nuptiis and its exceptionally rich commentary traditions provide the focus of this volume, which addresses both the textual material found in the margins of De nuptiis manuscripts, and the broader intellectual context of commentary traditions on ancient secular texts in the early medieval world.

Teeuwen, Mariken, “Writing between the lines: reflections of scholarly debate in a Carolingian commentary tradition”, in: Mariken Teeuwen, and Sinéad OʼSullivan (eds), Carolingian scholarship and Martianus Capella: ninth-century commentary traditions on De nuptiis in context, 12, Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. 11–34.

Teeuwen, Mariken, “Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis: a pagan ‘storehouse’ first discovered by the Irish?”, in: Rolf Bremmer, and Kees Dekker [eds.], Foundations of learning: the transfer of encyclopaedic knowledge in the early Middle Ages, 9, Leuven: Peeters, 2007. 51–62.

Looks at the earliest insular and continental evidence for knowledge and use of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis, concludes that the insular transmission of the text is limited mostly to part of the book on grammar, perhaps originating from a miscellany, and suggests that “the interest in De nuptiis as a storehouse of secular learning bloomed only on the Continent, and not in the insular world”.

Laistner, M. L. W., “Martianus Capella and his ninth century commentators”, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 9:1 (1925): 130–13.