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. (shrink)

Ce texte est originellement paru dans la Revue Rursus. Poétique, réception et réécriture des textes antiques, le 3 octobre 2017. Nous remercions Laurent Calvié, Arnaud Zucker et la revue Rursus de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. Résumé : On a aujourd'hui tendance à souligner les libertés qu'auraient prises Martianus Capella en traduisant la rythmique d'Aristide Quintilien : on hésite même à considérer le premier comme un traducteur du second. Cela - Études grecques et latines.

Le quatrième livre des Noces de Philologie et de Mercure, encyclopédie allégorique composée par Martianus Capella à Carthage au début du ve s. ap. J.-C., est con­sacré à la dialectique. Le présent volume vient compléter, dans la Collection des Universités de France, le livre VII (sur l’arithmétique) édité, traduit et commenté par Jean-Yves Guillaumin en 2003, et le livre VI (sur la géométrie), procuré selon les mêmes normes par Barbara Ferré en 2007. C’est la première traduction française de...

Si la doctrine arithmologique des nombres « parfaits », « abondants » et « déficients » est bien connue et souvent exposée depuis Nicomaque de Gérasa (iie siècle apr. J.-C.), elle reçoit une illustration nouvelle, dans laquelle la mythologie cède le pas à l’éthique et à la théologie, dans une glose médiévale du texte de Martianus Capella (livre VII des Noces de Philologie et de Mercure), où le nombre parfait est mis en correspondance avec la justice éternelle.

Essays, improved editions, translations, commentaries, appendixes, bibliography.

Resumo: O artigo trata da retórica na Antiguidade e na Idade Média a partir da perspectiva de onze filósofos – Platão e Aristóteles, Cícero, Sêneca e Quintiliano, a Retórica a Herênio, Agostinho, Marciano Capela e Isidoro de Sevilha, Bernardo de Claraval e Ramon Llull. Oferece, ainda, um extrato por nós traduzido da Retórica nova do filósofo catalão, a primeira tradução para a língua portuguesa.: This article deals with rhetoric in Antiquity and Middle Ages from the perspective of eleven philosophers: Plato, (...) Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian, the unknown author of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Saint Augustine, Martianus Capella, Isidore of Seville, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Ramon It also offers an extract translated by us from Llull’s Retorica nova. (shrink)

Starting from the concept and definition of littera in the Grammar treatises of the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the contribution analyzes common graphic elements which were used by the scribes to create initials, ornamental patterns and the layout of the manuscript page. These elements and their functions were partly described in encyclopaedic works, e. g. of Isidor of Sevilla and Martianus Capella in the chapters about Geometry. Not only were these features well known through the study (...) of the Artes, they also represented useful tools for the invention and production of medieval diagrams. (shrink)

Robert Grosseteste was one of the principal links between the thought of the twelfth century and the period of scholasticism. Born in or slightly before 1168 and educated at the cathedral school at Lincoln, whose bishop he later became, he was undoubtedly educated according to the curriculum which had been established during the earlier part of the twelfth century. His works show an intimate knowledge of the Timaeus and Calcidius's commentary, of Priscian, and of Martianus Capella's De nuptiis, writings (...) which, although they were sometimes cited, declined drastically in popularity in the thirteenth century. He also shows a better knowledge of the classical authors than one usually encounters in a scholastic theologian, and he knows and uses Eriugena's Periphyseon, although he does not cite it by name. (shrink)

Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy” combines a philosophical dialogue with the use of prosimetrum. This mixture of prose and poetry in several meters originally served a satirical criticism of high culture literature and/or philosophy. With regard to the “Consolation”, however, the interpretation of the prosimetrum is a matter of controversy. This article uses insights from modern genre theory to understand the processes of genre transformation active in the “Consolation”, and highlights Martianus Capella as an important mediator between earlier prosimetric satires (...) and Boethius’ “Consolation”. Then, the article analyses how philosophical dialogue and prosimetric satire are evoked throughout the “Consolation” to create a generic hybrid in which both genres are assigned a proper function in relation to the aim of the “Consolation”: to assure the reader of the existence of a cosmic moral order. (shrink)

The De praedestinatione of John Scottus Eriugena was intended as a contribution to a controversy sparked off by Gottschalk of Orbais concerning predestination. This work met with trenchant criticism and condemnation even though it firmly rejected Gottschalk’s views on double predestination. One of the reasons for this hostile reception was undoubtedly Eriugena’s singular conception of the freedom of will, a subject I intend to discuss elsewhere. In the present text, however, I would like to focus on another important cause of (...) the rejection of Eriugena’s treatise. In my opinion, this second reason was a pre-scholastic project of rationalization of the faith in the spirit of St. Augustine and using the method of Boethius and Martianus Capella. It would appear that Eriugena’s contemporaries were not ready for the favorable reception of his idea of the vera philosophia that was the same as the vera religio. Yet, as Goulven Madec once rightly observed, the vera ratio of Scotus was closely bound up with the lux mentium which is nothing else than God revealing himself in the human language of the Scriptures. Eriugena’s masters and models were the Church Fathers and his intention was to continue their efforts to achieve an understanding of the faith in his own, personal way. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Christian Humanism in the Age of Critical Philology:Ralph Häfner's Gods in ExileMartin MulsowHäfner's book is a monumental study and a milestone of German-language research.1 He delineates, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the Christian humanism of European philologists in the era of criticism. Recovering an immense wealth of forgotten sources, the book reveals the complex interaction and tension between pagan mythology and Christian culture in philological controversies. (...) Though authors might denounce the pagan histories of gods as fabulae, they were constitutive for the productive and emulative reception of ancient Greco-Roman patterns in Renaissance and Baroque culture. How could the peculiar logic of this paganizing be handled? Was it advisable to have faith in the integrative power of Christian truth, which was capable of finding precursors or even proofs of one's own truth in pagan patterns, or should the pagan be selectively separated from the Christian? And what was the role of philology in this process? Did the growing expertise in criticism advance the process of dissociation of paganism and Christianity? Did it further new possibilities of synthesis in the spirit of Apologetics? [End Page 659]The reconstruction of these processes involves much more than what the book's very specific title suggests. It is a large-scale history of scholarship written from the perspective of the most important tensions that Christian humanism had to overcome in its final stage. From an Anglo-American perspective, this book contributes to recent reconstructions of ideas of early modern men of learning, as well as the growing number of studies on antiquarianism and the history of religion.2 The final stage of Christian humanism, the period of time covered by the book, begins in the late sixteenth century and ends in the 1730s, a point in time which Häfner presents, with some justification, as the end of an era.Hymnology and PolymathyThe study consists of three basic parts. The first one is the "Persistence of Orphic-Platonic Hymnology in Christian Humanism" ("Fortleben der orphisch-platonischen Hymnologie im christlichen Humanismus"). This topic, apparently very specialized and marginal, proves to be a key arena of early modern scholarship, an arena traversed by the battle lines between pagan tradition and Christianity as well as between poetry and theology. Were hymns inspired poetry? What kind of inspiration could and should be conceded to hymns to Jupiter and the sun? Of course, those humanists who reappropriated Orphism and Neo-Platonism were interested in this genre. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and even into the mid-sixteenth century, this was not yet a problem. However, the more philological consciousness (and confessionalization) evolved, the more the genre's scope was delimited. What scope remained? Häfner relates the problem to the revival of an "eclectic Platonism" in the wake of the Second Sophistic. This "eclectic Platonism," which was particularly influential from 1500 on, combined Platonism with rhetorics, and the claim of comprehensive polymathy with the joyful presentation of the findings of reading. In this respect, Apuleius and Aulus Gellius were two model authors for early modern polyhistors. We must include Martianus Capella as a continuation of the "Renaissance of the Second Sophistic into Early Christian Encyclopedism" [End Page 660] ("Renaissance der Zweiten Sophistik bis in die frühchristliche Enzyklopädie hinein," p. 18).Häfner's approach is starkly original and, in my opinion, highly productive for the current debates about early modern encyclopedism and "cultures of knowledge" that are sometimes deadlocked.3 Too frequently, polymathy is used synonymously for encyclopedism, which is often associated with modern concepts of systematic classification. Yet, according to Häfner, this is a misunderstanding. It neglects the playful elements and skillful rhetorical options of throwing questions out into the open rather than narrowing them dogmatically. Perhaps the only addition to Häfner's sources could have been Louis de Cressolles's Theatrum veterum Rhetorum, which, according to Marc Fumaroli in L'age de l'éloquence, marked the return of the Second Sophistic.4 The analysis of the work of Gerhard Johannes Vossius, a classical philologist who resided in Leyden and Amsterdam, is the first test for Häfner... (shrink)

On peut difficilement contester l’importance de la traduction du Timée (17a-53c) par un certain Calcidius, accompagnée d’un commentaire d’une section plus courte (31c-53c), datant du ive siècle de notre ère. Comme le note Béatrice Bakhouche (p. 58), ce texte est, avec le Commentaire au Songe de Scipion de Macrobe, les Noces de Mercure et Philologie de Martianus Capella et la Consolation de Philosophie de Boèce, un des quatre « maîtres-livres‑» qui ont assuré la transmission de l’héritage phil...

Resumo: O artigo trata da retórica na Antiguidade e na Idade Média a partir da perspectiva de onze filósofos – Platão e Aristóteles, Cícero, Sêneca e Quintiliano, a Retórica a Herênio, Agostinho, Marciano Capela e Isidoro de Sevilha, Bernardo de Claraval e Ramon Llull. Oferece, ainda, um extrato por nós traduzido da Retórica nova do filósofo catalão, a primeira tradução para a língua portuguesa.: This article deals with rhetoric in Antiquity and Middle Ages from the perspective of eleven philosophers: Plato, (...) Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian, the unknown author of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Saint Augustine, Martianus Capella, Isidore of Seville, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Ramon It also offers an extract translated by us from Llull’s Retorica nova. (shrink)

The paper is concerned with textual problems and the Nachleben of Martianus Capella: The source of Martianus’ chapters „De finalibus“ (3,278-288), as shown in part I, is the ß-version of the so-called Ps.-Maximus Victorinus or Metrorius (GL VI 229-239). In consequence, some textual problems in these chapters can be solved. The second part of the article examines the use of Martianus Book V (De rhetorica) in the 9th century „Compendium derhetorica“: The anonymous author used a glossed manuscript (...) of Martianus. These glosses are often identical with the explanations of Remigius, sometimes with the preremigian glosses of the carolingian era. (shrink)

"A commentary containing glosses on The Last Third of Book II, Book IV entire, and approximately a third of Book V of Martianus Capella"--Introduction.

In 1890, Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradskii (Winogradsky) proposed a novel life process called chemosynthesis. His discovery that some microbes could live solely on inorganic matter emerged during his physiological research in 1880s in Strassburg and Zurich on sulfur, iron, and nitrogen bacteria. In his nitrification research, Vinogradskii first embraced the idea that microbiology could have great bearing on agricultural problems. His critique of agricultural chemists and Kochian-style bacteriologists brought this message to the broader agricultural community, resulting in an heightened interest in (...) biological, rather than chemical methods to investigate soil processes. From 1891 to 1910, he directed the microbiological laboratory at the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he expanded his chemosynthesis research to a broad investigation of the manifold significance of autotrophic organisms in soil processes. This work and that of his students attracted the serious attention of agricultural chemists and soil scientists in Russia and abroad, changing essentially the way they understood and investigated the role of microbes in the soil. His student, Vasilii Omelianskii, effectively integrated Vinogradskii’s approach into Russian and Soviet, and international agricultural microbiology. Vinogradskii’s activities in the late 19th century reflect the changes occurring more broadly in science. At that time, microbiologists such as Louis Pasteur, Eugenius Warming, and Martianus Beijerinck were contributing new laboratory methods and theoretical perspectives to incipient disciplines closely related to agriculture: ecology, soil science, and soil microbiology. (shrink)

"A commentary containing glosses on The Last Third of Book II, Book IV (De arte dialectica) entire, and approximately a third of Book V (De rhetorica) of Martianus Capella"--Introduction.

A diagram that places two planets in orbit around the sun was inserted into the textual space of a Timaeus manuscript of the late 11th century as well as three more in the 12th century. The diagram derives from a Carolingian tradition of study of Martianus Capella’s astronomy and shows his continued authority into the twelfth century. By way of Capella and through similarly-inspired commentaries on Macrobius’ Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, the idea of circumsolar motion for Mercury (...) and Venus became a well-known and authoritative theme for William of Conches and other scholars in the eleventh and twelfth centuries wo interpreted Plato in terms of current scientific knowledge. (shrink)

One of the most learned and prolific writers of the ninth century was Remigius of Auxerre . In addition to lengthy expositions of several books of the Bible, he wrote Commentaries on Donatus, Priscian, Eutyches, Beda, the Disticha Catonis, Sedulius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and Phocas.

Mixing methods is a well-known innovative meth- odologic proposal for research in the second half of the 20th century social sciences. Reading literature about it, I observed the aspect that justifies this paper: Authors of theoretical contributions on mixing methods recognized that this was known to be a practice already in use many centuries ago. Some of them even have re-examined the whole history of the scientific method to search precedents. They are however individual and theoretical precedents. I add in (...) this paper the practical projection of these and other methodological theories on people’s training from Greek classical times. My hypothesis is that liberal arts was the basic syllabus in Western -and westernized- educaion for more than a millennium in such a way that results of their training precisely involved to mixing methods. In return, to understand the liberal arts in the light of mixing methods shows new aspects of their historical interest. I study the theoretical basis of this syllabus from Cicero to Alcuin. More important for future research, I conclude that Alcuin’s thesis about the correspondence between the gifts of the Holy Spiritu and the seven liberal arts can be extended to the Aristotelian dianoethics habits and to Dilthey’s 20th-century sciences of mind. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle AgesMichael CalabreseRhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages, by Rita Copeland; xiv & 295 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, $64.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.In this deeply learned book, Rita Copeland studies the history of rhetoric and grammar and their shifting roles in the history of translation, commentary, and interpretation from classical antiquity through the Middle Ages. Copeland examines the ideological (...) nexus of history, authority, and power in which commentary and vernacular translation function. “Vernacular writing,” she says, can “authorize itself by taking over the function of academic discourse” (p. 8). Her book then traces the history of this “authorization” and this “dis-placement” of Latin sources by the increasingly academically privileged vernacular. All in all, Copeland tells the story of how medieval literary culture articulated its translatio studii by confronting and preserving its Classical inheritance and also developing a role for the vernacular as an active, creative agent in the production of authoritative works. [End Page 413]Ultimately “rhetoric” is the star of Copeland’s book, and in essence she is telling its Roman and medieval life stories. By “rhetoric” we are to understand critical academic language that points toward ethics and practical action. Throughout the Middle Ages every modification or appropriation of critical tools expands the role of commentary and adds new forms of interpretive invention to the translation process. As Copeland puts it, “The medieval practice of translation as a form of appropriation and substitution will be conditioned, as in Roman contexts, by rhetorical theories of invention” (p. 36).The hermeneutical costar is grammar, for as part of the complex appropriation of classical practice, medieval readers recoup the “debased” Roman category of grammar, so that by the time of Martianus Capella it can “claim for itself the whole compass of literary activity” (p. 56). As grammar expands its power, so does rhetoric, a civic Roman art which gets “revalued in terms of service to theology” (p. 59). Medieval commentary now “assumes the character of rhetorical performance” (p. 86) and takes on a “primary productive character,” as it “continually refashions the [studied] text for changing conditions of understanding” (p. 64). What is emerging from all these developments is a medieval translation theory—and practice—which is informed by both academic and practical, ethical goals, that is, a hermeneutics forged by the link of grammar and rhetoric.The rest of the book studies the shifting status and the evolving role of the vernacular in this medieval hermeneutical drama. Copeland addresses the Ovide moralisé and the French translations of the Consolatio, and then Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women and Gower’s Confessio Amantis. We witness here how vernacular products take on authority by “inventing themselves” through authoritative discourse. In Gower’s Confessio we see the fusion of hermeneutics and rhetoric; the poem uses academic modes of discourse in the service of ethics or action. We thus see that by the late Middle Ages vernacular literature plays an authoritative role in the medieval translatio studii, as Gower seeks to “open the institution of learning to the widest possible audience and thereby empower it as a persuasive tool, leading to knowledge of the good” (p. 220). Overall, Copeland has told the story of the “leveling” of academic and vernacular discourse, so that the later, while not dispelling or overthrowing the former, can claim access to its traditional authority.Copeland’s prose is Latinate, at times pedantic and, at times, just plain Latin; reading the book can be a wearing experience. But it is all part of a history she knows in remarkable detail, a history that lies behind many assumptions we have about medieval ethical poetics. To have presented this history is a major scholarly feat. Copeland allows us to see medieval authors as both products and producers of methods of appropriation, imitation, conquest, and preservation—all strategies for “translating” the past and creating a present that can leave its intellectual mark on the future. One might now want to employ Copeland’s history of classical and medieval hermeneutics as a tool for [End Page 414] examining our own, contemporary academic rhetorics and for analyzing the “state of... (shrink)