Disclosing Secrets: Virgil in Middle High German Poems

Disclosi ng Secrets:
Virgil in Middle H igh German Poems
Alessandro Zironi
Virgil as a Magician
Ouring the Middle Ages, V i rg i l became a versatile character in I iterature
throughout Europe. Since Oomenico Comparetti’s pioneering book, Virgil
in the Middle Ages, this particular top1c in medieval Iiterature has been
widely examined.1 Nevertheless, many questions still remain unanswered,
one of them being the peculiarity of the German tradition. The
presence of Virgil in German I iterature differs, in particular, from his
presence in other European traditions in the demoniac characterization
ascribed to the Latin poet in certain works.z ln particular, Virgil is connected
with the existence of a secret book written by the Latin poet, in
which the access to ars notoria and magic arts are hidden through obscure
sentences. The obscurity of the contents of Virgil’s secret book became
object of a wide interest in German l i terary production during the
thirteenth century and warrants an i nvestigation into the origin and
diffusion of this aspect of Virgil’s reception which will also take i nto account
the popularization of themes l ike the obscurity in the transmission
of forbidden arts among a lay public living in the German courts.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Virgil was weil known in
German courts thanks to Heinrich von Veldeke’s rewriting of the Aeneid,
to which particular attention was paid in the cultural m i l ieu of Landgrave
Hermann of Thuringia.3 The representation of Virgil as a magician
Oomenico Comparetti, Virgilio nel Medio Eva (Livorno: F. Vigo, 1 872), repr. edition
by Giorgio Pasqua Ii (Firenze: La nuova ltalia, 1937-41, 2″“ ed. 1943).
Otto Neudeck, „Möglichkeiten der Dichter-Stilisierung m mittelhochdeutscher
Literatur: Neidhart. Wolfram, Vergil.“ Euphorion 88 (1994): 349; Franz Josef
Worstbrock, „Vergil.“ in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon,
ed. Kurt Ruh, vol. 1 0 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1 999), 276.
Maria Grazia Saibene, „Le ‚Metamorfosi‘ di Ovidio nella traduzione di Albrecht
von Halberstadt,“ in L’antichita nel/a cultura europea del Medioevo, ed. Rosanna
Brusegan and Alessandro Zironi (Greifswald: Reineke, 1998), 21-22.
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE H I GH GERMAN POEMS 1 1 1
i n vernacular German Iiterature goes back to Wolfram von Eschenbach,
who cites Virgil in his poem Parziva/.4 ln the long section of the poem devoted
to Gawain, the knight meets the necromancer Clinschor who was
born in the Terra di Lavoro, a plain near Naples, and is a descendant of
the Latin poet.S Si nce Wolfram reports that Virgil was the ancestor of the
sorcerer C l inschor, it must be assumed that the former was also a magician.
Virgil is associated with the city of Naples in a l iterary tradition
which started immed iately after his death: Latin authors, l i ke Pliny the
Younger, recalled the poet’s tombjust outside the walls of the city. Virgil’s
grave was situated more precisely on the road to Pozzuoli i n the Vita
Svetonii vulgo Donatiana.S U ltimately, the widespread knowledge of the
site of Virgil’s tomb is to be attri buted to Jerome’s translation of the
Chronicon of Eusebius of Caesarea.7 After having recalled that Virgil died
in Brindisi and that his bones were carried to Naples, Jerome reports the
epitaph engraved on the tomb.e
Comparetti imagined that some popular, oral stories about the poet
in Naples developed alongside a written biographical transmission con-
Neudeck, „Möglichkeiten,“ 350.
„His land is called Terre de Lab ur. He is born of the descendants of one who also
devised many marvels. Virgil of Naples“ (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival and
Titurel, trans. Cyril Edwards, Oxford Wori:J’s Classics [Qxford: Oxford University
Press, 2006], 275): „srn lant heizt Terre de Labür: I von des nachkomn er ist
erborn, I der auch vil wunders het erkorn, I von Napels VirgiiTus. I Clinschor des
neve warp alsus,“ (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parziva/ 656,14-18, Text und Übersetzung,
2nd ed. with text from the 6′“ edition by Karl Lachmann [Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter, 2003], 660).
Jan M. Ziolkowski and Michael C. J. Putnam. The Virgilian Tradition. The First Fifteen
Hundred Years (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2008), 185.
Rudolf Heim, Ote Chronik des Hieronymus, in Heim, ed., Eusebius Werke, VII, part 1
(Berlin: Akademie Verlag. 1 956), 1 65h; Ziolkowski and Putnam. The Virgilian
Tradition, 201.
„Virgi I dies at Brindisi und er the consulships of Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius
Cinna. His bones, carried over to Naples. are buried at the second milepost from
the city, with an epitaph of this sort written above, which he hirnself had dictated
as he was dying: Mantua gave birth to me. :he Calabrians snatched me away. Parthenope
now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and Ieaders“ (Ziolkowski
and Putnam, The Virgilian Tradition, 201); „Vergilius Brundisii moritur Sentio
Saturnino et Lucretio Cinna conss. Ossa eius Neapolim translata in secondo ab
urbe miliario seplieuntur titulo istius modi supra scripto, quem moriens ipse dictaverat:
Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc I Parthenope; cecini pascua
rura duces“ (Die Chronik des Hieronymus, 165).
1 1 2 ALESSANDRO ZIRONI
cerning Virgil during the Early M i ddle Ages. His theory has been fiercely
contested by subsequent scholars,9 but, even if Romantic i n its approach,
Comparetti’s conclusion should not be definitively rejected. The greatest
obstacle to Comparetti’s theory was the Iack of sources which might
demonstrate the l ink between Naples and how Virgil came to be characterised
as a magician. The most ancient text dates back to the middle of
the twelfth century: it is a passage in the Policraticus by John of Salisbury,
where the author speaks about a mechanical fly constructed by
Virgil which could drive real flies from Naples, i n this way ridding the
city of the plague.1o After John of Salisbury’s assertions, several other
writers l i kewise claimed that Virgi I was a magician.11 A considerable
number of clerics who wrote about Virgil as a sorcerer and astrologer
came from Germany and Britain, but the reasons for the spread of this
belief among Germans and Britons in particular remain unclear. The association
of Virgil with demoniac practices, which appeared i n Germany
for the first time with Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, seems even
more obscure.
lf we consider a group of texts from the early Middle Ages, it may be
possible to find a solution to these controversial questions. lohn of
Salerno (Joannes ltalus Clun iacensis or Joannes Romanus) lived for some
years in Naples and Salerno in the middle of the tenth century. While he
was i n Salerno, he came into contact with Greek books and the Hellenie
cultural m i l ieu, and wrote his Vita Sancti Odonis. ln this work, he asserts
that Odo dreamt of a beautiful pot from which snakes issued when it was
opened. Odo was quick to think that the pot had belonged to Virgil, and
considered the snakes to be negative symbols of past pagan poetry.12 The
Vita Poppanis Abbatis, written i n the middle of the eleventh century, reports
what happened to a young monk, Gazo, who, in a delirium caused
by a high fever. was terrified by the apparition of a host of spirits: Ae-
Wilhelm Vi!!tor, „Der Ursprung der Virgilsage.“ Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie
1 (1877): 165-78; Giorgio Pasquali, „Prefazione dell’editore.“ i n Domenico
Comparetti, Virgilio nel Medio Eva, ed. Giorgio Pasqua Ii (Fiorence: La nuova ltalia,
1937), 1, xxiii; Ziolkowski and Putnam, The Virgilian Tradition, 826-27.
10 John of Salisbury, loannis Saresberiensis episcopi carnocensis Policratici sive Oe
nugis Curialium et vestigiis Philosophorum libri 8, ed. Clemens C. J. Webb (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1909), 1, iv, 26.
1 1 Ziolkovvski and Putnam, The Virgilian Tradition, 825.
12 John of Salerno (loannes ltalus Cluniacensis), Vita Sancti Oe/anis, in Patrologiae
latinae cursus completus 1 33 (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1 853), xii, 49.
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 1 3
neas, Turnus, Virgil and many other characters from the Aeneid.13 The
presence of Virgil in nightmares is quite frequent, as had a l ready been
mentioned in a Ietter written in the ninth century by the Swabian Ermenrich
of E i lwagen to the abbot Grimald of St. Ga II. Ermenrich reports a
vision in which Virgil’s tomb is plunged into the Stygian swamp. Moreover,
the poet causes nightmares, appearing as a ghost with a trident.14
Here are two final examples. The first comes from the Historiae by Raoul
Glaber, dating back to the beginning of the eleventh century. He wrote
about Vi lgard to whom devils appeared in the g uise of Virgi I, Horace and
Juvena1.1s The second source is perhaps the most curious and interesting.
lt comes from Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum Historiale, which was
widely circulated. ln chapter 26 in the edition published in Douai in 1 624
(chapter XXV I I , 4 in the fourteenth-century MS Douai, Bibliotheque municipale,
797), Hugh of Cluny cannot sleep because he dreams that beasts
and snakes are lying und er his head. He wakes up to find the Liber Maronis
under his pillow. He throws it away, and thereafter sleeps peacefully.
16
Massimo Üldoni, who found most of the previous sources, argued
that the demoniac image of Virgil developed during the tenth century i n
Naples and Salerno, two cities which were still in close contact with Byzantine
culture: the i nterest in mechanical automata is assumed to have
come from there and was henceforth constantly present in narratives
involving Virgil, the magician.17 As far as the magic powers ascribed to
Virgil are concerned, two main pieces of evidence can be adduced. The
first is the well-known interpretation of the prophecy contained in the
fourth Eclogue, where Virgil was supposed to have predicted Jesus’s
13 Everhelm, Vita Poppanis abbatis, ed. Wilhelm Wattenbach, in M.G. H., 55., 1 1 (Hannover:
l mpensis bibllopolii aulici Hahniani, 1 8 54), 32, 314.
14 Ermenrich of Ellwagen, Epistula ad Grimaldum abbatem. m M.G.H., Epistolae, 5,
Episto/ae Karo/ini Aevi 3 (Berlin: apud Weidmannes, 1 899), 24, 561 .
15 Rodolfo il Glabro [Raoul (Rodulfus) GI aber]. Cronache dell’anno mille (5torie), ed.
and trans. Guglielmo Cavallo and Giovanni Orlandi (Rome: Fondazione Lorenzo
Valla, 1990). 106-09.
16 Vincent of Beauvais, 5peculum Historiale (ex MS Oouai, BM. 797 from the 1 41″
cent.): http:/ /atilf.atilf.fr/bichard/: xxvli, 4; Vincent1us Bellovancensis, 5peculum
quadruplex, sive speculum maius: naturale, doctrinale, morale, historia/e (Graz:
Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1 964) (repr. of edit. Ouaci, ex Officina typo9raphica
Baltazaris, 1 624 ) : 5, xxvi.
17 Massimo Oldoni, „L’ignoto Liber Maronis medievale tradotto dall’antico,“ in Leetures
medievales de Virgile. Acte du colloque organise par I’Ecole franr;aise de Rome
(Rome, 25-28 octobre 1982) (Rome: Ecole fran􀔡aise de Rome, 1 985), 365.
1 1 4 ALESSANDRO ZIRONI
birth. The secend piece of evidence comes from a long l i terary tradition
that goes back at least to Macrobius’s Saturnalia, where he asserted that
Virgil’s poetry contained a l l human knowledge: „omnium disciplinarum
peritus.“18 Moreover, Fabius Planciade Fulgentius tried to discover
Virgil’s occult knowledge through etymological interpretations in his Expositio
Virgilianae continentiae secundum philosophos moralis, a work
that was widely read du ring the Middle Ages, in particular in the twelfth
century.19
lt is easy to see how the tradition connected with Virgil’s tomb in
Naples, the poet’s extensive knowledge, his prediction of Christ’s coming,
his association with Byzantine automata, and the existence of a book
which causes nightmares to virtuous Christians combined to give Virgil
the reputation of being a magician. The demoniac connotation, even if
not very widespread, had existed at least since the ninth century and circulated
i n clerical m i l ieux throughout Europe.
Virgil and the ars notoria
During the twelfth century. some clerics from Northern Europe, and
from Britain and Germany in particular, spent some time in southern ltaly,
namely in Naples and Salerno. When reporting their journey, they
quite frequently told stories about Virgil in connection with his burial
place, with the automata he created to help the inhabitants of Naples or
Rome and, finally, with the existence of a book of magic arts which had
belonged to him. An epistle by Conrad of Querfurt (t1 202), bishop of
Hi ldesheim and Würzburg and chancel lor to Emperor Henry VI. is of particular
significance for the German context. He wrote from Sicily, probably
in 1 1 96, to the prior of the abbey of Hi ldesheim. ln this Ietter, preserved
in the Chronicle of the S!avs written by his contemporary Arnold
of Lübeck, Conrad relates many anecdotes about the magician Virgi I and
the marvellous things he created: a city in a glass bottle, a bronze horse,
a bronze fly, the serpent gate in Naples, the preservation of meat at the
butcher’s block in Naples, the means he devised for defending Naples
18 Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius. Sacurna/ia, apparatu critico instruxit, in somnium
Scipionis commentarios selecta varietate lectionis ornavit lacobus Willis,
2″“ ed. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. 1970), 1. 16.12.
19 Worstbrock, „Vergil,“ 253.
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 1 5
from the volcano Vesuvius and a statement about the Baths of Virgil (at
Baia, near Naples).zo
The most famous of a l l these early German Statements about Virgil as
a magician is certainly the passage i n the third part of the Otia lmperialia
by Gervase of Tilbury (t c.1228). Gervase, who was born in the last decade
of the eleventh century, spent most of his short life in ltaly. He studied
in Bologna, stayed in Venice and lived some years in Sicily at the
court of the Norman king, William I I , who gave him a villa in Nola, a town
in the Terra di Lavoro north of Naples. He settled in Arles, where he
wrote h i s famous work for the Emperor, Otto IV. His final years are sti l l
the object o f much scholarly debate.21 During a stay i n Naples, he was
informed by his former master in Bologna, Giovanni Pignatelli, at that
time archdeacon of Naples,ZZ about „what great wonders Virgil performed
in this city,“23 for i nstance, the marvellous machines and charms
he created to protect Naples. Many of them were also reported by Conrad
von Querfurt but what is completely new is the description of the
search for Virgil’s lost burial place by a man from Britain,
a man of great learning: proficient and highly talented at the trivium and quadrivium,
he had achieved much in medical studies, and was unrivalled in astronomy,
Z‘
who was given permission by King Roger II of Sicily ( 1 095-1 1 54) to take
possession of Virgil’s bones. Thanks to „arte sua,“ he discovered the
grave, hidden in a mountain, where Virgil’s corpse still lay undisturbed.
At the poet’s head was a book, “ i n which the art of magic was written
down, along with other signs relating to his practice of that art.“25 The
inhabitants of Naples refused to give up the bones, so he could take away
only the book, which was later seen by Gervase hirnself by permission of
the cardinal of Naples. under the pontif1cate of Pope Alexander I I I. Ger-
20 Arnold of Lübeck, Chronica, in M.G.H., SS. 27, ed. Johann Martin Lappenberg
(Hannover: lmpensis bibliopolii aulici Hahniani, 1 869), 1 92-96.
21 Sanks and Sinns, „lntroduction,“ in Gervase of Tilbury, Otia lmperialia. Recrea tion
for an Emperor, ed. and trans. S. E. Sanks and James Wallace Sinns, Oxford
Medieval Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), xxv-xxxvii.
22 Sanks and Sinns, „lntroduction,“ xxvi.
23 „Quanta miranda Virgilius in hac urbe fuerit operatus“ (Otia lmperialta, iii, 1 2,
580).
2′ „summe litteratus, in trivio et quadrivio potens et accutissimus, in fisica
operosus, in astronomia summus“ (Otia lmperialia, iii, 1 1 2, 802).
25 „in quo ars notaria erat inscripta, cum aliis studii eius caracteribus“ ( Otia lmperialia,
iii, 1 1 2, 802).
1 1 6 ALESSANORO ZIRONI
vase admits to having made some successful experiments following the
book’s i nstructions.
Virgil’s bones had previously been an object of i nterest to other authors.
For example, John of Sal isbury noted in his Polycraticus that a
French scholar was interested in the poet’s corpse,zs while Conrad of
Querfurt writes that Virgil’s bones were kept in a castle by the sea i n
Naples, namely the Castel deii’Ovo.27 As none of these authors mentions
any book. it is evident that Gervase of Tilbury added a new piece of i n formation
that h e had found elsewhere or, more si mply, had just i n vented.
Another particularity of Gervase’s text lies in the fact that he mentions
the existence of a book of ars notoria in connection with Virgil. As
Lynn Thorndike defines it, the
Ars Notoria, or Notory Art, . . . seeks to ga1n knowledge from a communion with
God by invocation of angels, mystic figures, and magical prayers. We are told
that the Creator revealed this art through an angel to Solomon one night while
he was praying, and that by it one can in a short time acquire all the liberal and
mechanical arts.2B
More recent studies have demonstrated that the ars notoria was not
transmitted di rectly from Eastern or Arabian culture, but spread from
Northern ltaly, more specifically from Bologna, starting at the beginning
of the thirteenth century.29 Gervase of Ti lbury’s citation is hence one of
the oldest pieces of evidence about a theurgic practice which had no demoniac
impl ications. On the contrary, it was mainly used in order to increase
a person’s memory and i nsti l l knowledge. The period spent by
Gervase of T i l bury i n Bologna may explain the existence of a book of ars
notoria connected to Virgil in his Otia lmperialia.3o At Gervase’s time, a
tradition concerning the poet’s extensive knowledge of the l i beral and
mechanical arts that were used to help the people of Naples had already
been established. Ascribing these abilities to a knowledge of the recently
discovered ars notoria was a very small step. Further evidence of this
26 Joh n of Salisbury, loannis Saresberiensis, ii, 23, 1 32.
27 Arnold of Lübeck, Chronica. v, 194.
28 Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magie and Experimental Science, vol. II (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1923), 279.
29 Julien Veron􀭚se. „The ars notoria in the Medieval and Early Modern Penod: Study
of a Manuscript Tradition of Theurgie Magie (XI I<h-XVII“‚ century),“ Societas
Magica Newsletter 1 0 (2003): 7; Julien Veron􀚇se, L’ars notoria au Moyen Age. lntroduction
et edition critique, Micrologus‘ Library, Salomon Latinus 1 (Fiorence:
Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo. 2007). 1 7 and 24.
30 Veron􀭙se. L ‚ars notoria, 24.
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 1 7
association of Virgil with the ars notoria comes from the Dolopathos of
John of Alta Silva, a monk in Lorraine, which was written at roughly the
same time. ln John’s work, Virgil is teacher to prince Lucinius and writes
a book that permits his pupil to learn in a very short time, which is one of
the characteristics of ars notoria.31
Gervase of T i l bury and the German Reception
Gervase’s Otia lmperialia were contemporary with Wolfram von Eschenbach’s
Parzival, the first German text alluding to Virgil as a magician, but
there is no evidence of any direct contact between Wolfram and Gervase.
We l ikewise have no evidence that Wolfram might have known or read
the Otia lmperialia, since the manuscript diffusion of Otia lmperialia does
not suggest any contact between the two authors: Gervase worked on a
draft copy of Otia lmperialia (Vatican City, Vat. lat. 933 [N]) until the secend
decade of the century,32 and, as far as we know, during the first decades
of the thirteenth century, Gervase’s work had principally been copied
in France and southern England, but never in Germany.33 The Iack of
manuscripts in German territories does not, however, exclude their existence
a priori, or, at least. a d issemination of the work and recent editors
admit that „there is ample evidence that the book was produced over a
substantial period of time and subjected to constant correction and i m provement.“
34 A s was often the case i n the Middle Ages. other, earlier
versions of the text were a l ready circulating, and it is more than likely
that the Otia lmperiafia were known also to the German public: its dedication
to Emperor Otto IV of Braunschweig should be sufficient proof of
this. Moreover, the creators of the famous world map of Ebsdorf (Braunschweig)
were unquestionably fami l iar with the Otia lmperialia.3s
Conrad of Querfurt and Gervase of Tilbury, two authors who speak
about Virgil as a magician in the years araund 1 200, thus imported the
notion of Virgi I the magician from southern ltaly to Germany. Gervase
then augmented his marvellous narration about Virgil by adding the
31 Johannis de Alta Silva, Dolopathos, sive Oe rege et septem sapientibus, in Historia
septem sapientum 2, ed. Alfons Hilka (Heidelberg; Carl Winter, 1 9 1 3), 1 3-23.
32 Banksand Binns, „lntroduction,“ lxiii.
33 Banksand Binns, ‚1ntroduction,“ lxiii.
3• Banks and Sinns. „lntroduction,“ lxxx.
35 Banks and Binns, “ lntroduction,“ xxxv, lxxxvi.
1 1 8 ALESSANORO ZIRONI
book of ars notoria, about which he had presumably heard in Bologna.
F urthermore, Gervase and Conrad also played a considerable role in the
courts of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and were consequently
well-known in their time in German courts.
ln the same years, Wolfram von Eschenbach was affiliated with the
court of Hermann of Thuringia, who was an important person in the political
dynamics of that period. lt is hard to believe that Wolfram did not
know about the works of Conrad of Querfurt and Gervase of T i lbury, especially
since Wolfram reveals in his l iterary works that he knew the
French and German poetic production of his t imes, and was also an omnivorous
reader of every kind of text. The representation of Virgil as
Clinschor’s ancestor connects Wolfram to the creation of the image of
Virgil as a magician, a figure that was weil on the way to being defined in
the same years. We could a lmost say that Wolfram was a-Ja-page. l n the
few lines devoted to Virg i l , Wolfram i ndirectly shows substantial knowledge
about the new stories concerning him: he came from Naples, more
precisely from the Terra di Lavoro ( Terra de L􀌔bür), where the Campi
Flegrei (namely Avernus), Baia, and so on are located. Virgil came from a
city where he worked many marvels and his grandson was also a man
who knew magic arts, that is to say, Virgil had transmitted his wisdom to
him. A l l the attributes that would characterize Virgil in subsequent poetic
production can already be found here.
Virg i l in Middle High German Poems
But it is thanks to two thirteenth-century poems, labulons Buch and
Reinfried von Braunschweig, that the existence of the book of ars notoria
in connection with Virgil is clearly introduced into German narrative.36
36 About Zabulons Buch cf. Karl Simrock, Der Wartburgkrieg (Stuttgart: Cotta’scher
Verlag, 1 858), 184-229 and 300-05; Tom Albert Rompelman, Der Wartburgkrieg
(Amsterdam: H. L. Paris, 1939), 70; Gunter Schweikle, Parodie und Polemik in mittelhochdeutscher
Dichtung. 123 Texte von Kurenberg bis Frauenlob samt dem
Wartburgkrieg nach der Großen Liederhandschrift C (Stuttgart: Helfant Texte,
1986), 1 3 1 -39; Burghart Wachinger, „Der Wartburgkrieg,“ in Oie deutsche Literatur
des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon ed. Kurt Ruh, vol. 10 (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1999), 753-56; Alessandro Zironi, Enigmi di sapienza nel Medioeva
tedesco, Studi e testi d i linguistica e filologia germanica (Padova: Unipress, 2001 ),
205-99. For Reinfried von Braunschweig cf. Altred Ebenbauer, „Reinfried von
Braunschweig.“ in Oie deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, ed.
VIRGI L IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 1 9
Their authors recalled i nformation that had been circulating i n Germany
since the beginning of the century, including the passage from Parzival.
in both poems Virgil travels to the magnetic mountain in order to find a
treasure. After many adventures which recall episodes and passages in
Herzog Emst,31 Virgil finds a demon imprisoned in a glass in the form of a
fly. After having been granted his freedom by Virgil, the devil reveals to
him the existence of the book of Zabulon and Ieads the poet to the place
where it is hidden. This is the version from labulons Buch:
1’11 reveal to you how you’ll patronize all arts.
Nearby me lies a book
About which, Virgil, I want to teil you. So, hear:
With it you will be superior to all clencs,
lt stays by me
And you will take
What Zabulon wrote with his own hands.J3
The demon describes the place where the book is to be found: for one
thousand years, an iron statue had hidden it. l n the head of the statue
there is a Ietter. Virgil goes with the demon to the place where the statue
stands, breaks the statue and takes the book.39 That is a l l the text teils us
Kurt Ruh, vol. 7 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1 989), 1 1 71-76.
37 The structure of Herzog Ernst is far too complex to discuss here and would Iead
our investigation too far from its main purpose. For a useful presentation of Herzog
Ernst cf. Gustav Ehrismann, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang
des Mittelalters, zweiter Teil, Die mitleihochdeutsche Literatur, I, frühmittelhochdeutsche
Zeit (München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1922), 39-
58; Bernhard Sowinski, „Nachwort,“ in Herzog Ernst, Ein mittelalterliches
Abenteuerbuch (Stuttgart: Phitipp Reclamjun., 1979), 405-29; Hans Szklenar and
Hans-Joachim Behr, „Herzog Ernst,“ in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters.
Verfasserlexikon ed. Kurt Ruh, vol. 3 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1981 ), 1 1 70-91.
38 „ich wil dir offenlieh verjehen, du wirst noch künste rfch. I ein buoch hie nahe bi
mir lit, I des wil ich wisen dich, Virgilius, wizzez ende/ich, I da mit du allen
pfaffen obe l igst. I daz bi mir bleip, I und an gesigst, I daz Zabulon mit siner
hende schreip• (labulons Buch 32, 1 0-16; Zironi, Enigmi di sapienza, 236).
39 „An i ron figure stands nearby I Which has hidden the text for a full thousand
years. I That it was made by magic means I No one can doubt. I A Ietter lies in its
head, from which it gets its force I lt grasps strongly a stick i n its hands: I I give
you the power to control all this;“ „He broke the figure without any effort. I Cunningly
the book was in Virgil’s hands I And he took it with him over the sea“ („Ein
l!rin bilt st􀭛t nah hie bT, I daz da der schrift gehuotet hat valliehen tüsentjar. I
daz ez mit zouber dar gemachet si, I vervahet niht ein har. I Ein brief im in dem
höupte llt, da von ez hat die kraft, I gewaltic einen klupfel füert ez mit der hende
sTn, I des gibe ich dir meisterschaft.“ „Er brach daz bilt gar ane wer, I mit Iisten
wart Virgilius daz buoch in srne hant; I er fuort ez mit im hin über daz mer“;
1 20 ALESSANDRO ZIRONI
about how Virgil came into possession of Zabulon’s book, but we can assume
that the iron statue was probably an automaton like the ones Virgil
made and which were typical of most of the stories involving h i m as a
magician.40
The episode is described in greater detail in Reinfried von Braunschweig.
The interminable, yet incomplete poem devotes more than 700
lines to the scene.41 The poem says that Virgil took three (!) necromantic
books which had been written by SaviiOn (11. 21 028-29). Tagether with
Reinfried, Virgil discovers SaviiOn’s secret place, the entrance to which is
barred by a heavy stone ( I I. 21 283-91 ) . Inside the cavern, they see an
automaton with a hammer in his hand and, sitting on a chair, an old man
who is apparently dead but is in reality in a death-like state of unconsciousness
42 At his feet they see a book tied with a chain to the wall (II.
2 1 292-99) (now there is only one book!). The automaton had been
made in order to strike anyone who might try to steal the book from the
man’s feet. ( I I. 21 485-94). A small letter is hidden in the old man’s ear ( I I .
2 1 5 1 0- 1 1 ) . Virgil suddenly seizes the book, a n d the automaton strikes
the old man dead ( I I . 2 1 682-85). Obviously the old man was SaviiOn himself,
who preferred i n his old age to hide in a cave that he had built with
the help of some demons. He wanted to keep secret what he had read i n
the stars when he was a young man, namely the birth of Jesus to a virgin.
l n Reinfried von Braunschweig, SaviiOn is an Athenian prince with a
Jewish mother and a pagan father (II. 2 1 3 1 5- 1 6; 21 357-59). He is the
first man to understand astronomy, necromancy and a l l the forbidden
arts:
He was the first who ever
understood astronomy,
for he-thanks to his wisdom-knew
it and necromancy
just as he appreciated all arts
that are forbidden.43
labulons Buch 33, 5-1 1 : 34, 1-3: Zironi, Enigmi di sapienza, 238).
40 John Webster Spargo, Virgil the Necromancer: Studies in Virgilian Legends (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1 934): 1 1 7-35; Ziolkowski and Putnam,
The Virgilian, 826-28.
41 Reinfrid von Braunschweig, ed. Karl Bartsch, Bibliothek des Litterarischen Verein
1 09 (Stuttgart: Litterarischer Verein, 1 871 ), 610-31, II. 20989-21720.
42 „He sat on a chair I dead still living“ („er Of einem sezzel saz I tOt noch lebende“;
Reinfrid von Braunschweig, 625, II. 21 498-99).
u „Er was der arste dem ie wart I astronomie bekant, I wan er mit srnen sinnen
vant I si und negromanzie I swie daz diu kunst nu sie I verboten iedO was si
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 2 1
H e wrote his prophecy i n a brief Ietter whose content w i l l be read by
Virgil:
Then he saw the letters
and also the graphemes:
this was even carved.
Then Virgil could read
that also Octavian
was emperor in Rome
and that from the pure lovely
maiden mother Mary was born
God as man on the earth.44
As far as the book is concerned, we do not know its suqject matter. The
anonymous author of Reinfried von Braunschweig revea ls only the disappointing
information that „they found written in the book I many marvellous
marvels.“4S We can certainly agree with Oldoni when he stresses
that the content of Virgil’s book is never revealed because the biography
and the works of the poet do not permit any speculation about magic or
necromantic practices46 Only the revelation about the b i rth of Jesus is
disclosed. The Juxtaposition of the disclosed message of Salvation and
the obscure content of the liber Virgilii may explain how Virgil was still
perceived by German poets i n the thirteenth century: rather than being a
sorcerer or necromancer, Virgil is the unconscious instrument of God’s
plan for salvation 47 labulons Buch and Reinfried von Braunschweig are
two texts which narrate the previous events, thus clarifying how Virgil
was to become a magician.
As the battle of Acre is cited in Reinfried von Braunschweig, there is
no doubt that the poem was written after 1 29 1 . Some years before.
wert“ (Reinfrid von Braunschweig, 620, II. 21328-33).
,. „dO man die karakter sach I und ouch der figüren schrift. I d1z waz eben m der
trift, I dO diz vant Virgi lius, I daz ouch Octavianus I ze Rome lepte keiserlich I
und diu reine minneclich I Maria muoter magt gebar I got mensch üf die erden
har“ (Reinfrid von Braunschweig, 630, II. 21 672-80).
45 „Funden and dem buoch geschriben I wunderiTeher wunder vil“ (Reinfrid von
Braunschweig, 619, II. 21308-09).
46 Oldoni, L’ignoto Liber Maronis, 369.
‚7 Otto Neudeck, „Möglichkeiten der Dichter-Stilisierung i n mittelhochdeutscher
Literatur: Neidhart, Wolfram, Vergil,“ Euphorion 88 (1994): 351 : Sonja Kerth and
Elisabeth Lienert, „Oie Sabilon-Erzahlung der ,Erweiterten Christherre-Chronik‘
und der ,Weltchronik‘ Heinrichs von Munchen,“ in Studien zur Weltchronik Heinrichs
von Mi.mchen, ed. Horst Brunner, vol. 1 , Wissensliteratur im Mittelalter 29
(Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1998), 435.
1 2 2 ALESSANDRO ZIRONI
probably about 1 280, Jans Enikel composed his Weltchronik, in which
Virgil is said to be „the son of He11.“4B ln Enikel’s chronicle, however,
Virgil is not involved in the d iscovery of messages, prophecies or books,
but becomes a magician because he frees a crowd of demans who had
been imprisoned in a bottle. At the very end of the thi rteenth century,
the figure of Virgil is transformed into a simpler character, where magic
is interpreted as demoniac knowledge; here, what arouses the reader’s
interest is the telling of marvellous facts without any complicated moral
impl ications.
Conclusion
Wolfram von Eschenbach is the writer who transfers Virgil from clerical
culture to the public of the courts. Otto Neudeck stressed that Wolfram
did not introduce any new aspects i nto his characterization of the poet:49
this operation was carried out by the later poets who linked Virgil to
Wolfram von Eschenbach. They were both poets, whose reputation depended
on admiration for their profound knowledge of the seven arts
rather than on their aesthetic and lyrical talents. Moreover, in the speculation
of the medieval reader, both Wolfram’s Parzival and Virgil’s
fourth Eclogue conveyed the idea of the eschatological promise which
had to be i nterpreted and deci phered, in other words, disclosed. ln Parzival,
Flegetanis reads the revelation of the Grai I in the celestial spheres.
Virgil is a pagan because he l ived before the birth of Christ, but he is at
the same time a Christian, because he becomes instrumenturn Dei, just
l i ke Flegetanis, in Wolfram’s work.
labulons Buch and Reinfried von Braunschweig, which were composed
during the thi rteenth century, present Virgil as a messianic actor
i n representations where the exotic and much-appreciated atmosphere
and seenarios of the marvellous East conveyed by the widely-known
poem Herzog Ernst are fused with new stories from ltaly and England,
both of which were in close contact with the northern and central cultural
areas of Germany, Lorraine, Thuringia and Braunschweig. Thanks
to these writers. the figure of Virgil became known to a wider public and
48 „der helle kint,“ in Jans Enikel, Jansen Enikels Weltchronik. ed. Philipp Strauch. in
M.G.H., Deutsche Chroniken 3 (Hannover: Hahnsehe Buchhandlung, 1 900), 462, I.
23270.
49 Neu deck. M6glichkeiten der Dichter-Stilisierung, 352.
VIRGIL IN MI DOLE HIGH GERMAN POEMS 1 23
connected w i th magic, necromancy, forbidden arts, and finally with a
book perta ining to Christian revelation, the ars notoria, composed by
Solomon, the wise king of the Jews. Virgil, who knew the ars notoria in
his turn, was the wisest of the pagan poets, just as Wolfram was the
champion of an obscure culture that had extended beyend the walls of
monasteries, the desks of universities and the studia of the clerics to
reach the halls of the courts, where, amidst poetic lines about knights,
damsels, demans and sai nts, the secrets of the seven arts were finally
d isclosed to a lay audience.
Obscurity in Medieval Texts
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XXX
Obscurity in Medieval Texts
edited by
Lucie Dolezalova, Jeff Rider,
and Alessandro Zironi
Krems 2013
Reviewed by
Tamas Visi
and Myriam White-Le Goff
Cover designed by Petr Dolezal with the use of a photo of the interior of
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (photo Lucie Dolezalova)
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG
DER
CHARLES UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
„UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF ÄNCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS“
UND
„PHENOMENOLOGY AND SEMIOTICS“ (PRVOUK 1 8)
80TH AT THE FACULTY O F HUMANITIES, CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE
UNDDER
CZECH SCIENCE FOUNDATION
WITHIN THE RESEARCH PROJECT
„INTERPRETING AND APPROPRIATING ÜBSCURITY
IN MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT CULTURE“
(GACR P405/1 0/Pl 1 2)
A l l e Rechte vorbehalten
-ISBN 978-3-901094-32-13′.3
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters. Körnermarkt 1 3. 3500 Krems, Österreich. Fur den
Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnet die Autorin, ohne deren ausdruckliehe Zustimmung
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Acknowledgements
List of Figures
T able of Contents
Textual Obscurity in the Middle Ages (lntroduction)
Lucie Dole2alov􀭟. Jeff Rider. and Alessandro Zironi
„Ciarifications“ of Obscurity:
Conditions for Proclus’s Allegorical Reading of Plato’s Parmenides 1 5
Florin George Cäl ian
Lucifica nigris tune nuntio regna figuris. Po!!tique textuelle de I‘ obscuritas
dans I es recueils d‘!!nigmes latines du Haut moyen Age (V He-V I I I • s.) 3 2
Christiane Veyrard-Cosme
The Enigmatic Style in Twelfth-Century French Literature 49
Jeff Rider
Mise en abyme in Marie de France’s „Laüstic“ 63
Susan Small
Perturbations of the Soul: Alexander of Ashby and Aegidius of Paris an
Understanding Biblical Obscuritas 75
Greti Dinkova-Bruun
Versus obscuri nella poesia didascalica grammatocale del X I I I sec. 87
Carla Piccone
Disclosing Secrets: Vorgil on Middle High German Poems 1 1 0
Alessandro Zironi
Obscuritas tegum: Traditional Law. Learned Jurisprudence, and Territorial
Legislation (The Example of Sachsenspiegel and fus Municipale Maideburgense) 124
Hiram Kümper
Ta Be Born (Aga in) from God:
Scriptural Obscurity as a Theological Way Out for Cornelius Agrippa 1 45
Noel Putnik
Obscuritas in Medoeval and Humanist Translation Theories 157
R!!ka Forrai
The Darkness Within:
First-person Speakers and the Unrepresentable 1 72
Päivi M. Mehtonen
Contributors 1 90
Index nominum 1 94
Index rerum 197
Acknowledgements
This volume grew out of a conference held in Prague in October 6-8. 201 1 .
The conference and the book were supported by a post-doctoral research
grant from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, “ l nterpreting and
Appropriating Obscurity i n Medieval Manuscript Culture“ no. P405/1 0/
P1 1 2 undertaken at the Faculty of Arts at the Charles University in Prague,
by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports through l nstitutional
Support for Longterm Development of Research Organizations to the
Faculty of Humanities of the same university (PRVOUK 1 8 and UNCE
204002), and by the European Research Council under the European
Community’s Seventh Framewerk Programme ( FPJ/2007-2013) I ERC
grant agreement No. 263672. We are much grateful to these i nstitutions.
Further thanks goes to the individual contributors to this volume who have
been very quick and patient during the process, as weil as to Petr Dolezal
for the cover design and Adela Novakova for the index.
List of Figures
Figure 1 : Scene from one of the Saxon Mirror’s codices picturati (Wolfenbuttel, HerzogAugust-
Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 3.1 . Aug. 2°, fol. 34r).
Figure 2: Index for a manuscript of the Richtsteig Landrecht (Göttweig, Sti ftsbibliothek,
Cod. 364rot, fol. 526r).
Figure 3: Printed text of a Saxon Mirror with Gloss (Christi an Zobel, Leipzig, 1 569).
Figure 4: A remissorium from a Saxon Mirror edited tn 1536 by Chistoph Zobel (Leipzig).
Figure 5: Editorial report for a Saxon Mirror pri nted in 1545 by Nikolaus Wolrab
(Leipzig).
Figure 6: Sebastian Stelbagius, Epitome sive summa universae doctrinae iusticiae legalis
(Bautzen, 1 564 ).
Figures 7 and 8: Melchior Kling, Das Gantze Sechsisch Landrecht mit Text und Gloß in eine
richtige Ordnung gebracht (Leipzig 1 572).