>
> Have you published something of this research? It is a topic I am
>very interested in, so I'd love to read new material.
Dear Carlos,
Very kind of you to ask! I was referring to an old study of mine which is
still gathering dust in my paper files because I don't find the time to
revise it thoroughly and to rewrite it in presentable form: a study of a
poem by Sedulius Scottus (Hibernolatin poet and scholar at the court of
bishop Hartgar of Liege, 9th cent.), carm. XXXII (ed. Traube, MGH Poetae
III.1, p.189s.). The first part of this poem (_De quadam speciosa domo_) is
the praise of a house or palace, presumably a new built palace of
Hartgar's, where Sedulius describes an artifact representing the Cross and
associated with four zones ('ordines') of different colours: gold,
grass-green (gramineus), purple, and blue (the latter described as seablue,
saphyrblue and "vitreus"). Sedulius offers also an explicit explanation of
the spiritual sense of these four colours, relating them to the human
(green and red) and divine (gold and blue) natures of Christ. I can give
you the full text:
Quadricolor croceis signet vestigia plantis
Titanis rutilos excipiens radios.
5 Altera sed vestris, si fas est dicere, tectis
Multicolor varians Iris honore micat.
Aureus in primo color enitet ordine flagrans,
Gramineus sequitur veris honore virens;
Purpureum flagrat specimen mirabile visu,
10 Saphirus ridens spargit in astra decus;
Emicat et vitreus supter supraque coruscus,
Glaucicomum pelagi gaudet habere modum:
Nobilis altithroni crucis exprimitur decus almum,
Vitrea qua varium linia carpit iter.
15 Aureus ac viridis, croceus color aereusque
Conveniunt domino, qui regit astra, deo:
Sic ruber ac viridis hominem per vulnera passum,
Aureus, aereus sceptra deique canunt.
Phoebus amat talem, niveis et crinibus aulam
20 Dedicat illustrans, aspicit atque polo.
Tempore brumali pollent hic verna serena
Fitque hiemps aestas tempore nubifero.
What makes this text particularly interesting (interesting also for art
historians, I presume) is the way how the description of these colours
(vv.7-14) implicitly relates them to biblical and cosmic tetrades
traditionally associated with the Cross. A very sophisticated allegorical
texture, apparently intended to be noticed only by scholars well versed in
biblical exegesis and in grammar (i.e. the "coetus fratrum" addressed in
the second part of this poem). If you know that the Cross was traditionally
associated with the four elements, for instance, it is not too difficult to
associate grass-green with the element earth, burning purple with the
element fire, and seablue with water; but you need to have some additonal
knowledge of ancient/medieval grammar in order to know that gold matches
with the element air, because "aureus" and "aurum" were derived
etymologically from "aura" (air, light wind). The four evangelists are one
of the tetrades which I suspect to form a subtext for S.'s description of
the four zones, but I have never really figured out -- at least not to my
own satisfaction -- how precisely each evangelist is meant to correspond to
one of the four zones/colours.
I believe to have discussed this poem on earlier occasions on this list,
but these messages are not in our WWW-archives (where only list-postings of
the past two years are archived). If you are interested I could cut and
paste a summary from my files and mail it to you, but at the moment I am
facing some dreadful dead-lines and should rather not open any old files.
> PD. I read the story you wrote for your son. It is really beatiful!
Thank you! My children, too, like it better than my diss. But don't break
my cover: I am expected to be a scholar on this list!
Yours,
Otfried
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