medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Andrew,
Rather than commentaries or glosses on Vergil I would try the Old French
_Ovide moralisé_ (Ovide moralisé. Poème du commencement du quatorzième
siècle, ed. Cornelis de Boer, Amsterdam 1915-1938, repr. Wiesbaden
1966-1968, 5 vol.), adopted in Latin also by Petrus Berchorius (Pierre
Bersuire) in his _Reductorium morale_ (Reductorium morale, liber XV:
Ovidius moralizatus, textus e codice Brux., Bibl. Reg. 863-9 critice
editus, by Joseph Engels, Utrecht 1966 and 1962, 2 vols.): if this tradtion
elaborates on Aeneas at all (I am not sure), it is likely to attribute a
christological meaning to the person of Aeneas and maybe also to his descent.
Also you might want to look into Dante. First, there is his interpretation
of pagan history (and mythology) in the context of biblical salvation
history, a concept first layed out in the fourth book of his _Convivio_ and
again, with some changes, in his _Monarchia_. According to Dante, the
history of Rome and the history of Israel were arranged by the divine plan
to have Christ born both at the time and in the territory of the most
perfect political world order, i.e. the Roman Empire at the time of
Augustus, when the whole world was living in peace ruled by one Emperor and
thus reflecting the ideal state of the heavenly empire. For Dante, the
history of Rome was a sequence of military conflicts and events where the
'finger of god' can be found to direct, as in a 'duellum', things to their
end. Thus Aeneas, with anchestors in all three continents (Assaracus/Asia,
Uranus/Europe, Atlas/Asia), and with 'wives' from all three continents
(Creusa, Dido, Lavinia), was the 'most noble' man elected to become the
founder of the 'most noble' Empire of the world. And to signify his role in
view of the birth of Christ, his arrival in Italy, according to Dante, took
place at the same time as the birth of David (Conv. IV, v). Turnus, trying
to oppose this divine plan, is not exactly paralleled to the Devil fighting
Christ, but his 'duellum' with Aeneas is adduced by Dante as one major
event (and as the first) to support his interpretation of Roman history as
a sequence of 'duella' where God revealed his will regarding the historical
role of the Roman Empire (Mon. II, xi). In the context of these
interpretations of Roman and OT history, it is highly significant that
Inferno XXVIII, a canto dealing with or alluding to a total number of 14
historical events of discord and blodshed, opens this sequence with an
allusion to the war of the Trojans in Italy (v.10, habitually
misinterpreted by commentators who read "Troiani" as referring to the
Romans as their descendants) and closing with a reference to Absalom's and
Achitophel's rebellion against David. Also, it seems significant that Dante
in his letter to Henry VII (hailed as "pulcra Troyanus origine Cesar"),
when comparing Florence (opposing the Emperor) to Amata opposing Aeneas,
uses a biblical verse for describing Amata's suicide: "laqueo se suspendit"
(Mathew 27,5), thus suggesting a parallel between Amata/Florence and Judas,
the traitor of Christ (a parallel which can easily be extended to Turnus,
instigated by Amata, and the 'unbelieving' Jews opposing Christ).
Furthermore, in his Inferno Dante explicitly and implicitly compares his
own descent with the descents of Aeneas and of Paul ("Io non Enea, io non
Paulo sono" Inf. 2,32), and his descent is also dated with precise relation
to, and presents many more or less veiled parallels with, the Descent of
Christ (e.g. the 'diablerie' in Inf. 8-9 where the devils oppose Dante's
entry to Dite).
Btw, the habit of mixing Paul's descent with Vergilian elements seems to go
back to the short fourth redaction (according to Silverstein's
classification) of the Visio sancti Pauli, where the "hostiarius baratri,
cui nomen est Cerberus" is referred to, and where the angel guiding Paul
(or rather the narrator closing his narrative) uses the same Virgilian
topos of the 'hundred tongues' which, in Vergil, is used by the Sibylla to
express the ineffability of the pains of hell: "Et si essent centum viri
loquentes ab initio mundi, et unusquisque centum linguas ferreas haberet,
non possent dinumerare genera penarum inferni"(see the Latin text in Paul
Meyer, _La Descente de saint Paul en Enfer, poème français composé en
Angleterre_, In: Romania 24 (1895), S.357-375).
Others on this list will be able to provide more, and more direct, help.
Also you might check out David Wilson-Okamura's excellent website
http://virgil.org
Best regards,
Otfried
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Otfried Lieberknecht
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http://www.lieberknecht.de
D-80337 Muenchen, Lindwurmstr. 127
phone +49 (0)89 76775703, mobile +49 (0)1706771396
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