The arts of poetry and prose : by Douglas Kelly. 9782503360003, 2503360009, 9782503360591, 2503360599

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TYPOLOGIEDES SOURCES DU MOYEN AGE OCCIDENTAL DIRECTEUR: L. GENICOT

Fasc. S9

A-V.A.2•

THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE BY

DOUGLAS

KELLY

PROPl!SSOR.UNIVERSITYOF WISCONSIN·MADISON

BREPOLS TURNHOUT - BELGIUM 1991

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© Brepols 1991

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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AVERTISSEMENT

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Les volumes n° 58: Ciceronian Rhetoric in Treatise, Scholion and Commentaryde John 0. WARD, n° 59: The Arts of Poetry and Prose de Douglas KELLY,n° 60: "A.rsdictaminis,A.rsDictandi" de M. CAMARGO, ainsi que le volume a paraitre ulterieurement de M. BRISCOEand B.H. JAYE: "A.rtespraedicandi" and "artes orandi", constituent un ensemble qui couvre en principe tout le champ des sources relevant de la rhetorique dans les litteratures latine et vernaculaires du Moyen Age. L'equipe qui a realise cet ensemble a ete constituee a notre demande et animee de maniere exemplaire par le Professeur J .0. WARD de l'Universite de Sydney. Qu'il trouve ici l'expression de notre gratitude.

Leopold GENIC0T

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 9

PREFACE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.

PRIMARY WORKS

1. Editions and Translations of Latin Treatises 2. Editions of Vernacular Treatises (by language) . a. Occitan or Provenfal b. Italian c. Catalan .

d.Cas~wnSpanish e. Galicwn Portuguese f. French . g. Dutch and Flemish h. German . i. English . j. ScandinavianLanguages k. Celtic Languages .

B.

STUDIES

1. The Arts of Poetry and Prose : Their Traditions 2. The Arts of Poetry and Prose : Their Uses and Influences 3. The Vernacular Arts of Poetry CHAPTER I: DEFINITION

10 10 10 15 15 17 18 19 19 20 21 22 22 22 23 24 24 28 32 37

OF THE GENRE

CHAPTER II : EVOLUTION OF THE GENRE

47

A. THE TRADITION FOR INSTRUCTION IN POETICS, PROSODY, AND LITERARY PROSE

47

1. 2. 3. 4.

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5. Trees of Knowledge .

B.

THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE AND THE LITERARY MASTERPIECE • • • • • • • C. BERNARDUS SILVESTRIS' ART OF POETRY AND PROSE AND THE SCOPE OF THE TREATISES • • • 0. INVENTION AS IMAGINATION : POETIC ANALOGIES • E. MEDIEVAL INNOVATIONS IN LITERARY COMPOSITION

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Natural and Artificial Order . Material Style Gravitas and Leviltu . . . Determination and Conversion Verse and Prose .

.

.

.

61 64

68 68 71

79 81 82 85

F. THE "TENDENZ ZUR KLEINEN EINHEIT"

CHAPTER

57

III:

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE • A. THE AUTHOR : THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE DIVISION OF TASKS .

1. The M agister . 2. The Artifex

•

89 89 89 91

B. THE MANUSCRIPT TRADITION

96

C. PRESENT AND FORMER STATE OF THE TREATISES

99 99

1. Collections 2. Fragments . 3. Commentaries and Glosses

100 101

0. LANGUAGE E. TRADITION AND MAGISTERIAL INNOVATION 1. Conventions of the Genre . 2. The Influence of the Scholastic Milieu CHAPTER

IV : INFLUENCE OF THE

101 104 104 107

.

ARTS OF POETRY AND

PROSE

A. CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION B. UTILIZATION AND INTERPRETATION C. COMMENTARY

110 110 111 115

0. TRANSLATIONS, ADAPTATIONS, BORROWINGS, CITA116

TIONS, AND REFERENCES •

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PREFACE

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.

PRIMARY WORKS

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1. Editions and Translations of Latin Treatises 2. Editions of Vernacular Treatises (by language) . a. Occitan or Provenfal b. Italian c. Catalan . d. Castilian Spanish e. GalicianPortuguese f. French . g. Dutch and Flemish

10 15 15 17

h. i. j. k.

German . English . ScandinavianLanguages Celtic Languages .

B. STUDIES

1. The Arts of Poetry and Prose : Their Traditions 2. The Arts of Poetry and Prose: Their Uses and Influences 3. The Vernacular Arts of Poetry CHAPTER I : DEFINITION

18 19 19 20 21 22 22 22 23 24 24

28 32 37

OF THE GENRE

CHAPTER II: EVOLUTION OF THE GENRE

47

A. THE TRADITION FOR INSTRUCTION IN POETICS, PROSODY, AND LITERARY PROSE

47

1. 2. 3. 4.

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B. THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE AND THE LITERARY

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MASTERPIECE C. BERNARDUS SILVESTRIS' ART OF POETRY AND PROSE AND THE SCOPE OF THE TREATISES • • INVENTION AS IMAGINATION: POETIC ANALOGIES .

61 64

E. MEDIEVAL INNOVATIONS IN LITERARY COMPOSITION

68 68

D.

1. Natural and Artificial Order . 2. Material Style 3. Gravitas and Levitas . • • . 4. Determination and Conversion 5. Verse and Prose .

.

.

.

.

.

71

79 81 82

85

F. THE "TENDENZ ZUR KLEINEN EINHEIT"

CHAPTER

Ill: CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE ARTS OF

POETRY AND PROSE • A. THE AUTHOR: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE DIVISION

89 89

OF TASKS .

1. The Magister . 2. The Artifex

B.

91

96

THE MANUSCRIPT TRADITION

C. PRESENT AND FORMER STATE OF THE TREATISES

1. Collections 2. Fragments . 3. Commentaries and Glosses D. LANGUAGE E. TRADITION AND MAGISTERIAL INNOVATION

1. Conventions of the Genre . . 2. The Influence of the Scholastic Milieu CHAPTER

89

.

99 99 100 101 101 104 104 107

IV : INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE

•

•

•

A. CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION B. UTILIZATION AND INTERPRETATION C. COMMENTARY

110 110 111 115

D. TRANSLATIONS, ADAPTATIONS, BORROWINGS, CITATIONS, AND REFERENCES

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CHAPTER V : EDITIONS

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A. WORK IN PROGRESS

8. DESIDERATA FOR FUTURE EDITIONS CHAPTER VI:

HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE

A. INTRODUCTION

124 124

.

.

8. MEDIEVAL RECEPTION AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE

124

TREATISES C. THE ART OF POETRY AND PROSE FROM THE EARLY TO THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

126 127 128 132 134

.

1. Relation to Medieval Philosophy 2. Relation to Medieval Pedagogy D. THE ARTISTIC MENTALITY E. DESIDERATA FOR FUTURE STUDIES APPENDIX I : THE TOPICS OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTS OF POETRY

139

AND PROSE APPENDIX II:

THE ARTS OF POETRY FOR THE VERNACULAR

146 146 148 153 155 158 166 174

LANGUAGES A. INTRODUCTION

•

8. ORIGINS C. EDITIONS AND CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP

D. INTENTIONS AND DESIGN . E. SCOPE AND CONTENT

.

F. EMERGENCE AND EVOLUTION

G.

AUTHORS AND PUBLICS

ADDENDA

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PREFACE

This fascicule on the medieval arts of poetry and prose emphasizes the Latin treatises. In order to demonstrate their significance - they are few in number - it has been necessary to locate them in the intellectual and scholastic milieux where they were used, and apart from which their real purpose would be, and has been, misunderstood. This will account for the rather large number of references to related or parallel genres. The treatises were part of a program of instruction that had links with and implications for a considerable variety of activities : reading, composition, interpretation, and instruction in grammar, rhetoric, and other arts and sciences, as well as in other kinds of composition like letterwriting, preaching, and scientific, historical, and moral instruction and writing. The vernacular treatises and manuals are discussed in Appendix II. Albeit more numerous than those written for Latin composition, for the most part they are more narrow in scope and elementary than their Latin counterparts. They are a small part of a large and very important phenomenon : the emergence and extension of the vernacular literatures in western Europe. I should like to acknowledge the assistance, information, and correction provided by a number of scholars, colleagues, and friends, who, of course, are not responsible for the defects that remain : Keith Busby, Martin Camargo, Margaret Ounies-Ross, John Conley, Michael Curschmann, Jean-Marie d'Heur, Charles Faulhaber, Christopher Kleinhenz, Ullrich Langer, Franco Munari, James J. Murphy, M. Frances Nims, Joseph Snow, Deidre Stone, Juan Temprano, Chauncey Wood, Marjorie C. Woods, our editor, John 0. Ward, my very helpful and competent readers, Franz Quadlbauer and Janet Martin, and the distinguished editors of the Typologie series.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. PRIMARY WORKS 1. Editions and Translations of Latin Treatises The principal modern edition of the arts of poetry and prose has been : F ARAL, E., Les arts poetiques du XII• et du XIII• siecle : recherches et documents sur la technique litteraireau moyen dge, Paris, 1924; repr. 1962 (Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 238). It contains, in addition to an Introduction on the authors and their instruction : Ekkehard IV, De lege dictamen omandi, p. 104-105; Matthew of VendOme, Ars versificatoria,p. 109-193 ; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, p. 197-262; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Documentumde modo et arte dictandiet versificandi (short version), p. 262-320 (excerpts from the long version are found on p. 327-332 ofT. LAWLER's edition of John of Garland's Parisiana Poetria ; see below, p. 12) ; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Summa de co/oribus rhetoricis (summary with excerpts), p. 321-327; Gervase of Melkley, Ars versificaria(summary), p. 328-330; Eberhard the German, Laborintus, p. 337-377 ; John of Garland, Poetria (= Parisiana Poetria) (summary), p. 378380. On this edition, see W.B. SEDGWICK, Notes and Emendations on Faral's "Les arts poetiques du XIIe et du XIIJe siec/e", in Speculum, 2 (1927), p. 331-343. Still useful, although generally inaccessible, is : LEYSER,P., Historiapoetarum et poematum medii aevi decem, Magdeburg, 1721. It contains : Eberhard the German, Laborintus, p. 795-854 ; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, p. 855-978.

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Other editions and reprints : Matthew of Vend0me MOZLEY, J.H., Some UnprintedFragments of Matthew of Venddme (?) : A. Descriptionof the Bodleian MS Misc. Lat. D 15, in Studi medievali, N. S., 6 (1933), p. 208-238. (An "anthology" of excerpts from Matthew's works, including some passages from the A.rs versificatoria.) MUNARI, F., Ars versificatoria,in Matthew's Opera, 3 vols, Rome, 19771988 (Storia e letteratura, 144, 152, 171): Vol. I : Catalogo dei manoscritti ; Vol. II : Piramus et Tube - Milo - Epistule - Tobias; Vol. III : A.rs versificatoria.Retains F ARAL's book and paragraph numbers. BOURGAIN, L., Matthei Yindocinensis "A.rs versificatoria",Diss., Paris, 1879. PERUGI, M., Saggio di un'edizione critica del/'A.rsversificatoriadi Matteo di Vendome,in Testi e interpretazioni: studi del Seminario di Filologia Romanza dell'Universitadi Firenze, Milan, Naples, 1978, p. 669-719 (edition of the Prologue and 2.1-11 ). There are two separate editions of the long version of Matthew's description of a locus amoenus in the Ars versificatoria;Faral's edition gives only the short version. MUNARI, F., Matteo di Venddme,"A.rs,"I, 111, in Studi medievali, N. S. 3, 17 (1976), p. 293-305. Tuoss, D., Studien zum locus amoenus im Mittelalter, Vienna, Stuttgart, 1972, p. 171-176 (Wiener romanistische Arbeiten, 10). (Based on Vienna Bibliotheca Palatina ms. 246.) Geoffrey of Vinsauf GALLO, E., The "Poetrianova" and Its Sources in Early RhetoricalDoctrine, The Hague, Paris, 1971, p. 14-129 (De proprietatibus litterarum : series minor, 10) ; reprints FARAL's edition, with facing Englishlanguage translation by GALLO. Gervase of Melkley A.rs versifica(to)ria),MOnster, 1965 GRABENER, H.-J., A.rs poetica (Forschungen zur romanischen Philologie, 17). On this edition, see F.J. WORSTBROCK'sreview in A.nzeigerfar deutsches A.ltertum und deutsche Literatur, 18 ( 1967), p. 99-107.

me,Ars, 1.38-116; John of Garland, Parisiana Poetria, chs. 1-2, especially on inventio and electio. On Geoffrey's use of determino (v. 1848) as Determination, see p. 81-82, below.

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The res, sexus, aetas, conditio, eventus, locus, and tempus are loci for material style. One perceives in them both the kind of characteristics John of Garland identifiesin the WheelofVergil- condition, a representative proper name, appropriate animals associated with the type, suitable instruments for characteristic activities, typical dwellings, plants usually associated with the class or type of person represented - and the commonplaces Matthew assigns to persons and things in descriptio : nomen, natura, convictus,fortuna, habitus, studium, affectio, consilium, casus, factum, oratio for persons ; summa facti, causa facti, ante rem, cum re, post rem, facultas faciendi, qualitas facti, tempus, locus for things (with reference to, but no illustrations for, adjuncta negotio and consequentia negotium) 114• By amplifying the attributes invented for some or all of

these or analogous commonplaces in accordance with the principle of material style, the writer proposes a reading of a given materia, a reading that uses coherent and suitable representation as "hypothetical" amplification 11s. Thus, the attributes - the proprietates, the co/ores operum, the epitheta, the personae attributa 116 - define and delineate the quality of the person and the materia. The multiplication of attributes enhances the comprehensibility and credibility of the work, provided they remain representative, coherent, and consistent 117 • The terminology for topical invention in the treatises is not always consistent, no doubt in part because of the blending of traditions without systematic terminological rigor. Matthew himself forewarns his pupils : "non impediat auditorem vocabulorum diversitas idem significantium"118• For purposes of consistency here, I shall use the followingequivalencies : commonplace as locus and attributes as argumenta, as in this passage from Matthew of Vend0me : "sumitur argumentum secundum locum a natione" 119• The reader should be aware that the vocabulary for each stage is unstable and the lines of demarcation fluid and hazy. Matthew uses indifferently locus, argumentum, and attributum to designate either Matthew's list comes from Cicero's De inventione (E. FARAL,Arts, p. 77-78). Matthew of Vendome, A.rs, 1.110, 4.19. 116 Matthew, A.rs, 1.75. Matthew treats these terms as synonymous. 117 Matthew, A.rs, 1.114. For illustrations, see A. GEORGI, Das lateinische und deutsche Preisgedicht im Mittelaller in der N achfolge des genus demonstrativum, Berlin, 1969 ( Philologische Studien und Quellen, 48); D. TH0SS, Studien zum locus amoenus im Mittelalter, Vienna, Stuttgart, 1972 (Wiener romanistische Arbeiten, 10); E. KLEINSCHMIDT,Hemcherdar114

m

stellung. 111 A.rs 1.75. Cf. n. 116, above. 119 A.rs 1.82.

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the commonplace or the attributes elicited or drawn from the commonplaces 120• My terminology fits his most discriminating use, as above in the selection of specific argumenta from a general locus. Material style as descriptiohas a place in ordo. The link between ordo and material style was possible on the authority of Horace's injunction to keep the representation of persons consistent from the beginning to the end of the work 121 • This did not preclude adaptations or changes ; but it did require that these fit what would be appropriate in an ordinaria successio, as the commentary on the Aeneid attributed to Bernanlus Silvestris illustrates through Aeneas' passage from one age and stage in life to another, that is, from impetuous youth to prudent age. The importance of the proper name among the loci suggests strikingly the intention to typify, to generalize, rather than to individualize, that characterizes material style as descriptio. In the Wheel of Vergil, the proper name is chosen because it is characteristic or traditional for the class or type represented. The name was often susceptible of allegorical, rhetorical, or etymological word-play that elicited properties within maneries - for example, "Cesar ... omnia cedens" 122• It follows that "quod dictum est . .. de Cesare ... , ne nomen proprium prepondere~ ceteris personis eiusdem conditionis vel etatis vel dignitatis vel officii vel sexus intelligatur attributum, ut nomen speciale generalis nominis vicarium ad maneriem rei, non ad rem maneriei reducatur" 123• For Matthew then, his Helen is 120 Cf. "hie aliter accipienda sunt nomina ista •argumentum' sive 'locus a nomine vel a natura' quam in logica facultate. Hie enim nichil aliud est 'argumentum', sive 'locus a nomine vel a natura', nisi per interpretationem nominis et per naturales proprietates de persona aliquid probare vel improbare" (1.76). Matthew then identifies the eleven attributa personae as commonplaces, designating them in the ensuing analysis alternately attrihuta, argumenta, or loci. He than passes to nine attributa negotio (l.94). Sumere, elicere, and informare are terms used to describe the process of eliciting and selecting arguments from the commonplaces in Matthew and John : "notandum quod in descriptione persone ex qualitate officii vel sexus ... wltus maxime debet informari" (1.75), "natura ... tripartito dividitur, scilicet in attributa que sumuntur a corpore et in attributa que sumuntur ab anima ..." (l.79; see A.E. GALYON,Manhew of Vendome: The Art of Versification, Ames, Iowa, 1980, p. 120 n. 17); "Unde sic elicitur argumentum" (l.95). John of Garland treats electio in ch. 2 of his treatise. 121 Horace, Ars poetica (Ad Pisones), in C.O. BRINK, Horace on Poetry, Cambridge, 1971, vol. II, v. 114-127. Cf. Matthew of Vendome, Ars, 1.34; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Documentum, 2.3.132-139, and, in the long version, T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 328, §1; John of Garland, Parisiana Poetria, 5.373-381. See also E. FARAL,Arts, p. 77-79; T.F. LAWLER, John of Garland and Horace: A Medieval Schoolman Faces the "Ars poetica", in Classical Folio, 22 ( I 968 ), p. 3-13, especially p. 8. 122 Matthew of Vendome, Ars, 1.78; cf. John of Garland, Parisiana Poetria, 1.310-315. 123 Matthew, Ars, 1.60.

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a Helen, a consummate exemplar of beauty, rather than the woman whom Paris abducted ; Caesar is a Caesar, not just Julius Caesar. Here too the historical figure defines the class to which he or she belongs by exemplaryfeatures or conduct. A Caesar, like Julius Caesar, tends properly to "protendere iter in vetitum et ad conflictum votivo suspirare desiderio, unde Lucanus : 'non tam portas intrare patentes, / Quam fregisse juvat' " 124 • The principle of material style was accommodated to the definitions of tragedy, comedy, and some other genres as the Middle Ages tended to define them 12s. The treatises that take up specific genres, or at least the kinds of writing for which they use terms we take to designate genres, distinguish them in various ways that are not always consistent or clear. However, some features tend to recur : a certain kind of verse, happy or unhappy beginning or end, and the social class of the principal protagonists. The last feature most clearly defines the language used, for it can serve to elevate the most villainous subjects by introducing language, and therefore types or classes of people, suitable to the aristocracy, as in tragedy. By contrast, comedy requires common, even vulgar language. Hence John of Garland could contrast his example of a comedy with that of a tragedy because the former used a humble material style, the latter a grave style. That both John's examples relate "pudibunda ... et celerata" 126 is not to the point, but rather the humorous or serious conclusion and the material style. John thought that his was the second tragedy ever written ; the only other one he knew of, a Medea attributed to Ovid, is lost today. But the subject of Medea suggests the pudibunda et celerata he includes in his own tragedy 127 based on the strife and betrayal committed by two washerwomen who served as camp concubines for a group of soldiers - "due quorum lotrices corpora cultu / Pulcre curarunt, debentes esse parate / Ad cohitus equitum" 128 • John sees his

Matthew, Ars, 1.62. W. CLOETT A, Beitriige zur Lineraturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance : I. Komodie und Tragodie im Mine/alter, Halle, 1890; T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 248-249, 262-264; P. KLOPSCH, Einfiihrung Dichtungslehren, p. 112-120, 159-160; F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §58 et passim; H.A. KELLY, Aristotle-Ave"oes-Alemannus on Tragedy: The Influence of the "'Poetics"on the Later Middle Ages, in Viator, 10 (1979), p. 161-209. 116 Parisiana Poetria, 1.25. 127 Parisiana Poetria, 7.114-117. 121 Parisiana Poetria, 7.46-48. The language is clearly that of high material style, although 124

125

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piece less as a comedie de rrueursor a farce than as a tragedy because in it a sister causes her brother's death. The displacement of the classical genera dicendi by material style was neither sudden nor immediate. But the change did not pass innoticed, nor was it total. Indeed, the terms for the faults associated with the three styles - turgidum and inflatum, dissolutum and fluctuans, aridum and exsangue - survived longer in medieval pedagogy than did the three styles themselves. Matthew underscores the admonition that an appropriate choice of words should preclude these faults. He locates that appropriateness in a middle style (mediocritas)that is an ideal mean between the extremes of excessively high and low 129• This conception of mediocritas arose from commentaries on Horace. Furthermore, leading as it does into the discussion of descriptio as topical invention, Matthew's theory of the three vitia opposed to mediocritas moves closer to the choice of appropriate vocabulary, especiallyepithets, in the representation of persons and things, than to any notion of style like the original genera dicendi. The Horatian trappings for the three kinds of vitia survive from the commentaries in Geoffrey's Documentum 130, but the conception of the faults has been almost completely adapted to the "Vergilian" notion of material style. Hence, the faults originally associated with only one kind of style are now deemed possible in any material style, depending upon the extent to which the latter departs from the ideal of mediocritas or descriptive fitness (decorum). The faults were originally said to be peculiar to only one style, opines Geoffrey, because they were most likely to occur in it 131 : the high style more readily introduces metaphor, the low style the coarse or vulgar, the middle inappropriate attributes. By Geoffrey's time, only the translationessuitable to high style in antiquity survive from the original genera dicendi 132• The third phase in descriptioas topical invention, after the identification of commonplaces and the selection of appropriate argumenta that define the work's material style and context, is amplification or abbreviation,

the materia may seem more typical of medieval comedy. See T. HUNT, Chrestien (cf. n. 9). 129 130

Ill

F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §37c; cf. §25q. 2.3.145-151; see F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §§44e-f and h. F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §§44i-j.

132 Neither Gervase of Melkley nor Eberhard the German discusses the three vitia; see F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §§48-49, Matthias of LinkOping does, however; see Poetria Lincopensis, p. 140.20-30.

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mostly by tropes and figures 133• These devices determine how the argumenta will be presented and expressed. Amplification and abbreviation extend tropes and figures to units of discourse larger than the sentence. They account for the highly ornate, even artificial quality of the illustrative pieces used in the treatises, wherein _the devices for tropical and figural variation are practiced with the skill of an accomplished piano instructor demonstrating finger exercises. All these devices are deflection from direct discourse. As such, they modify direct statement artificially by amplifying or abbreviating the sentence or the larger unit of discourse. Tropical and figural embellishment conforms to the same analogical scheme for invention that obtains in the conception of the work and the word. Formula materiae, quasi quaedam formula cerae, Primitus est tactus duri : si sedula cura lgniat ingenium, subito mollescit ad ignem Ingenii sequiturque manum quocumque vocarit, Ductilis ad quicquid. Hominis manus interioris Ducit ut amplificet vel curtet 134• The definitions of amplification and abbreviation in the treatises demonstrate the transformation of classical theory on enhancement and attenuation to, respectively, lengthening and shortening. The distinction seems to have become systematic for the first time about 1200 with Geoffrey of Vinsauf m. But Matthew of VendOme is not unaware of it : "colores melius placent aggregati" 136• The transformation was anticipated and prepared in antiquity, especially in the tradition of the praeexercitaminal progymnasmata137• For example, Geoffrey proposes digression, one variety of which may be description (H. LAUSBERG, Handbuch, §342); Geoffrey also lists description under the figures of thought (Poetria nova, v. 1238-40). See E.R. CURTIUS, Europiiische LiteratlJT, p. 479-485. a. R. DRAGONETTJ,Technique, p. 194-195. 134 Poetria nova, v. 213-218. CT. LJ. FRIEDMAN, Gradus, p. 176-177. 135 E.R. CURTIUS, Europiiische Lileratur, p. 483 ; L. B0RNSCHEUER, Topik, p. 73-75 ( cf. n. 112). 136 Ars, 3.49; see also 1.63, 64, and 114; cf. 1.78: "Argumentum sive locus a nomine est quando per interpretationem nominis de persona aliquid boni vel mali persuadetur (my emphasis)", and 4.2 and 13: "minus dicta suppleri" / "superflua aboleri" viz. "resecari". See E.R. CURTIUS, Europiiische Literatur, p. 481-482. 137 L. B0RNSCHEUER, Topik, p. 71-90 (cf. n. 112). F. QUADLBAUERpointed this out to me in the following references: the chapter on 6t1TY11µa~ in Theon's Progymnasmata, in L. SPENGEL,ed., Rhetores graeci, Leipzig, 1854, vol. II, p. 78-96, on extendere and contrahere; Horace, Opera, ed. E.C. WICKHAM and H.W. GARROD, 2nd ed, Oxford, 1901, 1959, Epistula II, "qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poema" (2.109), "Luxuriantia compescet" (2.122), and his Ars poetica, 447-448 : "ambitiosa recidet / ornamenta" (cf. the Scholia Vindobonensia 133

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Geoffrey and John of Garland provide lists of devices for amplification and abbreviation. The lists vary from author to author, and, in fact, represent a selection drawn from the tropes and figures at large, as Geoffrey suggests at the conclusion to his discussion of amplification and abbreviation in the Documentum : "Poterit enim ex modis praedictis et postdicendis quantum placuerit eam (materiam) dilatare" 138• Virtually any tropical or figural modification in discourse falls under amplification or abbreviation. Through them topical invention restates or restructures a given materia after eliciting from it the hidden or obscure meaning medieval poets sought by their techniques to recover in their sources, re-create, and show forth 139• It is essential to point out that the lists of commonplaces and of devices for amplification and abbreviation, and the examples used for them, are illustrative, not all-inclusive. All phases of descriptio as topical invention are subject to the author's ability to perceive at what places amplificatory developments are appropriate in order to characterize and explain the work's thema and materia. The specificityof the loci,a,gumenta, or devices for amplification and abbreviation in these treatises stems from the preceptive intent appropriate to relatively elementary pedagogy. The intelligent pupil, or the intelligent commentator, would discover in works like the Cosmographiaand Architrenius the potentialities of the instruction received. Progress in understanding and skills is implicit in Geoffrey's passing over the stereotype of woman's beauty that Matthew dwells upon in his portrait of Helen. It is also indicative of the passage from instruction on one level of achievement to more advanced instruction for more accomplished pupils.

ad HoratiiArtempoeticam, ed. J. ZECHMEISTER, Diss. Vienna, 1877, p. 50.21-30); Quintilian, lnstitutionis oratoriae libri XII, ed. L. RADERMACHER and V. BUCHHEIT,Leipzig, 1959, 1.9.2, on the procedures for paraphrase in school exercises, and 10.5.4, on ambitious paraphrasing. 131 2.2.70; cf. the Parisiana Poetria, 1.331-334, 4.285-415, 6.395-399. See as well Brunetto Latini's version of Geoffrey's treatment of amplification in general and interpretatio in particular: "Et se ta matire doit estre escreue par paroles, je di que tu le pues acroistre en .viii. manieres, ki sont apelees coulour de rectorique. Dont la premiere est apelee aomemens (- interpretatio)"; in Li livres dou tresor, ed. F.J. CARMODY,Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1948, 3.13.1-3 (University of California Publications in Modem Philology, 22). 139 J. BALTZELL, Rhetorical 'Amplification' and 'Abbreviation' and the Structure of Medieval Na"ative, in Pacific Coast Philology, 2 (1967), p. 32-39; S.N. IHLE, Malory's Grail Quest: Invention and Adaptation in Medieval Prose Romance, Madison, 1983.

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3. Gravitas and Levitas The emergence of the concept of material style left a gap. No formal principle distinguished different levels of elocutionary style. But the terms gravis and levis survived and seemed to demand an application. The most obvious distinction in elocutio was the distinction among tropes, figures of thought, and figures of diction. The faults associated with each of the ancient three styles retained only translatio or metaphorical expression ; yet from this trace was derived a system that distinguished "difficulty" and "facility" 140• Although these distinctions seem to have existed prior to Geoffrey of Vinsauf, it was apparently he who first published and thereby established the system, and, to some extent, the terminology 141• The ornata difficultas or gravitas used tropes, the ornata facilitas or levitas used the figures of thought and diction 142• The classification became the formal complement of material style. Matthew's distinction between qualitas dicendi and qualitas tractatus separates ornamentation from material style while correlating their use 143• This is especially evident in ornata difficultas144 • Metaphor (translatio) was the dominant trope ; as we have observed, it retained something of its link to material style in the stylus gravis where it was deemed suitable for expressing the deeds of the high and mighty. The definitions of different genres, especially tragedy and comedy as the Middle Ages and our treatises knew them, tended to associate gravitas with tragedy, which represented the aristocracy, and levitas with comedy, which portrayed the middle class or the lower strata of society in bucolic poetry. However, accommodations were possible. One could use the tropes and figures in any of the three material styles. One might even vary material style itself if, but only if, the variations were confined to metaphors. For example, John of Garland accepts "inbelles haste", words appropriate to high material style,because the expression refers to instruments of the nobleman, as a metaphor for "coli (sic) muliebres", which John locates in low material style ; but he rejects praising Charlemagne rex as "blandus 140 F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §§44e and r-z. a. R. DRAGONETTI, Technique, p. 130-131. 141 U. MOLK, Trobar dus trobar leu: Studien zur Dichtungstheorie der Trobadors, Munich, 1968, p. 177-199; cf. M.F. NIMS, "Translatio", p. 222-225. 142 On the diverse terminology, ornata difficultas and facililas, ornatus difficilis and facilis, etc., see U. MOLK, Trobar, p. 178-179 and 182. 143 Ars, 3.50-52; see F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, §§37a-a3, 37f. 144 U. MOLK, Trobar, p. 177, n. 1.

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amator / Vxoris" in middle style 145 • Gravitas was, therefore, usually associated with metaphor, /evitas with determinations and conversions. The only really deliberate innovation in the classification of tropes and figures is Gervase of Melkley's. He classifies the devices for ornamentation under three heads or loci: idemptitas, similitudo, and contrarietas. The scheme may illustrate the influence of logic on grammar in the thirteenth century 146• If so, Gervase represents a departure from the traditional divisions of tropes and figures in the artes, and this would set his treatise apart from the others. The innovation did not take hold. It certainly did not diminish the influence of the Poetrianova, which remained the principal authority on systematic classification of tropes and figures. John of Garland, a prominent figure in the Parisian resistance to the domination of dialectic over grammar, rhetoric, and poetics, appeals to Geoffrey's authority in the Parisiana Poetria, as do Eberhard the German in the Laborintusand many commentators 147 • Eberhard came out of the Parisian schools and became widely known in German-speaking countries. Yet he still refers to the traditional authorities on literary composition : Geoffrey, Matthew of VendOme, Bemardus Silvestris, and the standard ancient and modem authors in his catalogue of recommended readings for pupils. Later still, Dante refers his readers to the authority of the "doctrinatas ... poetrias" 148, and then adopts a four-part classification of urbanitas,that is, distinctions in style that fit into the traditional twoway "paths" of difficult and easy statement. In fact, Dante's division is not dissimilar to Eberhard's quadruple classification of Geoffrey's two kinds of statement, the one difficult, the other easy 149 • Within each Eberhard goes on to distinguish two sub-divisions that parallel those in Dante. 1. Ordinary speech (Laborintus,v. 431, 433-438 / De vulgarieloquentia,

11.vi.4)

145 Parisiana Poetria, 5.45-93. Cf. E. FARAL, Sidoine, p. 572-577; P. KLOPSCH,Einfimrung Dichtungs/ehren, p. 132-135; U. MOLK, Trobar, p. 178-179, 198-199. 146 P. KLOPSCH,Einfiihrung Dichtungslehren, p. 141; H.-J. GRABENER,ed., Ars, p. xi-xii. 147 Laborintus, v. 665-666, 675-676; Parisiana Poetria, 4.390. Cf. LJ. PAETOW, The Battle of the Seven Arts: A French Poem by Henri d'Andeli, Berkeley, 1914, p. 16-18 (Memoirs of the University of California, 4.1: History 1.1); H. SZK.LENAR,Magister, p. 100-110. 148 De vulgari e/oquentia, ed. P.V. MENGALOO,Milan, Naples, 1979, 11.iv.3, in Dante Alighieri, Opere minori, vol. II. 149 U. MOLK, Trobar, p. 181.

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2. Learned speech (Laborintus, v. 343-384 / De vulgari eloquentia, 11.vi.4)ISO 3. Colored speech (Laborintus,v. 439-598 / De vulgarieloquentia,11.vi.4) .4. Metaphorical speech (Laborintus, v. 385-430 / De vulgarieloquentia, 11.vi.4) Qespite these varieties Geoffrey's fundamental scheme remains intact : the tropes define and circumscribe omatus difficilis,the figures of thought and diction omatus facilis 151• And in spite of the rigid separation between the two kinds of statement in the instruction imparted in the treatises, the ancient preference for adroit variation of styles still obtained in practice. But some of the rigidity in classification carried over into the prescriptions regarding choices for variation. Difficult matter was to be lightened by easy statement, easy matter acquired distinction by difficult statement 1S2. 4. Determination and Conversion Determination and conversion are important features of both material style (qualitas materiae) and elocution as gravitas and levitas (qualitas dicendi). Determination refers to the ways by which a word, or an appropriate phrase or expression, may be "determined" or qualified by a modifier. The quality of determination is enhanced by accumulating modif ers, as Sidonius Apollinaris did, whom Geoffrey cites as exemplary 153• The following example shows determination as one noun qualified by another: "Es Cato mente / Tullius ore, Paris facie, Pirrusque vigore" 154 ; similarly a verb may be "determined" by nominal qualifiers: Sapit ut Cato, dicit Ut Cicero, viget ut Pirrus, nitet ut Paris, audet Ut Campaneus, amat ut Theseus, modulatur ut Orpheus 155• The principle is related to descriptioas material style, especially to the ways by which descriptions may be amplified through appropriate attributes 150 See John of Garland's discussion of prosa tegnigrapha, "qua utitur Aristotiles et alii tradentes artem" (1.49-51), and other kinds of prose adapted to different genres and materiae (1.51-62). 151 U. M0LK, Trobar, p. 181-182. 152 U. M0LK, Trobar, p. 179 and 181. 153 Poetria nova, v. 1796 ; he contrasts Sidonius' tendency to accumulate determinations with Seneca's "celerity", but recommends both modes, depending on whether one wishes to be long or brief(v. 1825-1841). 154 Poetria nova, v. 1775-1776. 155 Poetria nova, v. 1807-1809.

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or argumenta. There is also an obvious concern for precision, semantics, and nuances useful for rhetorical, allegorical, etymological, and other techniques common in medieval writing. Conversion refers to changes in a word from one part of speech to another. "Ex hac re 'doleo' "Geoffrey converts into "Ex hoc fonte mihi manat 'dolor ", "Hine mihi surgit / Radix" or "semen" or "fons" or "origo 'doloris' ", "Res haec materiam praestat causamque 'doloris'", "Seminat" or "gignit" or "ingerit ipsa 'dolorem' ", "Vulneribus duris in me, 'dolor anxie' , saevis. / Mens quasi decumbit male sospes et aegra 'do/ore' " 156• They are therefore instrumental in adapting a prescribed materia in a new composition based on it. They are related to /evitas, notably in figures that use repetition - traductio, similiter cadens and desinens, gradatio, con-ectio,annominatio, and interpretatio - that is, to many figures of diction and thought whereby repetition or near repetition may vary or nuance expression and develop semantic differences by word play. The theories of determination and conversion first appear in Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetrianova or Documentum(depending on chronology) 157• But they do not represent a truly systematic or, perhaps, even selfconscious accommodation of topical invention, qualification, and amplificatory devices. 5. Verse and Prose Toe arts of poetry, as they have usually been designated in modern scholarship, actually provide instruction on composition in both verse and prose, or, to put it more accurately, in metrical and, sometimes, rhythmic verse and in literary or art prose - what the Poetrianova calls "prosaicus versus" 158• "Verse" has a wider range of meanings in classical Poetria nova, v. 1623-1629; emphasis mine. Poetria nova, v. 1588-1841; Documentum, 2.3.48-101 and 104-131; but cf. Matthew, Ars, 2.12. See P. KLOPSCH, Einfiihrung Dichtungslehren, p. 133. Matthew treats a kind of conversio under permutatio (4.27-31); see H. BRINKMANN, Mittelalterliche Hermeneutik, p. 33-34 (cf. n. 5). On treatises on verbal distinctions, see M.L. UHLFELDER, "De proprietate sermonum vel rerum": A Study and Critical Edition of a Set of Verbal Distinctions, Rome, 1954 (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome, 15); and JJ. BABBLER, Beitriige zu einer Geschichte der lateinischen Grammatik im Mittelalter, Halle, 1885, p. 170188. 158 V. 1863; see T. JANSON, Prose, p. 84 (cf. n. 37). Cf. v. 1851, and n. 10, above. Similarly, in the Documentum: "Hoc genus difficultatis frequens est in auctoribus tam prosaice quam metrice scriptis" (2.3.29). On the evaluation of verse and prose in the Middle Ages, see E.R. CURTIUS, Dichtung und ~orik im Mittelalter, in Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fiir 156 157

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and medieval Latin, including not only a line of verse, but also a verse in the Bible, a sentence, and a line of prose. Since instruction in( "versification" was by and large applicable to prose composition, literary prose was supposed to display the same techniques and devices that were appropriate to verse. It lacked only constant use of metrical or rhythmical feet (oratio soluta as differentiated from oratio dissoluta). But even this was only partially true. Under the influence of the dictamina and the treatises on rhetoric, the literary treatises adopted, respectively, the curial styli, cursus proper, and prose ornamentation and scansion. The earliest treatises take up only metrical verse (although some arts of versification treat rhythmic and rhymed verse, but under instruction on music and for divine services 1s9 ). Matthew of VendOme rejects rhyme outright, although he allows it on occasion in leonine verse ; nor does Matthew exclude prose from his treatise on "versification", nor, if we accept the implications of his definition of verse as something other than metrical scansion, the artistry it fosters 160• Later treatises discuss rhyme and accented verse at greater length and in more detail. Prose also acquired certain rhythmic and rhyming features. These are apparent in the four styli 161•

Literaturwissenschafl und Geistesgeschichte, 16 (1938), p. 439-451, and his Europiiische Literatur, p. 157-163; and P. KLOPSCH,Prosa, p. 9-24 (cf. n. 107); M. PAZZAGLIA,II verso e /'arte de/la canzone nel De vulgari e/oquentia, Florence, 1967, p. 81, 97 (Pubblicazioni della Facolta di Magistero dell'Universita degli Studi di Bologna, 2). For examples of the mutual influence and common art of verse and prose, see E. FARAL,Sidoine, p. 577-580. is9 See T. LAWLER,Parisiana Poetria, p. 266-267. In general, D. NORBERG,Introduction a /'etude de la versification /atine medievale, Stockholm, 1958 (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Studia latina Stockholmiensia, 5); D. NORBERG,La poesie latine rhythmique du haut moyen age, Stockholm, 1954 (Studia latina Holmiensia, 2); P. KLOPSCH,Einfuhrung Verslehre. 160 Ars, 1.1, 2.9, 2.43-45. On leonine cursus, see T. JANSON,Prose, p. 63-68 (cf. n. 37);

and n. 375, below. 161 See in general M. PLEZIA, Quattuor still modemorum: ein Kapile/ miltel/ateinischer Sti/lehre, in Orbis mediaevalis: Festgabe fur Anton Blaschka, Weimar, 1970, p. 200-205; N. DENHOLM-YOUNG,The "Cursus" in England, in the Collected Papers of N. Denholm-Young, Cardiff, 1969, p. 42-73, especially 48-52; A.C. CLARK, The Cursus in Mediaeval and Vulgar Latin, Oxford, 1910; T. JANSON,Prose, who, however, does not treat the arts of poetry and prose (cf. n. 37); A.O. SCAGLIONE,Classical, p. 98-99; P. KLOPSCH,Einfuhrung Dichtungs/ehren, p. 157-159; T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 327-330; J. MARTIN, Classicism, p. 563-565. Cursus is influential principally through the artes dictaminis; see P. RAJNA, Per il "cursus" medievale e per Dante, in Studi di .fi/o/ogia italiana, 3 (1932), p. 786 ; G. LINDHOLM,Studien zum miltel/ateinischen Prosarhythmus : seine Entwicklung und sein Abklingen in der Briefliteratur Italiens, Stockholm, GOteborg, Uppsala, 1963 (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Studia latina Stockholmiensia, 10).

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1. Stylus gregorianus.Based on the spondee (- trochee) and the dactyl, that is, the "accentual patterns" of, respectively, the bisyllabic spondee (: u} and the trisyllabic dactyl(: u u}. By the thirteenth century, these came to be associated with, respectively, the paroxytone and the proparoxytone. Specifically recommended are prose using accented cursus, either with a spondee followed by a dactyl : "humilitati nostre dignetur se uestra per omnia conformare gratia", or a dactyl followed by a spondee : "humilitati nostre se uestra dignetur gratia conformare" (- cursusvelox) 162• 2. Stylus tullianus.Not a cursus properly speaking, it designates prose that makes abundant use of figures of thought and diction 163• 3. Stylus hilarianus.Prose that uses a variable number of lines, each of which contains two spondees plus one dactyl at the end, and a last line ending in a four-syllable paroxytone (that is, two spondees): "Sepe furtiuis gressibus / surrepit infortunium, / qu6d ad felicem exitum / 6pus humanum invidet / pervenire" 164• 4. Stylus isidorianus.Rhymed prose wherein two successive lines rhyme, each rhyming line containing approximately the same number of syllables ; there is no limit to the number of lines, but each set of two lines must share the same rhyme and the same approximate length: "Pre pudore genus humanum obstupeat, de communi dampno quilibet abhorreat, / admirentur serui, stupescant liberi, / dum uocantur ad cathedram elingues pueri, conformantur magistris leues discipuli, / dum causa studii favor est populi. / Prius legunt quam sillabicent ; prius volant quam curcitent ; / antequam sciant partes connectere, versus iactant miros componere 165• These four styles first appear in the treatises in the long version of Geoffrey's Documentum; they reappear almost immediately in Gervase's and John's treatises 166• Gervase, John, and Eberhard also provide detailed instruction on and Parisiana Poetria, 5.410-423, and p. 328-329 (from long Documentum). The first variety is unusual; cf. H. LAUSBERG,Handbuch, §1052, and T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 258; and see P. KLOPSCH,Einfuhrung Dichtungskhren, p. 158; N. DENHOLM-YOUNG, "Cursus", p. 61. On the definitions of the spondee and the dactyl, see T. JANSON,Prose, p. 83 (cf. n. 37); T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 265. In general, see also, under ..accentus", Gervase, Ars, p. 218.8-222.13. 163 John gives no example ..quia quasi curreret in infinitum" (Parisiana Poetria, 5.428). In his long version of the Documentum Geoffrey refers the reader to the prose passages in Alain of Lille's De planctu Naturae ; see T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 329 ; P. KLOPSCH,Einfuhrung Dichtungs/ehren,p. 158 n. 218. 164 Parisiana Poetria, 5.441-442; cf. the long Documentum, p. 329-330. 165 Parisiana Poetria, 5.455-460; cf. the long Documentum, p. 330. 166 T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 327-332; M. PLEZIA,Quattuor stili, p. 198. 162

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illustration of rhythmic or accentual verse. The establishment, as it were, of rhymed rhythmic verse reflects the growing importance of both the hymn and more popular kinds of Latin verse that had sprung up in and around clerical and scholarly centers 167• It also mirrors the changes in medieval latinity that were influencing instruction in grammar and rhetoric during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. However, interest in rhythmic verse and rhyme, which a number of specialized treatises attest to in the thirteenth century 168, began much earlier with Augustine's De musica ; the scattered treatises surviving from the early medieval period deal with the writing of hymns and letters, notably those by Bede, a ninth-century anonymous monk in Orleans, and Alberic of Montecassino 169• Versification as such was usually taught as part of grammar, as ornamentation had a standard place in that art and in rhetoric. The earlier treatises on poetry and prose do not offer any detailed instruction on the subject. However, the acceptance of rhythmic verse and rhyme seems to have brought about an awareness that all kinds of verse quantitative, qualitative, and rhymed - required detailed instruction. Gervase gives a brief discussion of metrical verse, with a briefer section on rhyme, and then passes over rhythmic versein order to introduce art prose 110• Eberhard and John discuss both metrical and rhythmic versification, but each concentrates on rhythmic verse 171• Although psalms and medieval Latin school poetry are important factors in the rise of rhythmic versification and rhyme 172, the influence of vernacular speech patterns cannot be ignored either. In fact, the prominence of quantitative verse and rhyme prepared the way for and coincides with the appearance of the vernacular arts of poetry (see Appendix II).

F.

THE "TENDENZ

ZUR KLEINEN EINHEIT"

Franz Quadlbauer has noted the tendency of the treatises to favor the small unit of discourse : the sentence or, at most, the short poem common 161

P. KLOPSCH, EinfiJhrung Verslehre, p. 41-49; D. NORBERG, Introduction, p. 38-53 (cf.

n. 159). See also R. DRAGONETTI, Technique, p. 458-483. 168 G. MARI, Ritmo /atino e terminologia ritmica medievale, in Studj de .filologia romanza, 8 (1901), p. 45-46; G. MARI, Trattati (cf. n. 24); J. MARTIN, Classicism, p. 551-563. 169 T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 266-267; B. BISCHOFF, Ein Brief Julians von Toledo uber Rhythmen. metrische Dichtung und Prosa, in Hermes, 81 (1959), p. 253-256. 170 Ars, p. 216.1-5. 171 Laborintw, v. 687-834, 991-1005, and p. 370-377; Parisiana Poetria, 7.467-2031 (as ars rythmica). m P. KLOPSCH, Einfuhrung Verslehre; D. NORBERG, Poesie (cf. n. 159).

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in classroom exercises like those in the Glasgow Hunterian manuscript. This propensity stems from the treatises' pedagogical focus ; all of them, with the possible exception of the Poetrla nova, address pupils and masters. There is only occasional, passing reference to longer, more ambitious compositions, and even then principally in reference to the examples of the masterpieces that tended, in fact, to be studied in detail, even in excerpt, and imitated. There is no indication that such works were actually undertaken in the classrooms evoked in the arts of poetry and prose themselves. Rather, masterpieces were more often than not commented upon as part of poetarumena"atio, with an eye for the same kinds of details that one finds in the illustrations quoted by the treatises themselves, details that lent themselves to imitation by young or beginning students of literary composition 173• They are illustrations of precept. In textual analysis, therefore, one began with a brief, but broad and general accessus. Afterwards the commentaries tended to magnify, to zoom in, as it were, on small, detailed features of the work being explicated, and only occasionally opened to broader considerations like those taken up systematically in the treatises themselves : order, amplification, material style 174• Specific illustrative passages would themselves be lifted and transferred, as small units of discourse, in florilegia and treatises on composition 175 • The preference for the small unit of discourse in the treatises and commentaries has led modern scholars, especially literary historians for the vernacular languages, to question the utility of the arts of poetry and prose for the historical explication and criticism of medieval poetry and literary prose. How indeed could such narrow, near-sighted manuals serve to illuminate the art and invention of such masters as Chretien de Troyes, Gottfried von StraBburg, or Geoffrey Chaucer, not to mention the great prose masters ? To ask this question is to miss the place and purpose of commentary and treatise in the training of the literary artist, a place and purpose analogous to those they held in Roman education. Michael C. Leff has put it accurately, in the context of topical invention, and his acute observations are pertinent to the entire program of studies 173 H. LAUSBERG, Handbuch, §§23-30 (cf. n. 41). See, for example, Documentum, 2.2.10, 2.2.23, 2.3.39. 174 B.M. MARTI, Literary Criticism (cf. n. 40); and her edition of Arnulf of Orleans, G/osu/e, p. xxxiv-lvi (cf. n. 73); A.J. MINNIS, Chaucer and Comparative Lilerary Theory, in D.M. ROSE, ed., New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism, Nonnan, Okla., 1981, p. 55. 175 R. BURTON, Classical Poets, p. 27-35 (cf. n. 15); E. FARAL, Manuscril, p. 96.

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in which the medieval treatises have a place. Quintilian observed that "mere rules do not produce eloquence". But this is not to say that such rules lack "practical value. They are, in fact, extremely useful as training devices. The student who examines .. . and applies them in practice compositions may develop habits of thought that spontaneously and naturally carry over" 176 into compositions undertaken outside the classroom, and even in the realization of the masterpiece. That this happened is obvious to even the most cursory reader of the authors and works mentioned in the skeptical question attributed above to modern scholars. One astute literary historian, whose critical eye did not fail to appreciate the "habits" Leff' refers to, came to similar conclusions regarding the use made of the kind of instruction the treatises impart ; thus, he recognized their significance as guidelines to the study of medieval literature, its presuppositions and its achievements. "Artifice", Eugene Vinaver has observed, "was capable of acting as a stimulus and awakening artistic ambition. It instilled in the pupil's mind the habit of bringing out the significance of whatever he found not fully explained in his auctores - a habit of mind which in a writer could easily become a habit of conception. And so it came about that when a 'literate' writer set himself the task of making a traditional or a classical story into a romance nothing seemed more important to him than the process of interpreting his material in a way he had been taught to do" 177 • The exercises wherein Bernard of Chartres made his pupils identify certain features of composition and reproduce or imitate them in their own compositions, the memorization of exemplary passages and short works lauded as pedagogically effective by Pierre of Blois, prefigure the pedagogy of the treatises on composition. Matthew of Vend0me and Geoffrey of Vinsauf carry on Bernard of Chartres's work. Implicitly, they "lead through art to nature, and the genuine art of invention does not reside in the pages of the theorist's book, but in the mind of the speaker" 178 • The medieval treatises opened the gifted mind to the possibilities available to it, and developed its natural bent. Poetics and rhetoric sought "nature" through that which revealed it in the sensible world : the forms of things that adorn it. That is no doubt what inspired Geoffrey of Vinsauf to show the status archetypus 176 The Topicsof ArgumentativeInvention in Latin Rhetorical Theoryfrom Cicero to Boethius, in Rhetorica, I (1983), p. 34; see also P. STOTZ, Dichten, p. 16 (cf. n. 67). 177 From Epic to Romance, in Bulletinof the John Rylands Library, 46 (1964), p. 493; cf. F. MUNARI, Tradition, p. 311. 171 M. LEFF, Topics,p. 34 (cf. n. 176).

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through the colorful prisms and the ornate grids of natural and artificial order, amplification and abbreviation, and difficult and easy statement. Bernard of Chartres concentrated on words and the artful ways by which they may be joined together. As in nature, adornment reflects the grand design ; it alone reveals the meaningful form in matter. In some writers, the training worked, and we have medieval masterpieces in Latin and the vernaculars. Perhaps their success is evident less in the almost 200 surviving manuscripts of the Poetrianova than in Erasmus' startling (for us modems) encomium. No mean stylist himself, the scholar of Rotterdam lifted Geoffrey of Vinsauf to the lofty prominence of Cicero, Quintilian, and Horace 179• Erasmus, like Quintilian, saw the "practical value" of "training devices". The authors of the medieval arts of poetry and prose did too, and for that reason they tended to insist on the small unit of discourse. The Tendenz zur kleinen Einheit characterizes the instruction set forth fu the treatises. It focusses the pupil's and masters' attention on the actual elements and procedures necessary for mastery in verse and prose composition as the scholastic Middle Ages understood that art. They train the pupil, forming the mind patiently, continuously, even violently when he or she proved slow or recalcitrant. The pupils who did master the art of writing should be able to attempt whatever they might be inspired or required to produce in verse or prose.

179 Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, ed. P.S. ALLEN, Oxford, 1906, vol. I, p. 117.42-45. Note also : "Qui autem de istis coloribus (i.e., the figures of thought and diction) certam et plenam vult habere scientiam, opus Tullii legat vel saltem quandam summulam De elocutione, quam apud Montem Pessulanum perstrinxi, vel quod melius est, Summam magistri Mathaei Vindocinensis, quae prout debet, magnae famae et magnae auctoritatis est, et sic incipit : Ne meas videar magnificare fimbrias (i.e., the Ars versificatoria)," in Radulphe of Longchamp's In "Anticlaudianum" Alani commentum, ed. J. SULOWSKI, Wroclaw, 1972, p. 143.14-18 (Zr6dla do dziej6w Nauki i Techniki, 13).

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CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE A. THE AUTHOR:

THE INDIVIDUAL

AND THE DIVISION

OF TASKS

1. The M agister Strictly speaking, the identity of the authors of the arts of poetry and prose presents no critical problem. They all readily identify themselves, refer to one another by name, and indicate with some precision their milieu. This is true as well for contemporary works that exemplify the literary art like the Cosmographiaand the A.rchitrenius.Only the manuals on very narrow subjects like versification may be anonymous. In fact, the authors of the major treatises could be rather straightforward· in identifying themselves not only by name, but also in describing their typical activities as grammar masters and their relation to other masters, rivals, pupils, and even some kings and popes. The authors of the treatises were schoolmasters. It is sometimes possible to identify with some accuracy where they taught : Matthew of Vend~me in Orleans and Paris 180, Geoffrey of Vinsauf at Northampton early in his career, John of Garland in Paris, Toulouse, and perhaps in England as tutor. All seem to have led a rather peripatetic existence 181• There are hints of professional rivalries, notably an apparently bitter one between

180

B. HARBERT, Matthew, p. 225-227; F. MUNARI, Opera, 11, p. 23-25.

It is not always easy to follow their precise movements and activities; but see, for Geoffrey of Vinsauf, The Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 1921-22, vol. XX, p. 372-373; J.C. RUSSELL,Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, London, New York, Toronto, 1936, p. 34-36 (Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research: Special Supplement No. 3); H.G. RICHARDSON,The Schools of Northampton in the Twelfth Century, in English Historical Review, 56 (1941), p. 595-605. On John of Garland, see LJ. PAETOW, Morale Sco/ariwn of John of Garland (Johannes de Gar/andia), A Professor in the Universities of Paris and Toulouse in the Thirteenth Century, Berkeley, 1927, p. 77-106 (Memoirs of the University of California, 4.2: History 1.2); The Dictionary of National Biography, vol. VII, p. 876-879; J.C. RUSSELL,Dictionary, p. 63-65. On Gervase and Geoffrey, see R.W. HUNT, English Leaming in the Late Twelfth Century, in Essays in Medieval History, ed. R.W. SOUTHERN,London, 1968, p. 113. For Matthew, see F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. II, p. 2325. For Eberhard the German, see FJ. WORSTBROCK, in Deutsche Literatur: Verfasserlexikon, vol. II, cols. 273-274. For Matthias of LinkOping, see S. SAWICKI,Poetria Lincopensis, p. 115-118. 111

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Matthew and Amulf of Orleans, which breaks out violently in the Ars versificatoria,and more generally those evoked by Eberhard the German as the lot of the average grammar master 182• The principal evidence for their pedagogical activity comes from the treatises themselves, all of which refer in one way or the other to the master (magister) teaching young pupils (pueri, rudes, minus provecti) and the goals and hardships of that task. Writings associated with the treatises - student exercises, florilegia, some commentaries and glosses - evoke the classroom. However, the treatises are not intended exclusively for classroom instruction and entertainment. They occasionally mirror a wider milieu : political, social, and religious controversies 183 ; panegyric and funereal pieces 184 ; dictaminal exercises 185 ; mythography and elegy 186 ; etc. However, none of the authors achieved lasting public prominence. John of Garland was active for a time in the suppression of southern French heresies 187• Gervase appears as witness in two charters 188• Geoffrey of Vinsauf dedicated at some time his Poetria nova to Innocent III in order to foster the reconciliation of the pope with John Lackland. However, Geoffrey himself seems to have played no significant role in the reconciliation 189• One possible sign of greater issues is Gervase of Melkley's acceptance of the importance of dialectic, perhaps a small event in the debate as to the prominence of one art or the other in the trivium. Gervase may even have sought accommodation with masters in logic. His cross-references not infrequently allude to matters which, he says, fall properly and traditionally within their purview 190• On the other hand, whether or not

182 Matthew, Ars, 4.47-48; Laborintus, v. 11-268, 835-990. Cf. B. ROY, Arnulf of Orleans and the Latin "Comedy", in Speculum, 49 (1974), p. 258-266. 183 Poetria nova, v. 437-445, 469-507, 517-526, 1280-1527; cf. E. FARAL, Arts, p. 24-27, 28-31. Praeexercitamina often developed these subjects ; see E. F ARAL, Manuscrit, passim. 1114Poetria nova, v. 326-430. Cf. E. KLEINSCHMIDT, Herrscherdarste/Jung,p. 23-26. 185 Parisiana Poetria, 5.265-269, 7.154-466; Gervase, Ars, p. 224-229. This is also true for the long version of the Documentum. 186 Ars versificatoria, 2.1-9. 117 Notably, through his De triumphis ecclesiae. See LJ. PAETOW, The Crusading Ardor of John of Garland, in The Crusades and Other Historical Essays Presented to Dana C. Munro, New York, 1928, p. 207-222, especially p. 215-216; R.W. HUNT, English Learning, p. 113, n. 4 (cf. n. 181). 188 F.M. POWICKE, Stephen Langton, Oxford, 1928, p. 102-103. 189 See M.F. NIMS, trans., Poetria nova of Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Toronto, 1967, v. 31 note (p. 99); cf. E. FARAL, Arts, p. 31-32. 190 Ars, ed. GRABENER, p. xi-xii.

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John of Garland resisted the encroachment of logic at the expense of grammar and rhetoric, he does not express his resistance in the Parisiana Poetria 191• But no author or treatise figures prominently in philosophical, theological, political, or even educational and intellectual debates of their times. The classroom may not have been the place to debate such issues, although, as we have seen, exemplary material, whether original or borrowed, did reflect those concerns. Rather, the authors of the treatises acknowledge authority while proclaiming their own in their specialized discipline. Their writings, collected in the treatises or independently of them, illustrate acceptance by others of their claims. The arts of poetry and prose do not, therefore, provide propaganda for great causes. Rather, they evoke testy academic rivalries among colleagues and peers, and suggest conflicts among masters and even some grouping of students as partisans behind one master or the other. The life that emerges from their pages is that of the poorly paid, overworked schoolmaster constantly struggling with recalcitrant pupils, yet dependent on them and their parents for upkeep and adulation. The instruction is practical and pedestrian rather than theoretical or critical in the sense of Aristotle's Poetics: they present traditional material in a traditional way - which for them was pedagogically most effective 192• 2. The Artifex Some of the authors of treatises were also poets in their own right, the most notable being Matthew of Vend~me and John of Garland. Like their models, Bernardus Silvestris and Jean of Hauville, their literary works are highly artificial - or, rather, artful in the sense of the treatises themselves - and often they were the source of illustrations, the exempla domestica that share pride of place with excerpts from the great authors ancient and modern they explicate and emulate. Their works bear witness to the diversity of subjects and tones that we discover in the illustrative material itself. Indeed,· the variety of subjects used in the illustrations from the lofty to the obscene, the holy to the profane - is precisely what

191 See T. LAWLER, Parisiana Poetria, index s. v. "Aristotle" and "Dialectic", and W.G. WAITE, Johannes, p. 179-180; on John's opposition to Aristotle's influence, see PAETOW,

Morale, p. 102-105 (cf. n. 181). Matthew makes the same distinction between rhetorical and dialectical arguments which Boethius did (Ars 1.76). 192 T.F. LAWLER, John, p. 4-5.

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might alternately edify or entertain teen-age schoolboys and hold their attention 193• However, the notion of author in the Middle Ages locates this term in a broader context implicit in some treatises 194• The author as artifex found him- or herself in a hierarchy of craftsmen - God, Nature, and the artist - who all conceived and fashioned their works in analogous ways. That is, God as the supreme exemplar patterned by archetypal Creation the subsidiary and more or less subservient functions of procreation by Nature and re-creation by the artist or craftsman. The authors of the treatises construe the invention of the treatises as well as of any literary work as analogous to this vision of the artist which had long been commonplace. Now, the "ideagenous" character of invention should not be construed in terms of the Romantic ideal of the individual genius alone discovering the truth and beauty of nature. Patrons, whether real or as proposed by the author, traditionally had a certain responsibility in the conception and invention of the work. Not only did they give protection to the writers who might otherwise be exposed to envy, recrimination, or neglect, they also vouchsafed the idea of the work and therefore the primacy of the one who is the source and origin of the idea the writer will elaborate and amplify by his or her craft. In some instances, especially in epideictic works, the patron as the one for whom the work was written became a virtual patron as model, a topical model to inspire and inform the artist's inventions 195•

193 See, for example, the poems written for his students by Serio of Wilton, in B. HAUREAU,Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bib/iotheque Nationale, 6 vols, Paris, 1890-93, vol. I, p. 304-324, especially p. 323-324. On Serlo's poems as "une sorte d'art poetique par exemples," see E. FARAL, Notice sur le manuscrit latin de la Bibliotheque Nationale n" 3718, in Romania, 46 (1920), p. 255-269. a. G. DE VALOUS,La poesie amoureuse en langue latine au moyen age, in Classica et mediaevalia, 15 (1954), p. 146-158; and, in general, the pertinent observations by P. DRONKE, Peter of Blois and Poetry at the Court of Henry II, in Mediaeval Studies, 38 (1976), p. 193-199, 212-215. F. MUNARI juxtaposes the "two Ovids" medieval students and writers imitated, the love poet and Ovidius ethicus, in his Ovid im Mittela/ter, Zorich, Stuttgart, 1960, p. 10-23. 194 See M.-D. CHENU,Auctor, actor, autor, in Bulletin Du Cange (ALMA), 3 (1927), p. 8186. 195 See especially J. DUMKE,Miizene im Mittelalter: die Ganner und Auftraggeber der hofischen Lileratur in Deutschland 1150-1300, Munich, 1979, and the collection he edited, Lilerarisches Miizenatentum : ausgewiihlte Forschungenzur Rolle des Gonners und Auftraggebers in der mittelalterlichen Literatur, Darmstadt, 1982 (Wege der Forschung, 598); E. KLEINSCHMIDT,He"scherdarstellung. More generally, see B. GUENEE,Histoire et culture historique

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Geoffrey of Vinsauf's analogy between poetry and architecture is revealing in this context. The construction of the building suggests several levels of involvement : the promoter of the idea to construct a monument, the planner to work out the form the idea would take in matter, and, finally, the craftsmen and artisans to build according to that plan 196• The example of Thierry of Chartres is paradigmatic, since he not only supervised the execution of the program for the liberal arts in the west portal of Chartres cathedral, but also influenced Bernardus' conception of Creation in the Cosmographia.This work is dedicated to Thierry of Chartres. Moreover, Bernardus makes Pope Eugene III, to whom be is believed to have read the Cosmographia in 1147 or 1148, into the embodiment of the human exemplar the creation of which is the subject of the prosimetrum 197• The analogy between the creation of Eugene III and Christ's birth effectively correlates the cognate activities of God and Nature and, by implication, the writer. Exemplar speciemque dei virguncula Christum Parturit, et verum secula numen habent ; Munificens deitas Eugenium comodat orbi, Donat et in solo munere cuncta semel 198• The ideas of Thierry and the living incarnation of divine idea in Eugene III make them the source and patrons/patrons for Bernardus' matter. That matter is thereby brought back to both Thierry and Eugene for a

dans /'Occident medieval, Paris, 1980, p. 283-295, 379; B. LACROIX,L'historien au moyen age, Montreal, Paris, 1971 (Conference Albert-le-Grand 1966). 196 E. PANOFSKY, Abbot Suger and St.-Denis, in his Meaning in the Visual Arts, Garden City, N. Y., 1955, p. 108-145; cf. G. DUBY, Le temps des cathedrales: /'art et la societe 980-1420, Paris, 1976, p. 121-133. 197 W. WETHERBEE, Platonism, p. 167-168, especially n. 22 (cf. n. 6); P. DRONKE,ed., Cosmographia, p. 2 (cf. n. 25); 8. STOCK,Myth, p. 11, n. l (cf. n. 6). On Thierry and the Chartres portal, see J.O. WARD, Date, p. 238-239, and p. 243 n. 68 (cf. n. 43) for bibliography. On Phillip Augustus as exemplar for Alain of Lille's iuvenis in the Anticlaudianus, see L.E. MARSHALL,The Identity of the 'New Man' in the 'Anticlaudianus' of Alan of Lille, in Viator, 10 (1979), p. 77-94; note p. 81-82, where MARSHALLdiscusses the description of Eugene III in the Cosmographia. Geoffrey of Vinsauf 's portrait of Innocent III also rehearses the topoi of the divinus homo elaborated upon in these descriptions. 198 Cosmographia, l.iii.53-56 (cf. n. 25); see as well W. WETHERBEE, trans., The "Cosmographia" of Bemardus Si/vestris, New York, London, 1973, p. 149 n. 63. On the patron as "co-author," see G. SIMON,Untersuchungen zur Topilcder Widmungsbriefe mittela/terlicher Geschichtsschreiber bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts, inArchiv fiir Diplomati/c, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde, 5-6 (1959-60), p. 112-114. CT.G. CoNSTABLE,Letters and LetterCollections, Turnhout, 1976, p. 42-55 (Typologie des sources du moyen age occidental,

17).

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virtual nihil obstat and imprimatur: "Verum sensus vester benivolus, simplicem sed devotam vobis paginam inspecturus, erexit audatiam, animos impulit, fiduciam roboravit. Consilium tamen fuit, ut perfecta minus pagina nomen sui tacuisset auctoris, adeo usque vestro suscepisset iuditio vel egrediendi sententiam vel latendi. Viderit ergo discretio vestra si prodire palam, si venire debeat in comune. Si interim vestro presentetur aspectui, iuditio correptionique transmittitur, non favori" 199• Similar passages in the treatises link the conception of the work to the inspiration or approval of another of allegedlymore critical, judicious, inspired, or noble mind. Since Geoffrey, Matthew, and John describe invention in neoplatonic terms - the archetypal image of the work precedes and delineates the ensuing mise en paroles - their ideagenous scheme establishes the primacy of the mind that conceives the idea of the work. Matthew does not hesitate to outstrip even his master, Bernardus Silvestris, by deriving his Ars versif,catoriadirectly from God in an astonishing expression of both vanity and humility: "Et similiter erit inducenda conclusio, ut opus presens in Dei laudibus terminetur, a cujus fonte presentis operis rivulus emanavit, cuius ad presens sum legatus et desidero esse legatarius, qui minus provectis, meo ministerio mediante, quicquid venustum hie obrepserit, dignatus est delegare" 200 • This forms the pattern for exemplary correlation between the artist and God as Creator. The whole scheme, from God through Matthew to Matthew's pupils - the minus provecti- rehearses the hierarchy of patron, author, and artifex we have identified in Bernardus Silvestris. Geoffrey too sought the approval of a pope, Innocent Ill, and, subsequently, that of another potential patron, perhaps either William of Wrotham, archdeacon of Tauntam, or William de Sancta Matre Ecclesia, bishop of London 201 • Although the immediate impetus for these pieces may have been the enmity between the pope and John Lackland, they nonetheless express the hierarchy of authorities implicit in the notion of the author in the treatises. Innocent III stands before all others in eloquence ; it is therefore fitting that the Poetria nova tend towards him and find its place with him whose eloquence surpasses that of all others and is God-given. The treatise is small, the subject vast, as Innocent

Dedication II. 7-14 (p. 96). Ars, 4.51 ; cf. Eberhard, Laborintus, v. 3-6. Matthew also appeals to the reader for sympathetic criticism in his Prologue 2. 201 M.F. NIMS, trans., Poetria nova, p. 110. 199

200

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would know, appreciate, and acknowledge, thus in effect authorizing Geoffrey's treatise by his acceptance. The very voyage from England to Rome that Geoffrey made in order to present his work on the art of literary composition to the exemplar of eloquence Me transtulit Anglia Romam Tanquam de terris ad caelum, transtulit ad vos De tenebris velut ad lumen 202 this voyage is rehearsed in the treatise's own voyage towards its Cadix, that is, its conclusion after thorough and circumstantial - even plodding - instruction in the art of poetry and prose : "lam mare transcurri, Gades in littore furl"203 • The port, the conclusion to the poem, is also its goal in Innocent Ill, himself neither God nor man, suspended between heaven and earth as an intermediary for poets as much as for all others under papal jurisdiction. The very appeal to spare John Lackland his anger is construed in terms expressive of the inspiration that leaves to others the art to carry out the task, whether with John as Crusader or Geoffrey as his poetic voice : "Cum plurima possis, / Posse modum servare velis" 204 • Similarly, the second named ecclesiastical benefactor has the political conceptions that others, like poets, execute. Tu solus es ille Cui Deus infudit quicquid decet, utpote pectus Magni consilii, quo pectore pectora regum Se fulcire solent tractando negotia regni 20s. Here too the conceptual hierarchy rehearses that of the artifex, from whose pectus will spring the work as it advances through the different stages of invention and realization. Gervase's dedication is more conventional and modest. An as yet unidentified Johannes Albus 206 to whom he offers his treatise, more as to a master than to a companion, had the idea for writing it. Gervase shows himself less confident in his ability to carry out the petition than Bernardus Silvestris, Geoffrey, or even Matthew, fully aware, as he puts it, of the achievements of his "authentic" predecessors. Because their works are available, he resolves instead to write a more elementary Poetria nova, v. 31-33. V. 2066; cf. v. 56-58, 1061-62, and M.F. NIMS, "Translatio",p. 226. 204 V. 2084-2085. 205 V. 2108-2111. The pectw-image recasts the figure of the architect planning the work conceived by others (v. 58-59). 206 Ars, p. 1.1-2. ~ 203

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treatise that would be a propedeutic to their more advanced works. He relies confidently on Jean of Hauville and his Architrenius,from which can be learned all the unformed mind needs, as Gervase himself acquired his knowledge and expertise from Jean's instruction. The conception of the treatises therefore reflects the ideagenous invention of all literary works. Any stage in that invention, from archetypal conception to mise en paroles, may be assigned to the same or different persons or actants. The highest stage, archetypal invention, is closest to divine Creation. Therefore, it is ascribed to God or the highborn or exalted authority, leaving the execution of the work itself and its artifex on a lower, dependent level, just above the scribe in the chain of invention. Does the hierarchy of authors suggested by the treatises and other works correspond to reality ? Did medieval authors trained in the school tradition actually conceive of invention as involving more than one author ? The participation of God or a patron as well as other planners and executioners is commonplace in prologues, epilogues, and other authorial interventions, going back no doubt, directly or indirectly, to ancient notions of inspiration by the Muses, Apollo, or a semi-divine patron like the emperor, as well as to the Christian reception of the idea of divine intercession by revelation, the intervention of the Holy Spirit, or other kinds of divine involvement. The treatises suggest that the notion was taken for granted, and this is supported by the roles of author and scribe in the composition of letters and other documents. Further study is necessary to establish the modalities of the relation between the author, in the modern sense of the one who first puts words to paper, and other potential participants in the realization of the work. There is little evidence in the treatises or in the Middle Ages in general for composition undertaken other than as a response to a perceived order or request or in anticipation of a potential benefactor.

B.

THE MANUSCRIPT

TRADITION

The manuscript traditions for the arts of poetry and prose have not yet been set forth satisfactorily. The only comprehensive survey for all the treatises is Faral's, and it is woefully out of date. For example, he identifies only five manuscripts of Matthew of VendOme'sArs versificatoria, whereas Professor Munari reports nineteen 207 • Faral admits that his 207

E. FARAL, Arts, p. 13; F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. I, p. 141 (s. v. "Ars vel eius partes").

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catalogue of forty-two Poetria nova manuscripts is only partial ; Sister Nims has identified, with the assistance of others, notably John Conley and Marjorie C. Woods, some 185 208 • F.J. Worstbrock reports fortythree manuscripts of Eberhard's Laborintus, plus three containing excerpts, and almost all of German origin 209 • The editing of Geoffrey's Documentum and John's Parisiana Poetria must confront an additional problem : each appeared in at least two versions, one earlier and shorter, the second longer and more comprehensive 210 • Although Faral listed some manuscripts of the longer Documentum, he did not notice the additions and changes. Professor Lawler reports five of the long version, but his "is not an exhaustive list" 211 ; all those he describes are now in England. Sister Nims has suggested to me that the short version may have been written while Geoffrey was still in England, quite possibly at Northampton, where he probably taught early in his career. The long version is an adaptation and an extension of the earlier one, made, she believes, after Geoffrey went over to France and came under the influence of practices in Paris and Orleans. She also provided me with the following list of the principal additions to the short version as it appears in Faral's edition: 1. A more extensive treatment of the tropes and figures illustrating difficult and easy statement, with examples. 2. Explanation of prose and verse genres 212 • 3. A long account of the attributes of persons and things as a means to expand materia. 4. A small treatise on letter-writing. 5. Discussion of the four styles, as well as of those used especially by the Moderns. 6. Presumption of a more advanced pupil than for the short version. :zoaE. FARAL,Arts, p. 27-28. M.C. WOODS, together with M.F. NIMS and J. CONLEY,is preparing a catalogue of the manuscripts containing the Poetria nova and commentaries and glosses on it. 209 Deutsche Literatllr: Verfasserlexikon,vol. II, col. 274. 210 T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. xiii-xv, 327-328. Some scholars have suggested that there may have been two versions of the Poetria nova ; see M. MANITIUS, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters : III. Vom .Ausbruch des Kirchenstreites bis zum Ende des zwolften Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1931, p. 751-752 (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, 9.2.3); V. LICITRA,La "Summa de arte dictandi" di Maestro Goffredo, in Studi medievali, 3rd ser., 7 (1966), p. 876-877. 211 Parisiana Poetria, p. 327. 212 T. LAWLER,ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 328-330; see also N. DENHOLM· YOUNG,"Cursus ", p. 48-49, 63.

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7. Accurate and almost constant identification of the sources for citations, including those from Geoffrey's own writings: "ut in libro versuum" or as "exemplum domesticum" (that is, the Poetria nova) 213 • Certain similaritiesbetween Gervase's treatise and the long Documentum led one scholar to suggest that the latter is the short version with interspersed interpolations by Gervase of Melkley 214 • But other evidence militates against this hypothesis. As Sister Nims observed to me, the long Documentum's references to the Poetria nova as having been written by its own author are corroborated by the Poetria nova itself. It follows that Gervase must have used the long Documentum to complete his own treatise. John of Garland drew from both versions of the Documentum for the ParisianaPoetria. He also revised the earlier (ca. 1220) version of his own treatise between 1231 and 1235. Besides minor adaptations and expansions, the later version probably added the lengthy seventh book on rhyme and metrical and rhythmic verse - the so-called ars rithmica 21S.

More detailed and precise knowledge of the manuscript tradition for each treatise will indicate how significant authorial revision may have been in transmission. It might also reveal to what extent scribal revisions, like commentaries or glosses, enter into textual histories. It is evident from what is now known, notably the evidence Professor Munari has assembled for his edition of Matthew of Vend~me,that the treatises were frequently transmitted in fragmentary state or in excerpts. This suggests their adaptation in part or even in whole to specific local needs and preferences. Glossing is also an important feature of the manuscript traditions, and some modem editions reproduce a few specimens 216 • Professor Woods has discovered that a good third of the extant manuscripts of the Poetria nova were glossed or commented upon extensively; indeed, she has asserted that reading the Poetria nova without the assistance of a

213 On this expression, see as well F. MUNAR.I,Noterelle su Matteo di Yendome, in Lam: satura Nico/ao Terzaghi ob/ata: miscellanea phi/o/ogica, Genoa, 1963, p. 270-272 (Universita di Genova : Facolta di Lettere : Pubblicazioni dell'Istituto di Filologia Oassica e Medioevale, 16). 214 M. PLEZIA, Quattuor stili, p. 198-200. 215 T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. xv. 216 Gervase, Ars, variants passim; John, Parisiana Poetrla, p. 317-326. See also M.C. WOODS' edition of the earliest commentary on the Poetrla nova: Early Commentary.

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commentary or gloss is to read it "in an unmedieval way" 217 • Information on commentaries and glosses as well as editions of important ones are desiderata for future work on the treatises. C.

PRESENT AND FORMER STATE OF THE TREATISES

The modern editions of the treatises do not present them in their medieval format. Manuscript evidence suggests that medieval users often applied them to their own specific purposes - reinterpreting or excerpting for private instruction - whatever the original authors intended. The most striking differences between modern and medieval editions are apparent from the fact that, in the Middle Ages, they were seldom found alone in manuscripts, were often fragmentary, and were not infrequently provided with interlinear glosses or marginal commentary. 1. Collections

The data I have been able to gather from modern catalogues, medieval catalogues, and some scholarly studies indicate that the treatises rarely appear in isolation. They are grouped together with other treatises and with other works, many of which are singled out in the treatises as exemplary or are obvious illustrations of their instruction (for example, school exercises or praeexercitamina).One collection, which we have been citing as representative, is the Glasgow Hunterian manuscript described and partially edited first by Faral, then by Harbert. In fact, the treatises commonly appear in manuscripts containing pieces for classroom training or, excerpted, in ftorilegia or anthologies. Munari's list of the contents of manuscripts containing Matthew of VendOme's works reveals several such collections 218 • Marjorie C. Woods has shown that these may contain not only the treatises and student exercises, but 217 In a paper read at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America (Kalamazoo, Mich., May 1982): "Poetic Digression in the Commentaries on Vinsauf 's

Poetria nova." 211 See F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. I, §§28 (of the Tobias), 37, 43, SO, 60, 66, 70, 83, 87, 124, 126; see also R. BURTON,Classical Poets, passim (which also contains examples of medieval authors; cf. n. IS). On excerpts from Joseph of Exeter's Ylias, see L. GOMPF, ed., Joseph, p. Sl-SS (cf. n. 71). On the possibility that Chaucer knew the Poetria nova in an excerpted version, see JJ. MURPHY,A. New Look at Chaucer and the Rhetoricians, in Review of English Studies, N. S. 15 (1964), p. 13. That Geoffrey of Vinsauf was better known in England than MURPHYallows here does not preclude his being known through excerpts as much as through complete works.

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also the longer works of Bernardus Silvestris, Jean of Hauville, and Alain of Lille that were, in Gervase of Melkley' s opinion, the most thorough and complete representatives of the art of poetry and prose 219 • In some instances these collections are haphazard, but in others the compilers were selective, producing a coherent volume or recueil.They bring together treatises, school exercises, and masterpieces, thus serving the ends of study, learning, and composition by intelligent imitation. 2. Fragments Like classical and medieval literary works, the poetic and prose treatises were excerpted. The pieces chosen were usually illustrations that could be imitated or studied as exemplary along with those from literary works proper and exceptional student exercises. This included even very brief passages in florilegia. Some treatises, like literary works themselves, survive predominantly in excerpts. Matthew of VendOme in particular underwent extensive excerpting. Of the nineteen manuscript copies of the Ars versificatoriadescribed by Munari, fully fifteen are incomplete. In some instances fragments are rather long, but others are relatively brief descriptive or moralizing passages. The Poetrianova was also copied in fragments, but there is not enough published information to permit reliable generalizations. Like the literary works, it too was mined for passages to be imitated by pupils in pieces like those in the Hunterian manuscript. Among the most widely copied excerpts, and one that appears in several versions, is Matthew's locus amoenus; but other passages were also copied 220 •

219 WOODS,Early Commentary, p. xvi-xvii. See also B. STOCK,Myth, p. 275 (cf. n. 6); S. GALLICK, Medieval Rhetorical Arts, p. 76-79. The Hunterian collection has received special attention in: E. FARAL, Manuscrit; B. HARBERT, Thirteenth-Century Anthology, especially p. 1-5 ; F. MUNARI,Mediaevalia II : zu den lateinischen Gedichten des cod. 511 des G/asgower Hunterian Museum, in Phi/ologus, 104 (1960), p. 285-292; F. MUNARI,Opera, vol. I, p. 49-50. See in general A.G. RIGG, Medieval Latin Poetic Anthologies, in Medieval Studies, 39 (1977), p. 281-330; 40 (1978), p. 387-407; 41 (1979), p. 468-505; 43 (1981), p. 472-97 and, with D. TOWNSEND,49 (1987), p. 352-390. 220 Seen. 75, above. For Matthew's locus amoenus, see, besides MUNARI's edition in Vol. III of Matthew's Opera, his Matteo di Vendome, "Ars," I, 111, in Studi medievali, ser. 3, 17 (1976), p. 293-305; D. THOSS, Studien, p. 36-43, 171-176. On the use of "excerpt books" and ftorilegia, cf. J. MARTIN, Uses (cf. n. 42); and R.H. ROUSE, Florilegia and Latin Classical Authors in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Orleans, in Viator, 10 (1979), p. 135 ; B. MUNK OLSEN,Les classiques /atins dans Lesftorileges medievaux anterieurs au XIII• siecle, in Revue d'histoire des textes, 9 (1979), p. 47-121, 10 (1980), p. 115-164, especially vol. 9, p. 55-56. For modern authors in ftorilegia, see A. VISCARDI,Lettura (cf. n. 9).

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3. Commentaries and Glosses The frequency with which the treatises were glossed or commented upon in the manuscripts is rarely evident in modem editions. Glossing facilitated comprehension of difficult words and phrases, whereas commentary evokes the role of the traditional magisterexplainingthe disposition and contents of the treatise for young readers. The difference between the modem and medieval presentation of the texts is perhaps more striking here than elsewhere. Whereas the medieval format includes interlinear or accompanying glosses, the modem scholarly edition sets forth variants and editorial commentary, much of it foreign to the preoccupations of medieval glossators and commentators ; it is the modem-language translation, with its explanations of the Latin text, that comes closest to the medieval format. These differences have important implications for the preparation of future editions of the treatises, which ought properly to describe both their medieval and their modem formats (see below, chapter V). For example, glosses tell us how interpreters accommodated neoaristotelian speculation to the essentially neoplatonic worldview apparent in the treatises' conception of invention 221 • 0. LANGUAGE

Very little has been done on the latinity of the arts of poetry and prose. W.B. Sedgwick's two articles that appeared in Speculum shortly after the publication of Faral's edition still contain the only fairly comprehensive notes on their grammar, style, meter, and vocabulary 222 •

221 See J.B. ALLEN, Ethical Poetic, p. x·xii; A. WILMART,L'art poetique de Geojfroi de Vinsauf et /es commentaires de Barthelemy de Pise, in Revue benedictine, 41 (1929), p. 271275; P.A. STADTER,Planudes, Plutarch, and Pace of Ferrara, in Italia medioeva/e e umanistica, 16 (1973), p. 145-146, 149-150; H.A. KELLY,Aristode, p. 195-199 (cf. n. 125). 222 Notes, p. 331-343 ; and his The Style and Vocabulary of the Latin Arts of Poetry of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, in Speculum, 3 (1928), p. 349-381. See as well K. STRECKER'sreview in Neues Archiv (cf. n. 30); W.B. SEDGWICK,Some Poetical Words of the Twelfth Century, in Bulletin Du Cange (ALMA), 7 (1932), p. 223-226; M.B. OGLE, Some Aspects of Mediaeval Latin Style, in Speculum, I (1926), p. 170-189; B. HARBERT, Matthew, p. 230-232. 0. PRINZ,Mittellateinische Wortneubi/dungen : ihre Entwicklungstendenzen und ihre TriebkriJfte, in Philo/ogus, 122 (1978), p. 249-275, treats phenomena like the use of suffixes and prefixes relevant to the second part of Matthew's treatise (Ars, 2.13-39); he notes that diversity may arise because of regional, social, professional, and other milieux.

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He finds "nothing very extraordinary" 223 in their grammar : orthographical variations or irregularities, variations (sometimes deliberate and even curious) in vowel length, gender changes, medieval features in parts of speech and syntax. In these matters the treatises' Latin reflects rather stiffly their models ancient and medieval. Sedgwick also identified in them a tendency to invent or derive new adjectives and verbs, either to fit metrical constraints or to follow the example of authoritative authors, most notably Bemardus Silvestris 224 ; they also set forth techniques for coining new words and expressions, in effect codifying the novelties of word play and invention in twelfth-century literature. A definitive study of the treatises' instruction and practice must include a review of their prescriptions on correct usage, novelty, and originality. Concordances would be very useful as a first step in lexical studies. But first satisfactory editions of all of them must be prepared, as well as of commentaries and glosses that treat matters of language and style. Another as yet untapped source for study of the treatises' vocabulary is the word-list or "dictionary". John of Garland prepared a number of these compendia, and may even have invented the term dictionariusto designate them. John's lists are classified by subject, and some include vernacular equivalents for Latin words, like glosses 225 • Here is a source of lexicographical information potentially useful for the elucidation and, perhaps, appreciation of the vocabulary used or recommended in the treatises. It is important to bear in mind the acquired character of the Latin language used and recommended by these authors. Acquisition came at

223 Style, p. 354. SEDGWICKdiscusses the latinity only of the treatises edited by FARAL. GRABENER,LAWLER,and MUNARI do not treat the subject extensively in their respective editions of Gervase, John, and Matthew. See, however, F. MUNARI, Noterelle, p. 267-282, as well as his other articles on Matthew's language, especially in the Epistule, in Kleine Schriften, Berlin, 1980, especially Zurn Briefsteller des Matthaus von Vendome, reprinted there from Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 14 (1979), p. 200-203. 224 P. DRONKE, ed., Cosmographia, p. 9-10 (cf. n. 25). This points again to the influence of Bernardus Silvestris' prosimetrum as a virtual art of poetry and prose ; see p. 51·63 of DRONKE's edition for discussion of Bemardus' diction, prosody, and prose style. See also E. FARAL, Manuscrit, p. 92·93. 225 L.J. PAETOW,Morale, p. 128-135 (cf. n. 181); E. HABEL, Johannes de Garlandia, ein Schulmann des 13. Jahrhunderts, in Mitteilungen der Gesel/schaft fiir deutsche Erziehungsund Schulgeschichte, 19 (1909), p. 9·24; T. HUNT, Vernacular Glosses in Medieval Manuscripts, in Cultura neolatina, 39 (1979), p. 9-37; E. LITTRE, Glossaires, in Histoire litteraire de la France, 22 (1852), p. 1·38; A. CASTRO,Glosarios latino-espanoles de la edad media, Madrid, 1936 (Anejos de la 'Revista de filologia espai'i.ola, 22).

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least as much through reading and imitation as through cQnversation or "conversational approaches" to language learning. This is evident in Bernard of Chartres's pedagogy as John of Salisbury describes it. The use of Latin in verse or prose was something of a performance. The writer demonstrates accomplishment and skill by displaying how well he or she uses a Latin painfully and laboriously acquired from models that may be arcane or esoteric. In fact, artificiality seems to have been desirable and sought after, even at the expense of exact reproduction of a source or comprehension for all but the "happy few" - this despite the treatises' insistence on clarity. The pervasive fear of failure or criticism seems to have been an incentive to employ a language as artificial as possible, in the sense of contrived and superficial as well as of artful and elegant 226 • These features of the presumed masterpiece account in part for the careful and constant attention to detail - the Tendenz zur k/einen Einheit - that characterizes the instruction in the treatises and their adjunct commentaries and glosses. A technical aspect of their language is also worthy of attention : terminology. Two traits are significant. One, the same word may have more than one terminological sense, just as several terms may have the same referent. Second, a corollary to the first point, the same word may reach a given treatise through various lines of transmission, so that the meanings handed on with it do not always coincide. It will not be possible to detail all the terminological variations and differences until we have reliable editions of treatises and commentaries (since a term may acquire new meanings in new times and places). Quadlbauer's study of the genera dicendi, Plezia's of the styli, and J anson's of the cursus illustrate the complexity of the terminological problems. Others have noted, for example, that sententia may mean "sentence" in one place, but "meaning" in another 227• Consignificantiahas in one place the Boethian sense of meaning that adheres to a word through its inflection or use in combination with

See E. DE BRUYNE, Etudes. vol. II. p. 280-301; G. SIMON, Untersuchungen, p. 73-76, 121-128 (cf. n. 198). For an example of such criticism, see P. VON Moos, Literarkritik im Mitte/aller: Arnuif von Lisieux uber Ennodius, in Melanges offerts a ReneCrozet, 2 vols, Poitiers, 1966, vol. II, p. 929-935. On the elitism it also fostered, see J. MARTIN, Uses, p. 67-68 (cf. n. 42). 227 See E. GALLO, Matthew of Vendome: Introductory Treatise on the Art of Poetry, in Proceedingsof the American PhilosophicalSociety, 118 (1974), p. 87 n. 77; and A.E. GALYON, trans., Matthew of Vendome: The A.rt of Versification. Ames, Iowa, 1980, p. 117 n. 21. 126

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other words, and that of near synonym in another 221• Terms may overlap in meaning, depending on context or details of explanation : thema as materia, or as a more abstract, but concise state of the materia 229 • • Terminological distinctions may be clarified by modifiers that introduce subclasses or stages in a process, like materia remota and propinqua, or materia illibataand pertractata230 • Different authorities or sources account for variations in definitions and choice of figures and tropes in catalogues as much as does orthography 231 • The authors of the treatises were aware of terminological instability and variation, occasionally calling their pupils' attention to them 232 • Even distinctions among the arts receive attention in Gervase of Melkley, as we have seen, and in Matthew of VendOme, who notes that his use of argumenta differs from that of logicians, thus adapting his instruction to distinctions established in Boethius' De differentiistopicisbetween dialectical and rhetorical topoi 233 • E. TRADITION AND MAGISTERIAL INNOVATION 1. Conventions of the Genre Two features of the treatises have often been remarked upon : pedagogical thoroughness and selective emphases. Both features are dependent on the scope of the given treatise, which is in turn determined largely by the place it is perceived as occupying in a curriculum by which the pupil advances from the rudiments towards mastery. The program of studies and training, within the framework of the trivium, assumes steady, detailed application to learning, practice, and imitation. The treatises see to the acquisition by focussing on the details of composition - the Tendenz 228 Matthew, Ars, 2.42, 2.46, 4.24. See J. PINBORG,Die Entwicklung der Sprachtheorie im Mittelalter, Milnster, Copenhagen, 1967, p. 30-34 (Beitrllge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, 42.2); D. KELLY, Specia/ite, p. 114 n. 37. 229 See Konrad of Mure, Die Summa de arte prosandi, ed. W. KRONBICHLER, Zorich, 1968, p. 66-67 (Geist und Werk der Zeiten, 17); Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, v. 5356. 230 D. KELLY, The Theory of Composition in Medieval Na"ative Poetry and Geoffrey of Vinsauf s "Poetria nova", in Mediaeval Studies, 31 (1969), p. 127-128. 231 E. F ARAL, Arts, p. 48-54. 232 Ars versificatoria, 1.15, 3.45. 233 See W. TRIMPI, Muses of One Mind : The Literary Analysis of Experience and Its Continuity, Princeton, 1983, p. 321-328; E. STUMP, Boethiuss "De topicis differentiis" Translated, with Notes and Essays on the Text, Ithaca, N. Y., London 1978; M.C. LEFF, The Logician's Rhetoric : Boethius' "De differentiistopicis "Book IV, in JJ. MURPHY,Medieval Eloquence, p. 3-24.

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zur kleinen Einheit. This means that the instruction will be thorough and

that selection will depend on the pupils' level of accomplishment. These distinctions help define the different species of treatise within the genre. Furthermore, the emphases explain not only the omission of more advanced or more elementary topics, but also of those which are treated elsewhere. For example, Matthew of Vend~me leaves out definitions and illustrations of the figures of diction because the student may find them in the Rhetorica ad Herennium; similarly, Geoffrey of Vinsauf gives only examples of the same figures in the Poetria nova because he assumes that the pupil will be able to identify them (if not, glosses could be of assistance). In another instance, Matthew refers the pupil to Horace's Art of Poetry for further discussion of stylistic faults 234 • Acceptance of authority established implicitly the rules of the genre. The authorities were those standard in grammar and rhetoric : Donatus, Priscian, Cicero, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Horace 235 • All were read through the lenses of a long tradition of commentary 236 • Pupils were accustomed to hearing critical evaluation of the licences of the standard ancient authors. That evaluation was indulgent towards the presumed faults of earlier works, but not towards their repetition by modern pupils and writers. "Sunt etiam huiusmodi infinite abusiones, que tantum attendende sunt, sed non extendende. In hoc enim articulo modernis incumbit potius antiquorum apologia quam imitatio" 237 • Implicit in this judgment is the notion of dwarfs on the shoulders of giants. How much the medieval masterpieces, including Matthew's own Tobias,conform to these restrictions and biases cannot 1be determined without detailed studies of their latinity. Moreover, the treatises not only impose stylistic constraints, they also teach a curious constraint in originality, notably, in the formal and systematic means proposed to invent words, especially verbs and adjectives 238 • The practice points to one of the reasons for the writing of the treatises : the need to account for new emphases in medieval literature and commentary. The invention of new words or the rejuvenation of arcane, rare, or obsolete words is characteristic of Bernardus Silvestris' Cosmographiaas much as of the medieval commentary tradition and n. A.rs versificatoria,1.35. E. FARAL, Arts, p. 99 et passim. 236 F. QUADLBAUER, Antike Theorie, p. 19-63; and seen. 35 and 36, above. 235

237

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instruction in grammar. In Bemardus' case, these novelties are elicited by new and profound subjects. It is not surprising to discover that one of his pupils, Matthew of VendOme, systematized the practice in the Ars versificatoria.He was preparing his pupils to read and imitate the Cosmographia,an art of poetry in its own right. The pedagogical intent of the treatises generates the magisterial pose assumed by their authors : they are addressing, indeed, they are virtually lecturing pupils or other masters who need assistance in teaching their own pupils. This explains both the highly schematized treatises in verse like the Poetria nova and the Laborintus, and the more selective, even somewhat disorderly treatises in prose like Matthew's, Geoffrey's Documentum, and John's Parisiana Poetria. A formal presentation is not surprising in magisterial discourse, and Geoffrey's Poetrianovais exemplary of that manner. But the classroom where instruction was closely related to practice accounts for selectivity influenced as much by the pupils' level of accomplishment as by the master's own predilections. Traugott Lawler has found evidence that the Parisiana Poetria was adapted to what pupils were practicing at the time of a given lecture, with the sketchiness and fastidiousness this may entail 239 • The traditional Horatian precept miscuit utile dulci has its application in the illustrations the treatises use to support and enliven their instruction. Weight or seriousness is offered by the examples from moral, philosophical, and religious contexts, lightness or frivolity by those from farcical, amorous, even scatological or vulgar subjects that some of the authors indulge in, especially Matthew of VendOme.There is an obvious correlation between the frequency of the latter kind of illustrations and the stated audience : the Poetrianovais addressed to a pope, and limits its discussion of lighter subjects to a brief section on comedy. Matthew of VendOme addresses young pupils and, indirectly, his rival Arnulf of Orleans, whom he delights in presenting as sexually obsessed and promiscuous in barbs scattered throughout his treatise 240 • The enmity between Matthew and Arnulf is part of a larger concern with rivals who, it is argued, offer superficial training rather than the proper blend of form and substance the good schoolmaster should provide, and which the individual treatises claim to impart. The instruction is not infrequently corroborated by the explicit or 239

240

Parisiana Poetria, p. xix. B.M. MARTI, ed., Glosule, p. xix-xxi (cf. n. 73); MUNARI's notes to his edition.

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implicit comparison of the poetic art to the other arts of the trivium and, beyond them, the quadrivium and the mechanical arts. Other arts, especially architecture, serve as illustrations of invention, just as the artist, as artifex, may be seen as having a role in the re-creation of the productions of Nature and God. Whatever style was chosen for the specific treatise, the formal similarity among arts remained prominent, either when explicit, as in the Poetria nova's comparison between poetry and architecture, or in more quotidien treatises like John's or Matthias of Link0ping's that use the style of the technographi,that is, the authors of prosaic treatises and manuals. It must not be forgotten that even the prose treatises may use prosaicus versus, specifically, the cursus or literary prose, just as Bernardus Silvestris does in the prose passages in the Cosmographia241• The treatises themselves are virtual prosimetra: they use art prose for argument, verse for illustration. 2. The Influence of the Scholastic Milieu The milieu of the arts of poetry and prose is that of the schools and universities of Tours, Orleans, Paris, and Blois in the critical period of transition from 1150to 1250. All the authors were at some time associated with one or the other of these centers, as students or as masters ; and their treatises continued in use in European schools and universities for the rest of the Middle Ages. Although they are written for ecclesiastical, especiallyclerical, milieux,they are not marked by the monastic constraints one perceives in a few scattered early guides to composition 242• The milieu accounts for the magisterial perspective and the more practical than theoretical pedagogical intent 243• Moreover, in the so-called "Battle of the Arts," they stand on the side of literary Orleans, despite their neoplatonic conception of invention: in Pierred'Andeli's Batail/e des sept arts, Plato sides with Aristotle on the side of Paris, whereas Alexandre of Villedieu and Eberhard of Bethune join forces under Orleans with Matthew of Vend0me and Bernardus Silvestris 244 • 241 P. DRONKE,Cosmographia, p. 58-63 (cf. n. 25); P. KLOPSCH, Einfiihrung Dichtungslehren, p. 146, 148; T. JANSON,Prose, p. 75 (cf. n. 37). 242 See, for example, L. WALLACH,Onu/f of Speyer : A Humanist of the Eleventh Century, in Medieva/ia et Humanistica, 6 (1950), p. 35-50; Konrad of Hirsau, in R.B.C. HUYGENS, ed., "Accessus ad auctores ", Bernardd'Utrecht, Conrad d'Hirsau "Dialogus super auctores ", Leiden, 1970, p. 73.60-74; P. KLOPSCH, Prosa, p. 15 (cf. n. 107); G. GLAUCHE,Schullekture (cf. n. 36). 243 Cf. M.C. WOODS, Early Commentary, p. 8.57-58. 244 See L.J. PAETOW,Banle, v. 17, 187-223, 285, 328-333 (cf. n. 147).

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Further evidence of the effect of the scholastic milieu is the incorporation of late antique and early medieval revisions in instruction in grammar, rhetoric, and poetics (see p. 55-57, above). The source for the revisions as much as the place we first find some of them is the tradition of commentaries and glossing. The commentary and gloss are evidence of the Tendenz zur kleinen Einheit which we have seen to be typical of medieval study of the authors in the classroom. This tendency in the treatises reflects instruction given in the schools. In fact, the treatises are, in places, virtual florilegia of glosses on excerpts from authors and classical treatises like Horace's and the Rhetoricaad Herennium. The milieu in which these arts appeared underwent profound changes in pedagogy between the last decades of the twelfth century and the end of the thirteenth 245• Bernardus Silvestris and Matthew of VendOmehave their beginnings in Tours. Matthew taught at Orleans, renowned for the study of the authors, then removed to Paris to pursue his career as grammar-master. Geoffrey of Vinsauf may have been associated with both Orleans and Paris. Eberhard and John studied or taught in Paris. The movement to Paris coincides with Paris' growing importance in intellectual matters and education through the rising prominence of Aristotelian and neoaristotelian methods. Dialectic begins to assume hegemony in the trivium. Some treatises evince an accommodation with dialectic, as we have seen, as well as revealing Aristotle's growing prominence ; and later commentaries pursue this with the Aristotelian accessus and its methods of commentation. Instruction on writing the dictamen as an adjunct to literary composition betrays a growing concern with the practical aspects of composition - which is apparent in the style of the technographi too 246 • New, more practical emphases in education - letter-writing, documents, the sermon, public discourse - effected the adaptation or appropriation of the main topic of the arts of poetry and prose to those kinds of writing. That evolution parallels the expansion of later treatises to include instruction on dictaminal composition, notably, in Geoffrey's long version of the Documentum,Gervase's Ars versificaria, and John's Parisiana Poetria. The later treatises also show the growing importance of rhythmic verse in the thirteenth-century scholastic milieu. Finally, the revision in the scheme for the accessus ad auctores to E. FARAL, Arts, p. 1-3, 15-18, 38-39, 42; LJ. PAETOW, Battle, p. 13-30 (cf. n. 147). T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. 228; cf. J. TRI~KA, Prague Rhetoric and the 'Epistolare dictamen' (1278) of Henricus de Isernia, in Rhetorica, 3 (1985), p. 183-192. 245

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accommodate Aristotelian methodologies culminates in the system of the four causes, including the methods of the forma tractandi and the forma tractatus.These changes affect in turn the reading of the treatises through subsequent commentaries and glosses that apply the categories of the neoaristotelian accessus247 • The new milieu supplements the treatises in those cases where commentaries are copied without the text they are based on, as did occur for the Poetria nova. Do the treatises reveal a larger milieu than the classroom ? Some illustrative pieces respond to contemporary concerns : the death of Richard the Lion-Heart, the enmity between John Lackland and Innocent III, heresy and the Albigensian Crusade 248 • Perhaps the involvement of Geoffrey of Vinsauf in political and religious conflicts at the turn of the thirteenth century surfaces in these passages; John of Garland's involvement in the suppression of Southern heresies certainly does. However, the treatises do not use these subjects other than as materia to elaborate in a distinctive way with traditional means of amplification and ornamentation. The political milieu does not mould their thought or form ; not even the Battle of the Arts takes place in their pages. As time passes, commentaries revise the instruction of their predecessors to accommodate the new demands or emphases mentioned above and new kinds of writing, or excerpt them for inclusion in new works or collections, just as the earlier treatises had done with Horace, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and other sources.

2A7 J.B. ALLEN, Ethical Poetic, p. 129-132; cf. also p. 196-198. John of Garland names the four causae, virtually inviting th~ author to use them for invention (Parisiana Poetria, 1.514-523). 241 E. FARAL, Arts, p. 17-18, 24-27, 28-33.

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CHAPfER IV

INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE A. CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION The treatises were written during a time span of not more than about a hundred years, from about 1170 to 1280 at the latest, and probably sooner 249• However, there has been no systematic study of dissemination in different times and places. Available manuscript evidence indicates that most were recopied more or less continuously, and that they were used all over Europe - but not always as extensively or intensely in some regions as in others 250 • Widespread commentary and glossing, especially of the Poetrianova, demonstrate that the treatises were read and studied with care and attention. References to them by a variety of authors and works bear this out (see p. 116-119, below). But until reasonably good surveys of the manuscripts, manuscript traditions, medieval library catalogues, and flori/egia are available, generalizations about survival, geographical distribution, and reception of the treatises will be tentative or speculative. Only Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova and Matthew's Ars versificatoriaappear to have travelled widely and to have continued in general use into the Renaissance. The editions of Gervase of Melkley's and John of Garland's treatises indicate relatively less study. There are,

249 E. FARAL,Arts, passim (who dates Eberhard 1208-1280, p. 39); F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. 11, p. 23-25; T. LAWLER,Parisiana Poetria, p. xiii-xv; H.-J. GRABENER,Ars, p. xxviii. The Laborintus was probably written before 1250; see FJ. WORSTBROCK, Die deutsche Literati": Verfasserlexikon, vol. II, p. 273-274. Matthias of LinkOping is the only known exception. 250 See D. KELLY,Theory, p. 143-146; S. GALLICK,Medieval Rhetorical Arts; F. MUNARI's catalogue in Opera, vol. I, as well as manuscript location and dating in the other editions. The Hispanic peninsula is exceptional in eluding the influence of the treatises, despite important contacts with French authors; see C. FAULHABER,Latin Rhetorical Theory in Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Castile, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1972, p. 22-97 (University of California Publications in Modem Philology, 103); his Retoricas clasicas y medievales en bibliotecas castellanas, in Abaco: estudios sobre lileratura espanola, 4 (1973), p. 151-300; and his Rhetoric in Medieval Catalonia: The Evidence of the Library Catalogues, in Studies in Honor of Gustavo Co"ea, Potomac, My., 1986, p. 92-126 (Scripta humanistica, 18).

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respectively, only three and six identified manuscripts for each 251 , as opposed to nineteen for Matthew and nearly 200 for the Poetria nova from all over Europe, and even supplemented, in Geoffrey's case, by some eighty commentaries or glosses of equally wide geographical and chronological distribution. There exist only sporadic, incomplete surveys of medieval library catalogues to determine the frequency with which the treatises appear in them 252 • But the little that has been reported tends to attest continued, widespread use or at least availability until the end of the Middle Ages for Geoffrey's Poetria nova and Matthew's A.rs. The Laborintus survives in forty-three manuscripts, most of them found in Germany 253 • No systematic catalogues have been published for either the Documentum or the Summa de coloribusrhetoricis.

B.

UTILIZATION

AND INTERPRETATION

To say that the treatises were used does not explain how and by whom they were used. Evidence of their use outside the scholastic milieu is scanty. It is the classroom that they address and with which they are most closely associated in the Middle Ages. The texts themselves suggest the master reading and illustrating lectures before pupils taking notes or copying his words verbatim (lectio). The authors obviously anticipate' scholastic use of the instruction as a guide for composition exercises (praeexercitamina).The authority of Matthew of VendOmeand Geoffrey of Vinsauf is obvious in the writings of Gervase of Melkley, John of Garland, and Eberhard the German, all of whom use and readily acknowledge their debt to their predecessors, quoting them for definitions and illustrations. The illustrations seem to have been especially important. Some, like Matthew's locusamoenusor descriptions of persons like Beroe

251 H.-J. GRABENER, Ars, p. xiii (N. DENHOLM-YOUNG, "Cursus ", p. 64, lists one more in BL Arundel 52; the manuscript descriptions by GRABENER and DENHOLM-YOUNG differ); T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. xix-xxi. 252 G. MAN ACORDA, Fra Bartolomeo da S. Concordio Grammatico e la fortuna di Gaufredo di Vinesauf in Italia,· in Raccoha di studi di storia e critica /eneraria dedicata a Francesco F/amini da' suoi discepoli, Pisa, 1918, p. 146-148; S. GALLICK, Medieval Rhetorical Arts; D. KELLY, Theory, p. 145, n. 66; C. FAULHABER, Rhetoric. 253 FJ. WORSTBROCK, Die deutsche Literatur: Ve,fasserlexikon. Vol. II, col. 274. FARAL knew of only five (Arts, p. 38); see also H. SZKLENAR, Magister, p. 85-99; L. TRAUBE, Nachricht 152, in Neues Archiv der Gese/Jschaftfiir iihere deutsche Geschichtslamde zur BeflJrderung einer Gesamtausgabe der Que/Jenschrtftendeutscher Geschichten des Miltelalters, 27 (1902), p. 326-327.

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or Caesar, or Geoffrey's apostrophe to Innocent Ill, England, or Richard the Lion-Heart, were copied separately and widely disseminated. Finally, as we have noted, Geoffrey left two versions of the Documentum, as did John of the Parisiana Poetria ; both seem to have made expansions to include new material, or to incorporate new subjects into the practice of literary writing, like letter-writing and rhythmical verse 254 • However, it must not be forgotten that the treatises were interpreted. Since time and place are major factors in their wide and long-lasting dissemination, commentaries are important insofar as they reflect changing attitudes to poetics and the poem, despite the deeply conservative, traditional influence the treatises exercised and despite their narrow pedagogic intent. The medieval classroom was hardly a source of avantgarde experimentation ! But there were different schools that defined practice and theory. For example, Bene of Florence's Candelabrum, a thirteenth-century dictaminal treatise, distinguishes between Roman and French practice. The French, including Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vend6me 255, are said to be more ornamental in prose and verse. The emphasis is indeed on ornament. The principal appeal and usefulness of the arts of poetry and prose reside in their instruction on topical elaboration and ornamentation. Most passages cited or illustrated are descriptions and other kinds of amplifications. These predilections are attributable to the elementary and intermediate level of instruction the treatises fit into. But the university's emphasis on logic may itself have given the twelfth- and thirteenth-century arts of poetry and prose an unexpected longevity. They continued in use to the end of the Middle Ages and even beyond, principally, it would appear, as writing manuals or, occasionally, for neoaristotelian commentaries like those by Dybinus,

T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, p. xiii-xv, 327-332; E.F. WILSON, 7M "Georgica Spiritua/ia" of John of Garland, in Speculum, 8 (1933), p. 361. 255 But see now R. WITT, On Bene of Florence's Conception of the French and Roman 'Cursus', in Rhetorica, 3 (1985), p. 77-98. Cf. also C.S. BALDWIN, Med~va/ Rhetoric and Poetic (to 1400), Interpreted from Representative Works, New York, 1928; repr. Gloucester, Mass. 1959, p. 217, 218 n. 22, 221 n. 31, 223 n. 33, 226 n. 44; T. JANSON, Prose, p. 8182, 102-103 (cf. n. 37). Cf. A. GAUDENZI, Sulla crono/ogia de/le opere dei denatori bolognesi da Boncompagno a Bene di Lucca, in Bullenino dell'Istiluto Storico Italiano, 14 (1895), p. 151-152; N. VALOIS,De arte scribendi episto/as apud Gallicos medii aevi scriptores rhetoruve, Diss. Paris., Paris, 1880, repr. New York (1964); L. DELISLE, Les ecoles d'Orleans au XII• et au XIII• siecle, in Annuaire-bu/letin de la Societe de /'Histoire de France (1869), p. 139-154. 254

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Bartholomew of Pisa, and others 256 • Although their link to neoplatonic speculation about Creation and invention was broken, they continued to serve largely pedagogical or practical purposes analogous, in a medieval setting, to those which grammar and rhetoric served in Roman times : training in poetic eloquence for literary and public performances. Commentaries and glosses might facilitate the reading of the treatises while permitting diversifiedinterpretation and application in different times and places. Whether they were associated with the Cornifician movement which John of Salisbury castigates is doubtful 257 • They could not have been if they reflect the pedagogy of a Bernard of Chartres, since his principles of composition and his instruction were totally foreign to Cornifician purposes, as John of Salisbury makes abundantly clear. The treatises certainly influenced, or were used in conjunction with, the arts of letter-writing and preaching 258 • The interaction among these three kinds of compositio~ is apparent in several ways. First, some artes dictaminis base their conception of selection and elaboration of topoi on the instruction in the arts of poetry and prose as much as on traditional rhetoric 259 • Second, the treatises themselves may include instruction on dictamina or make the subject an adjunct to the literary instruction. Perhaps Bernardus Silvestris set the example, if his Cosmographia is indeed the work meant by Gervase when he refers to Bernard's art of poetry as the most thorough and complete presentation of the art, and

256 SZKLENAR.Magil'ter,p.2-4 ;G.MANACORDA,FraBartolomeo,p.139-152; A. WILMART, A.rt, p. 271-275; J.B. ALLEN, Ethical Poetic, p. ix-x, 233 n. 34; P.A. STADTER,P/anudes, p. 145-146 (cf. n. 221). Matthias of LinkOping should also be included among these authors. 257 See however R. McKEON, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages, in Speculum, 17 (1942), p. 2529. On the Cornificians, see now J.0. WARD, Date, p. 221-238 (cf. n. 43). 251 C.S. BALDWIN,Medieval Rhetoric, p. 191-195, 214-215; E. DE BRUYNE,Etudes, vol. 11, p. 3-68; G. MANACORDA,Fra Bartolomeo, p. 148-149; J. MARTIN, Classicism, p. 538· 539; N. VALOIS,De arte, p. 23-24 (cf. n. 255); G. CoNSTABLE,Letters, especially p. I I· 12 (cf. n. 198); E. RUHE, De amasio (cf. n. 31); S. GALLICK, Medieval Rhetorical Arts, p. 79 ; E.F. JACOB,"Florida verborum venustas " : Some Early Examples of Euphuism in England, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 17 ( 1933), p. 280 ; T.M. CHARLAND,A.rtespraedicandi : contribution a /'histoire de la rhetorique au moyen age, Paris, Ottawa, 1936, p. 211, and M.-D. CHENU's "Introduction", p. 7-13; SZKLENAR,Magil'ter, p. 233-243 (on the col/atio). 259 See W. KRONBICHLER,ed., Konrad of Mure, Summa, p. 13-16 (cf. n. 229); Bene of Florence, Candelabrum, ed. G.C. ALESSIO, Padua, 1983, p. 21 I (Thesaurus mundi: Bibliotheca scriptorum latinorum mediae et recentioris aetatis, 23). Cf. also G. CONSTABLE, Letters (cf. n. 198).

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if the ascription to him of an art of letter-writing is correct 260 • Third, epistles in verse like those in Matthew's Epiatuleresemble praeexercitamina, and thus might serve to illustrate classroom training in both poetic and dictaminal composition. Even differences like those between the poetic treatises and the artespraedicandiillustrate deliberate choices or adaptations of traditional poetics and rhetoric to suit new circumstances : they are based on analogous principles of textual elaboration and ornamental amplification. For, although overlap among the different arts does not indicate their virtual identification, and their intentions and methods may be quite different, they derive their conception of composition and textual elaboration in the last analysis from their common foundation in grammar and rhetoric rather than from the primary influence of practical poetics on the two other arts. Like them, the poetic and prose treatises relied on common rhetorical traditions and a common conception of invention adapted from traditional rhetoric to the modes of expression and to new social, political, and religious demands. Furthermore, the paradigm for invention strikingly expressed in the architectural image that opens Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetrianova was commonplace and frequently adapted to invention in other arts and disciplines 261 • A discipline that reflects in a significant way the kind of composition taught in the treatises was medieval historiography. The writing of history in the Middle Ages, whether in verse or prose, was influenced by the same grammatical and rhetorical tradition as the more literary works, since both were often philosophical and moral in intent, but literary in form and manner of expression 262 • Historiography calls for the careful M. BRINI SAVORELLI."Dictamen", p. 182-230 (cf. n. 79). But see as well FJ. WORSTBROCK,A.nzeiger, p. 105-107 (cf. D. 28); P. DRONKE, Cosmographia, p. 6 (cf. D. 25). Alberic of Monte Cassino, who composed the first formal treatise on letter-writing, was also a poet who knew Latin letters; see OJ. BLUM, A.lberlc de Monte Cassino and the Hymns and Rhythms Attributed to Saint Peter Damian, in Traditio, 12 (1956), p. 87-148; JJ. MURPHY, Rhetoric, p. 203. On the dictaminal Summa attributed to "Geoffrey", see V. LICITRA,La "Summa de arte dictandi" di Maestro Goffredo, in Studi medievali, 3rd ser., 7 (1966), p. 865-913; F.J. WORSTBROCK,Galfrids Summa, p. 549-552 (cf. n. 37). 261 H. BRINKMANN,Zu Wesen und Form miltelalterlicher Dic}m,ng, Halle, 1928, repr. Darmstadt 1979, p. 8-10 ; H. DE LUBAC,Exegese mldievale : la quatre sens de l'Ecriture, Paris, 1964, Part II, vol. II, p. 41-60 (Etudes publiees sous la direction de la Faculte de Theologie S.J. de Lyon-Fourviere, 59); D. KELLY, Theory, p. 126-127; H. BRINKMANN, Miltelallerliche Hermeneulik, p. 132-140 (cf. n. 5). 262 See H. WOLTER,Geschichtliche Bildung im Rahmen der A.rtesliberales, in J. KOCH, ed., A.Ties liberales : von der antiken Bi/dung zur Wissenschaft des Mine/alters, Leiden, Cologne, 1959, p. 50-83 (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 5); M. SCHULZ, :l60

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study and imitation of predecessors both great and small - from Sallust to the pseudo-Dares and -Dictys - and for the application of principles of composition taught in the arts of poetry and prose. Historians today have begun to investigate the "strategies" of "plotting" that poets and writers adopted from medieval instruction on composition, since these techniques were also pertinent to the presentation of what medieval chroniclers deemed historical fact and legend 263 • The rhetoric of the arts of poetry and prose is the same as that often used by medieval historians in Latin and the vernaculars when they evaluated historical data for purposes of praise or blame. C. COMMENTARY

Commentaries and glosses contain potentially useful information on how the treatises were read and interpreted in dilferent times and places. Commentaries and glosses to the Poetria nova were common enough to justify Professor Woods' assertion that to read Geoffrey's treatise without their aid is "unmedieval". But even those treatises whose manuscript tradition suggests less extensive use than that for the Poetria nova underwent some glossing and commenting. Several scholars, most notably J.B. Allen, have demonstrated to what extent new developments in the arts and philosophy determined how the treatises were understood and explicated, and how they were put to practical use in diverse circumstances. In particular, as we have observed, the Aristotelian accessus, with its insistence on the four causae,including the Jonna tractandiand the Jonna tractatus, applied interpretative categories to the arts that affected the explication and composition of the literary work 264 • Finally, the designation of poetics as a branch of logic assured the reinterpretation of the treatises X/11. Jahrhundert), Berlin, Leipzig, 1909, p. 84-134 (Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte, 13); G. SIMON, Untersuchungen, p. 73-112, 136-144 (cf. n. 198); B. LACROIX, L'historien, p. 105-131 (cf. n. 195); R.D. RAY, Medieval Historiography through the Twelfth Century: Problems and Progress of &search, in Viator, 5 (1974), p. 48-58; E. KLEINSCHMIDT,Hemcherdarstellung; J. MARTIN, Classicism, p. 548-551; B. GUENEE, Histoire (cf. n. 195); E. BREISACH, ed., Classical Rhetoric and Medieval Historiography, Kalamazoo, 1985 (Studies in Medieval Culture, 19), especially J.O. WARD, Some Principles of Rhetorical Historiography in the Twelfth Century, p. 103-165. 263 R.D. RAY, Medieval Historiography, p. 55 (cf. n. 262); cf. W. TRIMPI, Quality, p. 2829 (cf. n. 8). 264 J.B. ALLEN, Ethical Poetic; on Geoffrey ofVinsauf, see especially p. 130-132 and 199200, but also passim ; and ALLEN 's HermaM the German's Ave"oislic Aristotle and Medieval Poetic Theory, in Mosaic, 9.3 (1975), p. 67-81.

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to fit new criteria and schemes of interpretation. For example, Aristotle's Poeticsin Hermann the German's version of Averroes' commentary raised questions about the relation of poetics to rhetoric, thereby calling into question or revising the views expressed in earlier commentaries 265 • 0. TRANSLATIONS,

ADAPTATIONS,

BORROWINGS,

CITATIONS,

AND

REFERENCES

M.C. Woods has identified a number of references to the Poetria nova. Her list includes Gervase of Melkley, Vincent of Beauvais, Nicholas of Dacia, Nicholas Trevet, Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Merke, and Erasmus 266 • Other references are translations of passages from the Poetria nova that appear in Brunetto Latini's Livres dou tresor and Rettorica 261 • Citations •165 H.A. KELLY,Aristotle, p. 198 (cf. n. 125). Cf. G. DAHAN, Notes, p. 178-183 (cf n. 59). a. the Poetria Lincopensis, which distinguishes between laus rethorica in prose and laus poetica in meter (p. 133.4-7). 266 In her 1977 University of Toronto thesis, "In principio huius libri" Type A Commentary on Geoffrey of Vinsauf's "Poetria nova": Text and Analysis, p. ix-xi. The passages are: Gervase of Melkley, with reference to the resume of the A.rs versificariain E. F ARAL, Arts, p. 35 (see n. 275, below); Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum doctrinale, Graz, 1965, col. 343 E et passim ; Iacobus Nicholai of Dacia, Liber de distinccionemetrorum, ed. A. KABELL, Uppsala, 1967, p. 58-61 (for Matthew's Tobias, see p. 61-63); Nicholas Trevet, Anna/es, ed. T. Hoo, London, 1845, repr. Vaduz, 1964, p. 161, 175; Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, I, v. 1065-1069, and ..The Nun's Priest's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales, VII, v. 3347-3349, in F.N. ROBINSON,ed., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd ed., Boston, 1957, 1961; Thomas Merke, Regula dictaminis, in De arte et scientia dictandi, Oxford Bodi. Selden supra 65, fols. l llr" and 125V".For Erasmus, see n. 179, above. Erasmus used John of Garland's treatise while a schoolboy; see E. HABEL,Johannes, p. 121 (for others, see p. 121-130). For both Geoffrey and Gervase in Merke's De modemo dictamine, see JJ. MURPHY,A Fifteenth-Century Treatise on Prose Style, in The Newberry Library Bulletin, 6 (1966), p. 209, and his Rhetoric in Fourteenth-Century Oxford, in MediumAevum, 34 (1965), p. 18-19. Matthias of LinkOping used the treatises as well as Hermann's translation of Averroes on Aristotle's Poetics for his Poetria and Testa nucis; see S. SAWICKI,Poetria Lincopensis, p. 109-152, and H.A. KELLY,Aristotle, p. 181-185 (cf. n. 125). This treatise and poem are more parts of a disquisition on the art (de arte) than of a treatise on how to write (ex arte). Of course, the consultation of ftorilegia or other excerpts rather than the complete work cannot always be dismissed out of hand ; but see as well M.P. HAMILTON,Notes on Chaucer and the Rhetoricians, in PMLA, 41 (1932), p. 403-409. The most distant instance of Geoffrey's influence that has been noted is in the mid·fourteenthcentury Icelandic poem Lilja by Eysteinn; see P. FOOTE,Latin Rhetoric and Icelandic Poetry: Some Contacts, in Aurvandilsta: Norse Studies, Odense, 1984, p. 259-264, 267-268 (repr. from Saga och sed 1982, p. 107-127). l6 7 D. KELLY,Theory, p. 126, 132-134; R. CRESPO,Brunetto Latini e la 'Poetria nova' di Geoffroi de Vinsauf, in Lettere ita/iane, 24 (1972), p. 97-99. The Tresor was copied widely in whole or in part, and translated. See CJ. WITTLIN,ed., Brunetto Latini - Llibre de/ tresor: versio catalana de Guillem de Copons, 2 vols, Barcelona, 1971-76, vol. I, p. 14-20 (Els Nostros Classics: Col-lecci6 A, 102, 111).

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from and references to the Poetria nova occur in Konrad of Mure's Summa de arte prosandi268, Bene of Florence's Candelabrum269 , John of Briggis' Compilatiode arte dictandi210 , Martin de C6rdoba's Breve compendium artis rethorice271 , Jacques Legrand's Livre de bonnes meurs 272 • Whether John Gower knew and used Geoffrey's Poetria is still being . debated 273 • A fifteenth-century Ars rhythmica written in Germany quotes from and refers to John of Garland's treatise 274 • A number of references occur in the arts of poetry and prose themselves, especially in Gervase, as Professor Woods noted 275 • Implicit or explicit references to one or the other of the treatises have been identified in a work on letter-writing attributed to Peter of Blois 276 , Richard of Fornival's Biblionomia277 , Hugh 268 Konrad also refers to Matthew of Vendome, Eberhard the German, John of Garland, and others; see his Summa, p. 14-16 and passim in the notes (cf. n. 229); cf. E. HABEL, Johannes, p. 123. 269 VIIl.58.8 (p. 274; cf. n. 259). See also the references in the notes to this edition; C.S. BALDWIN,Medieval Rhetoric, p. 213-223; B. HAUREAU,Notices, vol. IV, p. 259-262 (cf. n. 193); G. VECCHI, Temi e momenti d'arte dettatoria nel "Candelabrum" di Bene da Firenze, in Atti e memorie de/la Deputazione di storia patria par le province di Romagna, N.S., IO (1963), p. 122-132, 137. 270 JJ. MURPHY,New Look, p. 15; RJ. SCH0EK,On Rhetoric in Fourteenth-Century Oxford, in Mediaeval Studies, 30 (1968), p. 218. 271 C. FAULHABER, Latin Rhetorical Theory, p. 131-135 ; and his Las retoricas hispanolatinas medievales (s. XIII-XV), in Repertorio de historia de las ciencias eclesiasticas en Espana. Vol. VII: Sig/as III-XVI, Salamanca, 1979, p. 58-60. 272 Ed. E. BELTRAN,Archiloge Sophie. Livre de bonnes meurs, Paris, 1986, p. 338, 361 (Bibliotheque du XV• siecle, 49). 273 See JJ. MURPHY,John Gower's "Confessio amantis" and the First Discussion of Rhetoric in the English Language, in Philological Quarterly, 41 (1962), p. 401-411; and M. ITO, Gower's Knowledge of the "Poetria nova", in Studies in English Literature: English Number (1975), p. 3-20, repr. in his John Gower, The Medieval Poet, Tokyo, 1976, p. 272-290. 274 T. LAWLER,Parisiana Poetria, p. 333-334. m H.-J. GRABENER,ed., Ars, s. n. Galfredus Vinosalvis, p. 252, 282; s. n. Mattheus Vindocinensis, p. 254, 284; note also s. n. Bemardus Silvestris, p. 251, 280-281; and T. LAWLER, ed., Parisiana Poetria, s. n. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, p. 347, and s. n. Matthew of Vendome, p. 349. 276 M. CAMARGO,The "Libellus de arte dictandi rhetorice" Attributed to Peter of Blois, in Speculum, 59 (1984), p. 37 n. 66, finds "enough verbal echoes of Matthew of Vendome's Ars ... to suggest direct influence." 277 L. DELISLE,ed., La Biblionomie de Richard de Fornival, in Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 1874, vol. II, p. 524 (Matthew's Ars versi.ficatoria).Other relevant works catalogued: Bernardus Silvestris' Cosmographia and Jean of Hauville's Architrenius (p. 531), Matthew's Tobias (p. 532). There are several works by John of Garland, but not the Parisiana Poetria. The Poetria nova is no doubt the work referred to as "Willermi de Witam poetica nova ad Innocentium papam tercium" (p. 524); it is bound with Horace's Ars poetica. The Poetria nova is dedicated to both Innocent III and a "William" (v. 2102); see M.F. NIMS, trans., Poetria nova, p. 110.

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of Trim.berg's Registrum multorum auctorum 278 , Pietro di Dante's commentary on Dante's Divina Commedia 219 , the Catholicon280 , the Court of Sapience 281, the marginal reference to Matthew's locus amoenus in one manuscript of the Roman de la rose 212 , Henri of Ghent's De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis 283 , Radulphe of Longchamp's commentary on the Anticlaudianus284 , John Seward's treatise and poetry 285 , Henri d'Andeli's Bataille des sept arts 216 , Jean de Chalons 217, and Mino da Colle's Flores rhetorici218 • As has already been noted, quotations appear frequently in flo n'le'glll• 289 • This list, which makes no claims to being exhaustive, is sufficient to demonstrate ongoing preoccupation with the arts of poetry and prose, not only in the classroom for which they were primarily written, but also in the invention of works great and small in Latin and the vernaculars,

271 Ed. K. LANGOSCH,Berlin, 1942 (Germanische Studien, 235), v. 283, 293-299, 309r-t (Geoffrey's Poetria); v. 328-333f (John's Parisiana Poetria). Cf. p. 218-220, 222. Hugh also mentions Matthew of Vend6me, but names only the Tobias. 279 Petri Allegherii super Danlis ipsius geniloris Comoediam commentarium, ed. V. NANNUCCI, Florence, 1845, p. 372-373, 641 ; and, in the later versions of the commentary, II "Commentarium" di Pietro Aligh~ri nelle redazioni Ashburnhamiana e Ottoboniana, eds. R. DELLA VEDOVAand M.T. SILVOTTI, Florence, 1978, p. 152 (col. I), 306 (col. 1), 309 (col. 2) (Istituto Dantesco-Europeo). 2111To John of Garland; see E. LITTRE, Glossaires, p. 14 (cf. n. 225). 211 Ed. R. SPINDLER, Leipzig, 1927, v. 1914-1915 (Beitrllgezur englischen Philologie, 6); see C.F. BOHLER, The Sources of"The Court of Sapience", Leipzig, 1932, p. 75-76 (Beitrllge zur englischen Philologie, 23 ). Reference is to both the Poetria nova and a version of the Documentum identified as Tria sunt. 212 Ed. E. LANGLOIS,Paris, 1914-24, v. 78 note (vol. II, p. 294-295) (Societe des Anciens Textes fran~ais, 62). See my Specialite, p. 106-107. 213 See F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. II, p. 23 n. 2. 2M Seen. 179, above. On the possible influence of Bemardus Silvestris and Matthew of Vendome on Alain of Lille, see G. RAYNAUD DE LAGE, Alain de Lille: poete du XII• siecle, Montreal, Paris, 1951, p. 133, 137-163; M.-T. D'ALVERNY, Alain de Lille: texles inedits, Paris, 1965, p. 20, 34 (Etudes de philosophic medievale, 52); cf. F. MUNARI, Opera, vol. II, p. 23 n. 4. 285 See V.H. GALBRAITH,John Seward and His Circle: Some London Scholars of the Early Fifteenth Century, in Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, 1 (1941-43), p. 97 (Gervase of Melkley, John of Garland). 286 L.J. PAETOW, Battle, p. 53 (cf. n. 147); and his Morale, p. 99-100 (cf. n. 181). 217 In his De arte praedicandi; see T.M. CHARLAND,Artes, p. 53 (cf. n. 258). 211 H. WIERUSZOWSKI,Politics and Culture in Medieval Spain and Italy, Rome, 1971, p. 375 n. 1, 599 n. 2. 289 See M.C. WOODS, Early Commentary, p. xvii; R. BURTON, Classical (cf. n. 15), index s. n. Bernard Silvester (p. 400), Geoffrey of Vinsauf (p. 401), John of Garland (p. 402)~ and Matthew ofVendome (p. 403). For adaptations, see A. KABELL, ed., Liber by Iacobus Nicholai of Dacia, p. 60 n. 146 (cf. n. 266).

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INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE

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in reflections on the art of poetry and its place in human knowledge, and in the transmission of moral precepts and good learning. They were read, imitated, excerpted, commented and reflected upon, and adapted to new tasks, purposes and conceptions of the art and practice of writing in verse and prose, and in a wide range of genres : literature, history, letter-writing, and various kinds of public address and sermon. Whether known in their entirety or in excerpts, the treatises and their authors were readily recognizable and authoritative for all kinds of audiences, whether they read Latin or only a vernacular.

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. CHAPTER V

EDmONS The Bibliography identifies available editions and translations. Until recently, the most important editions have been Faral's, simply because he made most of the treatises available. His editions are not critical, as he himself admitted 290 • They are based on one or a few manuscripts, or summarize manuscripts or earlier editions 291 • Despite the reservations that have been expressed about Faral's editions 292, they have served as the only readily accessible source of texts apart from the manuscripts themselves. The latter have not yet been systematically catalogued in their entirety. A. WORK IN PROGRESS

At present, I have information on the following editions in progress : Matthew of VendOme,Ars versificatoria.The third volume of Franco Munari's edition of Matthew's complete works, which was in press when this manuscript went to the printer has appeared. Professor Munari uses the same paragraph notation found in Faral's edition. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova. John Conley is preparing an edition based on all available manuscripts 293 • M.F. Nims has prepared an edition based on a selection of the best manuscripts. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, long version of the Documentum. M.F. Nims is preparing an edition. Recent editions have done much to correct the defects of earlier ones. First and foremost, they provide a complete collation of known manuscripts. The edition in progress by Professor Conley will collate all known

Arts, p. xv. Gervase of Melkley and John of Garland are summarized ; only excerpts from Geoffrey's Summa de coloribus are edited. 292 SEOOWICK, Notes; K. STRECKER, rev., Neues Archiv (cf. n. 30); K. STRECKER, Zur lateinischen Literatur des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts, in Historische Vierteljahrschrift,21 (1932), p. 158; M.F. NIMS, trans., Poetria, p. 95-97. Cf. W.B. SEOOWICK, The Textual Criticism of Mediaeval Latin Poets, in Speculum, 5 (1930), p. 288-305. 293 Reported as ..fin