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‘Carmina Runensia’: Twelfth-century Verses from the Cistercian Monastery of Rein
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
The six anonymous poems published here for the first time belong to a tradition of Latin satire usually described as ‘Goliardic’ and best known through the moralistic pieces in the Carmina Burana. Preserved in a unique manuscript in the Cistercian monastery of Rein in Styria, they are among the oldest Austrian examples of this genre. Despite their early date and literary interest, until now they have been known by title and first line only to the readers of Anton Weis's catalogue of the Rein manuscripts from 1891 and to the combers of Walther's alphabetical register of medieval Latin verse incipits. In my introductory remarks to an edition of the Carmina Runensia, as the verses may be called (abbreviated CR), I should like to discuss the following subjects: 1) contents and appearance of the manuscript (Rein, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 20), 2) date of writing, 3) style and themes of the poems, 4) sources and analogues, and 5) authorship. Though perhaps not of the caliber of the works of the contemporaneous Hildebert of Lavardin, whose best epigrams long passed as products of antiquity in the eyes of editors, or equal in satiric force to the barbs
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References
1 The satirical-moralistic poems are of course just one part of the whole collection, even if they are the most celebrated: Carmina Burana I 1, Die moralisch-satirischen Dichtungen; II 1, Kommentar: Einleitung (Die Handschrift der Carmina Burana), Die moralisch-satirischen Dichtungen, edd. Alphons Hilka and Otto Schumann (Heidelberg 1930); I 2, Die Liebeslieder, ed. Schumann, Otto (Heidelberg 1941); I 3, Die Trink- und Spielerlieder, Die geistlichen Dramen, Nachträge, edd. Otto Schumann and Bernhard Bischoff (Heidelberg 1970). I use ‘Goliardic’ in the sense defined by Jill Mann, 'Satiric Subject and Satiric Object in Goliardic Literature,’ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 15 (1980) 63–86, esp. bibliography on 63 n. 1.Google Scholar
2 Weis, Weis, 'Handschriften-Verzeichnis der Stifts-Bibliothek zu Rein,’ Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Cistercienser-Stiften 1 (= Xenia Bernardina 2.1; Vienna 1891) 1–114, at 16. Hans Walther, Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1.1; 2nd ed., Göttingen 1969), lists the incipits of the six poems with a reference to the single manuscript at Rein (nos. 3973, 15161, 20825, 10236, 3420, 17921; no. 3405 is a variant reading of no. 3420). His information on an additional copy of no. 3973 (Carmina Rumensia 1, hereafter cited as CR) in MS Basel, F VI 20, is mistaken, according to a letter from Dr. Martin Steinmann, Keeper of Manuscripts, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel (Dec. 13, 1978). I would like to express my gratitude here to Stift Rein for permission to publish the six poems; to the librarian Dr. Norbert Müller for his hospitality and helpfulness on my visit; and to Dr. Julian G. Plante of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library for facilitating my use of the microfilm (HMML 7447).Google Scholar
3 Hildebert of Lavardin (Hildebertus Cenomannensis episcopus), Carmina minora, ed. Scott, Brian (Bibliotheca scriptorum graecorum et romanorum Teubneriana; Leipzig 1969). of Hugh of Orléans, 4 the Carmina Runensia contain fresh and engaging lines bearing witness both to the revival of interest in antiquity in the early twelfth century and to the high level of humanistic culture among the first Cistercians.Google Scholar
4 Only a portion of Hugh's works has been edited, viz., Wilhelm Meyer, 'Die oxforder Gedichte des Primas (des Magister Hugo von Orleans) n° 16–22,’ Abh. Akad. Göttingen, Nachrichten (1907) 75–175.Google Scholar
5 Rein, (Latin Runa) is situated 15 km. northwest of Graz at the foot of the Ulrichberg. Patron: Maria Assumpta. Diocese: formerly Salzburg, now Graz-Seckau. A good introduction to its history is Gabriel Malis, 'Die Abtei Rein in Steiermark,’ in Sebastian Brunner, Cistercienserbuch (Würzburg 1881) 354–402. For bibliography, see L. H. Cottineau, Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés (Macon 1939–1970) II 2453; L. Grill, 'Rein,’ LThK VIII 1265; Adolf Hahnl, Stift Rein (Christliche Kunststätten Österreichs 104; 2nd ed., Salzburg 1980) 22. One hundred fifty-eight of Rein's manuscripts were filmed for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library; see Julian G. Plante, A Checklist of Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Monastic Manuscript Microfilm Library, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota: 1. Austrian Monasteries 2, Admont, Altenburg … (Collegeville 1974) 125–26. Rein's manuscript collection has recently been moved to new quarters and reorganized.Google Scholar
6 Wattenbach, Wattenbach, 'Berichte über eine Reise durch Steiermark im August 1876,’ Neues Archiv 2.12 (1877) 383–425, esp. 385–96. The main text of the manuscript is Rupert of Deutz, Expositio in Exodum et Leviticum. Of the two poems, the first is an encomium of Regensburg (Walther, Init. no. 19601) and the second a description of spring addressed to Robert, abbot of Ebersberg (Walther, Init. no. 5058). Wattenbach did not examine MS 20 during his sojourn (p. 396).Google Scholar
7 Weis, , 16, transcribes the faded inscription differently; the correct wording, given above, recurs in the ex-libris of MS 59 (cf. Weis 40).Google Scholar
8 The script-forms of the glosses suggest contemporaneity with the rest of the manuscript. The mirrored writing of the offprint, curiously enough, is sometimes more legible than the facing original, where the ink is slightly flaked and the entire page badly worn. Google Scholar
9 There are three associates of the monastery with this name in the necrology of Rein before 1400: Hartmannus conversus (Feb. 13), Hartmannus conversus (Mar. 9), and Hartmanus sacerdos novitius (Oct. 10); see Catalogus defunctorum abbatum, patrum, fratrum et conversorum Runensium ab anno fundationis 1129 usque 1400, descripsit ex Nigrologio domini abbatis Angeli finito M CCCC XC ab reverendo patre Alano Lehr (#x2020; 12 Jan. 1775), manuscript volumes in the Stiftsbibliothek, unpaginated.Google Scholar
10 Professor Bernhard Bischoff, who was kind enough to look at a photocopy of fol. I r for me, rendered the following verdict on the date of the verses: ‘Terminus a quo kann vielleicht sogar die Gründung von Rein, 1129, sein da in den letzten beiden Zeilen ganz auffällig Cistercienser-interpunktion verwendet ist; viel jünger wird die Schrift aber nicht sein’ (Feb. 17, 1980). According to an oral communication to the author by Dr. Christine E. Ineicben-Eder, the script-form of the verses is to be dated 'first quarter or first third of the twelfth century.’Google Scholar
11 On secular lyric poetry of the twelfth century, see Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1931) III 963–84; Peter Dronke, Medieval Latin and the Rise of European Love-Lyric, 2 vols. (Oxford 1968); Marcus Valerius, Bucoliche, ed. Munari, Franco (2nd ed.; Florence 1970), Introduction, with good bibliography. On the term 'Goliardic,’ see F. J. E. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages (2nd ed.; Oxford 1957) II 338–41.Google Scholar
12 On the rhetorical tradition of the theme of greed, see, for instance, John A. Yunck, The Lineage of Lady Meed: The Development of Mediaeval Venality Satire (Publications in Mediaeval Studies 17; Notre Dame 1963) 37–45. Google Scholar
13 Faral, Faral, Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études 238; Paris 1924) 61–98, esp. 63.Google Scholar
14 See the sources cited by Hans Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter in alphabetischer Anordnung (Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 2; Göttingen 1963–1969) I 177 no. 1565 (hereafter cited, by number, as Walther, Prov.). Google Scholar
15 See the notes to the edition, below. Google Scholar
16 For the most part, the poems treat stock themes in the prevailing rhetorical techniques of the time. The following are noteworthy examples of poetic procedures and rhetorical figures and tropes; I use the terminology of Faral (n. 13 above) and Heinrich Lausberg, Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik: Eine Grundlegung der Literaturwissenschaft, 2 vols. (Munich 1960). Interpretatio (a method of repetition): CR 5 passim, 1.6–9, 2.13f., 3.15–18; comparatio: 3.6–10; abbreviatio (the opposite of amplificatio): 2.18, 4.10, 5.12; denominatio (or metonymy): 5.7, 10; of person: 2.12, 5.5; transgressio (hyperbole): 2.7; annominatio (playing on a word): 2.2, 6, 3.19f., 6.7, 15; paronomasia (punning): 3.21f., 4.3f., 5.3f.; distinctio: 2.5f.; emphasis: 2.13; anaphora: 2.13, 3.14, 4.11f., 6.5f; chiasmus: 6.7, 12; interrogate: 2.13–16. Google Scholar
17 Munari, (n. 11 above) lxxiv; cf. Karl Strecker, Introduction to Medieval Latin, trans. Palmer, Robert B. (Berlin 1957) 72. A good example is CR 2.7.Google Scholar
18 Serlon de Wilton, Poèmes latins: Texte critique avec une introduction et des tables, ed. Öberg, Jan (Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 14; Stockholm 1965); cf. Peter Dronke (n. 11 above) I 239–43.Google Scholar
19 Offermanns, W., Die Wirkung Ovids auf die literarische Liebesdichtung des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts (=Beihefte zum Mittellateinischen Jahrbuch 3; Wuppertal 1970) 55–72.Google Scholar
20 At the last meeting of the Comité International de Paléographie (September 1981, Munich), Professor Richard H. Rouse (Los Angeles) reported the discovery of a fragment of such a roll: ‘St. Emmeram and the Earliest MS of Reinmar of Zweter’ (publication forthcoming). Google Scholar
21 His practice in this respect resembles that of the anonymous author (probably Balduinus Cecus) of Ysengrimus, a long animal epic in Ovidian-styled elegiac couplets finished toward 1148 in Ghent; ed. Voigt, Ernst (Halle 1884) lxix-lxxii.Google Scholar
22 Ebrach, Ebrach, see Cottineau (n. 5 above) I 1011.Google Scholar
23 E.g., MS 21 fol. 10 r, five sententiae and three brief poems (see Weis 16); MS 23 fol. 131 r, epitaph of Conrad I, archbishop of Salzburg (#x2020;1147), printed from this single known manuscript by Weis 20f. (cf. Walther, Init. 4227); MS 35 fols. 130r-134 v, Carmen de mira-culoso quodam sanctissimae eucharistae effectu (Weis 27; Walther, Init. 16206, listing this unique copy).Google Scholar
24 Dronke, Dronke, 'Poetic Meaning in the “Carmina Burana,”’ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 10 (1975) 116–37, esp. 129f.Google Scholar
25 Stotz, Stotz, 'Dichten als Schulfach — Aspekte mittelalterlicher Schuldichtung,’ Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 16 (1981) 1–16, esp. 16.Google Scholar