medieval proverbs

20
Medieval Proverb Collections: The West European Tradition Author(s): Barry Taylor Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 55 (1992), pp. 19-35 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751418 . Accessed: 06/03/2013 22:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Warburg Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Upload: joe-magil

Post on 07-Nov-2014

182 views

Category:

Documents


5 download

DESCRIPTION

Medieval Proverbs

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Medieval Proverbs

Medieval Proverb Collections: The West European TraditionAuthor(s): Barry TaylorReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 55 (1992), pp. 19-35Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751418 .

Accessed: 06/03/2013 22:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Warburg Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of theWarburg and Courtauld Institutes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS: THE WEST EUROPEAN TRADITION*

Barry Taylor

his study offers a survey of the proverb genre in medieval western Europe, concentrated on texts written wholly or partly in Latin. In the first part, which examines definitions, I have tried to show the range of the proverb as

a genre. In the second, I have attempted to trace the development of the proverb books. The third part is devoted to the ethos of these texts, while the final section discusses their purpose.

My working definition of a proverb collection will be a text which gives advice on conduct, expressed in brief sentences paratactically arranged. I do not discriminate here between proverbium and sententia, popular and learned, ancient and modern, classical and biblical, or prose and verse. This is a broad definition but it has the advantage of pointing out the essential common denominator within a disparate set of works.

The medieval proverbial texts themselves rarely comment on their genre, although a store of definitions is provided by vocabularies, and commentaries on the biblical wisdom books and the arts of poetry and rhetoric. However several preliminary observations are necessary in respect of the definitions offered below. Firstly, it must be recognised that these constitute a synthesis of dispersed remarks made for different purposes in different contexts; it is neither the canonical medieval theory of the proverb nor a unified view to which any one of the sources used would necessarily have subscribed in full. Secondly, although most of the definitions were, of course, handed down from author to author, for the present purpose I have been more concerned with selecting clear and apposite statements than with establishing their genealogy. Lastly, although my translations often render 'sententia' as 'maxim', it should be noted that certain generic terms, among them maxima and adagium, do not occur in the medieval gnomic corpus. In particular, maxima was a term in logic, although the beginnings of its modern usage can be detected in the writings of Bene of Florence, the thirteenth-century writer on dictamen (epistolary composition). 1

A proverb was, essentially, an authoritative truth concerning conduct:

* This article is based on a paper given at the Warburg Institute in May 1988 at a seminar on proverbs and fables, part of the series Medieval Western European and Islamic Literary Genres, organised by Charles Burnett. I am grateful to Dr Burnett, Marvin L. Colker, Peter Dronke and Jill Mann for their helpful comments and for bringing texts to my attention.

1 'Et sic proverbium est velut quedam maxima que dat fidem aliis, sed non recipit aliunde.' Candelabrum, cited by G. Vecchi in 'I1 proverbio nella pratica letteraria dei dettatori della scuola di Bologna', Studi mediolatini e volgari, ii, 1954, pp. 283-302 (288). Compare Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. maxim.

19

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 55, 1992

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: Medieval Proverbs

20 BARRY TAYLOR

A general proverb, that is, a common opinion, to which custom attributes trustworthiness, common opinion gives assent and the security of untainted truth acquiesces.2

A maxim is a saying drawn from life, which shows concisely either what happens or ought to happen in life.3

General truths not concerning behaviour were specifically excluded from the

proverb genre: A maxim is a statement not of singulars but of universals. But not every universal statement is a maxim-for instance, 'A straight curve is a contradiction', but only a statement about some kind of action, and whether it should or should not be done.4

In its general applicability the proverb was distinguished from the paroemia, which, as defined by Isidore of Seville (c. 570-636) in his encyclopedia, was only quoted in particular situations:

A paroemia [here, 'proverbial phrase'] is a proverb adapted to matters and occasions. It is adapted to matters, as in 'You are kicking against the pricks' [Acts ix, 5], where it means resisting one's enemies. It is adapted to occasions, as in 'He has seen a wolf', as peasants say that a man loses his voice if he should see a wolf looking at him. Thus this phrase is addressed to someone who suddenly falls silent.5

As Isidore's reference to 'rustici'6 shows, the paroemia could be popular; but it was not necessarily so: when gathering the Adagia, first printed in 1500, Erasmus

required that a saying should be 'frequently on people's lips' but left aside the common sayings of the folk.7

The generality of the proverb also distinguished it from the chria, an illustrative anecdote or allusion which named exemplary figures: A maxim is an impersonal saying, such as 'Flattery wins friends, the truth breeds hatred' [Terence, Andria, 68]. If a person is added to this, it will become an anecdote, such as 'Achilles offended Agamemnon by telling the truth' and 'Metrophanes won the gratitude of Mithridates by flattery'. For the difference between anecdote and maxim is that the maxim is uttered without a person, while the anecdote is never told without a person. Hence, if a

2 'Generale proverbium, id est communis sententia, cui consuetudo fidem attribuit, opinio communis assensum accommodat, incorruptae veritatis integritas adquiescit.' Matthew of Vend6me, Ars versificatoria, in Les arts poetiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siecle, ed. E. Faral,

Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, ccxxxviii, Paris 1924, p. 113. In this paper I have used published translations where possible.

3 'Sententia est oratio sumpta de vita quae aut quid sit aut quid esse opporteat in vita breviter ostendit.' Ps-Cicero, Ad C. Herennium de ratione dicendi (Rhetorica ad Herennium), ed. and tr. H. Caplan, Loeb Classical Library, London 1954, iv, 17.24, p. 288.

4 'Sententia est enunciatio non de singularibus sed de universalibus. Nec de omnibus universalibus, puta: rectum curvo est contrarium, sed de quibuscumque actiones sunt et eligenda sunt aut fugienda sunt ad operari.' Assisi, Biblioteca communale, MS 309, fol. 9v: commentary on the Poetria nova of Geoffrey of Vinsauf,

citing Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii, 21.1394a, quoted and tr. byJ. B. Allen in The Ethical Poetic of the Later Middle Ages: a Decorum of Convenient Distinction, Toronto 1982, p. 169. Of the manuscripts cited in the present paper I have handled only those in the British Library (hereafter BL).

5 'Paroemia est rebus et temporibus adcornmodatum proverbium. Rebus, ut: "Contra stimulum calces", dum significatur adversis resistendum. Temporibus, ut: "Lupus in fabula". Aiunt enim rustici vocem hominem perdere, si eum lupus prior viderit. Unde et subito tacenti dicitur istud proverbium, "Lupus in fabula".' Isidore, Etymologiarum sive originum libri, xx, ed. W. M.

Lindsay, Oxford 1911, i, 37.28. 6 In quoting this passage, the Catholicon has 'naturales'

for 'rustici'. Venice 1497, sig. G2V (BL, IB. 23385). 7 M. Mann Phillips, The 'Adages' of Erasmus: a Study

with Translations, Cambridge 1964, p. 6.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 4: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 21

person is added to a maxim, it becomes an anecdote; if the person is removed, it becomes a maxim.8

Nevertheless there is much to support a view of the proverb seen in terms of

genre. I have argued elsewhere that the proverb and the exemplum are the two ex- tremes of a range of wisdom forms which display varying degrees of narrative.9 They are sometimes not distinguished at all:

An example is a saying or deed of some authoritative person that is worthy of imitation. Here, then, are found sayings and deeds, authorities, and proverbs.10

In addition, in biblical language proverbium and parabola are used without distinction to mean proverb or parable. And furthermore the eleventh-century lexicographer Papias makes the equivalence of Latin, Greek and Hebrew terms:

Parabola graece, prouerbium latine ... Parabola est comparatiua similitudo: hebraice masloth [i.e. mashalot? <mashal] dicitur.11

All three terms are used as the title of the biblical Book of Proverbs.'2 And one might note that the words for proverb in Hebrew and Arabic can likewise also mean 'similitude'.

To these qualities of the proverb may be added those of brevity, figurative language and a tendency to obscurity. In its typical brevity the proverb was par- allelled by the aphorism: An aphorism is a brief utterance, which writes the complete meaning of the matter set forth.13

The general scholarly opinion is that in the Middle Ages 'aphorism' referred only to medicine; as in Isidore, whose definition of 'aphorismus' just quoted occurs under the heading De libris medicinalibus. However, Papias reproduces Isidore's definition in a more general context without reference to medicine and adds:

An aphorism, or as others say, orismus [delimitation]; a defining utterance.14

8 'Sententia est dictum impersonale, ut "Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit". Huic si persona fuerit adiecta, chria erit, ita: "Offendit Achilles Agamemnon vera dicendo"; "Metrophanes promeruit gratiam Mith- ridatis obsequendo". Nam inter chrian et sententiam hoc interest, quod sententia sine persona profertur, chria sine persona numquam dicitur. Unde si sententiae persona adiciatur, fit chria; si detrahatur, fit sententia.' Isidore (as in n. 5), ii, 11.1-2.

9 B. Taylor, 'Wisdom forms in the Disciplina clericalis of Petrus Alfonsi', in Circa 1492: Proceedings of the Jeru- salem Colloquium Litterae Judaeorum in Terra Hispanica', ed. I. Benabu, Jerusalem (forthcoming), citing Quin- tilian, i, 9.3-5. 10 'Exemplum est dictum uel factum alicuius auten-

tice persone imitatione dignum. Vnde ibi inueniuntur dicta et facta, auctoritates, et prouerbia.' The 'Parisiana poetria' of John of Garland, ed. and tr. T. Lawler, New Haven 1974, p. 11. 'Proverbium' is found in a small min- ority of cases in the meaning of 'story': see the Latin Stephanites et Ichnelates, in A. Hilka, 'Beitraige zur latein- ischen Erzaihlungsliteratur des Mittelalters: (i) Der

Novus Aesopus des Baldo: (ii) Eine lateinische Uiberset- zung der griechischen Version des Kalila-Buchs', Ab- handlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu G6ttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Neue Folge, xxi, 3, 1928, pp. 59-166 (98.11). Compare the phrase 'proverbialiter ... dicunt', introducing a story in Petrus Alfonsi, Die 'Disciplina clericalis' des Petrus Alfonsi, eds A. Hilka and W. S6derhjelm, Heidelberg 1911, p. 43.31. 11 Papias, Vocabularium, Venice 1496, sig. a7r (BL, IB.

23664). 12 Bede adds: 'Notandum autem, quod Vulgata editio

pro parabolis, quae Hebraice missae vocantur, paroemias, id est, proverbia dicit'. Super parabolas Salomonis allegorica expositio: Patrologiae cursus completus... series latina (hereafter PL), ed.J. P. Migne, xci, pp. 937-1040 (937). 13 'Aforismus est sermo brevis, integrum sensum

propositae rei scribens.' Isidore (as in n. 5), iv, 10.1. 14 'Afforismus, ab aliis sumptus orismus: sermo diffin-

itiuus.' Papias (as in note 11). J. V. Stackelberg, 'Zur Bedeutungsgeschichte des Wortes Aphorismus', Zeit- schrift fiur romanische Philologie, lxxv, 1959, pp. 322-35, claims that aphorism was transferred from the medical

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 5: Medieval Proverbs

22 BARRY TAYLOR

That the quality of brevity was not essential to the proverb in the opinion of some authors is shown by the lack of pithiness of some of the proverbia quoted in the artes poeticae,15 and some of the lengthy passages collected in florilegia.16 However, in

many texts it is a standard feature of the genre: 'breviter ostendit', as the quotation from the Rhetorica ad Herennium cited above has it. Brevity was moreover one of the

potential causes of obscurity in the proverb; indeed the association of brevity and

obscurity is well established in the classical rhetorical tradition.'7 A few authors ac-

knowledged this connection in their definitions: as Vecchi has shown, some writers of dictamen distinguished between the plain brief sententia and the obscurely meta-

phorical proverbium.'8 However, this distinction is not standard within dictamen, as these authors conceded,1' and is not to my knowledge found elsewhere. 20

The other source of obscurity in the proverb was its use of figurative language, and this connection was more frequently recognised. As Papias has it:

Proverb: a likeness; a figure of speech. The proverbial genre has in common with prophecy that it seems superficially difficult. What is proper to it is that it has no admixture of either history or prophecy, and it is the only one where understanding is achieved by the surface being somehow removed. Proverbs are utterances which have one thing in their kernel and promise another on the surface. For proverbs do not sound as they are written. In the Gospel we are taught that the Lord spoke in parables and proverbs.21

Thus where the classical rhetorical tradition holds the proverb to be obscure on account of its brevity, in the exegetical tradition it was thought obscure because it was endowed with an allegorical integument.

II

The accompanying schematic Table (Fig. 1) categorises the main proverb texts under three broad headings, showing the course of development of the genre over the medieval period. The top row shows those gnomic texts which were in existence in Greek and/or Roman antiquity. The second row registers those available in Latin about 476, the date of the fall of the Western Empire and the notional beginning of the Middle Ages. Subsequent forms are arranged chronologically down the page. All the forms are to be envisaged as persisting from their first appearances down to at least 1450. It is my submission that most of the forms which were invented before

to the political sphere only in the Renaissance by the Taciteans. However, there is one Spanish example of anphorismo used about 1435-36 to refer to the Disticha Catonis in Ifiigo L6pez de Mendoza, Marques de Santil- lana, Comedieta de Ponza, stanza 38, in his Obras completas, A. G6mez Moreno and M. P. A. M. Kerkhof, eds, Barce- lona 1988, p. 178. 15 See Faral (as in n. 2), p. 114, first example. 16 See below pp. 26-28. 17 H. Lausberg, Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik,

Munich 1960, i, ?310, p. 175. 18 Vecchi (as in n. 1), pp. 287-89. 19 Vecchi, op. cit., p. 289. 20 The distinction is used independently by W.

McKane, Proverbs: a New Approach, London 1970. 21 'Prouerbium: similitudo; figura uerbi. Prouerbialis

species hoc habet cum prophetia commune, quod

superficie difficilis uidetur. Proprium autem habet quod ei nec historia nec prophetia miscetur et sola est quae ita intelligitur ut quodammodo superficies auferatur. Prouerbia sunt aliud habentia in medulla, aliud in superficie pollicentia. Prouerbia quippe non hoc sonare quod scriptum est. Etiam in euangelio docemur sic: quod in parabolis et prouerbiis locutus est Dominus.' Papias (as in n. 11), sig. F1 r. See also, for example, Gar- land (as in n. 10), p. 13. Papias's reference is to John xvi, 25, on which see, for instance, St Bonaventura, Opera omnia, edited by the Quaracchi Fathers, Quar- acchi 1893, vi, pp. 464-67; Hrabanus Maurus, PL (as in n. 12), cxi, 679; A. J. Minnis, Medieval Theory of Author- ship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages, 2nd edn, London 1988, p. 131; Die 'Summa de arte pros- andi' des Konrad von Mure, W. Kronbichler, ed., Zilrich 1968, p. 150.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 6: Medieval Proverbs

Fig. 1: TABLE SHOWING AVAILABILITY OF GNOMIC TEXTS FROM ANTIQUITY TO c. 1450

ORIGINAL WORKS FLORILEGIA NARRATIVES

Availability Biblical Disticha Epitomes Florilegia Sayings of the Sayings Sayings of the Maxims Popular (in [] where Wisdom Catonis in text arranged philosophers: and philosophers embedded in collections not proven) Books order alphabetically by subject deeds (biographical) narratives

in antiquity yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no no

late antiquity yes yes ? Publilius ? Valerius ? Syrus Maximus

5th century glosses, glosses, [The Apophthegms of the Fathers] versifications, reversifications, florilegia gnomic

couplets 6th century [Proverbia

Graecorum] 7th century Isidore,

Defensor

9th century Proverbia Hadoardus, Senecae Heiric

10th century [Marcolf 11th century Arnulf Wipo, Othlo bilingual

Egbert, collections Godfrey of Winchester

12th century Alan of Lille Abelard Florilegium Moralium Petrus Alfonsi gallicum, dogma Florilegium philosophorum angelicum

13th century [Ps-Bernard] Vincent of Albertanus, [Ps-John of Beauvais, John of Capua Garland] Liber de dictis

14th century [Auctoritates Walter Burley Aristotelis]

15th century [Cathoniana confectio]

~t1

O

~t1

0

0

H

O C

tr;

?k <

?

t:Z

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 7: Medieval Proverbs

24 BARRY TAYLOR

the medieval period either enjoyed more or less continuous transmission to the end of the Middle Ages or else were re-invented somewhere along the way.

The first two columns contain 'original' works. I use this term to describe the biblical wisdom books and the Distichs of Cato because, unlike the other texts here, they do not declare that they have received anything from other works. In the Vul-

gate, the order of texts is Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom and Ecclesi- asticus. Jerome explains in his preface to this group that the first three are the work of Solomon and the apocryphal latter two are appended because of their generic link with the canonical texts. (Incidentally, despite Jerome's strictures, popular opinion attributed the apocryphal books to Solomon as well.) He gives an account of them which broadly conforms to our working definition of the proverb, as advice on conduct expressed in brief sentences: Solomon, he says, is:

... teaching a child in proverbs and educating him, so to speak, in duties by means of maxims.22

More surprising, perhaps, is his inclusion of the Song of Songs in his comments on the proverbial works. He incorporates it into a continuum: Proverbs addresses a

youth, he says, and Ecclesiastes a mature man, encouraging him to despise the world, while the Song of Songs is for the man purged of vice:

... unless we have renounced the pomp of the world, we cannot sing the Song of Songs.

The criterion for inclusion seems to be finality rather than form, and the Song of

Songs plays no apparent part in later proverb literature.23 The role of the biblical wisdom books in the proverb tradition is, I think,

four-fold. In the first place, like the rest of the Bible they were of course read as-

siduously throughout our period and received lengthy commentaries-although a medieval reader may have experienced the text rather differently, because the verses were as yet unnumbered and may therefore have seemed less paratactic than

they do now. Secondly, they were the basis for versifications, such as the one edited

by Wilhelm Wackernagel.24 (The manuscript is apparently of the twelfth century; Wackernagel dated the text to c. 1050 but I suspect this was simply because he found it broadly like the work of Wipo and Egbert. 25)

The third role is stylistic: the imagery of a primitive agrarian society and the

characteristically balanced style which we are used to calling parallelismus mem- brorum26 (of the type 'Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall'27) recur throughout the medieval gnomic corpus. The Florilegium Treverense recasts Old Testament wisdom in leonines; Arnulf does likewise and uses parallel- ism; and despite its title, the Proverbia Graecorum preserved by Sedulius Scottus is imbued with the style of the biblical gnomic books.28 One of the later biblical imitations, the Parabolae (or Parvum doctrinale) of Alan of Lille (c. 1128-1203), owes

22 'In proverbiis parvulum docens et quasi de officiis per sentencias erudiens.' 23 For other divisions of the Solomonic corpus, all of

which nevertheless insist on its unity, see Minnis (as in n. 21), p. 26, with note. 24 W. Wackernagel (ed.), 'Salomonis proverbia in latein-

ischen Reimversen', Zeitschriftfiir deutsches Alterthum, iii, 1843, pp. 128-30.

25 Wipo, Proverbia, in his Opera, H. Breslau, ed., Han- over 1915, pp. 66-74; Egbert of Li&ge, Fecunda ratis, E. Voigt, ed., Halle 1889. 26 'Parallelism' may not be refined enough a term for

modern biblical scholars. See, for example, J. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and its History, New Haven 1981. 27 Proverbs xvi, 18, Authorised Version.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 8: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 25

its great diffusion to its incorporation in the medieval school curriculum.29 Al- though it includes some classical tags,30 it follows the biblical books in its structure of thematic runs alternating with individual maxims, and in its use of an initial animal or agricultural image followed by a literal re-expression, often phrased parallelistically.

Finally, as the fourth contribution of the biblical wisdom books we find florilegia which draw on classical and scriptural material, often with a view to harmonising it. Thus, for example, Leiden, Vulc. 48 preserves Ecclesiastes, Wisdom and Proverbs with a classical compilation of the Florilegium gallicum family,31 while BL, Royal 8.E. XVI132 interpolates within the alphabetical Proverbia Senecae an alphabetical arrange- ment of the biblical Book of Proverbs.

The influence of the Distichs of Cato, the major pagan gnomic source-book of the Middle Ages, parallels that of the biblical wisdom books in a number of ways. Firstly Cato, like Solomon, addresses his son, and this became a commonplace in gnomic works, even though it was more suitable to some texts than others. Secondly, again like Solomon, Cato came to be credited with any ancient saying of unknown author- ship. Thirdly, the Distichs inspired commentaries and glosses in a variety of metres. The latest medieval example known to me is the Cathoniana confectio, preserved by the Spaniard Alonso de Cartagena in the 1440s and possibly written by him.33 Lastly, it is my submission that the Distichs were an enduring formal model. They take the form of fifty-seven monostichs and 144 couplets in non-rhyming classical metre, ar- ranged in four books of approximately equal length without any apparent pattern. 4 The gnomic couplet is too deeply rooted in West European culture for us to blame every little jingle on Cato, but it seems to me that in medieval Latin at least, when the rhyming couplet is used it is in homage to the Distichs. In this respect their influence has been more widespread than that of Solomon.

28 I. Huemer, 'Zur Geschichte der mittellateinischen Dichtung: Arnulfi Delicie cleri', Romanische Forschungen, ii, 1885-86, pp. 211-46, 383-90; F. Brunh6lzl (ed.), 'Florilegium Treverense',

Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, i, 1964, pp. 65-77 and iii, 1966, pp. 129-217, includes some recastings into leonines of classical and biblical tags at pp. 184-85; D. Simpson (ed.), 'The Proverbia Grecorum' Traditio, xlv, 1987, pp. 1-22; S. Hellmann, Sedulius Scottus, Munich 1906, pp. 121-29; B. Bischoff, 'Nachlese zu den Proverbia Graecorum (Sechstes Jahrhundert?)', in his Anecdota novissima, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 98-100. 29 PL (as in n. 12), ccx, 579-94; T. Hunt, 'Les Paraboles

Maistre Alain', Forum for Modern Language Studies, xxi, 1985, pp. 362-75. 30 For example, 'Audaces fortunajuvat' (PL, ccx, 590). 31 R. Burton, Classical Poets in the 'Florilegium Gallicum',

Frankfurt 1983, p. 66. 32 Fol. 26rb.

33 For texts of Cato glosses, see F. Zarncke, 'Beitrige zur mittellateinischen Spruchpoesie', Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der Kdniglich Sdchsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Classe, xv, 1863, pp. 23-78; another Cato in leonines interspersed in Raymond of B6ziers, Liber Kalile et Dimne, in Les fabulistes latins depuis le siecle d'Auguste jusqu 'd la fin du moyen age, v: Jean de Capoue et ses dirivis, L. Hervieux, ed.,

Paris 1899, pp. 379-775 (447, 457, 516, 553 and pas- sim); for the Cathoniana confectio, in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 9208, see J. N. H. Lawrance, ed., Un tratado de Alonso de Cartagena sobre la educaci6n y los estudios literarios, Bellaterra 1979, pp. 9-10. (I am pre- paring an edition of the Cathoniana confectio for the Exeter Hispanic Texts series.) For a parody, see B. Roy, 'La devinette du BNnediciti et les Distiques du Pseudo- Caton', Florilegium, i, 1979, pp. 195-221. On the com- mentaries see A. Mancini, 'Un commento ignoto di Remy d'Auxerre ai Disticha Catonis' Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, ser. 5, xi, 1902, pp. 175-98, 369-82; R. Hazelton, 'The Christianisation of "Cato": the Disticha Catonis in the Light of Late Medieval Commentaries', Medieval Studies, xix, 1957, pp. 157-73, and 'Chaucer and Cato', Speculum, xxxv, 1960, pp. 357-80. For the Distichs as a schoolbook, see also the bibliography cited by P. M. Clogan, 'Literary Genres in a Medieval Text- book', Medievalia et Humanistica, new series, xi, 1982, pp. 199-209. Also in the Cato tradition are the Praecepta vivendi of Alcuin (see M. Boas, Alcuin und Cato, Leiden 1937, Latin text at pp. 51-57), and Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium, J. M. A. Rubingh-Bosscher, ed., Groningen 1987, with a discussion in the editor's intro- duction of the genre of the 'filius-poem' at pp. 1-5. 34 Disticha Catonis, M. Boas, ed., Amsterdam 1948.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 9: Medieval Proverbs

26 BARRY TAYLOR

Certain other inclusions in the 'original works' columns of the Table require a word of explanation. I have placed the proverbial verses of Wipo and Egbert there because although they imitate biblical models in style and in the content of individual sayings, the end products are more than simply compilations of sources. Wipo and Egbert were writing at the Imperial court of Henry II around the 1020s and Talbot has described them as typical of the proverbial literature of the post- Carolingian period in that they prefer biblical sources to classical ones.35 The in- clusion of Godfrey also needs a little justification.36 His Proverbia, as they are called in the manuscripts, are really epigrams and solidly within the Martial tradition-in fact they circulated as Martial's. Yet they are found quoted for gnomic purposes in a number of texts."7 They seem therefore to have been regarded in the same light as the jussive sayings, which are generally assigned now to the instruction genre, in the biblical wisdom books.38

I turn now to the next group of texts in the Table, the florilegia. The first type which I distinguish, the epitomes, preserve excerpts from individual authors in the order in which they appear in the original. Olsen39 lists twenty-six florilegia of this type, occurring in thirty-eight manuscripts of the ninth to twelfth centuries. Typical of these works are two collections produced in the twelfth century in northern France, the Florilegium gallicum and the Florilegium angelicum.40 So also are the second part of the Florilegium oxoniense,41 and the Auctoritates Aristotelis (which despite its name is not drawn exclusively from the works of Aristotle).42 There were of course also epitomes in antiquity but I am not aware of the continuity of the tradition.

The second type of florilegium preserves material in alphabetical order. From antiquity the Middle Ages inherited the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus, excerpted in the first century from his now lost Mimes.43 In a great many cases Publilius's first word is also his key-word, so that his alphabetical arrangement is also to a degree a subject arrangement; it is not clear whether this ordering is intended to be an aid to reference. The earlier part of the sequence (letters A to M) went on to form the basis of the much-read Proverbia Senecae, a ninth-century compilation which also included excerpts from the genuine works of Seneca and two pseudo-Senecan com- positions, the De moribus (often attributed to Martin of Braga) and the De remediis fortuitorum.44 The Libellus proverbiorum of Othlo of St Emmeran is explicitly an

35 Florilegium morale oxoniense (MS Bodl. 633). Secunda pars: Flores auctorum, C. H. Talbot, ed., Louvain 1956, p. 13.

36 Godfrey of Winchester, Liber proverbiorum, H. Ger- hard, ed., Wiirzburg 1974.

37 See Gerhard, op. cit., pp. 17-19. 38 For this genre see E. Tuttle Hansen, 'Precepts: an

Old English Instruction', Speculum, Ivi, 1981, pp. 1-16. 39 B. M. Olsen, 'Les classiques latins dans les floril6ges

m~di~vaux ant6rieurs au XIIIe siecle', Revue d'histoire des textes, ix, 1979, pp. 47-121; x, 1980, pp. 115-64 (147- 51). 40 For the Florilegium gallicum, see Burton (as in n. 31),

with bibliography; and R. H. and M. A. Rouse, 'The Florilegium angelicum: Its Origin, Content and Influence', Medieval Learning and Literature: Essays Presented to R. W

Hunt, J. J. G. Alexander and M. T. Gibson, eds, Oxford 1976, pp. 66-114. 41 As in n. 35. 42 Les 'Auctoritates Aristotelis': un florilge medidval, J.

Hamesse, ed., Louvain 1974. To her list of manuscripts may be added BL, Add. 16893, fols 199r-264v. 43 Publilius Syrus, Sententiae, O. Friedrich, ed., Berlin

1880. 44 Proverbia Senece, Deventer, 1491 (BL, IA. 47649). See

N. G. Round, 'The Medieval Reputation of the Proverbia Senecae', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxxii C, 1972, pp. 103-51, and G. G. Meersseman, 'Seneca maes- tro di spiritualit• nei suoi opuscoli apocrifi dal xii al xv secolo', Italia medioevale e umanistica, xvi, 1973, pp. 43- 135.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 10: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 27

imitation of the Proverbia Senecae: although formed of Christian sources in the main, it takes its prose form and alphabetical arrangement from its model.45 Meanwhile alphabetical order is also followed in the St Omer florilegium, in leonines.46 Its sources, which include Hildebert of Le Mans and Marbod, and the provenances of the manuscripts (one from Clairmarais and one from St Bertain, near St Omer) strongly suggest a Norman origin, possibly c. 1200.

The third and last group of florilegia I have termed 'sayings of the philosophers by subject'. These bear most resemblance to the original Greek form of the genre47 in that they simply gather together maxims by topic. According to Talbot,48 one of the earliest florilegia of this type was compiled by Hadoardus, a monk of Neustria, in the ninth century, from pagan sources which he retouched for the Christian reader.49 Olsen comments that the second and third types of florilegium are unusual in the corpus of the ninth to twelfth centuries, citing two florilegia in alphabetical order of incipit, one in alphabetical subject order and one intermediate.50 A not- able example of subject arrangement, much cited in vernacular texts, is the Moralium dogma philosophorum, composed in the twelfth century by an unknown author and structured on the ramifications of the virtues and vices.51 One of its main sources is Cicero's De officiis, which might remind us that Jerome described the subject-matter of the biblical wisdom books as 'quasi de officiis'. The Moralium dogma philosophorum affords an example of the effect of codicological layout on the reader's perception of a text. In Holmberg's edition, the names of the authorities appear only in the critical apparatus (as in BL, Royal 15.C.II); thus the text appears unitary, a work which one might read from beginning to end as a moral treatise. By contrast, in certain manuscripts the names of the authorities are embedded in the text, while in others they line the margins like exhibits in a hall of fame. In the former case, reading is punctuated and the text is experienced as more gnomic and paratactic; in the latter, the reader is aware of being in the presence of the

45 Othlonis libellus proverbiorum, W. C. Korfmacher, ed., Chicago 1936; also in his Opera omnia: PL (as in n. 12), cxlvi, 299-338. 46 E. Voigt (ed.), 'Das Florileg von S. Omer', Roman-

ischeForschungen, vi, 1888-91, pp. 557-74. Also in alpha- betical order is Proverbia non centum: see M. L. Colker (ed.), Classical Folia, xxxiii, 1979, pp. 169-200, with corrigenda in Scriptorium, xxxv, 1981, pp. 70-71. 47 See below (p. 28). 48 As in n. 35, pp. 10-11. 49 P. Schwenke (ed.), 'Des Presbyter Hadoardus Cicero-

Excerpte', Philologus, Supplementband v, 1889, pp. 397- 588. Also of this type are Isidore, Sententiae (alias De summo bono), in St Leander, St Isidore and St Fructu- osus, Reglas mondsticas de la Espafia visigoda; los tres libros de las 'Sentencias' ed. with Spanish translation by I. Roca Melia, Madrid 1971, pp. 213-525; and Defensor of Ligug6, Liber scintillarum, ed. with French translation by H. M. Rochais, Paris 1961: see H. M. Rochais, 'Contribu- tion A l'histoire des florilkges asc6tiques du haut moyen dge latin', Revue binidictine, lxiii, 1953, pp. 246-91, esp. pp. 246-57. For surveys of the florilegium, see B. M. Olsen, 'Les florileges d'auteurs classiques', Les genres littiraires dans les sources thdologiques et philosophiques midievales: definition, critique et exploitation, Actes du Col- loque international de Louvain-la-Neuve, 25-27 mai

1981, Louvain-la-Neuve 1982, pp. 151-64 (this is especi- ally concerned with the 9th to 12th centuries); M. A. and R. H. Rouse, 'Florilegia of Patristic Texts', ibid., pp. 165-80; J. Hamesse, 'Les florileges philosophiques du XIIIe au XVe siecle', ibid., pp. 181-91. On Isidore, see U. Dominguez del Val, 'La utilizaci6n de los Padres por San Isidoro', Isidoriana, M. C. Diaz y Diaz, ed., Leon 1961, pp. 211-21; M. Pellegrino, 'Le Confessioni di S. Agostino nell'opera di S. Isidoro di Seviglia', ibid., pp. 223-70; F. J. Lozano Sebastian, 'Investigaci6n sobre las fuentes de las Sentencias de San Isidoro de Sevilla, libro II, cap. vii al xxvi', Studium legionense, xv, 1974, pp. 31-99. 50 Olsen (as in n. 39), at part 2, p. 47, B, C and D. 51 Moralium dogma philosophorum, J. Holmberg, ed.,

Uppsala 1929. According to P. Delhaye, in Gauthier de Chitillon, est-il l'auteur du 'Moralium dogma philoso- phorum'?, Namur 1953, p. 33, most of the earliest manu- scripts of this text are of Anglo-Norman origin. Of the same type are the Florilegium morale oxoniense (MS Bodl. 633). Prima pars: Flores philosophorum, P. Delhaye, ed., Louvain 1955; and the Brussels florilegium described by P. Delhaye, 'Un petit florilkge moral conserv6 dans un manuscrit bruxellois', in Medioevo e rinascimento: studi in onore di Bruno Nardi, i, Florence 1955, pp. 199-215.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 11: Medieval Proverbs

28 BARRY TAYLOR

accumulated wisdom of the ages. In BL, Royal 8.C.IV (P1. 5),52 the authorities in the Moralium dogma philosophorum are in the outside margins and the attributions are anchored in the text by placing the author's initial over the first word of the quo- tation.53 In BL, Add. 16376 (P1. 6b), spaces seem to have been left in the text for the authors' names, which were presumably intended to be added in red.54 By contrast, in BL, Royal 8.A.XIII (P1. 6c) the Moralium dogma philosophorum has contemporary marginal subject headings.55

There is no hard and fast division between the florilegia and the next group in the Table, which I have termed 'narratives'. Although I am aware of the gnomon- ology as a genre in Greece, I am not convinced that it survived in Latin down to the beginning of our period. This gap-assuming that there was one-was to some degree filled quite early on by the Apophthegms of the Fathers, which is represented as straddling both groups. I distinguish the type 'sayings of the philosophers' from the type 'sayings and deeds', because the former report only the opinions of the great while the latter include some narrative of the circumstances under which a comment was made. I would also like to suggest that the compiler's attitude to his text may be different in the two cases. The presence of narrative in a text can alter the compiler's attitude to his material, since when the circumstances of utterance are given there is an opportunity for the wise saying to turn into the wisecrack. This can be exemplified in the Apophthegms of the Fathers and the Liberphilosophorum: And he saw a girl learning to write, and said to her: 'Do not increase evil with evil'.56

The anecdote shows an eccentric personality as well as entertaining us. Three types of text combine narrative with gnomic utterances, the first being

those in which the arrangement is by topic. Of these the Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri ix (nine books of memorable deeds and sayings) of Valerius Maximus seems to have best survived from antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The impression of layout on the reader may be exemplified by one of the manuscripts of an epitome of Valerius which was made by Heiric of Auxerre in the ninth century. In BL, Add. 19835 (P1. 6a), the original topical structure is observed on the right-hand side of the page, where the rubrics are written in the text, right- justified in print terms, while the names of the exemplary figures appear on the left. In that manuscript at least the reader can choose for himself whether to approach the text via the subject or via the person.57 A second text in this category is another version of the Apophthegms of the Fathers, which I have already suggested as the Christian successor to the 'deeds and sayings' type. The Latin versions of the text reflect the two different recensions of their Greek originals: the earlier arrange-

52 Fols 112-24. 53 Defensor of Ligug6 (as in n. 49) seems to have

adopted a similar technique in his much earlier Liber scintillarum of c. 700: 'Sed ne id opus, quasi sine auctore, putetur apocryphum, unicuique sententiae per sigla proprium scripsi auctorum'. Prologue, i, p. 48. 54 The missing names are Seneca and Tullius, as is

shown by comparison with BL, Royal 8.A.XIII, fol. 9v. 55 Fols 2-33; the headings seem to peter out by fol.

10r.

56 'Et vidit quandam puellam discentem scribere, cui dixit: "non multiplices malum cum malo".' E. Frances- chini (ed.), 'I1 Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum: testo critico', Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, xci, 1931-32, part 2, pp. 393-597 (456). 57 D. M. Schullian, 'The Excerpts of Heiric Ex libris

Valerii Maximi memorabilium dictorum vel factorum', Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, xii, 1935, pp. 155-84.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 12: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 29

ment by name, the later by topic.58 This chronology I think is indicative of the new attitudes to the text which are discussed below.

The second classical narrative type embraces two sorts of text, which I have put together since they have more similarities than dissimilarities. These are the 'sayings of the philosophers', grouped by author with biographical notes and typified by Diogenes Laertius; and individual biographies including obiter dicta, such as the Life of Apollonius of Tyana. The early Middle Ages seem not to have known this type, but later on it reappears in Latin four times, the first being in the sayings of the Greeks supposedly gathered by Caecilius Balbus, which have been traced back as far as the ninth century.59 The second appearance occurs in a translation of Diogenes Laert- ius done in Sicily c. 1160.60 The third is in the Speculum historiale61 of Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1264), which together with the work of Valerius Maximus was drawn on by Walter Burley,62 whom I have also listed in this category. The fourth appearance is in the Latin versions of an Arabic work indebted to Greek sources, the Mukhtdr al-hikam of al-Mubashshir. Although there was an earlier partial translation,63 the most commonly known version was the Liber de dictis antiquorum philosophorum, alias Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum. This was prepared in Italy, probably by Giovanni da Procida, who died about 1299, from the Spanish translation probably done at the Castilian court shortly before 1260.64 (So far as my limited knowledge of the original allows comment, it seems that the translators into Spanish and into Latin were most respectful of their texts: just as there appears to be nothing Islamicised about the Arabic text so the latter appears not to have undergone any Christianisation.)

My third and last gnomic narrative type is the narrative which is exemplary both as a story and as the vehicle for proverbs. At least two such texts are of clear Arabic or Hebrew origin. The Kalfla wa-Dimna is most commonly known in the Directorium vitae humanae of John of Capua,65 who translated it from Hebrew into Latin around 1263-78. The text is so saturated with maxims put into the mouths of its characters that to read it solely for the story might well prove frustrating. The second case is the Disciplina clericalis of Petrus Alfonsi, which is explicitly of oriental origin. Here the proverbs form the thematic backbone of the text which is then filled out with tales.66 Incidentally, chapter thirty-three of Disciplina clericalis is the 'Sayings of the Philosophers at the Grave of Alexander', which is taken up verbatim by Vincent of Beauvais and occurs again in the Alexander-romance the Historia de preliis.67 With

58 Name arrangement: Sententiae Patrum Aegyptiorum, translated by Martin of Braga in his Opera omnia, C. W. Barlow, ed., New Haven 1950, pp. 11-51 (also in PL (as in n. 12), lxxiv, 381-94). Subject arrangement: Verba seniorum (beginning, 'Vitas patrum'), translated by Pas- chasius, A versdo latina por Pascdsio de Dume dos 'Apoph- thegmata patrum'J. G. Freire, ed., Coimbra 1971 (also in PL, lxxiii, 1025-66). 59 Caecilius Balbus, De nugis philosophorum, E. Woefflin,

ed., Basel 1855; see Talbot (as in n. 35), pp. 26-27. 60 V. Rose, 'Die Lficke im Diogenes LaErtius und der

alte fUbersetzer', Hermes, i, 1866, pp. 367-97. 61 Douai 1624. 62 Walter Burley, Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum,

H. Knust, ed., Tfibingen 1886; C. F. Bfihler, 'Greek

Philosophers in the Literature of the later Middle Ages', Speculum, xii, 1937, pp. 440-55; J. O. Stigall, 'The Manu- script Tradition of the De vita et moribus philosophorum of Walter Burley', Medievalia et humanistica, xi, 1957, pp. 44-57. 63 See P. Kunitzsch, Der Almagest: die Syntaxis Mathe-

matica des Claudius Ptolemdus in arabisch-lateinischer Uber- lieferung, Wiesbaden 1974, pp. 98-99. 64 Franceschini, ed. (as in n. 56). 65 In Lesfabulistes latins (as in n. 33), v, pp. 77-337. On

the Arabic original, see the article by Robert Irwin on pp. 36-50 of this volume. 66 See nn. 9, 10. 67 See S. P. Brock, 'The Laments of the Philosophers

over Alexander in Syriac', Journal of Semitic Studies, xv,

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 13: Medieval Proverbs

30 BARRY TAYLOR

these texts may be included the Liber consolationis et consilii of Albertanus of Brescia68 (c. 1193-1270), a work which places its sententiae in a narrative frame comparable to that of the Kalila, although nobody to my knowledge has suggested an oriental source for it.

The last column of the Table contains two types of text which may be termed 'popular'. The Latin Dialogue of Solomon and Marcolf, of the tenth century, in its first part69 is a series of exchanges between the two persons of the title. Solomon utters lofty gnomic sayings, many of them of biblical origin, and the grotesque villein Marcolf counters him with ribaldries.70 While it is unlikely that this text derives from an oral vernacular version, its ethos is nevertheless either popular or an imitation of the popular.

In the case of the bilingual collections, a distinction should be made between those in which the Latin is original and those in which it is a translation.71 I propose that the following stylistic features are signs of translation: (i) the presence of pleonasms,72 (ii) the use of literal language over against the figurative, and (iii) the presence of multiple texts over against a single text. The following proverb, in which the French original is glossed twice in Latin, exemplifies the third criterion:

Qui bien boit deu voit Si bona quis bibat, is / conspector fit deitatis Qui bona potat, ei / visio prompta dei.73

It is difficult to prove whether the all-Latin Proverbia rustici is a translation or not, as analogues for its maxims exist in both Latin and the vernacular. However, it is writ- ten largely in leonines, a verse-form closely identified with the gloss, which may pos- sibly indicate that it is dependent on an earlier vernacular written or oral text.74 In the majority of cases, it seems that the vernacular came first. The earliest of this type known to me are the Anglo-Saxon and Latin Durham Proverbs of the eleventh cen- tury.75 As an example of the minority group, the Proverbes of Diverse Profetes and of Poetes and of Other Seyntes are explicitly translated from Latin into French and English. 76

III

The ethos of our proverb corpus, I suggest, can be described by reference to three pairs of opposed terms: national versus domestic, religious versus secular, and

1970, pp. 205-18. 68 T. Sundby, ed., London 1883. 69 The second half deals with natural questions and

therefore does not concern us here. 70 Salomon et Marcolfus, W. Benary, ed., Heidelberg

1914; Q. Marini, 'La dissacrazione come strumento di affermazione ideologica: una lettura del Dialogo di Salo- mone e Marcolfo' Studi medievali, 3a serie, xxviii, 1987, pp. 667-705.

71 S. M. Horrall, 'Latin and Middle English Proverbs in a Manuscript of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle', Medieval Studies, xlv, 1983, pp. 343-84 (347, nn. 13-16), lists proverb texts translated from English and French into Latin.

72 For example, J. Zacher (ed.), 'Altfranz6sische Sprichworter', Zeitschrift fir deutsches Alterthum, xi, 1859,

pp. 114-44 (118, no. 34; beginning, 'Incipiunt prover- bia rusticorum mirabiliter versificata'). 73 U. Robert, 'Un vocabulaire latin-fran;ais du XIVe

siacle, suivi d'un recueil d'anciens proverbes', Biblio- theque de l'Ecole des Chartes, xxxiv, 1873, pp. 32-46 (46); see also Zacher, op. cit., p. 114; and W. A. Pantin, 'A Medieval Collection of Latin and English Proverbs and Riddles from the Rylands Latin MS 394', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, xiv, 1930, pp. 81-114 (81).

74 E. Voigt (ed.), 'Proverbia rustici' Romanische Forschun- gen, iii, 1887, pp. 633-41. For leonines, see nn. 24, 28, 33 above. 75 0. Arngart (ed.), 'The Durham Proverbs' Speculum,

Ivi, 1981, pp. 288-300 (288, n. 3). 76 The Minor Poems of the Vernon Manuscript, F. J. Furni-

vall, ed., London 1901, ii, pp. 522-53.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 14: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 31

popular versus learned. The domestic element is represented by the Distichs of Cato, Publilius Syrus and the biblical wisdom books, with their advice, typically addressed to 'my son', on how to deal with wife, servants, neighbours, household accounts etc. The Epistula de regimine domus is solidly within this tradition.77 Other works such as those of Wipo, Egbert and Albertanus seem to have a foot in both the domestic and the national camps, as they develop into mirrors-of-princes and include advice on such topics as warfare. Note however that Wipo and Egbert continue to address 'my son' even when national issues are being aired.

The distinctions in our texts between religious and secular and between popular and learned are frequently blurred, but always in the same direction: that is, the secular is often made religious and the popular made learned, but never vice-versa. Even the most worldly maxims in the biblical wisdom books could be ennobled by allegorisation;78 and the sayings of the pagans were often collected specifically for use in sermons. The opposition which Langland makes between Cato and theology is, I think, a rare exception to this general synthesising view:

In oother science it seith-I seigh it in Catoun- Qui simulat verbis, nec corde estfidus amicus, Tu quoquefac simile; sic ars deluditur arte... This is Catons kennyng to clerkes that he lereth. Ac Theologie techeth noght so, whoso taketh yeme; He kenneth us the contrarie ayein Catons wordes, For he biddeth us be as bretheren, and bidde for oure enemys.79

Parallel to the insistence on the unity of classical and Christian wisdom is the treatment of popular vernacular proverbs: by translation into Latin and the addition of commentaries and biblical parallels they are incorporated into learned culture.

IV The types of manuscript in which the proverb texts occur, and the works with which they are found, offer considerable evidence of their purpose and readership. Some purposes are related to particular periods. There are texts in antiquity, for example that of Aulus Gellius, which advertise that they are a short-cut for the reader in a hurry: this attitude seems not to be present in the early Middle Ages, resurfacing about the twelfth century."0 In many cases the same works turn up in different groupings of texts, showing that particular works had various readerships and were

77 Yet strangely it was attributed throughout our per- iod to St Bernard. See C. D. M. Cossar, The German Translations of the Pseudo-Bernhardine [sic] 'Epistola de cura reifamiliaris' G6ppingen 1975, with Latin text at pp. 97- 102. 78 B. Smalley, 'Some Thirteenth-Century Commentar-

ies on the Sapiential Books', Dominican Studies, ii, 1949, pp. 318-55, esp. 319, 321; iii, 1950, pp. 41-77, 236-74; and 'Some Latin Commentaries on the Sapiential Books in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et litteraire du moyen age, xxv- xxvi, 1950-51, pp. 103-28. Bede, Super parabolas Salo- monis allegorica expositio (as in n. 12).

79 W. Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman: a Critical Edition of the B-Text, A. V. C. Schmidt, ed., London 1984, x, 191-97, p. 106, referring to Disticha Catonis, i, 26.

80 See Burton (as in n. 31), p. 2; R. H. and M. A. Rouse, 'Statim invenire: Schools, Preachers and New Atti- tudes to the Page', Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, R. L. Benson and G. Constable, eds, Cam- bridge, Mass. 1982, pp. 201-25; Rouse and Rouse, Preachers, Florilegia and Sermons: Studies on the 'Manipulus florum' of Thomas of Ireland, Toronto 1979.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 15: Medieval Proverbs

32 BARRY TAYLOR

perceived as serving various purposes. Burton,81 in her study of the Florilegium gal- licum, shows particularly well how one text could be made to serve different purposes at different times. She argues that this florilegium started life in the twelfth century in a redaction which contained two types of material: there were both witty moral epigrams, and longer pieces on set themes (the blessings of poverty, and descriptiona of people, places and abstract qualities). Thus its original purpose was to teach composition; however its derivatives in the thirteenth century stress the brief quotations and occur in the company of preaching aids.

An important distinction should be made between texts which were intended as an aid to the production of other texts, and those intended to be an object of the reader's attention in themselves. Within the first group the four areas for which proverb texts most commonly provided a service were the law, and three of the medieval artes: the art of rhetoric or poetics, the art of epistolary composition, alias dictamen, and the art of preaching. In the legal context, to my knowledge we find only the bilingual collections. Morawski82 cites MS Q,83 a text called Bonum spatium which uses passages from the Decretals, Digest, and other legal texts to comment on popular French proverbs; to this should be added the Seniloquium, which gives a similar Latin commentary on Old Spanish proverbs.84 However, to judge from the published literature this does not seem to have been the most common use of gnomic texts: Morawski lists some twenty-two Latin-Old French collections, of which only two have a legal connection.85

Much better documented is the use of books of maxims and florilegia as school textbooks, for teaching a variety of verbal skills ranging from simple reading to literary composition. At the head of the basic works, the Distichs of Cato were a byword for elementary education well into the early modern period. (Indeed Lacey Baldwin Smith, in Treason in Tudor England: Politics and Paranoia,86 attributes the

paranoia of his title among the Tudor aristocracy inter alia to the effects of too much early reading of Cato and the biblical wisdom books.) One example of a school reader is BL, Add. 10093, part one (fols 1-56): this is a small volume con- taining the Distichs (without commentary); a grammatical work, Prosper's epigrams from Augustine; and Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae. The Escorial Glossary is a less advanced schoolbook containing basic grammatical texts, Spanish proverbs with Latin translations, and various other Latin proverbs.87 The Libellus proverbiorum,88 compiled by Othlo in the mid-eleventh century from Christian and secular sources, is intended for schoolboys at an early stage in their careers. He recommends that they read it after the Psalms-that is, often as the second book they ever read-and hopes it will be more useful to them than Cato, being more Christian.

At a higher level of training in eloquence, in BL, Cotton Vespasian B.XIII we find the Distichs of Cato with Publilius Syrus (here called Exceptiones Senece) and the

prose Balbus collection of sayings of the Greeks. Four characteristics define this

81 As in n. 31, p. 31. 82 J. Morawski, Proverbes franCais anttieurs au XVe siecle,

Paris 1925, p. viii. 83 Paris, Bibliothbque Nationale (hereafter BNP), lat.

10360. 84 On the Seniloquium see L. Combet, Recherches sur le 'refranero' castillan, Paris 1971, p. 119; the Old Spanish proverbs are excerpted on pp. 463-71.

85 As in n. 82, MSS Q, R. 86 London 1986. 87 Castro points out an isolated reference to sermons,

but this does not seem to me to be a preaching manual.

Glosarios latino-espaioles de la Edad Media, A. Castro, ed., Madrid 1936, p. 348, no. 278 (text of the glossary at pp. 85-148).

88 As in n. 45.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 16: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 33

manuscript as a rhetorical-poetical manual, the first being the inclusion of extracts from Ovid, Horace and Juvenal, apparently in text order. The section on Horace's Ars poetica includes the three most famous Horatian tags on literary topics: 'Brevis esse laboro', 'Omne tulit punctum' and 'Quicquid praecipies, esto brevis'. In addi- tion this text includes a note on punctuation, Marbod's treatise on versification, and a collection of rhetorical poems: versus rapportati and a poem on Hermaphroditus attributed to Matthew of Vend6me.89

The texts of the Florilegium gallicum and its descendants are found with diction- aries in BNP, lat. 7647,90 with grammatical treatises in BNP, lat. 179039~ and BNP, lat. 13582,92 and with material on versification in BNP, lat. 15155.93 The Florilegium Tre- verense is a collection of verse models, presumably for the would-be poet; it begins: Verses delight the mind, encompass very much in few words, Preserve the memory of things of the past and thus are pleasing to the reader.94

Oxford MS Rawlinson C 552 is described by Burton95 as a small collection of verses explicitly for teaching versification; and BL, Add. 11983 has Seneca's De cldementia and the Proverbia Senecae with Marbod's treatise on versification. Mico of Riquier's florilegium seems to have been used for teaching prosody.96 The Versus proverbiales attributed to John of Garland are found with his Dictionarius and his Accentuarius;97 in the most obvious interpretation they are exercises in the re-expression (up to ten times in part four) of moral commonplaces. Florilegium oxoniense II seems to belong to the rhetorical florilegium tradition: it has long passages from Horace's Satires98 which would be difficult to incorporate into sermons but make good models for literary composition. And finally on this theme, the role of Ps-Quintilian's Decla- mationes maiores is a particularly interesting example of the participation of some proverb books in the rhetorical tradition. The Declamationes occur throughout Oxoniense II; Serlo of Wilton composed a De diversis modis versificandi from them;99 and Serlo's Proverbia'oo are followed in Oberg's MS Pb (BNP, lat. 3718) by a piece on a theme from Ps-Quintilian on a parricide.

The epistolary manual seems to emerge in the eleventh century and has a history similar to that of the rhetorical art. The best-studied proverb book in this context is the Florilegium angelicum, an aid for letter-writers in episcopal chanceries. Like the Florilegium gallicum it lists citations of authors in text order and similarly it originates in northern France in the twelfth century. Several artes incorporate alphabetical lists of proverbs.'10

The use of proverb collections as reference books for preachers is also well documented. This function appears to date from the thirteenth century when an increased emphasis on preaching in general is marked by the emergence of

89 See Faral (as in n. 2), p. 9. 90 See Burton (as in n. 31), pp. 46-49. 91 Op. cit., pp. 49-52. 92 Op. cit., pp. 78-79. 93 Op. cit., pp. 79-87. 94 'Metra iuvant animos, comprendunt plurima paucis,

/ Pristina commemorant et sunt ea grata legenti.' Brunh6olzl (as in n. 28). 95 As in n. 31, p. 31. 96 See Talbot (as in n. 35), p. 9, n. 2.

97 L. K. Born (ed.), 'The Versus proverbiales attributed to John of Garland', Medium Aevum, iii, 1934, pp. 7-12. 98 Talbot (as in n. 35), pp. 70-71, 84-85. 99 Talbot, op. cit., p. 29.

100 Serlo of Wilton, Proverbia, J. Oberg, ed., Stockholm 1965, p. 21. 101 Rouse and Rouse, 'The Florilegium angelicum' (as in n. 40); Vecchi (as in n. 1), pp. 290-94, and Burton (as in n. 31), p. 29.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 17: Medieval Proverbs

34 BARRY TAYLOR

preachers' manuals and reference books. The Rouses'02 point out that by this per- iod alphabetical order was being used for distinctiones, scriptural concordances, col- lections of exempla and florilegia of sayings of the ancients, all compiled to help the

preacher. Thus, for example, an express intention of Vincent of Beauvais in pre- paring his encyclopedic Speculum historiale, with its huge compilation of lives and

sayings of the ancients, was to provide an aid to preaching. Another book designed for use as a reference manual is BL, Add. 16893. It includes Casus decretalium (with index); an epitome of Gratian with Arabic reference numbers in the margin; and the Auctoritates Aristotelis, a collection of extracts from Aristotle and other philo- sophers, in text order; all preceded by a contents list (though there is not a subject index). BL, Royal 10.A.XII brings together the Moralium dogma philosophorum (with its authorities named in the outer margins), the Balbus collection, selected works of Seneca and Ps-Seneca and sermons and distinctiones. The Proverbia Senecae, whose

alphabetical arrangement lends itself particularly well to reference purposes, make several appearances in books of this type; indeed, Round has noted that sixty-eight out of the eighty-five manuscripts of the Proverbia contain what was broadly speaking preachable matter.103 In BL, Add. 38820 are found the Proverbia Senecae; a collection of quotations on basic doctrinal questions, taken largely from Augustine and Bernard; and a compilation on the virtues and vices, with biblical quotations, in text order, grouped under subject headings (chapter and verse are noted in the

margin) .104 Leiden, Vulc. 48 and BNP, lat. 1860 are both preachers' manuals; the first also

contains the Proverbia rustici, while the second includes the Florilegium angelicum and a probable expanded version of the Florilegium gallicum, both arranged by subject.' 05 Another text of this type, the basically patristic Flores Paradysi, is arranged by author with alphabetical subject index.106 Finally, the rather disreputable Marcolf seems on the whole to have kept the company of some quite orthodox texts: among them sermons, saints' lives and an alphabetical Repertorium theologicum'07-though I am not aware of any quotation from this text in any extant sermon.

Two possible motivations for the collections of popular proverbs should be considered. First, it has been suggested that the Latin translations are the product of linguistic exercises; this is probably well founded where the collections occur with

elementary grammatical texts.08s The second possible purpose of the collections is an ethnographical one: that they are the work of learned collectors wishing to

preserve the culture of the unlearned, which they perceived as possessing wisdom or purity of language. However, it seems to me that in the medieval West, in contrast to the Islamic world,'09 the term 'ethnographical' is inappropriate, as it suggests a divorce between the culture of the observer and that of the informant which

102 'Statim invenire' (as in n. 80). 103 Round (as in n. 44), p. 120. 104 As a counterbalance to the weight of classical mat- erial in many of these preachers' manuals, it is worth noting that M. M. Davy, Les sermons universitaires parisiens de 1230-1231, Paris 1931, p. 51, found only eight quo- tations from classical authors in the 44 sermons which she studied. 105 Burton (as in n. 31), pp. 35, 36-37 and 66-69. 106 Op. cit., p. 36, with bibliography. 107 Benary (as in n. 70), p. xv.

108 Such as the texts studied by Robert, Pantin (as in n. 73) and Castro (as in n. 87); see also J. Morawski, 'Les recueils d'anciens proverbes franCais analys6s et class6s', Romania, xlviii, 1922, pp. 481-558, esp. p. 499; and B. Jere Whiting, 'A Collection of Proverbs in BM Addition- al MS 37075', in Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun, J. B. Bessinger and R. P. Creed, eds, London 1965, pp. 274-89. 109 See, for example, D. Gutas, 'Classical Arabic Wis- dom Literature: Nature and Scope', Journal of the Ameri- can Oriental Society, ci, 1981, pp. 49-86 (59).

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 18: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS 35

appears in Europe to be a phenomenon only of the post-medieval period. 10 One

might note also that many vernacular authors use popular proverbs and learned sententiae indiscriminately."' I would suggest that the vernacular and bilingual collections should not be viewed differently from the Latin ones: both categories are used for education, preaching and possibly also dictamen.11"2

The medieval attitude to literature was such that any book might be made to

yield up memorable and useful quotes by a suitably diligent reader, who was

topically likened to a pollen-gathering bee."3 But notwithstanding this tradition, certain gnomic works are presented as material to be taken in by the reader without

any thought of retransmission. That is, the reader is conceived of just as a reader, not as a potential writer. Some texts suggest this strongly, such as the narratives with embedded maxims and those works entered on the Table as successors of the Distichs of Cato. Some manuscripts are very obviously de luxe: the Cathoniana confectio, or the Liber de dictis philosophorum in BL, Add. 16906, with its large half-page miniature on folio 1, its painted initials, often in gold, and its spacious and largely empty margins. BL, Add. 16376, containing St Basil's De liberalibus studiis and the Moralium dogma philosophorum, is of middling quality rather than de luxe, but though small (about 5 by 3 inches) it is provided with proportionately extravagant margins and might be seen as a bodily expression of the purpose of Walter Burley's Lives of the Philosophers, as described in his prologue: I have laboured to gather in one place many things which were scattered in different books and which will be capable of bringing readers consolation and education of morals."114

In this case at least the proverb collection is no mere reference tool, but a literary work in its own right, able to perform many of the functions sought of the literary text of the Latin Middle Ages.

THE BRITISH LIBRARY

110 See N. Zemon Davis, 'Proverbial Wisdom and Pop- ular Errors', in her Society and Culture in Early Modern France, London 1975, pp. 227-67; and the comments of J. de Vald6s, writing in 1535, in the Didlogo de la lengua, C. Barbolani, ed., Madrid 1982, pp. 126-27. 111 See, for example, C. F. Bfihler, 'The Liber de dictis philosophorum antiquorum and Common Proverbs in George Ashby's Poems', Publications of the Modern Lan- guage Association of America, lxv, 1950, pp. 282-89. 112 For education, see n. 108; for preaching, Morawski, Proverbes (as in n. 82), MSS D, E, F and G (pp. v-vi); for dictamen see the theory of Pantin (as in n. 73), p. 83.

113 J. Barns, 'A New Gnomologium: With Some Re- marks on Gnomic Anthologies', Classical Quarterly, xliv, 1950, pp. 126-37 (321, n. 1); xlv, 1951, pp. 1-19 (6). 114 'Multa que... in diversis libris... sparsim... in unum

colligere laboravi que ad legentium consolationem et morum informationem conferre valebunt.' BL, Add. 24662, fol. Ir. BL, Add. 15406 and Add. 24662, con- taining Burley only, are not reference works: they have no aids to quick use.

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 19: Medieval Proverbs

MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS Plate 5

arAsWpaa. A Auaglase

AA4

.......ti ..*.*1 -4 -n l

1 1 . .............

.. .. .. ..miU;mi a -

AMPtt4nrn

'o1W4

if AI4406

US tre

anannamusinae, ~AssaW nada

dAV

Moralium dogma philosophorum. British Library, MS Royal 8.C.IV, fol. 117 (p. 28)

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 20: Medieval Proverbs

Plate 6 MEDIEVAL PROVERB COLLECTIONS

mam fmmh~m abu 4fnywLt. name qfdi 4bkf*Porte. ?Oinvwxm I'mcomismn?:

non;;t fok ras.

ediniu none

ut4ba

tratkn

U -4 W049ii i4~fixtrwrn 44Lcr :f:c

re 04W v"4, 44r= W6Q-ITR= nuL?oppoflc.

anacmmu :r

A ffisdmutdad

v1=4n~~m41 14%U=cc A

AS

''"' """',as -. Mr - amu. r

, 'D m jn n'p t ti m . O w~:-i~:~:_: :~l:;:: I--~ -:.:i ~~~iii.8 -::: : ut~6?~:', -in-ii: a Zi- : ?;ii'-ii~'i'- iii:i-i ~ *Z. ' j ?i' p::t uuiifin1 -~ LI-4 Ua::?::: : Amc;i .0 0~::::_

AS*& "W uao~vw, 44I'?

Agr MV3 % 45

711L ;w*

na: e :-:::-:, -;l ' li?i:e:. :

es pa mg(o

a- Heiric of Auxerre, Ex libris Valerii Maximi memorabilium dictorum vel factorum. British Library, MS Add. 19835, fol. 9 (p. 28)

b-Moralium dogma philosophorum. British Library, MS Add. 16376, fol. 117 (p. 28)

vwAj.t" silt

. A*.;4pAmpef s ( $its,8** 4ti4& Wed pd4fH Ay*reSe A

asatu.Syt svtes a a rt dsh w d esr t a

A

S.V7 A"S 4

.

11.2

L~

gA A

VSt AAAAl

Sseyr

'tt

aw

too eewit-4 s a ams-msa'rturetakhawneyeq; eds age

.4&&t Asw team 04w ~ undcu. .pe ask.. . . ..... . ....t- i .&

Sund we 1 o<:Aut . . . . . . . . . ..... . ......... ~ e o4 :w tR fu sufu ft~ ew s

C# *a tMk usl-tw yttn rl ttt ds M salet.s9s nt ese

En4Iusn#c ret<o)taA s14cvd t u-? Wnertent t AnOr

w eesa d e wnr <wvoiatmso pnsseesgm

ne fcs.tr ue0 ssAaue asra419A ma+mM tac bn

neLntAh5~ tslwn< ~t k swntosfudfae&nd}t~e s

4tu rA s gm d yopt e--94Am sls ytues io

c-Moralium dogma philosophorum. British Library, MS Royal 8.A.XIII, fols 4V-5 (p. 28)

This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Mar 2013 22:41:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions