68
Chronique scandinav e
Books reported and (or) reviewed, in the order in which they ar e mentioned below :
Birgitta THORSBERG . Études sur l'hymnologie mozarabe . Stockholm , Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962, in-80, pp . 184 (Studia Latina Stockhol-miensia 8, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) .
Katarina HALVARSON . Bernardi Cluniacensis Carmina De trinitat e et de fide catholica, De castitate servanda, In libros regum, De octo
69 vitiis . Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1963, in-8 0 , pp . 161 (Studia
Latina Stockholmiensia 11, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) . Margareta LOKRANTZ . L'opera poetica di S . Pier Damiani .
Descri-zione dei manoscritti, ediDescri-zione del testo, esame prosodico-metrico , discussione delle questioni d'autenticità (summary in French) . Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1964, in-8°, pp . 258 (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 12, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) .
Jan ÜBERG . Serlon de Wilton . Poèmes latins . Texte critique avec une
introduction et des tables . Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1965 ,
in-8°, pp . 240 (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 14, Acta Universita-tis Stockholmiensis) .
Bengt LÖFSTEDT . Der hibernolateinische Grammatiker Malsachanus . Uppsala, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1965, in-8°, pp . 270 (Studia Latin a
Upsaliensia 3, ActaUniversitatis Upsaliensis) .
Emanuel SVENBERG . Lunaria et Zodiologia Latina . Ed . et comm .
philologico instruxit E . S . Göteborg, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1963 , in-8°, pp . 126 (Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 16, Act a Universitatis Gothoburgensis) .
Tryggve LUNDÍ;N . Processus canonizacionis beati Nicolai Lincopensis .
Efter en handskrift i Florens utgiven Hied inledning, översättning oc h register av T . L . (summary in German) . Stockholm, Bonniers, 1963 ,
in-80, pp. 391 .
Carl-GustafANDREN .De septem sacramentis . Eine Sakramentsauslegung
aus dem Kloster Vadstena von etwa 1400 . Lund, Gleerups, 1963 ,
in-8°, pp . 249 (Bibliotheca Theologiae Practicae 15) .
Diplomatarium Danicum, udg . af Det Danske Sprog- og
Litteratur-selskab . 1 :2 1053-1169 ved Lauritz WEIBULL–Niels SKYUM-NIELSEN . Copenhagen, Munksgaards, 1963, in-4 0 , pp . 375 .
Diplomatarium Danicum, udg . af Det Danske Sprog- og
Litteratur-selskad . III : 3 1348-1352, III : 4 1353-1356 ved C .A. CHRISTENSEN og Herluf NIELSEN . Copenhagen, Munksgaards, 1963, 1966, in-4 0,
PP . 540 , PP . 459 .
Diplomatarium Suecanum, utg . av Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitetsakademien och Riksarkivet . VIII : 2 1363-64, VIII :
3 1 3 6 5 . Stockholm 1964, 1966, in-4°, pp . 338, pp. 139 .
Diplomatarium Suecanum, utg . av Kung1 . Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitetsakademien och Riksarkivet . VI : 1 1348-1350 geno m E . Hildebrand. Nytryck Stockholm 1967 (Stockholm 1878), in-4° , pp . 264 .
Arne Odd JOHNSEN . 0m pave Eugenius III's vernebrev for Munkeliv
kloster av 7 . januar 1146 . Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 1965, in-8 0 ,
pp. 55 (Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akadem i i Oslo II . Hist .-Filos . Klasse . Ny serie . No . 7) .
Lars ELFVING . Etude lexicographique sur les séquences limousines .
Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962, in-80, pp . 283) Studi a Latina Stockholmiensia 7, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) . Gudrun LINDHOLM . Studien zum mittellateinischen Prosarhythmus . Seine Entwicklung und sein Abklingen in der Briefliteratur Italiens .
Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1963, in-8 0 , pp . 204 (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 1o, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) .
Tore JANSON . Latin Prose Prefaces . Studies in Literary Conventions .
Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1964, in-80, pp . 18o (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 13, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis) .
Sara EKwALL . Vdr äldsta Birgittavita och dermas viktigaste variante r
(summary in French) . Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1965, in-8 0 , pp . VIII+ 150 (Kungl . Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Aka-demiens handlingar . Historiska serien 12) .
Birgit KLOCKARS . Birgitta och böckerna . En undersökaing av den heliga Birgittas källor (summary in English) . Stockholm, Almqvis t
& Wiksell, 1966, in-8 0 , pp . 363 (Kungl . Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens handlingar . Historiska serien 11) .
In Etudes sur l'hymnologie mozarabeBirgittaTHORSBERGhas edite d anew five of the hymns previously printedinAnalecta Hymnica XXVII.
The selection is due to her attempt to fix the date and above all th e authorship of the hymns by a thorough examination of metrics an d language . As far as I can understand, the attempt is successful, du e reservations being entered by Miss T . herself . Thus three hymns , those in honour of St . Euphemia, St . Dorothy and St . Sebastian, ar e attributed to St . Eulogius, and two, one in honour of St . Jeremy an d the second a nuptial hymn, to Alvarus of Cordova. The study con-tributes a great deal to the lexicography of Medieval Latin, becaus e the editor is often able to prove the readings of the MSS . to be correct , although aemended » by previous editors . The lengthy quotation o f the supposed sources of the hymns, however, could certainly hav e been avoided and replaced by a stricter exposition . In an appendix passages from other hymns of the same collection have been commen-ted upon and criticized . The thesis is complecommen-ted by a word-index .
In Revue Bénédictine XLV (1933) pp . 249-254 Dom Wilmar t brought to general notice four extensive poems, the poet of which h e considered to be identical with Bernardus Morlanensis (or
Cluniacen-sis), the author of De contemptu mundi . Without trying to shed more
light on the dubious authorship of the four poems, Katarina
71 An editio princeps always is in itself a praiseworthy work, although fo r these poems not too difficult, because they have been handed down t o us in one MS . only (Vaticanus Reginensis Latinus 134 s .
XIII) .
The text of the MS . is, however, not without scribal errors, and on th e whole it seems to me that Mrs H . has succeeded in giving an intelligibl e text, but the punctuation is of very little help to the reader, and cer-tainly more explanations could have been given in the apparatuscriticus as well as in the Index verborum . Some emendations are no t
convincing, e .g . R v . 300 (P .75) I think it is possible to keep th e present tense eicit ; C v . 209 (p . 56) nisi should be changed into visi
instead of noctis, which I cannot understand — there are besides several instances of the confusion of u and n, for instance R v . 308 (p . 75) boue for bone, O v. 729 (p . 118) abena for ab eua, T v . 1355 (p . 46) uatum for natum, T v . 54 2 (p. 2 3) Mens for meus ; T v. 645 (p . 26) nec is to be preferred to non, since the MS . has et. In the prefac e Mrs H . states that she will follow the orthography of the MS . ; tha t is why I cannot understand why she has consigned to the apparatu s
criticus such spellings as exenplar O v . 12 58 (p. 133), tenplum R v.
711 and v . 713 (p . 87) ; mers was adopted for merx O v . 800 (p . 12o) , but O v . 1166 (p . 131) mos was changed into mox, and in several passages vix intovis, e . g . T v . 847 (p . 32), 0 v . 918 (p . 124) . Further -more she has conjectured quoquit, i . e . coquit, O v . 1274 (p. 134), but changed scalor into squalor O v . 472 (p . III) . The edition is complete d by a catalogue-like survey of prosody, metrics, rhyme and rhetorica l devices (pp . 139-154), and Indices . There are still many problems involved in these poems, about which Miss B . Thorsberg is preparin g a study to be published in the same series.
For her critical edition of the poetry written by St . Peter Damian ,
L ' opera poetica di S . Pier Damian, MargaretaLOKRANTZhas examine d almost 90 MSS ., 61 being quoted in the critical apparatus, out o f which four are of particular importance (Vaticanus Latinus 3797 , Casinensis 358 and 359, Vaticanus Urbinas Latinus 503) . The ortho-graphical principles are clearly stated pp . 49-51 : the inconsistency i n spelling even within one and the same MS . made it necessary to normalize the orthography of the edition . The exhaustive expositio n on versification (sub-headings : prosodia ed accentazione, la
versifica-zione metrica e ritmica, rima ed assonanza) is followed by a discussio n
of the authenticity of some of the poems . Having established the genuineness of the poems handed down to us in Va and besides of poem N o 51, Miss L . proceeds, in a convincing manner it seems, t o refute the arguments hitherto adduced in favour of the authenticity
of the poems D 1-D 9 (inAH XLVIII 56, 6o, 61, 67-69, 71, in PL LXIII, LXIV, XCIII, XCIV, CCXXI, CCXXII, CCXVIII and
in Revue Bénéd . 67 (1957) p . 153) . This valuable edition is completed b y indices : a full Index omnium verborum as well as an Index verborum
et rerum memorabilium, and Initia carminum .
Jan ()BERG has scrutinized the manuscript tradition of the poems by Serio of Wilton and made the first critical edition of all poems known with a discussion on authenticity and ample indices .
Bengt LÖFSTEDT has edited the treatise of the Irish grammaria n
Malsachanus, composed in the very beginning of the eighth century ,
together with studies on date and authenticity, on sources and on language, in which a huge mass of parallels from other texts are quoted . In Lunaria et Zodiologia Latina Emanuel SVENBERG has made a new edition of two important versions of the lunaria previously edite d in his gradual thesis (De latinska lunaria, Göteborg 1936), and t o these he has added an editioprincepsof some zodiologia, representativ e
of the genre and offering technical and linguistical interest . The texts edited have been provided with explanatory notes, which, however, often seem too concentrated, and with indices (verba
nota-biliora, grammatica, res, loci selecti) .
Processuscanonizacionis beati Nicolai Lincopensis, handed down t o
us in a MS . now lying in Archivio di Stato in Florence and once belong-ing to the monasterio del Paradiso, has been edited and translated into Swedish by TryggveLUNDÉN —the introduction has a summary in German . It is to be regretted that I must state that the Latin tex t abounds in misprints — or the editor's misreadings ? — and neglected corrections of obvious scribal errors, occurring on almost every page ; a few examples out of many : p . 38 carantes (-ren-), hos (hoc), p . 40
indicio (iud-), p . 42 veleat (val-), p . 64 obtius (obtius), p. 74 adi (id) , p . 86 word omitted after viscus illud quam, p . 90 diverit (dix-), Pas t (Post), p . no proudi (prouideri), p . 112 pluris (pluries), et multis (ex) ,
p . 124 ad (ab), p . 178 deferens (dese-), p . 202 pro nonnullos (per) , p . 2o4 XXXV que (XXXV9uL : que denotes the cardinal number) , diunitus (diuinitus), atramanto (-mento), p . 252 constriptor (-scrip-) ,
p . 264 capellaniis (-anis), obulam (obuiam), interrogati (-tus),
puel-lem (-lam), p. 282 ipso (-sa), plurium (-rimum), occidete (-dite) , p. 35 6 familaris (-liaris), monsterii (-nasterii), graum (grauem) , pod (quod) ; — p . 64 ordinem must be corrected into ordinis, p. 74
73 contritus into contractus ; cfr Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för Sverige V
(Stockholm, 18 73- 1895), p . 455 ; p . 90 presenti et presentati into
presentiet petenti ; cfr p . ioo line 3 ; p . 140 disperdam into dispergam ;
cfr e . g . Vulg . Ier . 49, 3 2 ; p. 1 74 staret has to be corrected into staren t and se in the last line into seu ; p . 190 diuine voluntate into diu .
voluntati, huiusmodi solucionem into h . solutions, p . 264 1nanum
dextrum into m . dextram, p . 302 liberauirnus into liberabimus ; p . 34 6 sui of the MS . should not be changed into suam ; falsely in line 2 scum relacionem ; p . 356 in the fourth line of the second paragrap h vltra mensem is a dittography ; p . 358 prolixime is puzzling . Moreover ,
from a historian ' s point of view Herman SCHilCK has commented adversely upon this edition in Historisk Tidskrift 1964 pp . 205-209 , and proved convincingly that Mr L. has joined the quires of the MS . incorrectly, so that pp . 148-158 ought to be read after p . 256 .
---tarnen estlaudanda voluntas, because an edition of the text was t o
be desired on account of its value as a historical source .
De septem sacramentis with a summary in German is a carefu l
edition of an anonymous exposition of the sacraments, probabl y written about 1400 and conserved to us in four MSS., all once belong-ing to the monastery of Vadstena and now lybelong-ing in the universit y library of Uppsala. In the introduction the editor, Carl-GustafANDRÉN , treats not only with problems concerning the text itself — MSS . , author, date, origin — but also with the development of the word
sacramentum from the very beginning of Christendom to the end of
the Middle Ages, and with other expositions of the sacraments . The introductory part is ended by a study of the sources of the treatise, which enables the editor to state that the unknown author of th e work was completely dependent on the scholastical tradition of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Petrus Lombardus, Thomas ab Aquino) without being influenced by representatives of the francisca n school and the so-called nominalism (Johannes Duns Scotus, Willia m Ockham) . A handful of misprints and corrections should be listed : p . 150 1 . 23 perueniamus should be preferred to proueniamus ; p. 1 5 5 1 . 173 ammonere should be changed into ammonere, i . e . amouere ; p. 138 1 . 49 similter should of course be sirniliter, p . 144 1 . 207
p5ertu-rienti bus partup5ertu-rientibus, p . 202 1 . 69 proditur proditor and p .2131. 345 sq . sublimem for sublimen .
The editing of documents and charters, part of which are in Latin , continues : Diplornatarium Danicum I : 2 comprising the years 1053.-1169 appeared in 1963, volume III : 3 comprising the years
1348-1 352 also in 1348-1963 and volume III : 4 comprising the years 1348-1 353- 1348-1 35 6 appeared in 1966 ; Diplomatarium Suecanum VIII : 2 comprising the years 1363-1364 was published in 1964 and VIII : 3 of the year 1365 i n 1966 . Besides, the volume VI : 1 reproducing the charters of the year s
1348-1 35 0 , the copies of which were destroyed by fire in 1922, has no w been reprinted (Stockholm 1967) .
In a booklet Arne Odd JOHNSEN has made an edition of Pop e Eugenius III's protective letter for the monastery of Munkali v (Norway) together with a thorough study of the fixed formulas i n order to state the authenticity of the document . The original being lost, it exists only in a transcript from the year 1427 . Yet J .LIEDGREN
has in a review in Historish Tidskrift (Stockholm 1965) p . 512 sq . been able to adduce another transcript of a somewhat earlier date an d with a more correct text .
Of particular interest to lexicographers is the study by Lars ELFVIN G
with the title Ètude lexicograahique sur les séquences limousines . Th e
object for his lexicographical study is thus the sequences which hav e been edited in Analecta Hymnica VII and
LIII
after MSS . in the Middle Ages belonging to the monastery of Saint-Martial at Limoges . They offer very special problems from a linguistical point of vie w on account of the poets' striving to make the verses end in -a . With great profit Mr E . has made investigations into the occurrence of words characteristic of poetry as well as those mostly occurring in prose and also into the frequency of Greek words . The variatio sermon s has been illustrated by a study of the different words and phrase s used for the noun ` Heaven ' and the verb ' sing ' . Technical terms of various kinds, used metaphorically, are amply instanced . Mr . E . ends his study by a survey and interpretation of musical terms , concerning which he is able to prove that most of them are used in a figurative sense, very few having an actual import . What can be dedu-ced from the wording of the sequences about their execution is a s follows : they were sung in chorus by singers belonging to the schola cantorum of a monastery ; either there were two choirs singinganti-phonally or one soloist singing the words and a choir singing th e melismata .
As appears from the above, it is a comprehensive and methodica l study, carefully performed, with similar instances adduced from th e classical poets, the Scriptures, the Fathers and medieval poetry . Since I have given a rather full account of this study with some criticism in the Cahiersde la CivilisationMédiévale, I will here restrict
7 5 In dealing with the metaplasm of adjectives, e . g . declivus for
declivis (p . 52 sq .) Mr E . also adduces instances of present participles
ending in -ia qualifying a feminine noun . I do hope that lexicographers will not be enticed to enter such a title-word as collaudantius a um, or iudicantius a um in a dictionary. The sequence-writers certainly never imagined adjectives like those ; they only used the neuter plural ending in -ia in combination with feminine nouns . Thus w e are not entitled to suppose a metaplasm of the present participles and forms in -ins and -ium, until these forms have really been instanced . As to fulgentia I refer to my review in C .C .M .
It has apparently escaped the author that cratis (p . 76 n . 3) in th e sense of ` implement of torture ' is mentioned by ThLL (IV 1112 , 57 sq.), where we find e . g . Leo M . semi . 85, 3 utper cratem ferream . . . fieretcruciatus vehementior .
For the Greek word geromista or hieromysta (p . 127) Mr E . might also have consulted the Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantin e Periods by E .A . Sophocles, where two instances are given . Besides, th e rare word occurs in another sequence,AHLIII 171, 8 0 quam mirifica / divina / potitus gratia, / cum plus dominica / ceteris his geromista / amoris proflua / meruit privilegia ; this sequence is preserved in a
Spanish MS .
It should be noted that coniubilare (p . 179) also occurs in Arnald i ' s dictionary, where an instance from the tenth century is quoted (Vulg .
Sill .) .
To the passages of polices (p . 63) I could addAH IX 326, 9 Curia nitens in polica, a sequence edited from a MS from Fleury .
To the use of modulata (p . 237) for the sequence can be compare d the passage quoted in Arnaldi 's dictionary, Vers . Med . 44 modolata psalmorum .
Psalmodia (p . 244) is said to occur once ; yet Mr E . quotes another instance . This seems puzzling, but in a way he is right, because A H VII 254 is a revised version of AH VII 234 .
The author gives several suggestions as to the interpretation of th e form melodum (p .248) without giving preference to any one of them . The instances of a neutral noun melodum is interesting . Through th e references in NGML we find still more in the poems of Walther Spirensis, all of which have to be interpreted as a neuter singular . I have found another instance, AH LIII 212, 1 Melodum dulcedo / resonet in altum / / cum laude maxima / beato Pirminio . The sequenc e
is handed down to us in a MS . from St . Gallen, but probably originate s in Reichenau . It should be noticed that this passage is obviously influ-enced by Walther Spirensis II 242 Quod tibi lignorum merear dulcedo
melodum, but in the sequence we have to interpret the form melodum as
a genitive plural to dulcedo ; cfr e . g . AH L 215, 1 Chorus novae
Ieru-salem / novam meli dulcedinem / Promat coleus cum sobriis / Paschal e festum gaudiis . Furthermore it should have been pointed out to th e
reader that the two hymns quoted, AH
LII
178 and AH IV229,have different metrical forms, but are almost identical in words .To conclude this review I should like to draw attention to the important fact that Mr. E . has indicated many words instanced onl y in the sequences (e . g . p . 14 n .2, p . 21 n . 1, p . 66) as well as such of which the sequences give the very earliest instance (e . g . p . 62 sq . , p . 70) . That makes this study by the aid of the Index des mots a rea l treasure-house for those interested in Latin lexicography .
In the introductory part of Studien zum mittellateinischen
Pro-sarhythmus, Mrs Gudrun LINDHOLM gives a survey of previous re -searches on the use of cursus in the early Middle Ages (9th-11th centuries), pointing out that hitherto no scholar ever tried to suppor t his statements by means of statistical analysis of sentence endings . In doing so herself (p . 1o) she brings out that by several authors of th e Carolingian epoch the use of cursus was known and desired, and that in the middle of the eleventh century e . g . Petrus Damiani to almost 100 % ended the sentences in his letters with regular cursus forms . To get a solid basis for her further investigation Mrs L . gives parti-culars of the theories brought forward by the so-called dictatores of th e twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, stressing the contras t between the Italian and the French schools . After an exposition o n stress, proclitics and enclitics, elision and hiatus, the author expound s the rules and systems followed in the classification of the sentenc e endings in her own study . In eleven chapters the letters of eight Ita-lian authors (Cola di Rienzo, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, Leonardi Bruni, Gasparino Barzizza, Poggio Bracciolini) an d papal letters of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries hav e been examined as to the employment of cursus, and pp . 198-201 the preceding examinations are summarized in an accurate and clea r manner : in the fourteenth century Cola di Rienzo, Dante and Colucci o Salutati observe the rules of the medieval dictatores strictly, wherea s Petrarca and Boccaccio are more negligent . The authors of th e fifteenth century quite disregard the medieval system of ending a sentence, but the papal chancery on the whole adhered to it until i n 1513 Petrus Bembo, the great Ciceronian, was appointed secretary to Pope Leo X .
7 7 In contrast to previous researches in this field, this study tries i n every possible way to eliminate subjectiveness : thus, for instance , the examination is restricted to the clausulae before full stop, ques-tioning-mark and exclamation-mark . Yet it is a very difficult matter to attain strict objectiveness :
p . 58 are enumerated cases, in which the rules of ars dictandi wer e not applied, among which occur quotations . Yet I am not quite sur e about the import given to the word ` quotation ' by Mrs L . On pp . 162 and 163, for instance, she adduces as a representative of cursu s planus be judice lis est . This is of course a quotation from the Ar s
poetica of Horace, v. 78 Et adhuc sub iudice Us est . — As a repre-sentative ofcursus veloxy8C we findvixit dum vixitbene . Likewise that is a quotation from Terence, Hecyra v . 461 sibi vero hanc laude m relinquont : vixit dum vixit bene . Even if Poggio Bracciolini does no t mention his source, the expressions were undoubtedly meant to be recognized by the addressee of the letter as quotations from Horace and Terence, and consequently they should not be classified ascursu s planusresp . velox .
Another objection to the principles adopted by the author concern s the classification of polysyllabic words, i . e . words with more than four syllables . The supposing of a secondary stress in these word s gives scope to arbitrariness ; a few instances may be quoted : p . 4 6 velox y8e curandum sed de virtute should be compared to tardifs ßy
p .43sed ab Italia ; velox y8 thesauris cum infinitis should be compare d with planus ß p . 41 me desperavit andtardus ß p.43 et detestabile . I n approving these polysyllables as cursus, the author deviates from th e rules drawn upbythe Italiandictatores,who explicitly reject sentence s ending in words with more than four syllables, whereas the Frenc h school accept them (see p . 25 sq .) . In the same waycursus trispondaicu s is approved by the French school but rejected by the Italian ; that is why Mrs L. has not included instances of trispondaicus into the percentage of cursus . If we compare the occurrence of polysyllabi c words in the authors examined in this study, we shall find that i n Cola di Rienzo, Dante and Petrarca such words amount to less than 1 % out of all sentence endings, in ColuccioSalutati 1,4 °/o , in Boccac-cio 2,1 % but in Bruni 7,5 % and in Barzizza 5,6 % . If we look fo r polysyllables in the letters of the popes, we shall find none in those of Clemens, one single instance in Bonifacius, but in Pius II (Ene a Silvio Piccolomini) they amount to 8 % . That means that the employ-ment of long words in the sentence endings increases . From the above facts I should conlude that the number of polysyllabic words in a n author reflects his attitude to cursus :the more are the polysyllables,
7 8
the less conscious is the author' s ambition to employ regular cursu s forms . Thus the picture of the cursus in an author would have . bee n more correct and careful, if these types of sentence endings had bee n accounted for separately just as cursus trispondaicus .
To these principal remarks I should like to add some criticisms i n matter of detail :
It has been said on p . 14 that Albertus of Morra, later Pope Gregory VIII, was the first to write down the rules of cursus, followed in th e papal chancery, but this was not done until after 1187 . On p .21 w e get particulars on the Libellus deartedictandi, which was composed b y
Peter of Blois between 1181 and 1185, that is earlier than Gregory . Remarkably it is stated that Peter of Blois copied certain parts o f Gregory' s summa, which fact Mrs L . explains by pretending that Peter of Blois knew Gregory ' s work `nur von Hörensagen ' . Further-more, it appears from p. 21sq . that Peter of Blois wanted to substitut e his own work for those of his predecessors, Liber de dictaminibus by a
magister Bernardus and Summulae Turonenses . As far as I can
un-derstand, this must mean that there has been an ars dictaminis known
to both Peter of Blois and Pope Gregory and influencing both of them, but they cannot have influenced each other ; thus we have to suppose that the differences between the Italian and the French schools aros e at a much earlier date than Mrs L . suggests .
In her account of the Italian dictatores the author depends on Manitius, Rockinger, Gaudenzi and Rajna . But there is missing a paper in Medievalia et Humanistica I (1943) by Helene Wieruszowski with the heading : Ars dictaminis in the Time of Dante, which gives
a careful survey of the dictatores of the thirteenth century with ampl e bibliographical references. Among those is one who is unknown to Mrs L . : Tommasino d ' Armannino, who wrote an ars dictaminis called
Microcosmus, edited by Giulio Bertoni in Archivum Romanicum V
(Geneva 1921) p . 19 sq . Tommasino expounds theories on cursu s which quite agree with those mentioned by Mrs L ., but he offer s interest, because his instances are not identical with those given by others, but have been composed by himself . Nor does he approve of
cursus consisting of polysyllables .
In note 24 of p. 15 some rare types of cursus are quoted from a chronicle written by a pupil of Boncompagnus, viz . Rolandinus fro m Padova . Cursus planus, consisting of polysyllabic words (see p . 40 sq .), and cursus trispondaicus (see pp. 50 and 51) are frequent i n Rolandinus, but why should he use regular cursus forms in his chro-nicle? The rules were intended for letters, even if they could incidental-ly be applied in other prose works, too . The prologue, on the contrary,
79 has only accepted forms of cursus velox, but in the chronicle itself w e cannot expect Rolandinus to follow the rules of the dictatores .
On p . 77 I should prefer references to a work on the history o f Italian literature (e . g . Bartoii, Storia della Letteratura Italiana) or to
a modern monograph, for instance that of Renucci, which was publi-shed in Paris 1954 with the title Dante, disciple et juge du mond e
gréco-latin. ; it is to be assumed that Dante like many Florentine s
studied in Bologna, but this cannot be proved. What we know with certainty is that he stayed in Bologna after his exile, probably fro m March 1304 to the summer or autumn of 1306 .
After the summary of the cursus in Dante Mrs L . discusses the differences between Dante and Cola di Rienzo . The percentage is almost the same for both, 98,2 and 96,5 resp ., but the distributio n of the approved cursus forms are quite different . According to the
dictatores the cursus velox ought to be preferred, — in Cola di Rienz o
84,2 % —, a small number of cursus planus was allowed — in C . d i R . 10,7 % —, and the number of cursus tardus should be minute — in C . di R . 1,6 % . The figures for Dante are quite different : velox 45,3 %, planus 31,8 % and tardus 21,1 °A, . From this Mrs L . conclude s that Dante followed the dictatores in the formation of cursus, but consciously deviated from them in the distribution of the variou s forms . That conclusion seems remarkable to me, because Dant e (born in 1265), previous in time to Cola di Rienzo (born in 1313), is the earliest of the authors, whose cursus system has been examined. If we compare him with those presented in the survey on p . ro, we find a marvellous resemblance with e . g . Peter Damian from the middl e of the eleventh century, who has a percentage of 49,4 for velox, 31, 4 forplanus and 16,9 fortardus .
Furthermore, from the table on p. 82 it appears that Dante has a n unusually low percentage of cursus velox BC, i . e . the four-syllable d word replaced by two dissyllabic, a type of velox which is highly appreciated by most of the authors in the fourteenth century : i n Cola di Rienzo 17 % (p . 63), in Pietro della Vigna 10% (p . 75), i n Petrarca 21,2 % (p . 96), in Boccaccio 17,4 % (p . 115) . In this case , too, we find that Dante's cursus deviates from the rules of the medieva l
dictatores, but it coincides with the system occurring in authors of th e
early Middle Ages, e . g . Anastasius Bibliothecarius and Pope Hadrian I I in the ninth century and Peter Damian in the eleventh . If we combine these two facts viz . the equal distribution of velox, planus and tardus, and the extremely low percentage of dissyllabic forms o f
velox, we are more justified in arguing that Dante followed th e
disengaged himself from the rules of the thirteenth and fourteent h century dictatores . This is a matter that has to be examined mor e closely, consideration being paid to the distribution of the differen t types of the cursus forms, the occurrence of polysyllabic words, o f monosyllables at the end of a sentence and so on . Nor is it an isolated question : due regard must also be had to Dante's attitude to and appreciation of older times, his studies and so on .
In spite of the criticism brought forward in the above, the thesis of Mrs L . is important, because the method elaborated by her wil l necessarily be adopted by those who want to examine cursusin medie-val authors .
Tore JANSON' s thesis, Latin Prose Prefaces with the sub-titl e
Studies in literary conventions is mainly inspired by the great wor k
of E .R . Curtius, Europäische Literatur and lateinisches Mittelalter, in which was stressed the connection between conventions in moder n literature and those occurring in medieval and in classical authors . The first part deals with authors, prior to the time of Trajan, treate d after their genre (rhetorical treatises, historians, agricultural hand -books and other specialists), the second part deals with later prefaces , treated after the clichés occurring (requests and dedication, incom-petence, assistance, other forms of modesty, the subject, brevity , allusions to earlier writers) . By trying to focus the Roman author s with their social and cultural background, Mr J . succeeds in bringing out striking resemblances in attitude to the subject as well as diffe-rences due to the personal outlook and situation of each author . Se e in particular the chapter on agricultural handbooks . The treatment of the various topoi in later prefaces, however, is rather cursory an d invites to criticism and intensified researches . A few observations : In dealing with allusions to earlier writers (p . 155 sq .) Mr J . main -tains that Eucherius of Lyons starts his Instructiones with the first words from Tacitus ' Dialogus : Saepe a me requiris . It seems to me that since such a beginning is frequent in letters of all kind, e . g . Seneca72 Quodquaeris a me ; Pliny 6, 23 Impense petis ut ; 7,9 Quaeris quemadmodum ; St . Jeremy 1 Saepe a me, Innocenti carissime, postu-lasti ; 127 Saepe et multum flagitas, we are not justified in claiming
Eucherius' dependence on Tacitus . Furthermore, we have no evidenc e whatsoever of Tacitus' Dialogus being known in late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages . The ` quotation ' in Eucherius of Lyons would then be the only instance and that seems too scanty .
In the Appendix the author discusses how Gregory the Great an d Gregory of Tours both used the theme of grammatical shortcomings .
8 1 He gives a convincing interpretation of Greg . M. Epist. 5, 539, 5 in referring to Cassiodorus Inst . 1, 15, 9, and no doubt he is right in claiming the relationship between the passage in Cassiodorus and th e preface of Glor . conf. by Gregory of Tours, but the last sentence i s quite absurd, since the use of such a common word as observare canno t indicate the relationship between the passages . As the author has told us previously, the context and the similar argumentation indi-cates the relationship .
Miss Sara ExwALL has published a book Vdr äldsta Birgìttavit a with a summary in French : La plus ancienne vie de Sainte Brigitt e
et ses deux variations les plus importantes . The main object of thi s
study is to establish both the relative and the absolute chronolog y of the three Lives of St . Birgitta of Sweden . The author's strongly polemical note, her accumulation of divers items of information an d her quotation of archive material irrelevant as well as relevant, mak e the reading of her book a hard matter . However, the only thing of interest for a lexicographer of Latin is what is contained in the fou r appendices, in which Miss E . has edited some letters dealing with th e canonization of St . Birgitta . Two of them have been edited before , n os , 1 and 4, since they occur in the Processus canonizations Sanctae
Katherinae (see the edition made by I . Collijn p . 37 and 1 55 sq . )
yet this fact is not mentioned by Miss E . In some respects the new editions are more correct, e . g . p . 122peruenerint instead of peruene-runt ; p . 123 quoniam instead of quum ; p . 124 erit valde gratissimum
instead of erat . . . ; p . 131 electis : the MS ofProc . can . Katherinae ha s
something unintelligible, which the previous editor read clericis ;
p . 132 inferatis instead of inseratam . But the value of them are
dimi-nished by some misprints : p . 122 cuiscunque (cuiuscunque) ; uidelicit
(videlicet) ; p . 124 the abbreviation of the original is most likely to
be interpreted as eelsbrandum, not celebranda ; p . 127 recipent
(reci-perent) ; p . 128 Supplicaciones queplurime(Suppl . quam pi.) ; p . 12 9 Paternitate vestre (Paternitati v .) ; p. 132 Haec katerina zewlfsdottir i s
to be expunged .
On p . 131 in note1 to the fourth appendix, a safeconduct fo r Katarina Ulfsdotter, the daughter of St . Birgitta, Miss E . suggests an interpretation of bailiuus, meaning officium monasticum etc . . . Since the word is used in the inscriptio of the letter, where those in secular power are enumerated, it certainly in this context denotes a secular office-holder, inferior to capitaneus, but superior to those summed up in the general word officiales,
i,
e . eng. ` bailiff ' , sw .82
p . 123 line2 uisitarunt is the reading of the original and should no t
be corrected. In this connection the constant use of cursus, and i n particular the predilection for cursus velox should be stressed : p . 12 2
placitunz et acceptum . . . peregre gressus suas . . . proprios deserentes . . . deuotissime visitantes . . . studio uacauerunt . . . p . 123 deuotissim e uisitarunt . . . partibus Loca sancta . . . multipliciter honorauit etc . ,
line 13 auctoritate cannot be missing ; line 5 from the bottom of th e page conftuerunt is a lapsus calami for confluxerunt ; in spite of th e Latin way of writing a preposition together with the following word , we should not print inaccessu and prouero .
Very different in tone and quality is another study in the sam e series, Birgitta och böckerna, by Birgit KLOCKARS, with a summar y in English . It is a very careful and thorough investigation into th e literary sources of the writings of St . Birgitta . In the different chapters the author treats with St . Birgitta's literary education, her writings and in particular the chronology of the revelations, her knowledge of the Bible and liturgy, her acquaintance with encyclopedias an d secular literature, in particular the laws, furthermore the laws of th e Church, the Old-Swedish Legendary and the Vitae patrum, monastic rules and the rules of the mendicant orders, the Fathers and the Mystics . The study is completed by extensive indices to the revela-tions of St . Birgitta of quotarevela-tions in general and Bible quotarevela-tions an d references in particular, and of images and metaphors, and finall y Person, Place and Subject indices . It is apparently a very useful book, methodically sound and objective in judgment . The index of images and metaphors in Swedish with the Latin equivalents give n within brackets makes it valuable to a lexicographer of Latin, bu t should have been still more useful, if there had been added an alpha-betical list of the Latin words, too . A few misprints : p . 305 adulter, not adulterus ; p . 294 homicida, not homocida .