Week 5/Tuesday, 19 October

Readings for the week

The (Secular & Religious) Body and the Self: Medicine, Theology, Law, Magic

The Three Estates [click, or scroll down]

John of Salisbury, from the Policraticus (12th c.; Latin prose) [click, or scroll down]

The Seven Deadly Sins [click, or scroll down]

The Four Virtues [click, or scroll down]

Abstinence and (Marital) Sex: The Body and the Calendar

The Four Humors [click, or scroll down]

"Vein Man" (late 13th c. illumination) [click, or scroll down]

Video: The Medieval Manuscript [30 min]

William Langland, Piers Plowman B, Passus V (1370; dream vision, alliterative verse) [click or scroll down for Incipit and discussion of translation]

De Secretis Mulierum/The Secrets of Women (13th c.; Latin, prose medical treatise)
Preface and Commentaries, On the Generation of Imperfect Animals and Commentaries, On the Signs of Corruption of Virginity and Commentaries, On the Signs of Chastity and Commentaries, Concerning Impediments to Conception and Commentaries, On the Generation of the Sperm and Commentaries

The Bestiary: Tigris, Unicornis, Elephant, Simia/Monkey or Ape [click or scroll down], Ursus/Bear, Pelicanis (13th c. Latin prose)

Marco Polo meets a "unicorn" and images (1254-1323; Description of the World, Latin prose) [click or scroll down]

The Lapidary: Amethyst, from the Peterborough Lapidary (late 15th c. prose) [click or scroll down]

Video: English Handwriting in the Dark [sic] Ages, Angus Cameron [18 min.]

Medieval Arithmetic (15th century, MS. Ee. iv.35 Cambridge Public Library) [click or scroll down] 

The medieval city of Carcassonne [click or scroll down]

"Truth's Treasure: Allegory and Meaning in Piers Plowman," Laurie A. Finke

"The Southern Slaveholders' View of the Middle Ages," Eugene D. Genovese

Estaat: a class of persons, especially a social or political class or group; also a member of a particular class or rank

A commonweath, according to Plutarch, is a certain body that is endowed with life by the benefit of divine favor, which acts at the prompting of the highest equity, and is ruled by what may be called the moderating power of reason. Those things that establish and implant in us the practice of religion, and transmit to us the worship of God . . . fill the soul in the body of the commonwealth. And therefore those who preside over the practice of religion should be looked up to and venerated as the soul of the body. For who doubts that the ministers of God's holiness are his representatives? Furthermore, since the soul is, as it were, the prince of the body, and has rulership over the whole thereof, so those whom our author calls the prefects of religion preside over the entire body . . . The place of the head in the body is filled by the prince, who is subject only to God and to those who exercise His office and represent Him on earth, even as in the human body the head is quickened and governed by the soul. The place of the heart is filled by the senate, from which proceeds the initiation of good works and ill. The duties of eyes, ears, and tongue are claimed by the judges and the governors of provinces. Officials and soldiers correspond to the hands. Those who always attend upon the prince are likened to the sides. Financial officers and keepers . . . may be compared with the stomach and intestines. . . The husbandmen correspond to the feet, which always cleave to the soil, and need the more especially the care and foresight of the head, since while they walk upon the earth doing service with their bodies, they meet the more often with stones of stumbling, and therefore deserve aid and protection all the more justly since it is they who raise, sustain, and move forward the w eight of the entire body . . . .
Then and then only will the health of the common-wealth be sound and flourishing, when the higher mem-bers shield the lower, and the lower respond faithfully and fully in like measure to the just demands of their superiors, so that each and all are as it were members one of another by a sort of reciprocity, and each regards his own interest as best served by that which he knows to be most advantageous for the others.

Those are called the feet who discharge the humbler offices, and by whose services the members of the whole commonwealth walk upon solid earth. Among these are to be counted the husbandmen, who always cleave to the soil, busied about their plough-lands or vineyards or pastures or flower-gardens. To these must be added the many species of cloth-making, and the mechanic arts, which work in wood, iron, bronze, and the different metals; also the menial occupations, and the manifold forms of getting a livelihood and sustaining life, or increasing household property, all of which, while they do not pertain to the authority of the govern-ing power, are yet in the highest degree useful and profitable to the corporate whole of the commonwealth. All these different occupations are so numerous that the commonwealth in the number of its feet exceeds not only the eight-footed crab but even the centipede, and because of their very multitude they cannot be enumer-ated; for while they are not infinite by nature, they are yet of so many different varieties that no writer on the subject of offices or duties has ever laid down particular precepts for each special variety. But it applies gen-erally to each and all of them that in their exercise they should not transgress the limits of the law, and should in all things observe constant reference to the public utility. For inferiors owe it to their superiors to provide them with service, just as the superiors in their turn owe it to their inferiors to provide them with all things needful for their protection and succor.
 

Superbia (Pride) twigges > disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy, arrogance, "swellynge of herte" ("a man rejoyseth hym of harm that he hath doon")

Invidia (Envy) > "sorwe of oother mennes wele, and joye of other mennes harm"

Ira (Anger) > "wikked wil to been avenged by word or by dede"

Accidia (Sloth/Despair) M.E. wanhope > "he dooth alle thyng with anoy, and with wrawnesse, slaknesse, and excusacioun"

Avaricia (Avarice/Covetousness) > "an ydel solas of worldly thynges"

Gulâ (Gluttony) > "unmesurable appetit to ete or to drynke"

Luxuria (Lust) M.E. lecherie > "thilke stynkynge synne"

Prudence

Fortitude

Justice

Temperance
 

In a somer seson, whan softe was þe sonne,
I shoop me into a shroud as I a sheep weere;
In habite as an heremite, vnholy of werkes,
Wente wide in þis world wondres to here.
Ac on a May morwenynge on Maluerne hilles
Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me þo3te.
I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste
Vnder a brood bank by a bourne syde;
And as I lay and lenede and loked on þe watres,
I slombred into a slepyng, it sweyed so murye.
Thanne gan I meten a merueillous sweuene-
That I was in a wildernesse, wiste I neuere where.
Ac as I biheeld into þe Eest, an hei3 to þe sonne,
I sei3 a tour on a toft trieliche ymaked,
A deep dale byneþe, a dongeon þerInne
With depe diches and derke and dredfulle of si3te. (1-16)
 

In a summer season when the sun was soft,
I dressed myself in clothes as if I were a sheep [i.e. in rough sheepskin],
in the habit of a hermit, ungodly of works,
[and] walked wide in this world in order to hear wonders.
But on a May morning in the Malvern Hills,
something happened to me, a marvel--as if by magic, it seemed to me.
I was tired of wandering and took myself to rest,
at the bottom of a broad bank by a brook's side,
and as I lay and leaned over and looked at the water
I sank into a slumber, [the stream] rippled so merrily.
Then I began to dream a marvelous dream,
that I was in a wilderness, I had no idea where.
But as I stared into the East, up high toward the sun,
I saw a tower on a hill-top, well-made,
a deep dale beneath, a dungeon within,
with deep ditches, and dark and dreadful to see.
 

We're dealing with the alliterative long line (as opposed to the shorter Old English line) here, and the challenge is to keep the alliteration in translation, but it doesn't always work: "gentle" or "mild" would be better translations for softe. Langland's being nasty when he thinks of a hermit, typically devout, as vnholy. The word trieliche is an adverb, as you can deduce from the syntax: -liche is finally whittled away to -ly, and in late ME MSS, you'll find both forms in the same text. Also, another difficulty when dealing with Langland, as you shall see, is one of tone: I've read translations in which Piers the Plowman sounds like a beatnik. And in the 60s, he was represented as some sort of proto-hippie. Egad.
 

from Brunetto Latini, Le livre des Trésors, 1310-1320

They are called MONKEYS (Simia) in the Latin language because people notice a great similitude to human reason in them. Wise in the lore of the elements, these creatures grow merry at the time of the new moon. At half and full moon they are depressed. Such is the nature of a monkey that, when she gives birth to twins, she esteems one of them highly but scorns the other. Hence, if it ever happens that she gets chased by a sportsman she clasps the one she likes in her arms in front of her, and carries the one she detests with its arms round her neck, pickaback. But for this very reason, when she is exhausted by running on her hind legs, she has to throw away the one she loves, and carries the one she hates, willy-nilly. A monkey has no tail (cauda). The Devil resembles these beasts; for he has a head, but no scripture (caudex).

Admitting that the whole of a monkey is disgraceful, yet their bottoms really are excessively disgraceful and horrible. In the same way, the Devil had a sound foundation when he was among the angels of heaven, but he was hypocritical and cunning inside himself, and so he lost

his cauda-caudex as a sign that all of him would perish in the end. As the Apostle says: "Whom the Lord Jesus Christ will kill with the breath of his mouth."

Simia is a Greek word, meaning "with squashed nostrils." Hence we call monkeys this, because they have turned-up noses and a hideous countenance, with wrinkles lewdly puffing like bellows. It is also said to be a characteristic of goats to have a turned-up nose.

Cercopithecii do have tails. These are the only ones to be discreet, among those previously mentioned. Cynocephali [baboon; dog-headed ape] are also numbered among monkeys. They are very common in Ethiopia. They are violent in leaping and fierce in biting. They never get tame enough not to be rather ferocious. Sphinxes also are reckoned as monkeys. They are shaggy, defenceless, and docilely ready to forget their wild freedom.

This is not a translation of Latini's French text, but a translation of a 12th-century Latin bestiary, Cambridge University Library II.4.26.

There are wild animals in the country [Basma; i.e., modern Sumatra], and numerous unicorns, which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that of a buffalo [water ox], feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick. They do no mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue alone; for this is covered all over with long and strong prickles and when savage with anyone they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue. The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it ever bent towards the ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud. It is an extremely ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the least like that which our stories tell of as being caught in the lap of a virgin; in fact, it is altogether different from what we fancied.
 

Amethyst is a stone like to purple red as [illegible] wine or red rose in color. The book [John of Trevisa's De Proprietatibus rerum, 13th c.] tells us that this stone protects one who carries it when wild beasts pester him, & it brings much comfort in all sorrows. And it keeps a man in good faith, and strong both in body and soul, for the one who wears it with dignity and pure intention. And whoever carries it should be able to sing clearly and with a good voice. And as the book of Moses [on the twelve stones of the Temple] tells us, he that carries it should be welcome before kings and lords, & cleverly should he work the craft in which he is engaged. And it makes a man meek. Whoever carries this stone should be more mindful of God and full of grace. Also for whoever bears this amethyst, no evil spirit should have the power to do him harm; he should not have evil dreams, not in fire or in water, nor fever, nor should he fear; & his goods should increase; & his enemy should never overcome him in a fair quarrel; neither should he be imprisoned or die without repentance of his misdeeds, nor long remain in prison, unless it be in banishment. No horse should founder under him; he should not assent to any treason [? a mangling of the Latin], no horse that he should ride should ever have worms or colic. Also Isidore [of Seville; churchman and etymologist extraordinaire, c. 570-636] says that the amethyst is purple and red in color, & is mingled with violet, as if it were a glowing rose, and gently casting out as if it were shining beams that give light. Also Isidore says that there is another kind which is much like blue & is not at all flaming, but it has the virtue of heat, and there are five such kinds as Thias says. Also Diascorides says that the purple-red is most noble & better than the other, because of its virtue in helping against drunkenness, & makes a man work, and put away idle thoughts & makes good understanding; & it is soft, so that men may engrave therein and write. Of this color should kings clothe themselves when they hold court.

In Ynglond ther ys a schepcote [sheep-pen]
the whiche schepekote hayt ix. dorys, and at yevery dor standet ix. ramys, and every ram hat ix. ewys, and yevery ewe hathe ix. lambys, and yevery lambe hayt ix. hornes, and yevery horne hayt ix. tyndes; what ys the somme of alle thos belle?