Martianus Capella

Life of this Latin author of 5th century a. J. - C. is known for us only by some details drawn from its work, the Noces of Philology and Mercury (in Latin, Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii ): apart from the biographical assumptions provided by some passages of this large allegorical encyclopedia in nine books, we do not have any historical trace of the author.

Some biographical assumptions on Martianus Capella

Its geographic origin

Martianus probably wrote with Carthage, as at the same time the manuscripts indicate it (by the adjective Afer Carthaginensis which follows the name of the author in the majority of the titles and the subscriptions), and the text itself: in the last worms of work, which are used to some extent as signature, Martianus puts in scene the allegorical divinity Satura (representing the literary kind of the ménippée Satire), who is supposed to have inspired all this account to him; Saturated then draws up a kind of portrait of Martianus, in which she declares: “you who the happy city of Elissa saw growing” (i.e. of Didon, mythical queen of Carthage). It seems that the usually allowed idea according to which Martianus would have been born in Madaure, and would have come only later to settle in Carthage, that is to say an error based on a too pushed comparison between Martianus and Apulée.

Its profession

There still, it is the final poem of the Noces which informs us best; indeed, in the portrait full with irony which Satura draws up, Martianus enjoys to be presented in the form of a lawyer without much success, which “pours in the lawsuits its barkings of dog” (if one accepts this translation for the worms ambiguous iurgis caninos blateratus pendere ), which does not benefit any from its complaints against its neighbors (of the ox guards), and who “under the effect of tiredness, pains to keep the open eyes”. The assumption which consists in making of Martianus a proconsul de Carthage (starting from worms with the not very sure text) does not seem to have to be retained.

The question of the dates of Martianus

The only unquestionable evidence making it possible to define a terminus handle quem for Martianus Capella is the subscription, present in several manuscripts, which indicates a revision of the text by Securus Melior Felix (whose one knows the philological activity in addition) in 534. However, only of the textual indices allow to give a more precise interval for the dating of Martianus. One is based traditionally on a description of Rome and a description of Carthage to locate the drafting of the Noces between 410 and 439; one indeed finds with book VI an evocation of the last size of Rome (“Rome itself, capital of the world, when it held its force of its weapons, its heroes and its rites, deserved to be high with the skies by praises”, 6,637), and prosperity present of Carthage (“Carthage, famous formerly for its military power, and now celebrates for its prosperity” - congratulated , 6,669): these two aspects led certain specialists to think that it was about the period between 410 (taken of Rome by Alaric) and 439 (invasion of Carthage by the Vandales). But of the recent studies tend to show that Carthage had found a certain prosperity, and especially had known a true cultural rebirth, under the reign vandal, in the neighborhoods of 480. If one can affirm with certainty that Martianus wrote in Ve century, it appears on the other hand impossible, in the actual position of our knowledge, to specify more the fork of dating.

Philosophical and religious context

In addition to the question of the dates, the question of the religion of Martianus made run much ink. Some were based on a mention of Martianus by Gregoire de Tours (which quotes it as Martianus noster ) to affirm that Martianus was Christian. However, one can locate in the whole of the text of Martianus a whole network of details allowing to make of Martianus a representative of what P. of Labriolle called, in a traditional work from now on, “pagan reaction”. In fact, Martianus seems very influenced by a Néoplatonisme marked by a tendency to mysticism and theurgic and magic practices (in the line of what one finds for example at Jamblique), and the rise of Philology of the Earth to the Milky Way, presented in book II, seems to reproduce the stages of an initiation to the mysteries. The interest carried by Martianus with the '' etrusca disciplined '' confirms this assumption in addition (the recourse to the Etruscan antique religion constituted indeed, in late Antiquity, a means of resisting against the triumph of Christianity). One can thus see in Martianus a follower of mysticism, and a form of “hermetism platonisant” closely related to the “pagan reaction” of Ve century.

Weddings of Philology and Mercury

One often characterizes the work of Martianus by his strangeness: Martianus Capella seeks indeed, in the nine books of the De Nuptiis , to present a sum of knowledge as well literary as scientific, through a kind of mythological account, while mixing with the developments in prose and the poetic passages.

The overall structure

The Mercure god decided to marry, and initially thought of taking for woman Sophia, then Manticé, then Psyché, drawn aside for various reasons; finally, Apollon proposes Philologie to him, which is a mortal. Jupiter accepts this union, provided that Philologie receives the apotheosis first of all, in order to be high on the level of the gods.

Book II is thus the setting in scene of this apotheosis of Philology, which prepares its departure of the Earth and its rise towards the Milky Way where the assembly of the gods waits: to be lighter, Philologie starts by vomitting the books which encumber its chest (the weight of science…), then she drinks a beverage composed by Apotheosis, and goes up finally in the litter which must lead it through the seven celestial spheres (which form a musical range, according to the theory of origin pythagorician, but largely included in the neoplatonicians mediums, of the Harmonie of the spheres) to the assembly of the gods. Once Philologie arrived near the gods, Mercure offers seven young girls to him, representing each one an art, and who will express themselves in turn in the seven following books. With book II thus finishes the part “account” (“ Nunc ergo mythos terminatur ”, declares Martianus into 2,220), and each following book will present technical contents exposed by one of the seven young girls offered by Mercure to Philology. These seven books have a rather similar structure: first of all a presentation of the young girl-allegory which speaks, with a colourful portrait, then generally a lyric part, and finally a properly technical development.

One discovers thus, in book III, Grammaire (whose Greek name is Γραμματική, and the Latin name Litteratura ). Book IV puts in Dialectique scene, and V Rhetoric delivers it. One has thus, in books III with V, a presentation of the three matters which the Middle Ages will call the Triuium . Then, one assists, in book VI, with exposed Geometry, then with that of Arithmetic in book VII, Astronomy in book VIII, and finally of Harmony in book IX (thus, books VI to IX take again four mathematical sciences that Boèce the first will call Quadriuium , and who will have a very important posterity with the Middle Ages).

Literary aspects

With the reading of Martianus Capella, one tests an impression of strangeness first of all, so much its style seems marked by a research of the hapax and uariatio . This “prose flowered”, often inspired, like pointed out several commentators, with Apulée, and in particular with the Âne of gold , is intersected with versified passages, in which Martianus uses fifteen meters different on the whole, with a great control (as opposed to what would imply certain commonplaces over this sometimes qualified time of “decline”).

One can look further into these somewhat surface considerations by including/understanding the literary concerns which constitute the directing wire of the Noces : Martianus Capella is located indeed exactly in the literary kind of the Satire Ménippée, which is characterized by the mixture (the saturated Latin indicates in the beginning a kind of made salad of dry grapes, polente and pinions): mix prose and of poetry, mixes the serious one and of grotesque, that one can summarize by the Greek concept of σπουδογέλοιον/ spoudogéloion (the serious one under the laughter). It is not a chance besides if the inspirer of all the account is supposed being the allegorical divinity Satura, kind of deification of this literary kind, with which Martianus has rather sharp exchanges at certain times of the account (Saturated makes fun for example of the “name with animal” of Martianus, since Capella means “the small goat properly”). One will be able to thus arrange Martianus in the line of the ancient great authors of ménippées satires, following Varron (author precisely of Satires Ménippées , we preserve only negligible fragments), Sénèque ( Apocoloquintose ), Lucien de Samosate ( Icaroménippe ), Pétrone ( Satyricon ), or Apulée ( the gold Ass).

History of the text and the influence of Martianus

Without going into too precise details, one can mention two great dates of the history of the text of the De Nuptiis : 534 (the recension and correction of the text by Securus Melior Felix), and medium of IXe century, which marks the rise of the text of Martianus in the Carolingian intellectual mediums, in particular under the influence of commentators like Jean Scot Erigène. In spite of some mentions of Martianus in authors of late Antiquity (Fulgence, Gregoire de Tours), it seems that the text was hardly diffused before the Carolingian rebirth; on the other hand, starting from the medium of IXe century, Martianus is abundantly copied in the Carolingian centers, and acquires a very important diffusion: the books of the allegorical encyclopedia that the work of Martianus constitutes are used in the Carolingian schools, and abundantly commented on (one will quote here only the gloses of Jean Scot Erigène, Martin de Laon and Remi of Auxerre, or the translation as old man high German by Notker Labeo, of the monastery of Saint Gall). Thereafter, the work of Martianus inspires by many artists, as well in the literary field (one finds allusions in the Heptateuchon of Thierry of Chartres, in the Metalogicon of Jean de Salisbury, or at Dante, for the reason for the celestial voyage) as in the pictorial field, with the popularity of the iconographic representations of seven arts during all Middle Ages and the Rebirth.

In spite of this influence of first order on the Middle Ages (in particular on the Early middle ages, before the return of the large philosophical and technical texts of Antiquity by the means of the Arab culture), Martianus is nowadays ignored: one would gain to redécouvrir it, beside authors like Macrobe and Boèce, for better including/understanding the transmission of science, the philosophy and literary forms in general of Antiquity to the Western Middle Ages.

Bibliographical elements

Old editions

Its work, writing of a hard and often obscure style, enjoy a great credit to the Middle Ages. It was printed for the 1st time at Vicence, 1499. Grotius gave a ED of it. with Leyde, 1599, being still old only 15 years; the most estimated is that of Kopp, Frankfurt, 1836, in-4.

Modern editions

F. Eyssenhardt, Martiani Capellae Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii , Leipzig, Teubner, 1866.
A. Dick, 1925, Martianus Capella , Leipzig, Teubner, 1925 (repr. Stuttgart, 1978, with the corrections of J. Courtyards).
J. Willis, 1983, Martianus Capella , Leipzig, Teubner.

Complete translations

W.H. Stahl, R. Johnson, E.L. Burge, Martianus Capella and the Liberal Seven Arts , vol. 2: The Marriage off Philology and Mercury , New York-London, Columbia University Near, 1977.
I. Ramelli, the nozze di Filologia E Mercurio. Introd., transl., how. E appendici di… , Milan, Bompiani, 2001.
H.G. Zekl, Martianus Capella. Die Hochzeit der Philologia spent Merkur , Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2005.

Partial translations

L. Lenaz, Martiani Capellae Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii liber secundus , Padoue, Liviana Editor, 1975.
G. Gasparotto, Marziano Capella. Geometria. Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii liber sextus. Intr., transl., Com. , Vérone, 1983.
L. Scarpa, Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii liber VII. Introd., transl. E Com. di… , Padoue, 1988.
J. there. Guillaumin, Martianus Capella. Weddings of Philology and Mercury. Deliver VII: arithmetic the , Paris, Beautiful Letters, 2003.
L. Cristante, Martianus Capella. Of nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii Liber IX , Padoue, Antenore Editor, 1987.

Some general studies

D. Shanzer, has Philological and Philosophical Commentary one Martianus Capella' S De Nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii Book I , Berkeley-Los Angeles, University off California Publications, 1986.
S. Grebe, Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae and Mercurii. Darstellung der Sieben Freien Künste und ihrer Beziehungen zueinander , Stuttgart-Leipzig, Teubner, 1999.
Mr. Bovey, Disciplinae cyclicae: The organization of the knowledge in work of Martianus Capella , Trieste, Edizioni Uhniversità di Trieste, 2003.

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