Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 07 Apr 2020, 10:19 Don't forget that Apuleius gives the same list, not paired on couches, with the notion that these are for contemplation and intellectual qualities. Note that Apuleius says "contemplate by our keenness of mind" (acie mentis .. contemplantes), and Marziano virtually paraphrases it for Filippo Maria, "your keen intelligence will notice (observe, gaze upon, study)" (ingenii tui acumen conspiciet) the gods.
Apuleius is later than Manilius. I don't doubt, that there are others who reported something about groups with 12 gods. I gave the link to Roscher Mythology-dictionary with a rather difficult text for this reason with about 90 half-pages.
Nonetheless the Manilius text had a very special attractive situation in 1418, which none of the other texts had. It was NEW to the public mind in Italy. In the run of 15th century a lot of reactions occured.
Last edited by Huck on 08 Apr 2020, 18:13, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Filipo Maria Visconti - A Child of Saturn

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Re. Saturn in the Semideus
Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 08 Apr 2020, 14:12

“At the foot of the page is a green monster, evidently Saturn, from whom emerges a crowned face captioned as being Jupiter, king of the gods. His line of descendants runs up the page, first to Jupiter’s daughter Venus, to her son Aeneas, to Ascanius, and so on, right through ancient Rome and continuing up without interruption to Matteo Visconti (1250–1322), Stefano (c. 1287–1327), Galeazzo (1354–78), Gian Galeazzo (1378–1402), and finally his son, at the summit, Filippo Maria Visconti, below the coronation of the Virgin, sixty generations from Saturn.”
Just took a quick look at a couple of articles from a "Saturn-Aeneid" search, and oddly enough it appears that Virgil invented the idea of Saturn's Golden Age as being in Italy, based on just the first page of this article (have no checked out the full article on JSTOR yet: "THE SATURN OF THE "AENEID"-TRADITION OR INNOVATION?" Marianne Wifstrand Schiebe, Vergilius (1959-) Vol. 32 (1986), pp. 43-60). If that is what Saturn in Semideus is referencing then the source, unsurprisingly given the "ethnogenic" Anglus project, is Virgil.


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But did the Visconti really conceive of themselves as going back to the Golden Age? That must be what the "green monster Saturn" is - green because its Eden (and naturally the Serpent is there), the biblical cognate for Golden Age (and remember Filippo in the Visconti Hours below Adam and Eve). Haven't read this yet either (1st page available on JSTOR without logging in), but look at the last line and reference to a "mythical Eden": "Juno and Saturn in the Aeneid", William S. Anderson, Studies in Philology, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1958), pp. 519-532. (will need to especially read this one, considering the fuss I've created around Juno using Aeolus to blow Aeneas to Dido)

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Finally, the illumination below faces the page in the Visconti Hours showing Filippo's bust, so the below would be the second leaf painted for him by Bebello. Not green, but note the human-headed serpent below Eve (we are treading on very odd ground here with the insinuation that the fall of Saturn's Golden Age - to Jupiter's Age of Iron - parallels the Fall caused by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, with a connection between Saturn and the serpent....perhaps glossed over as simply primordial "knowledge", as in the famous tree):

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Phaeded

Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Virgil's emphasis on Juno as daughter of Saturn explains why Marziano mentions it.

Note, I spell it "Virgil" only because Marziano does. I realize that both modern scholarship and the most ancient examples spell it Vergil. By keeping Marziano's spelling in mind I also keep in mind that I am talking about medieval Virgil, and not the Vergil of modern scholarship or merely the "real" Vergil of history.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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There is a paralleling between the two genealogies, of the number 60. Sacco achieves 60 for Mary by using the common genealogy of Matthew and Luke up to David, then following Matthew only up to Joseph. If he had used Luke, it would have been 76 generations from Adam inclusive (Matthew starts with Abraham, but there are 20 from Adam inclusive to Thara, father of Abraham).

But Saturn's time is not literally the Garden of Eden. Saturn fits into the Biblical genealogy time.

Joseph and Mary's generation is of course about 1400 years before Filippo Maria. He being the 60th generation from Anchises and Venus (taking Jupiter as 0, like God in the Gospel one). So to place the time of Saturn or Jupiter, you have to overlay it on the Gospel one at the appropriate generation.

Castelletto's genealogy puts Lutius, number 26, at the time of Pompey and Julius Caesar. The next one, Ubertus Vicecomes, is not placed in relation to Roman history, but only says that he killed a dragon, in single combat with a clava - club or cudgel - that was terrorizing Milan. After Ubertus is Maximianus Rex, who is placed in the time of Pope Gelasius. This means that "Ubertus" occupies over 500 years of time, between Julius Caesar (died 44 b.c.) and Pope Gelasius (492-496).

So we should place the generation of Mary in the time of Lutius. This overlay means that Saturn-Jupiter's generation is 26 back from Mary and Joseph, or 34 in her genealogy, which is the time of David.

So Visconti's genealogy starts in the time of King David of Israel. Alternate spellings like 25 Phares/Perez are Luke/Matthew.
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0. God
1. Adam
2. Seth
3. Enos
4. Cainan
5. Maleleel
6. Jared
7. Enoch
8. Mathusala
9. Lamech
10. Noah
11. Shem
12. Arphaxad
13. Cainan
14. Sala
15. Heber
16. Phalec
17. Ragau
18. Saruch
19. Nachor
20. Thara
21. Abraham
22. Isaac
23. Jacob
24. Juda/Judah
25. Phares/Perez
26. Esrom/Hezron
27. Aram/Ram
28. Aminadab/Amminadab
29. Naasson/Nahshon
30. Salmon
31. Boaz
32. Obed
33. Jesse
34. David
35. Solomon
36. Rehoboam
37. Abijah
38. Asa
39. Jehoshaphat
40. Jehoram
41. Uzziah
42. Jotham
43. Ahaz
44. Hezekiah
45. Manasseh
46. Amon
47. Josiah
48. Jeconiah
49. Salathiel/Shealthiel
50. Zorobabel/Zerubbabel
51. Abiud
52. Eliakim
53. Azor
54. Zadok
55. Achim
56. Eliud
57. Eleazar
58. Matthan
59. Jacob
60. Joseph

1. IVPITER REX
2. Anchises------------Venus
3. Eneas Rex
4. Ascanius Rex
5. Anglus Primus Rex
6. Anlgus Iunior Rex
7. Ascanius Rex (Rex Angler e Mediolani)
8. Abida Rex
9. Sisoch Rex
10. Iulus Rex
11. Pucentius Rex
12. Elimach Rex
13. Gemebundus Rex
14. Albanicus Rex
15. Astatius Rex
16. Fallaramundus Rex
17. Elimach Rex
18. Rechius Rex
19. Bellonesus Rex
20. Bruniscendus Rex
21. Briennius Rex
22. Bruniscendus Rex
23. Agates Rex
24. Rutilaus Rex
25. Fallaramundus Rex
26. Bridomarus Rex
27. Lutius Rex (time of Pompey and Caesar)
28. Ubertus Vicecomes
29. Maximianus Rex (time of Pope Gelasius and King Theodoric)
30. Milo Rex
31. Rolandus Rex
32. Milo Rex
33. Alienus Rex
34. Galvaneus Comes
35. Perideus Rex
36. Rachis Rex
37. Agistulfus Rex
38. Desiderius Rex
39. Bernardus Comes
40. Guido Comes
41. Berengarius Imperator
42. Ugo Imperator
43. Berengarius Imperator
44. Adebertus Imperator
45. Atto Comes
46. Fulcus Comes
47. Obito Comes
48. Fatius Comes
49. Heriprandus Vicecomes (Eriprandus, Vicecomes=Visconti)
50. Otto Vicecomes
51. Andreas Vicecomes
52. Galvaneus Vicecomes
53. Ubertus Vicecomes
54. Obizo Vicecomes (Obizzo)
55. Tibaldus Vicecomes (Teobald, Theobald)
56. Matheus Vicecomes (Matteo)
57. Stephanus Vicecomes (Stefano)
58. Galeas Vicecomes (Galeazzo)
59. Iohannes Galeas Dux (Gian Galeazzo)
60a. Iohannes Maria Anglus Dux Mediolani (Milan) et Comes Anglie
60b. Philippus Maria Comes Papie (Pavia)


There were ancient Christian attempts to define the Graeco-Roman gods as figures named or alluded to in the Bible, but I can't recall them now.

Just found Lactantius, Divine Institutes, who says that Saturn was a contemporary of the Mesopotamian King Bel, who lived 322 years before the Trojan War, that is 1506 b.c. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23962459?seq=1

This seems too early for David in the Bible chronology, but I'm not sure how they calculated it. How long before Jesus was the Trojan War, for Christian writers?
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 08 Apr 2020, 18:50 But Saturn's time is not literally the Garden of Eden. Saturn fits into the Biblical genealogy time.
Point taken. And agree with the use of Virgil.

Still, why is Saturn a green dragon in the Semideus?

Saturn then almost represents a civilization highpoint - like Nimrud's tower - and it is lost.

And I still find it interesting Virgil relocates Saturn to Italy and a golden age there (there is no precedent). Previously the likes of Hesiod Cronus, who became the Greek cognate of Saturn, living his exile from Olympus on Blessed Isles with deserving heroes, beyond Oceanus but before the stars.

Again, the green dragon and golden age versus Eden....how does that all tie together in the genealogy?

Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Phaeded wrote: 08 Apr 2020, 22:23 Still, why is Saturn a green dragon in the Semideus?

Saturn then almost represents a civilization highpoint - like Nimrud's tower - and it is lost.

And I still find it interesting Virgil relocates Saturn to Italy and a golden age there (there is no precedent). Previously the likes of Hesiod Cronus, who became the Greek cognate of Saturn, living his exile from Olympus on Blessed Isles with deserving heroes, beyond Oceanus but before the stars.

Again, the green dragon and golden age versus Eden....how does that all tie together in the genealogy?
This might be the best resolution we can get from the book -


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/marzianotex ... etaila.jpg

If it is Saturn, the name may be on the unreadable banner to the left of the mouth.

From the mouth comes the lineage, starting with "Jupiter," (banner right of head) which you can make out on the banner. Next comes "Venus," (banner left of head) shown with a unique dark face (and long blond hair?).

Three up from Venus you can read "Abida," and on the right side "Aschanius," then down on the left "Anglus Iunior," and on the right is unreadable, but should be "Anglus Primus," then above Venus on the left is barely readable "Aschanius," and on the right "Eneas" (and long red hair?)

The names in Castelletto and Sacco appear to match completely (omitting Anchises in the generation of Venus, and Iohannes Maria after Iohannes Galeaz), with Filippo Maria in a vignette praying just below the Virgin, as the 60th in the series starting with Jupiter as 1.


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/marzianotex ... etail2.jpg

I've been reading the Chronica Bossiana (this is the source for the date of Beatrice and Filippo Maria's wedding) for Saturn and related matters, since he gives a history of the world, and then focuses on Milan up to the year 1492.
Bossi puts the foundation of Rome in 745 BC (745 years before the nativity); the Trojan War was 433 years before that, so 1178 BC.

Chronica Bossiana at Gallica
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... checontact

Jesus was born Anno Mundi 5199. Aeneas entered Italy AM 4022, hence 1177 BC. This giving only a year between the fall of Troy and his arrival in Italy.

He talks about the golden age of Saturn in Latium on page 25 (of the PDF reader, the 1492 text is not paginated). He follows Boccaccio, whom he frequently names, pretty much to the letter in his mythographical descriptions. He gives no Anno Mundi dates for any of it, but it all falls between other events, narrated chronologically, of the years 3881 and 3890. So he places Saturn's golden age roughly 140 years before the Trojan War.

Saturn has no relationship to Milan, which we are told was founded before Rome. But there is an interesting bit of folklore that I did not know - each of the six gates of the city originally belonged to a god. Page 32, Jove for Porta Giovia, "a name which persists to the present day;" Apollo for the Porta Romana; the Sun for Porta Orientalis; Porta Ticinensis, the southern gate to Pavia, for Saturn; Vercellina for Venus; Comensis for Juno. He then goes on to say that 15 years after Milan was founded, Ticino was founded, whose name was changed to Pavia.

So there is some connection there between Pavia and Saturn.

(as an aside, is it just me, or are the Visconti strange to derive themselves from symbols which so clearly allude to the serpent, the pagan gods, etc? I know everybody wanted to come from Troy, but the French royalty, and the Este, did not use these dark symbols)
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Re: Filipo Maria Visconti - A Child of Saturn

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Phaeded wrote: 08 Apr 2020, 15:41 Just took a quick look at a couple of articles from a "Saturn-Aeneid" search, and oddly enough it appears that Virgil invented the idea of Saturn's Golden Age as being in Italy, based on just the first page of this article (have no checked out the full article on JSTOR yet: "THE SATURN OF THE "AENEID"-TRADITION OR INNOVATION?" Marianne Wifstrand Schiebe, Vergilius (1959-) Vol. 32 (1986), pp. 43-60). If that is what Saturn in Semideus is referencing then the source, unsurprisingly given the "ethnogenic" Anglus project, is Virgil.


Image
Saturn in the Aeneid, Schiebe.JPG
Marianne Wifstand Schiebe has put it up on academia. https://uppsala.academia.edu/MarianneWifstrandSchiebe
And - DUDE! - I just noticed that I get 100 FREE ARTICLES to read on JSTOR!

Why in the name of ... did I not keep a long list of wished-for articles?

We might also consider that Beatrice is Juno herself, the Queen of Riches. I don't know what the arrangements were, but Beatrice was far more experienced and well-connected than Filippo Maria, and he surely could not just have confiscated her wealth and had this powerful woman put away. I read somewhere recently about how she might have been plotting with foreigners against Filippo Maria in 1418, and that that was the real reason behind it. I tend to believe it, only because I don't blame her, or, at least, I think I can see where see might have had reason.

But in view of my early date hypothesis, I don't think we can impute this suspicion to Marziano. From what we know, he would have worked well with Facino Cane, and by extension Beatrice, since the Tortonese Ghibellines and Cane were both working to support the Visconti regime. All I can see at this point is to caution Filippo Maria against the seduction of his new wealth, and perhaps in this new light, making sure she does not have too free a hand in using it either
- hence "too many wealthy people lead to a deterioration of our station". She was the wealthiest of all, and knew how to use it and who to use it with.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 09 Apr 2020, 15:38
Phaeded wrote: 08 Apr 2020, 22:23
Still, why is Saturn a green dragon in the Semideus?
...
And I still find it interesting Virgil relocates Saturn to Italy and a golden age there (there is no precedent). ...

Again, the green dragon and golden age versus Eden....how does that all tie together in the genealogy?

Chronica Bossiana at Gallica

[image of Saturn as a dragon at bottom of genealogy]


... he places Saturn's golden age roughly 140 years before the Trojan War.
...
(as an aside, is it just me, or are the Visconti strange to derive themselves from symbols which so clearly allude to the serpent, the pagan gods, etc? I know everybody wanted to come from Troy, but the French royalty, and the Este, did not use these dark symbols)



I was reading through what was scanned of a study on the Third Vatican Mythographer, who was widely popular for the reception of the pagan gods in the late Middle Ages (e.g., Petrarch used it to inform his own cataloging of the gods' appearances), and it in turn was largely based on Fulgentius, Isidore, Virgil by way of Servius, Macrobius, and Capella. Regarding the Aeneid and the founder of the Visconti line:

Thus we read in the Fifth Book of the Aeneid about a snake bursting forth from the tomb of Anchises: ‘uncertain whether it is the guiding spirit of the place.’ Indeed, what is added, ‘or the attendant spirit of the father,’ seems to be drawn from ancient custom. For it was the way of our ancestors that, whenever kings died, their beloved horses or slaves and the dearer one of their wives were burned up with them, and among the these wives there was great contention over this. Thus we can accept that an attendant slave was buried with Anchises, or the poet showed that he was made a god through apotheosis. (Third Vatican Mythographer, 19; tr. in Ronald E. Pepin, The Vatican Mythographers, 2008: 248)

Reproduced in Seznec and many times thereafter, but consider the illustration of Apollo of a Vat. III-inspired work also held in the Vatican, Reg. Lat 1290 (the images of the gods in all their sepia glory here: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Reg.lat.1290 ). This is pathetically understudied - all I can find is "upper northern Italy" and c.1420 - so a good chance Marziano's gods would have resembled this style (you'll get a kick out of Vesta, top of 5r).


Image

Note Python's curly-cued tail forming a circle on the left, like the Visconti serpent, which is also on the three-headed version below Apollo (its feint, just on the back of the muse closest to the viewer's perspective). And then one might think of the slain Python as incorporated into Macrobius's three-headed serpent monster underneath Apollo. Also derived from the Vat-III mythography is the the three-headed animal Apollo sits upon - Serapis, equated with the sun in Macrobius's Saturnalia, which had the extra lustre of containing Cicero's Dream of Scipio. Boccaccio is not very explicit, but merely cites Macrobius's Saturnalia and says Apis/Serapis "seems to be thought of as the sun (Gen. II.4.7), sending anyone else with with piqued interest after Macrobius. Serapis/Sarapis in Macrobius:

"In the city on the borders of Egypt which boasts Alexander of Macedon as its founder, Sarapis and Isis are worshiped with a reverence that is almost fanatical. Evidence that the sun, under the name of Sarapis, is the object of all this reverence is either the basket set on the head of the god or the figure of a three-headed creature placed by his statue. The middle head of this figure, which is also the largest, represents a lion's; on the right a dog raises its head with a gentle and fawning air; and on the left the neck ends in the head of a ravening wolf. All three beasts are joined together by the coils of a serpent whose head returns to the god's right hand which keeps the monster in check." Macrobius, Saturnalia (I.20.13)

He goes on to associate each animal with the past, present and future (famously applied as an interpretation of Titian's "Allegory of Prudence"). But to a medieval mindset, Macrobius is also describing time - and hence Saturn. Can that image be constructed as Apollo's dominance over time? Given the Visconti strong attachment to Apollo via the radiant sun impresa, did they not also view their biscione stemma, not just from the dumb Saracen story (which only explains the man in the mouth) but as related to Apollo?

Those suspicions get a bit of confirmation here in this discussion of the medieval understanding of Apolllo:

Even Apollo’s defeat of the Python is not clear-cut an image of wisdom triumphing over error as it may first appear., as Bersuire’s compression of the myth [Ovidius Moralizatus], considered earlier, to align Apollo with the serpent/devil suggested. One explanation offered in Macrobius’s Saturnalia for Apollo’s epithet ‘Pythian,’ for example, is that the sun’s own motion at times appears serpentine; the myth of the python’s slaying thus arose to express the annual end of Apollo’s course through the sky….Macrobius also refers Apollo’s serpentine path to his epithet Loxias – in Latin obliquus, or winding, a term applied to Apollo’s obscure and circumlocutionary oracular speech in De nuptiis and routinely glossed by medieval commentators. Others claim that Apollo at Delo appeared to his worshipers as a serpent. Similarly, Isidore remarks that Apollo’s epithet ‘Pythius,’ and the Pythian games he institutes, commemorate not only the god’s triumph over the serpent but his appropriation of its identity since the name Python was among the ‘spolia’ (booty) taken by Apollo (Jamie Claire Fumo, The Legacy of Apollo: Antiquity, Authority and Chaucerian Poetics, 2010: 121)
Taking us back to the ethnogenic's project's origins in France, the same scholar:
The most seminal literary identification of Apollo with idolatry, however, was dound not in a saint’s life but a ‘history’: Guido delle Colonne's Historia destructionis Troiae (1287)…..Much of Guido’s material in this section is drawn from book 8, chapter 11 of Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, which features a detailed catalogue of the major and minor pagan gods in the context of euhemerism and idolatry. Isidore’s list, arranged to ‘reflect the celestial hierarchy’ as astrologically and genealogically ordained, begins with Saturn an treats Apollo roughly halfway through. In contract, Guido’s handling of the archival material that he brings to bear on the Troy story revises Isidore’s precedent to draw attention to the mythography of Apollo as springboard for a reflection on idolatry itself in all of its cosmic scope. In Guido’s temple scene, the pagan pantheon becomes, in essence, a function of Apollo, whose historical position in Guido’s narrative eclipses Saturn’s pride of place at the head of the catalogue of Olympians. In the Historia, Apollo has theoretical, if not genealogical, authority (ibid, 113).


Keep in mind that in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, in the return of the Golden Age of Saturn, it is Apollo who reigns:
The great cycle of periods is born anew.
Now returns the Maid, returns the reign of Saturn:
Now from high heaven a new generation comes down.
Yet do thou at that boy's birth,
In whom the iron race shall begin to cease,
And the golden to arise over all the world,
Holy Lucina, be gracious; now thine own Apollo reigns.



I really think we need to start understanding the Visconti biscione as specifically designed as "serpentine" to reflect the above lore, and that it was tied to the radiant sun impresa as part of Apollo's identity. And to note this again, the tutelary god of Troy (thus Aeneas) is none other than Apollo.

Phaeded

Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Phaeded wrote: 09 Apr 2020, 20:09 Reproduced in Seznec and many times thereafter, but consider the illustration of Apollo of a Vat. III-inspired work also held in the Vatican, Reg. Lat 1290 (the images of the gods in all their sepia glory here: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Reg.lat.1290 ). This is pathetically understudied - all I can find is "upper northern Italy" and c.1420 - so a good chance Marziano's gods would have resembled this style (you'll get a kick out of Vesta, top of 5r).
There is another copy in Hungary, recently discovered. Here is a paper in French by Farkas Gabor Kiss (I love his name)

https://www.academia.edu/20059019/Un_no ... 2015_23-39

He includes two illustrations, at the very end, of Mercury and Pan, that you can compare to the Vatican version.
Kiss makes it clear that Vatican version is superior, and this version was probably copied from it, although some doubts remain since there are a few indications that the copyist knew better than the Vatican one.
He locates it in Padua, circa 1440, and therefore suggests that the Vatican one was there too. Perhaps, composed there.

I made a long study of this, and the Vatican mythographers, to see if Marziano were influenced by them - chiefly IIIrd Vatican Mythographer and Albericus, since I VM is unknown outside of a single copy, and VM II is only known in about 10 copies.

But I found no indications at all of Marziano's use of them. Boccaccio is his main source. Nevertheless, I have a good library on the Vatican Mythographers now, including purchasing Pepin's lovely translations. Mike Howard helped me with copies of studies I couldn't see here, but were available in the US. Also learned there is no critical edition of IIIrd VM, mostly because there are over 50 manuscripts to check. Marco and I thought a translation of Albericus, based on the Vatican copy of course, with the illustrations added with color applied, would be a great project. Presented exactly as in Reg. lat. 1290.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Phaeded wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 20:12 The problem: Dido is not featured in Marziano.

The most disparate collection of deities is where Aeolus himself has been placed:
Riches/Phoenixes: Juno, Neptune, Mars, Aeolus


Do all of these indirect allusions to the Aeneas-Dido episode in the Aeneid really point us to Beatrice Cane? Whom else could it possibly?
Your explanation of phoenix in all its senses, and all of the extended ramifications, is a tour de force, really. I'm sold, for the moment. Reread Keith Harris' translation (here pages 50-53 https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/coll ... /1.0094332 (the best way seems to be to scroll down to "Download", and take the first link, the PDF)), or anywhere, and see how Lactantius sounds when thinking of Dido and Marziano's Phoenix.

Marziano may not have mentoned Dido because it would be too direct. They both knew what they were talking about.

The two most unique features of Marziano, the problems for interpreting him, are using the phoenix to symbolize riches, and the choice of Aeolus in the sequence.
Of a second order is Daphne, for which we can luxuriate in Petrarch, as Filippo Maria did.
Cupid's presence, the pest and spoiler, is different from both of these - he seems to be the key to the play of the game in some way, but we can only speculate how.

For the first two, Phoenix and Aeolus, in the context of Aeneid, Dido-Beatrice, "Phoenician," etc., you have adroitly drawn together the only thread of associations that make sense, so I thank you for that.

Where I differ with you is the meaning of it all. I don't believe Marziano wanted him to hurry up and get "married" to a pure girl, a Daphne, or even sire a child as soon as possible. One of Filippo Maria's first acts was to assure the succession in Gian Galeazzo's last surviving son, Antonio. Whatever his fitness personally - like Gian Maria before him - he was the great father's last son. Filippo Maria was young enough, and the duchy stable enough within the year of 1412, that he had plenty of time to father children with whomever he chose. But the succession was never in jeopardy, especially during Marziano's life. In those years, the duke went from victory to victory, growing in strength and security. So he had time.

So the pressing issue, and I believe Marziano's purpose, in general and specifically with the web of allusions to Dido who has to be Beatrice, is the dangers of such wealth, something he had never had and was not brought up to control as his due. And another purpose, no doubt, was to be wary of Beatrice's own real power.
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