Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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To my interlocutor at the Analecta Bollandiana last March -

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If the Legendary, Breviary, or Cartulary survives, it is probably in Paris.

Becquet (p. 26 [2]), following the AA.SS. preface (p. 851 l.), notes that François de Blois was helped by "Antoine Wyon d'Hérovalle.", in AA.SS. "Antonius Wion Dominus Herovallius" (I don't understand the abbreviation "CL. V."). This latter is Antoine Vion d'Hérouval, 1606-1689. According to his entry in the extended Louis Moréri, Grand Dictionnaire Historique (1759; t. 10, p. 655, attached), he also supplied Labbe with "une infinité des pièces qui ont paru dans sa bibliothèque et dans sa collection des conciles." From his biography you can glean his importance for 17th century erudition. He bequeathed much of his collection to the Maurists (basic information from Vion's wikipedia page -https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_V ... 3%A9rouval ). I assume that whatever survived is now in the BnF.

Vion and de Blois were from Meulan, Gaucher's birthplace. Labbe and Picard (copyist of Vita in lat. 14366?) were based in Paris. Labbe and de Blois probably did not travel to Limoges to consult their breviaries and other documents directly, but got them from Vion (and he got them from ... correspondants?). Picard copied from...? The AA.SS. incipit matches de Blois ("Ex Cartulario sancti Stephani Lemovicensis" - the same "cartulary" (not the Legendary)) source as he gives for the pericope in cap. XI) and Picard perfectly, except for punctuation and omitting the "h" in Rothomagensi. Labbe adds "Igitur" before "Gaucherius", and spells Mellentensis instead of Meuthlensis. Labbe has edited somewhat - he adds the alternative spelling Methlensis in brackets. But "igitur" is also present in Becquet's medieval Vita.

De Blois 1652
Gaucherius territorio Rothomagensi Meuthlensis oppidi indigena fuit
Ex Cartulario sancti Stephani Lemovicensis

AA.SS. 1675 p. 851
Gaucherius, territorio Rotomagensi, Meuthlensis oppidi indigena fuit, parentibus religiositate clarissimi procreatus
Ex MS. Legendario Lemovicensi

So we have to wonder how loosely they used the terms "cartulary" and "legendary"; the AA.SS. legendary text is identical to de Blois' cartulary, or, we are dealing with at least two different books with identical text. Labbe's text is "ex antiquo codice ms. Ecclesiae Lemovicensis", which matches the annotation hand in Picard, in the postscript which mentions the four verses "in veteri codice eiusdem Prioratus aureliensis qui servatur in archivis Collegii nostri lemovicensis." This seems to be the Cartulary with the verses that Becquet identifies (pp. 27-28, and note 19) as that edited by Gaston de Senneville in 1900, "Cartulaire des prieurés d’Aureil et de l’Artige en Limousin," Bulletin... Limousin, XLVIII
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... checontact

But - there is no Vita of Gaucherius in that cartulary!

Finally, the other 17th century manuscript source Becquet mentions, lat. 17670, is from Saint Magloire, also in Paris. I was mistaken to hastily think it was from Limoges. My authority for this provenance, besides the spare BnF "Histoire de la conservation: Saint-Magloire" (it was not clear to me if that were merely the last owners), is Jacques Boussard, Historia pontificum et comitum Engolismensium, 1957, p. lxvi. "
Le ms. lat. 17670 de la Bibliothèque nationale. Ce recueil sans titre provient de la bibliothèque du couvent de Saint-Magloire de Paris, de laquelle il passa dans celle des frères Sainte-Marthe."

I have not been able to see Becquet's own words on 17670, mentioned among the bibliographic cards at the BnF webpage listing, Revue Mabillon 46 (1956), p.200.

Since I haven't seen it, I can't say if it contains the passage, but I trust that it is divided into six readings, as Becquet implies.
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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For the critical article by Jean Becquet mentioned above throughout, see pp. 25-43 here for the introduction (the Latin text of the 13th century Vita, which lacks our text, follows)
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... checontact

Comparison of Marziano's Vesta with the 1657 version of the Vita of Saint Gaucherius -

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

Critical text of Vesta -

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

Translation of Vesta and relevant part of Gaucherius' life -

http://www.rosscaldwell.com/marzianotex ... rces/VESTA THE VIRGIN.jpg
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 05 Aug 2019, 14:47 But the idea that the Virgins themselves beat other trumps, irrespective of their rank, is innovative. I seem to remember forms of Tarot where one trump is singled out as the most powerful, or the object of the game. This is not the typical point-trick game.
Well, per Petrarch, everyone else is venal and under the sway of Cupid in his Triumph of Love, except for chaste virgins, so naturally they'd be above everyone in Cupid's train. And there is an entire suit called "Virginities" - it has to have some meaning in the game.

Baldini is a bit late (and copying who knows which earlier piece of art in this engraving) , but the Chastisement of Cupid theme would underscore this Chastity-trick-taking idea - not only above Cupid but hostile to him:
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The Chastisement of Cupid; in the centre Cupid, blindfolded with arms behind his back, bound to a trunk and attacked by a group of four women with shears, a sword and a mace; the sleeves of one woman are inscribed: 'AMOR VUOL FE'; circular format. c.1465-80 Engraving
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ ... mages=true

Mercury's gender-switching is bit more subtle, as you say, of an idea (and perhaps less likely). Oddly Christine de Pizan does link Vesta, of all the deities, to transforming (I suppose today we'd say "transitioning") Iphis into a male for a wedding to take place (Vesta being used due to her relationship to valid marriages). The source for this is Ovid and he has Isis perform the gender transformation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphis

Yet another humanist playing fast and loose with the mythology of Vesta. Still looking into some other sources for your quandary....

Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Phaeded wrote: 05 Aug 2019, 17:58 Well, per Petrarch, everyone else is venal and under the sway of Cupid in his Triumph of Love, except for chaste virgins, so naturally they'd be above everyone in Cupid's train. And there is an entire suit called "Virginities" - it has to have some meaning in the game.
The virgins certainly could have a special role, in a game yet to be devised, but it is not self-evident in anything he writes. Like a special role for Cupid, we have to infer it (or just invent it). He only says that the following gods are ranked Jove to Cupid, high to low, but gives no indication of any special role for a given moral ordo of gods.

I look forward to trying some games with these cards, and hearing about others' games. Sooner or later we might have enough to put out a little rulebook.
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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http:://www.rosscaldwell.com/marzianotext/final ... ecomp1.jpg

Besides Labbe's addition of the pericope Gaucherii (Vesta's section), two other differences to note between the circa 1200 text and the 1657 text are:

1. The early Vita quotes Matthew 19:29 in a non-standard way, and adds "etc." after "aut patrem," while Labbe (or his immediate source) elides this and presents it as a coherent and self-contained sentence.

(Matthaeus xix:29 "Et omnis, qui reliquit domos vel fratres aut sorores aut patrem aut matrem aut filios aut agros propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet et vitam aeternam possidebit.
Vita: "Omnis qui reliquerit domum, uel fratres, aut sorores, aut patrem etc.. propter me, centuplum accipiet et uitam eternam possidebit )

2. Gaucherius goes to Aquitania (Aureil), and Labbe or his source suppresses an important phrase in the early Vita, causa discendi scientiam artis grammatice, "in order to learn grammar." Why might this be controversial or inconvenient for the sanctity of Gaucherius in the 17th century, but not in the 13th?

Vita: uenit in partes aquitanie causa discendi scientiam artis grammatice, cum illo ergo Dei prouidentia uenit in hac prouincia
Labbe: venit in partes Aquitaniae. Cum illo ergo Dei providentia venit in hanc provinciam,
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Ross,
I think I may have figured out what this moralizing, religion-focused version of Vesta is all about – Marziano’s description sounds like a truncated biography of the founder of Roman religion (and Marziano’s deck is nothing if not that): Numa Pompilius. One can find Numa mentioned in Boccacio who attributes the Roman worship of the gods to the Etruscans and Numa Pompilius (De mulieribus XXVII, 9-11). His source is of course Ovid, who notes the nymph Egeria taught Numa the sacred rituals which Rome would observe for as long as it existed (Metamorphoses, Bk XV:479-546). Egeria was also Numa’s “consort” and is associated with the vestals. Egeria’s most specific connection to the vestals is that they exclusively used sacred water from the place of her immemorial site, which was equally the grove of Diana Nemorensis (thus connected to another virgin in the deck). Even today not far beyond the Roman walls is the ruined apse of the Ninfeo d'Egeria, in Parco Cafarella, Rome, just off the Appian Way. As will be shown below, Numa has an even stronger and direct connection to the Vestals.

It appears then that Marziano directly associates the Vestal nymph’s wisdom, received by Numa in the form of laws and rituals for establishing Roman religion, with the ultimate source, being the vestal’s goddess herself: Vesta. The most extended literary source is Plutarch’s Life of Numa, of which Marziano would have epitomized and re-attributed (or to his mind, attributed to the original, divine source). Filelfo did a translation of Plutarch’s Numa in 1430, so the original Greek text was circulating at the time of Marziano’s work; the real question is to whether Marziano relied on another scholar proficient in Greek or on a summary; the latter would remove us even further from the source material of course but would lend itself to an abridgment such as used by Marziano. At all events, forget the later hagiographical nonsense – some priest or monk surely appropriated Marziano.

Below is your Marziano critical text of Vesta, broken down into four thematic parts and juxtaposed with Plutarch’s Life of Numa, translated in full here: http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/numa_pom.html Unfortunately this translation has no pagination nor line numbers, but it’s a short text and a textual “find” search will lead you to the right portion from the quotations below.

VESTA THE VIRGIN
Marziano on Vesta, 1: I thought that Vesta the virgin should not be omitted, but that she should be added as the eleventh in the number of the gods, and received with a certain unique veneration, although the most modest virgin did not seem to require any human praise.
This looks like a mea culpa on Marziano’s part in having put together this text, because, as you note, his normal sources do not provide said text and so he included text(s) describing Numa that he thought implicated Vesta. Marziano thought she had to be included, not some other source with a list of gods. “Unique veneration” not merely differentiates the goddess from the other deities, but begs the question as to how/why Marziano decided her worship was unique…unless he perhaps had an editorial hand in cobbling together her description. The lack of such a precedent belied by the second phrase that she seemed not “to require any human praise” – i.e., it didn’t exist, not in the form Marziano fashions it.

Marziano on Vesta, 2: She was always intent upon the sacred rites of the gods, and in contemplative in meditation; she first established the religious life for virgins, and the vows of religion, by which those avowed would be no longer permitted to return to the world.

Of additional relevance is that Marziano ends his Vesta description by comparing the vestal virgins to nuns, and thus “the religious life of virgins” is a monastery or some building the contemplatives can withdraw to. This is precisely what Numa does for the vestals: “Numa built the temple of Vesta, which was intended for a repository of the holy fire, of a circular form, not to represent the figure of the earth, as if that were the same as Vesta….” . Not only does he provide their place of sanctuary but the very rules of the religious order, like a founding saint: “The statutes prescribed by Numa for the vestals were these: that they should take a vow of virginity for the space of thirty years, the first ten of which they were to spend in learning their duties, the second ten in performing them, and the remaining ten in teaching and instructing others.” He then physically ties the very institution of Roman kingship to the vestals: “After Numa had in this manner instituted these several orders of priests, he erected, near the temple of Vesta, what is called to this day Regia, or king's house, where he spent the most part of his time performing divine service, instructing the priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects.” Also note the Roman foundation myth artifact, the Trojan palladium, was kept in the temple of Vesta.

Marziano on Vesta, 3: She showed by plain and true eloquence that the things of this world are transitory and perishable, and that there is nothing in them that is desirable or lasting. Therefore she advised to esteem these things as nothing, and to steer the mind towards the better things. And she accused the human race of the greatest madness, since it pursues these worldly things with such skill and enthusiasm, yet it is so often frustrated and deluded by a false and empty hope. She said that one ought to flee the enticements of this world as so many great hindrances to virtue. Finally, she said that these things are worthless when compared to heavenly things, and wrapped in much bitterness; that to pursue them is only faintness, fear, incessant work, and death; but for those mindful of the gods there will be good hope, joy, calm, and eternal life reserved for them.
When Numa was asked to be the next king of Rome he complains “"Every alteration of a man's life is dangerous to him; but madness only could induce one who needs nothing....The very points of my character that are most commended mark me as unfit to reign, love of retirement and of studies inconsistent with business…”; he thus withdrew from the 'enticements of this world' and instead consulted with Egeria in isolation: “Numa did not retire from human society out of any melancholy or disorder of mind, but because he had tasted the joys of more elevated intercourse, and, admitted to celestial wedlock in the love and converse of the goddess Egeria, had attained to blessedness, and to a divine wisdom.” At one point Numa argues with Jupiter himself, “these answers he had learnt from Egeria.”

Marziano on Vesta, 4: Then she taught her virgins to deliver thanks to the gods assiduously, since they had received from them a great number of good things, ad they could hope to receive more, if they would persist in steadfast, and not pretended, devotion. She herself consecrated the first fires before the altars of the gods in perpetual veneration; the Vestal Virgins were named after her, they were held I the highest in reverence among the Romans. Wearing a very modest garment, like that of the nuns, she stands at an altar before the immortals, entreating the gods.
Plutarch has Numa in place of Vesta in creating the vestal order and centering them around the sacred fire: “He was also guardian of the vestal virgins, the institution of whom, and of their perpetual fire, was attributed to Numa, who, perhaps, fancied the charge of pure and uncorrupted flames would be fitly entrusted to chaste and unpolluted persons, or that fire, which consumes, but produces nothing, bears an analogy to the virgin estate.”

What Marziano seemingly has in effect done is “reverse engineered” the precepts by which Numa lived and attributes them to the religious laws of Vesta, who in turn necessarily informed Numa’s personal vestal-like muse, Egeria (from whose grove the vestals drew their sacred water). Put another way, like the "children of the planets" originated with Pizan, Numa is ultimately a "child"/protege of Vesta, and appropriately worships her as such (at least from this Marziano perspective).

Naturally, the availability of Plutarch’s Numa in the Pavian library, for instance, would help solidify this argument, but that still does not rule out an epitome of Plutarch that Marziano may have relied on, especially since he did not read Greek (as far as I understand). The above would explain why you can find no source specifically connected to Vesta that informed Marziano - it is the vita of her cult's founder that provides the details.

Phaeded
Last edited by Phaeded on 06 Aug 2019, 21:39, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Thanks very much Phaeded, Plutarch's Numa Pompilius is a great source to think about as Marziano's inspiration. You have done a fantastic job of analyzing it, from the looks of it. I'll ponder it. Of course we want to how and why Marziano created his Vesta.

However, the hagiographical stuff is not "nonsense," That somebody borrowed from the Tractatus and put it in another place is big news. Recall that until last September, when I found the two new manuscripts, the Paris manuscript was the only known copy; And it was not very well known. It seemed obscure as obscure could be. But now we find that somebody read it and liked one passage so much that he inserted it into a Saint's Life! That is high praise for Latin composition, I'd think. I am no judge, not in the slightest, but this passage made an impression on the hagiographer, or adaptor of the hagiography. The fact of this borrowing cannot be brushed aside as nonsense, not by people who care about the transmission of ideas through writing. I find it absolutely fascinating.

I do agree with you that the obvious answer is that somebody borrowed Marziano, not that Marziano borrowed from a life of Gaucherius, or that both borrowed from a common source. But I think that argument needs to be made, rather than just asserted. While Marziano borrowing from Gaucherius remains the least plausible scenario, that of a common source has somewhat more intrinsic plausibility, whatever Google's OCR search powers. It could simply be a manuscript that has not been printed but circulated enough, or that has been lost completely.

There may be ways from text-critical methods that can show a direct borrowing from Marziano to Gaucherius, but it may take someone more expert than I am to point it out.
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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No Numa Pompilius in the Pavia library. The only Plutarch is Epistola ad Traianum, identified by Pellegrin with the copy in BnF lat. 6122, In the catalogue made in Galeazzo Maria's time (1469), there is an Apothegmata ad Traianum, which Pellegrin tentatively identifies with the translation of Filelfo for Philippo Maria, with the incipit "Cum artaxerxi Persarum regi..." (When Artaxerxes was king of the Persians...)
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Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 06 Aug 2019, 18:12 No Numa Pompilius in the Pavia library.
Back to the thornier issue of an epitome then (which again, seems more likely given Marziano's lack of Greek and his abbreviated format).

A better on-line translation of Plutarch's Numa, with pagination and section numbers at least (sorry I didn't use this to begin with): http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... Numa*.html

A likely person who could have provided such an epitome: Manuel Chrysoloras (d. 1415) who was in Florence, Bologna, Venice, Rome and, most importantly, also visited Milan and Pavia (Interestingly, Filelfo, the translator of this work in 1430, learned Greek from Johannes Chrysoloras, noted variously as nephew, brother or son of Manuel). From the intro of a relevant study:

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Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and Purpose, edited by Noreen Humble (2010: xiv)

More details: It appears Manuel was in Milan from c.1400-1402, but still corresponding with one of Marziano's humanist colleagues there as late as 1413:

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(ibid, 244)

Phaeded

Re: Tractatus de deficatione sexdecim heroum, text and translation

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 06 Aug 2019, 16:11
Phaeded wrote: 05 Aug 2019, 17:58 Well, per Petrarch, everyone else is venal and under the sway of Cupid in his Triumph of Love, except for chaste virgins, so naturally they'd be above everyone in Cupid's train. And there is an entire suit called "Virginities" - it has to have some meaning in the game.
The virgins certainly could have a special role, in a game yet to be devised, but it is not self-evident in anything he writes. Like a special role for Cupid, we have to infer it (or just invent it). He only says that the following gods are ranked Jove to Cupid, high to low, but gives no indication of any special role for a given moral ordo of gods.

I look forward to trying some games with these cards, and hearing about others' games. Sooner or later we might have enough to put out a little rulebook.
True, and my emphasis above, but are not the suits given an order, if not paired? Virtues over Riches; Virginities over Pleasures? Chastity could of course be a virtue - its simply singled out a second time because of the (my presumption) heavy emphasis on Cupid and "love's arena"; so could be thought of as a bit more omnipresent. And Virginity/Chastity is not merely a theme, it is the only theme that trump's the game of love.

And if there is an argument to be made for a lingering Marziano influence on the CY, it was this emphasis on virginity/chastity that reappears in the only tarot Chariot to ever be depicted as such (and let's properly credit Hurst for this one):
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Ergo, why not a special game rule for Virginity trumps, if any rules existed at all, besides ordinal values? Yes, speculative, but there is plenty of rationale here.

Phaeded