Re: VIRGIL: The Fourfold Method
For a very useful introduction to allegorical interpretation, and info on its practice at the school of Chartres, try W. Wetherbee's _Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century_. I think Prof. Wetherbee has also written on Bernard Silvestris, who produced (also in the 12th c) an allegorical commentary on Aeneid I-VI. Best, Bridget --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
Re: VIRGIL: nemo Hercule, nemo
At 12:51 PM 4/29/98 -0500, you wrote: David, do I understand you correctly that this is just the general use of hercle as an oath, an exclamation, and not a personal reference to Hercules? That's right: the author I cited (Lipsius) was an ardent Dutch Protestant, so I don't think he was really swearing by Hercules. I would translate it as by gum or something generic like that. But the contracted form is old: see Lewis Short, Hercules, 1b. --- David Wilson-Okamura http://www.virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of ChicagoOnline Virgil discussion, bibliography links --- --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
Re: VIRGIL: The Fourfold Method
At 05:17 PM 4/29/98 -0700, you wrote: Second, Johnson mentions the allegorical schools: the Stoicizing Homerists, Philo, the church fathers, the school of Chartres and Dante down to Spencer. Can someone flesh out the allegorical schools and/or name some books that specifically take up the history of the allegorical schools? One of the most helpful books I have ever read on the subject of medieval interpretive practice is the anthology of translated texts in A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c.1100-c.1375: The Commentary Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988, rev. 1991). Well-chosen selections and excellent introductions. But!! The four-fold method is usually reserved for interpreting scripture (altho' some--Hollander et al.--argue that Dante wrote the Commedia in such a way that the four sensus could be found in it as well). I can't think of any medieval exegete who tries to find the four sensus in a classical author. This is not to say that secular authors weren't read allegorically--it just means that there was a separate tradition of allegory apart from the four sensus (on wh. see Murrin, Veil of Allegory [1969] and Allegorical Epic [1980]; the basic text here is Boccaccio, Genealogie bks. 14 and 15, tr. by Osgood as Boccaccio on Poetry). You might also want to look at Beryl Smalley's classic Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (1940, rev. 1951). --- David Wilson-Okamura http://www.virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of ChicagoOnline Virgil discussion, bibliography links --- --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
Re: VIRGIL: The Fourfold Method
My own understanding of J's reductive mythmaking is this. The emphasis is not on the mythmaking - J. makes it clear that he has nothing against myths per se, or their making, only against their misapplication - but on the reductiveness. Reductive is one of those vague words that people do not always use to mean anything specific. But I think what J. was after was the type of interpretation which turns a poem into a bad paraphrase (i.e. the Aeneid is all about virtue) and then insists that this is the only possible paraphrase, marvelling that anyone could have any further questions about the poem once that point has been understood (i.e. the Aeneid is simply about virtue). One can see then why the term mythmaking is appropriate. The interpreter has turned the poem into a vehicle for his or her own private myth (the myth of Virtue), and tried to pass it off as a general myth. I don't know if that clarifies things, but that is my understanding of J., which is based on my deep if occasionally perplexed liking of his book. As for allegories, I myself would highly recommend Robert Lamberton's Homer the Theologian (Berkeley 1986). I imagine it would be a good complement to Wetherbee, because it traces the allegorizing tradition with regard to Homer from its earliest roots to its late flowering in Proclus and other Neo Platonists. It is at any rate very well written, I would almost say entertaining, and makes a rather complicated subject seem remarkably clear. Best Wishes PT --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
Re: VIRGIL: nemo Hercule, nemo
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], David Wilson-Okamura [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes That's right: the author I cited (Lipsius) was an ardent Dutch Protestant, so I don't think he was really swearing by Hercules. I would translate it as by gum or something generic like that. But the contracted form is old: see Lewis Short, Hercules, 1b. When a Roman said 'hercle' he was swearing by Hercules, and I mean 'he', for women didn't say it; conversely mean didn't say 'ecastor', 'by Castor', though both sexes said 'edepol', by Pollux: see Aulus Gellius 11. 6. Similarly it is Greek men who say Herakleis. However, 'hercle' found its way into literary prose as _ne Dia_, by Zeus, did in Greek, and was used as a classicism at the Renaissance. (That is nothing to the letter in the British Library from Vida to Bembo congratulating him on being made a cardinal, which thanks 'the immortal gods'. It is Additional MS 21520, folio 19; the MS is a collection of autographs, including a Michelangelo drawing.) Leofranc Holford-Strevens *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Roadusque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home)[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
VIRGIL: Reply to Thibodeau: Fourfold method
I appreciate your interpretation of Johnson's reductive mythmaking. That, say, the Aeneid is really about virtue. That's a helpful insight. When I was in seminary twenty years ago it was very common to say the Bible was really about the Kingdom of God. In fact my seminary, Calvin Theological Seminary, made the Kingdom of God the focus of how they taught Biblical and Systematic theology. I was always troubled by this reduction. I saw it as a nothing 'but-ery'. Thanks again. James C. Wiersum _ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] --- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message unsubscribe mantovano in the body.
