The sources and significance of the Orpheus myth in Musica Enchiriadis and Regino of Prüm's Epistola de harmonica institutione

Early Music History

Volumn 18, Issue , 1999, Pages 47-74

  Boynton, Susan ^a  

^a Oregon University System   (United States)

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EID: 62949118496     PISSN: 02611279     EISSN: 14740559     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0261127900001832     Document Type: Article

References (194)

1. As early as the fifth century BC there apparently existed two versions of the story: in one, Orpheus rescued Eurydice successfully; in the other, he failed. See C. M. Bowra, ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, Classical Quarterly, 11 (1952), pp. 113–126
2. D. Sansone, ‘Orpheus and Eurydice in the Fifth Century’, Classica et Mediaevalia, 36 (1985), pp. 53–64.
3. For an overview of the Orpheus myth in texts before Virgil, see M. O. Lee, Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics (Albany, N.Y., 1996), pp. 1–11.
4. General studies of the Orpheus myth include L. Brisson, ‘Orphée et l'Orphisme à l'époque impériale: Témoignages et interprétations philosophiques, de Plutarque à Jamblique’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, II/36.4 (Berlin and New York, 1990), pp. 2867–2931
5. E. Henry, Orpheus with his Lute: Poetry and the Renewal of Life (Carbondale and Edwardsville, 111., 1992)
6. E. Norden, ‘Orpheus und Eurydice’, Sitzungsberichte der Preuβischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 22 (1934), pp. 626–683
7. K. Zeigler, in Paulys Real-Encyclopödie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 18/1 (Stuttgart, 1939), cols. 1120–1316
8. C. Segal, Orpheus: The Myth of the Poet (Baltimore and London, 1989)
9. F. W. Sternfeld, ‘Orpheus, Ovid, and Optra’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 113 (1988), pp. 172–202.
10. I. Jesnick, The Image of Orpheus in Roman Mosaic (Oxford, 1997), pp. 5–44, is particularly valuable for its synthesis of visual with textual evidence and its consideration of popular imagery of Orpheus.
11. Segal, Orpheus, pp. 1–35.
12. ‘ut idem musici et vates et sapientes iudicarentur, mittam alios, Orpheus et Linus’; M. Fabi Quintiliani Institutionis Oratoriae Libri XII, ed. L. Radermacher (Leipzig, 1971), I, p. 58 (1.10.9).
13. ‘siluestres homines sacer interpretes deorum/caedibus et uictu foedo deterruit Orpheus / dictus ob hoc lenire tigris rabidosque leones’ (Ars poetica 391–3)
14. Horace: Epistles Book II and Epistle to the Pisones (‘Ars Poetica’), ed. N. Rudd (Cambridge, 1989), p. 71.
15. Vergil, Georgica 4.490
16. Aeneid VI.637–65
17. see W. S. Anderson, ‘The Orpheus of Virgil and Ovid: flebile nescio quid’, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, ed. J. Warden (Toronto, 1982), pp. 25–50
18. A. Pennacini, ‘La narrazione patetica di Virgilio: Orfeo nell'Ade’, in Orfeo e I'Orfeismo: Atti del Seminario Nazionale (Rome-Perugia 1985–1991), ed. A. Masaracchia (Rome, 1993), pp. 211–218
19. Segal, Orpheus, pp. 36–53.
20. Lee, Virgil as Orpheus, pp. 12–13, argues that Virgil's is the first extant written acccount of Orpheus' failure to bring Eurydice from Hades.
21. ‘hinc aestimo et Orphei vel Amphionis fabulam, quorum alter animalia ratione caren-tia, alter saxa quoque trahere cantibus ferebantur, sumpsisse principium, quia primi forte gentes vel sine rationis cultu barbaras, vel saxi instar nullo affectu molles, ad sen-sum voluptatis canendo traxerunt’; Macrobius, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis II.iii.8, ed.J. Willis (Leipzig, 1963), p. 105.
22. C. Santini, ‘Orfeo come personaggio delle Metamorfosi e la sua storia raccontata da Ovidio’, in Orfeo e l'Orfeismo, pp. 219–233
23. Segal, Orpheus, pp. 54–72, 81–94.
24. Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, III.xii.52–8.
25. This tradition in the interpretation of the myth will not be considered further here; on early-medieval Boethius commentaries and their influence, see J. S. Wittig, ‘King Alfred's Boethius and Its Latin Sources: A Reconsideration’, Anglo-Saxon England, 11 (1983), pp. 157–198.
26. (I thank Joseph Wittig for giving me an offprint of this article.) On interpretations of Boethius' Orpheus metre in the later Middle Ages, see Friedman, Orpheus, pp. 90–117
27. Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c. 1100–1375: The Commentary-Tradition, ed. A. Minnis and A.B. Scott (Oxford, 1988), pp. 121, 320–1.
28. On medieval interpretations of Orpheus in general, see J. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1970)
29. K. Heitmann, ‘Orpheus im Mittelalter’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 45 (1963), pp. 235–294.
30. Orpheus also functioned as a model of love and mourning; on the image of Orpheus in Paschasius Radbertus' Vita Adalhardi, see P. von Moos, Consolatio: Studien zur Mittellateinischen Trostliteratur über den Tod und zum Problem der Christlichen Trauer (Munich, 1971) I, pp. 139–40; II, pp. 99–100.
31. On Christian readings of the myth, see Friedman, Orpheus, pp. 38–145
32. E. Irwin, ‘The Songs of Orpheus and the New Song of Christ’, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, pp. 51–62
33. R. Skeris, ‘Chroma theoi’: On the Origins and Theological Interpretation of the Musical Imagery Used by the Ecclesiastical Writers of the First Three Centuries, with Special Reference to the Image of Orpheus (Altotting, 1976), pp. 146–160, 256–9
34. P. Vicari, ‘Sparagmos: Orpheus among the Christians’, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, pp. 63–84.
35. See Friedman, Orpheus, pp. 117–136.
36. A widely transmitted marginal gloss on Metamorphoses x.63, part of a commentary composed c. 1250 in central France, presents an allegory of the myth based on Boethius' moral interpretation; the Orpheus myth is edited by F. Coulson, The ‘Vulgate’ Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses; The Creation Myth and the Story of Orpheus (Toronto, 1991), p. 139.
37. For more bibliography on medieval commentaries on the Metamorphoses, see F. Coulson and U. Molyviati-Toptsis, ‘Vaticanus latinus 2877
38. A Hitherto Unedited Allegorization of Ovid's Metamorphoses’, Journal of Medieval Latin, 2 (1992), pp. 134–139.
39. P. Dronke, ‘The Return of Eurydice’, Classica et Mediaevalia, 23 (1962), pp. 198–215
40. S. Jaeger, ‘Orpheus in the Eleventh Century’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 27 (1992), pp. 141–168
41. idem. The Envy of Angels (Philadelphia, 1994), pp. 143–164.
42. For example. The Commentary on the First Six Books of the Aeneid of Vergil Commonly Attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, /Commentum Quod Dicitur Bernardi Silvestris Super Sex Libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W.Jones and E. F.Jones (Lincoln, Neb., and London, 1977), p. 55 (on VI.119) ‘CITHARA; oratione rethorica. FIDIBUS; ornatibus rethoricis’.
43. The Commentary on Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, ed. H.J. Westra (Toronto, 1986), p. 98 (on De nuptiis v.124–34).
44. Integumentum vero est oratio sub fabuiosa narratione verum claudens intellectum, ut de Orpheo. Nam et ibi historia et hie fabula misterium habent occultum’; The Commentary, p. 45 (on De nuptiis 11.74–5). All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.
45. Dante, Convivio II.i.3, ed. F. B. Ageno (Florence, 1995), II, p. 65.
46. On this passage, see also Medieval Literary Theory, p. 384.
47. Aquinas, commentary on Aristotle's De anima I.12.190, cited in A. Buck, Der Orpheus-Mythos in der italienischen Renaissance (Krefeld, 1961), pp. 11, 31 n. 27.
48. Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium libri V.12, ed. V. Romano (Bari, 1951), I, pp. 244–247.
49. On Renaissance interpretations of Orpheus, see Buck, Der Orpheus-Mythos
50. D. Harrán, ‘Orpheus as Poet, Musician, and Educator’, in Altro Polo: Essays on Italian Music in the Cinquecento, ed. R. Charteris (Sydney, 1990), pp. 265–276
51. G. Scavizzi, ‘The Myth of Orpheus in Italian Renaissance Art, 1400–1600’, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, pp. 111–162.
52. See G. Mazzotta, ‘Orpheus: Rhetoric and Music’, in his The Worlds of Petrarch (Durham, N.C., and London, 1993), pp. 129–146.
53. Petrarch, Epistolae ad Familiares, I.ix.7: ‘Non referam tibi nunc que de hac re Marcus Cicero in libris Inventionum copiosus disputat - est enim locus ille notissimus - nee fabulam Orpheus vel Amphionis interseram quorum ille beluas immanes, hie arbores ac saxa cantu movisse et quocunque vellet duxisse perhibetur, nonnisi propter excellentem facundiam, qua fretus alter libiniosos ac truces brutorumque animantium moribus simillimos, alter agrestes et duros in saxi modum atque intractabiles animos, ad mansuetudinem et omnium rerum patientiam creditur animasse.’
54. Ed. V. Kossi, Francesco Petrarca: Le Familiari (Florence, 1933), I, pp. 46–47.
55. D. P. Walker, ‘Orpheus the Theologian and Renaissance Platonists’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 16 (1953), pp. 100–120
56. J. Warden, ‘Orpheus and Ficino’, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, pp. 85–110.
57. On Fulgentius, see most recently B. G. Hays, ‘Fulgentius the Mythographer’, Ph.D. diss. (Cornell University, 1996).
58. Hays has shown (pp. 263–91) that Fulgentius the mythographer was not the same person as the Bishop of Ruspe, earlier discussed by P. Langlois, ‘Les oeuvres de Fulgence le mythographe et le problème des deux Fulgences’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, 1 (1964), pp. 94–105.
59. See also J. Chance, Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School ofChartres, AD 433–1177 (Gainesville, Fla, 1994), pp. 95–128.
60. Aurelian of Réôme mentions the myth in passing in Auretiani Reomensis Musica Disciplina, I.3–4, ed. L. Gushee, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica 21 (Stuttgart, 1975), p. 58, but his use of it falls outside the scope of this study.
61. ‘ut scolastici, postquam psalmi, cantica et hymni memoriae commendata fuerint, regula, post regulae textum liber comitis, interim uero historiam diuinae auctoritatis et exposi-tores eius necnon et conlationes patrum et uitas eorum legendo magistris eorum audien-tibus percurrant. Postquam uero in istis probabiliter educati fuerint, ad artem litteraturae et spirituales se transferant flores’; ‘Actuum praeliminarium synodi primae aquisgranen-sis commentationes sive Statuta Murbacensia (816)’, in Comuetudines Saeculi Oclavi et Noni, ed. J. Semmler, Corpus consuetudinum monasticarum I (Siegburg, 1963), p. 442.
62. The Aachen reform stipulated, with limited success, that only child oblates committed to becoming monks could study in monastic schools. See M. de Jong, ‘Carolingian Monasticism: The Power of Prayer’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, II: c. 700-c. 900, ed. R. McKitterick (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 631–633.
63. On secular students in monastic schools, see M. M. Hildebrandt, The External School in Carolingian Society (Leiden, 1992).
64. For recent surveys of Carolingian education, see J. J. Contreni, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance: Education and Literary Culture’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, II, pp. 709–757
65. idem, ‘The Pursuit of Knowledge in Carolingian Europe’, in ‘The Gentle Voices oj Teachers’: Aspects of Learning in the Carolingian Age, ed. R. Sullivan (Columbus, Ohio, 1995), pp. 106–141
66. O. Pederson, The First Universities: Studium Generale and the Origins of University Education in Europe, trans. R. North (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 67–91.
67. Contreni, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance’, p. 727, points out that ‘it would be misleading to compress the reality of Carolingian learning to the liberal arts programme’; most advanced monastic studies seem to have consisted primarily of grammar and included little of the other liberal arts.
68. On education in the early rules, see P. Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth Through Eighth Centuries, trans. J. J. Contreni (Columbia, S.C., 1976), pp. 113–116
69. on education in the customaries, see J. Tilliette, ‘Le vocabulaire des écoles monastiques d'après les prescriptions des consuetudines (Xe-XIIe siècles)’, in Vocabulaire des écoles et des méthodes d'enseignement au moyen âge, ed. O. Weijers (Turnhout, 1992), pp. 60–72.
70. Although the outline of the stages of music education presented by J. Smits van Waesberghe in Musikerziehung: Lehre und Theorie der Musik im Mittelalter, Musikgeschichte in Bildern 3 (Leipzig, 1969), p. 18, assigns the study of the ars musica to adolescentes, most monks were probably not exposed to this discipline.
71. For Boethius' definition of the musicus, see below. On the distinction between musicus and cantor, see E. Reimer, ‘Musicus und Cantor. Zur Sozialgeschichte eines musikalis-chen hthrmacks’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 35 (1978), pp. 1–32.
72. For a useful overview of developments in this period, see S. Rankin, ‘Carolingian Music’, in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation, ed. R. McKitterick (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 274–316
73. on the early history of notation, see most recently S. Barrett, ‘Music and Writing: On the Compilation of Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale lat. 1154’, Early Music History, 16 (1997), pp. 55–96
74. K. Levy, Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians (Princeton, 1998), pp. 3–18, 187–252.
75. On music theory, see also H. Schueller, The Idea of Music: An Introduction to Musical Aesthetics in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1988), pp. 283–327.
76. A major redaction is Glossa Maior in Institutionem musicam Boethii, ed. M. Bernhard and C. Bower (Munich, 1993-). See also M. Bernhard, ‘Überlieferung und Fortleben der antiken lateinischen Musiktheorie im Mittelalter’, in Geschichte der Musiktheorie, III, Rezeption des antiken Eachs im Mittelalter, ed. F. Zaminer (Darmstadt, 1990), pp. 24–31.
77. Hucbald of St Amand's Musica (885–900) and the Enchiriadis treatises are early attempts to reconcile musica and cantus. On the Enchiriadis treatises, see below. For the most recent edition and translation of Hucbald's text, see Y. Chartier, L'oeuvre musicale d'Hucbald de Saint-Amand: Les compositions el le Iraité de la musique (Saint-Laurent, 1995); on the date, see pp. 76–7; on Hucbald's reconciliation of ancient theory with practical music, see pp. 46–77.
78. L. Gushee, ‘Questions of Genre in Medieval Treatises on Music’, in Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrijt Leo Schrade, ed. W. Arlt, E. Lichtenhahn and H. Oesch, I (Bern, 1975), p. 395.
79. C. Bower, ‘Reception, Reaction, and Redaction: A Reflection on Carolingian and Post-Carolingian Musical Thought’, unpublished paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society (Phoenix, Ariz., November 1997). Bower divides the influence of Boethius in the ninth century into three stages: reception (800–830), demonstrated by the early glosses on De institutione musica; reaction (830–60), evidenced by Aurelian's use of glosses on Boethius; and redaction (860–900), exemplified by the synthesis of musica and cantus in the Enchiriadis treatises.
80. See P. JefTery, Re-envisioning Past Musical Cultures (Chicago and London, 1992), pp. 59–62, on the importance of studying the lives of musicians for understanding the transmission of medieval chant.
81. Customaries are prescriptive texts that supplement the Benedictine rule with detailed guidelines for the life of a monastic community. For an overview of the genre, see L. Donnat, ‘Les coutumiers monastiques: Une nouvelle entreprise et un territoire nouveau’, Revue Mabillon, 64 (1992), pp. 5–21.
82. See M. Fassler, ‘The Office of the Cantor in Early Western Monastic Rules and Customaries: A Preliminary Investigation’, Early Music History, 5 (1985), pp. 29–51
83. S. Boynton, ‘The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Customaries from the Central Middle Ages’, Studia Liturgica, 28 (1998), pp. 194–209.
84. Fassler, ‘The Office of the Cantor’, pp. 39–42.
85. ‘Haec igitur fabula artis est musicac designatio. Orpheus dicitur oreafone, id est optima uox, Euridice uero profunda diiudicatio. In omnibus igitur artibus sunt primae artes, sunt secundae; ut in puerilibus litteris prima abecetaria, secunda nota, in grammaticis prima lectio, secunda articulatio … in musicis prima musica, secunda apotelesmatice’; Fabii Planciadis Fulgentii V.C. Opera III.10 (htvtdihtvMitologiae), ed. R. Helm, rev. J. Préaux (Stuttgart, 1970), pp. 77–79.
86. R. YAmck, Die Lateinische Etymologie des Mittelalten (Munich, 1970), p. 181.
87. ‘Aput astrologos aliut est astrorum ac siderum cursus elTectusque cognoscere, aliut sig-nificata traducere’; Mitologiae, p. 78.
88. ‘in musicis uero aliud est armonia ptongorum, sistematum et diastematum, aliud effectus tonorum uirtusque uerborum; uocis ergo pulchritudo delectans interna artis secreta uirtutem etiam misticam uerborum attingit’; Mitologiae, p. 78.
89. Aristides Quintiliani de musica libri tres, ed. R. P. Winnington-Ingram (Leipzig, 1963). The relation of music to the universe is the subject of lll.ix-xxvii; on this section, see On Musk In Three Books, trans. T.J. Mathiesen (New Haven and London, 1983), pp. 42–57.
90. Macrobius, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, II.i-iv, pp. 95–109.
91. Martianus Capella, De nuptiis philologiae et mercurii, ed J. Willis (Leipzig, 1983). In this work, Harmonia is the culmination of the liberal arts, and as a figure of the harmony of the universe Harmonia prepares the path to heaven
92. see L. Cristante, Martiani Capella De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Liter IX (Padua, 1987), pp. 15–17. On the connection between music and astrology
93. see G. Wille, Musica Romana: Die Bedeutung der Musik im Lehen der Römer (Amsterdam, 1967), pp. 591–593.
94. ‘ipsa ars communionem hominum uitat. Quae quidem serpentis ictu moritur quasi astutiae interceptu, secretis uelut inferis transmigratur’; Mitologiae, p. 78.
95. ‘Sed post hanc artem exquirendam atque cleuandam uox canora descendit et quia apotelesmatica fonascica omnia praebet et modulis tantum ui secreta latentibus uoluptatum reddit effectus; dicere enim possumus quos Dorius tonus aut Frigius Saturno coicns feras mulceat, si loui, aues oblectet. At uero si rei expositio quaeritur cur hoc fiat, uestigandae rationis captus inmoritiir’; Mitologiae, pp. 78–9. I am grateful to Leofranc Holford-Strevens for help with the phrase apotelesmatica fonascica.
96. ‘Ideo ergo et ne eam respiciat prohibetur et dum uidet amittit; nam perfectissimus Pithagoras dum modulos numeris coaptaret simphoniarumque pondera lerminibus arithmeticis per mela ct rithmos uel modulos sequeretur, effectus ucro rationem reddere non potuit’; Mitologiae, p. 79.
97. ‘Is vero est musicus, qui ratione perpensa canendi scientiam non servitio operis sed imperio speculationis adsumpsit … isque est musicus, cui adest facultas secundum specula-tionem rationemve propositam ac musicae convenientem de modis ac rythmis deque generibus cantilenarum ac de permixtionibus…’ Boethius, De institutione musica I.xxxiv, in Anicii Manlii Torquati Severini Boetii De institutione arithmetica libri duo, de institutione musica libri quinque, ed. G. Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867), pp. 223–4, trans.
98. C. Bower, Fundamentals of Music (New Haven and London, 1989), p. 51.
99. M. L. Laistner, ‘Fulgentius in the Carolingian Age’, in The Intellectual Heritage of the Early Middle Ages, ed. C. Starr (New York, 1983), pp. 202–215.
100. Glossa maior, III, p. 3. I thank Calvin Bower for this reference
101. see also Bernhard, ‘Über-lieferung’, pp. 23–24.
102. On the date of Dc nuptiis (probably the 470s to 480s, and certainly between 430 and 512) and its historical context, see D. Shanzer, A Philosophical and Literary Commentary on Martianus Capella's De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Book 1 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986), pp. 1–28.
103. On Neoplatonic ideas in this work, see S. Gersh, Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition (Notre Dame, Ind., 1986), II, pp. 597–602.
104. On medieval interpretations of the allegory in De nuptiis, see Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition., p. 603
105. G. Nuchelmans, ‘Philologia et son mariage avec Mercure jusqu’à la fin du XIIe siècle’, Latomus, 16 (1957), pp. 84–107.
106. On Book 9 of De nuptiis, see most recently D. Shanzer's review of Cristante, Martianus Capellae De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Liber IX, in Gnomon, 68 (1996), pp. 13–28. I thank Danuta Shanzer for giving me an offprint of this review.
107. Eriugena was the foremost proponent of Greek philosophy and theology on the Continent in the mid-ninth century. On Eriugena's teaching career, see J. J. O'Meara, Eriugena (Oxford, 1988), pp. 16–31.
108. Remigius of Auxerre, who studied with a pupil of Eriugena, taught in Rheims and Paris at the end of the ninth century. On Remigius, see D. Bolton, ‘Remigian Commentaries on the “Consolation of Philosophy” and Their Sources’, Traditio, 33 (1977), pp. 381–394
109. F. Brunhölzl, Histoire de la littéralure latine du moyen age, I/2: L'époque carolingienne, trans. H. Rochais (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1991), pp. 238–241, 318–21
110. C. Jeudy, ‘L'oeuvre de Remi d'Auxerre: État de la question’, in I'école carolingienne d'Auxerre de Murethach à Remi, 830–908, ed. D. logna-Prat, C. Jeudy, and G. Lobrichon (Paris, 1991), pp. 373–397
111. eadem, ‘Clasis des oeuvres de Remi d'Auxerre’, in L'école carolingienne, pp. 457–500. Remigius' commentary, which relied significantly on Eriugena's glosses, was a major compendium of ninth-century learning.
112. See J. J. O'Meara, ‘Eriugena's Immediate Influence’, in Eriugena Redivivus: Zur Wirkungsgeschichte seines Denkeru im Mittelalter und im Übergang zur Neuzeit, ed. W. Beierwaltes (Heidelberg, 1987), pp. 13–25, esp. 22–5. For a list of manuscripts containing Remigius' commentary on De nuptiis, and extracts from its glosses
113. see Wittig, ‘King Alfred's Boethius’ pp. 186–198.
114. ‘Euridice interpretatur profunda inventio. Ipsa ars musica in suis profundissimis rationibus Euridice dicitur, cuius maritus Orpheus dicitur, id est ΩPIOΣ ΦΩNH id est pulchra vox. Qui maritus si aliqua neglegentia artis virtutcm perdiderit velut in quen-dam infernum profundae disciplinae descendit, de qua iterum artis regulas iuxta quas musicae voces disponuntur reducit. Sed dum voces corporeas et transitorias profundae artis inventioni comparat, fugit iterum in profunditatem disciplinae ipsa inventio quo-niam in vocibus apparere non potest, ac per hoc tristis remanet Orpheus, vocem musicam absque ratione retinens’; Remigii Autissiodorensis Commentum in Martianum Capellam Libri III-IX, ed. C. Lutz (Leiden, 1965), p. 310.
115. Wittig, ‘King Alfred's Boethius’ (p. 192), points out the similarity of the Orpheus gloss to the Vatican mythographers and to Fulgentius.
116. The accounts of the myth in the Vatican Mythographers are found in Mythographi Vaticani I et II, ed. P. Kulcsár, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis 91C (Turnhout, 1987), pp. 33–4, 141).
117. lohannis Scotti Annotationes in Marcianum, ed. C. Lutz (Cambridge, 1939), pp. 192–193.
118. On Eriugena's glosses on Martianus Capella, see E. Jeauneau, Quatre thèmes érigéniens (Montréal and Paris, 1978)
119. C. Leonardi, ‘Glosse Eriugeniane a Marziano Capella in un codice Leidense’, in Jean Scot Engine et l'histoire de la philosophie (Paris, 1977), pp. 171–182
120. H. Liebeschütz, ‘The Place of the Martianus “Glossae” in the Development of Eriugena's Thought’, in The Mind of Eriugena (Dublin, 1973), pp. 49–58
121. idem, ‘Zur Geschichte der Erklärung des Martianus Capella bei Eriugena’, Philologus, 104 (1960), pp. 127–137
122. B. Münxelhaus, ‘Aspekte der Musica Disciplina bei Eriugena’, in Jean Scot Erigene et I'histoire, pp. 253–262
123. J. Préaux, ‘Jean Scot et Martin de Laon en face du De nuptiis de Martianus Capella’, in Jean Scot Erigene et l'histoire, pp. 161–170
124. G. Schrimpf, ‘Zur Frage der Authentizitat unserer Texte von Johannes Scottus' Annotationes in Marcianum’, in The Mind of Eriugena, pp. 125–139.
125. M. Duchez, ‘Jean Scot Erigène premier lecteur du “De institutione musica” de Boèce?’ in Eriugena: Studien zti seinen Quellen, ed. W. Beierwaltes (Heidelberg, 1980), pp. 165–187
126. eadem, ‘Le savoir theorico-musical carolingien dans les commentaires de Martianus Capella. La tradition erigenienne’, in Giovanni Scoto nel suo tempo. L'organizzazione del sapere in età carolingia (Spoleto, 1989), pp. 553–592.
127. O'Meara, Eriugena, p. 27
128. see Lutz, Remigii Autissiodorensis, III, pp. 13–22.
129. Glosses on IX.932–4 (ed. Willis, pp. 358–9), ed. in Lutz, Remigii Autissiodorensis, III, pp. 332–3; several chants are cited with musical notation to illustrate ratios.
130. R. Erickson, ‘Eriugena, Boethius and the Neoplatonism of Musica and Scolica Enchiriadis’, in Musical Humanism and its Legacy: Essajs in Honor of Claude V. Falisca, ed. N. K. Baker and B. R. Hanning (Stuyvesant, N.Y., 1992), pp. 53–78, argues against linking Eriugena to the Enchiriadis treatises and maintains that the Platonism and Neoplatonism in the treatises is indebted to earlier Latin writings, especially Boethius.
131. Chartier (L'oeuvre musicale, p. 79) notes that the idea of knowledge of music as inaccessible in Hucbald's Musica is comparable to the Orpheus legend in Musica Enchiriadis and Eriugena's gloss on Martianus Capella, and concludes that this thematic connection implies common sources.
132. On the dating of the treatises, see Erickson, trans., Musica Enchiriadis and Scolica Enchiriadis (New Haven, 1995), pp. xxi-xxii
133. N. Phillips, ‘“Musica” and “Scolica Enchiriadis”: The Literary, Theoretical, and Musical Sources’, Ph.D. diss. (New York University, 1984), pp. 9–15, 511–16.
134. Erickson, Musica, pp. xxvi-xxvii
135. Phillips, ‘“Musica”’, pp. 54–56, 384–97.
136. P. Dronke, ‘The Beginnings of the Sequence’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 87 (1963), pp. 43–73, esp. 70–3, dated Musica Enchiriadis to before Eriugena's commentary on Martianus Capella, on the basis of similarity in the two texts' versions of the Orpheus myth; however, as Phillips has observed, this conclusion is questionable, particularly because Chapter 19 seems attributable to the author oi Scolica Enchiriadis.
137. Phillips, ‘“Musica”’, p. 389–391
138. suggests that Chapter 19 functions as a rhetorical device and points out the rhetorical terms used in the chapter. On organum in the Enchiriadis treatises, see most recently D. Cohen, ‘Boethius and the Enchiriadis Theory: The Metaphysics of Consonance and the Concept of Organum’, Ph.D. diss. (Brandeis University, 1993)
139. idem, ‘Metaphysics, Ideology, Discipline: Consonance, Dissonance, and the Foundations of Western Polyphony’, Theoria, 7 (1993), pp. 1–85.
140. ‘Fictum est ab antiquis Aristeum Euridicem nympham Orphei coniugem adamasse. Quemque dum ilia se sequentem fugeret, a serpente extincta sit. Orpheum, cuius nomen oreo phone, id est optima vox sonat, in cantore perito seu dulcisono cantu intellegimus. Cuius Euridicem, id est profundam diiudicationem, si quis vir bonus, quod Aristeus interpretatur, amando sequitur, ne penitus teneri possit, quasi per serpentem divina inter-cipitur prudentia. Sed dum rursus per Orpheum, id est per optimum cantilenae sonum, a secretis suis acsi ab inferis evocatur, imaginarie perducitur usque in auras huius vitae dumque videri videtur, amittitur, scilicet quia inter cetera, quae adhuc ex parte et in enigmate cernimus, haec etiam disciplina baud ad plenum habet rationem in hac vita penetrabilem’; Musica el Scolica Enchiriadis, ed. H. Schmid (Munich, 1981), p. 57.
141. ‘Siquidem diiudicare possumus, sitne rata factura meli, dinoscere quaiitates sonorum atque modorum et reliqua huius artis; item possumus musicorum sonorum spatia vel vocum simphonias ad numerorum rationem adducere, consonantiae atque discrepantiae quasdam rationes reddere. Quomodo vero tantam cum animis nostris musica commu-tationem et societatem habeat, etsi scimus quadam nos similitudine cum ilia compactos, edicere ad liquidum non valemus’; Schmid, Musica, p. 57.
142. Mitologiae, p. 79.
143. ‘In talibus cum iudicatio nostra esse possit, plura sunt tamen, quae nos sub causis occul-tioribus iateant’; Schmid, Musica, p. 58.
144. ‘Dicuntur ferae atque aves niodis quibusdam delectari magis quam aliis, sed quare et quomodo haec aliave sint, non facile investigatur’; Schmid, Afwiica, p. 58.
145. Cf Fulgentius, ‘for we can say that the Dorian or Phrygian mode combined with Saturn soothes beasts; if it coincides with Jupiter it dehghts birds’ (‘dicere enim possumus quos Dorius tonus aut Frigius Saturno coiens feras mulceat, si loui, aues ohXccicl’); Mitologiae, p. 79.
146. Mitologiae, p. 78.
147. Ed. M. Bernhard in Clavis Gerberti: Eine Revision von Martin Gerberts Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra polissimum (St. Blasien 1784), I (Munich, 1989), pp. 37–73.
148. On Regino's treatise, see P.A.L. Boncella, ‘Regino Prumensis and the Tones’, in Songs of the Dove and the Nightingale: Sacred and Secular Music c. 900-C.1600, ed. G. M. Hair and R. Smith (Basel, 1995), pp. 74–89
149. Gushee, ‘Questions of Genre’, pp. 402–404
150. E. Oberti, ‘L'estetica musicale di Reginone di Pruem e l'attualità dell'estetica medievale’, Rivista di Filosojia Neo-scolastica, 52 (1960), pp. 336–354.
151. On the tonary, see M. Huglo, Les tonaires: Inventaire, analyse, comparaison (Paris, 1971), pp. 71–89.
152. For a recent overview of Regino's works, see Brunhölzl, Histoire de la littérature latine du moyen âge, II: De l'époque carolingienne au milieu du XIe siècle, trans. H. Rochais (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1996), pp. 70–77, with bibliography on pp. 505–6.
153. C. Bower, ‘Natural and Artificial Music: The Origins and Development of an Aesthetic Concept’, Musica Disciplina, 25 (1971), p. 20, argues that Chapter 18 is one of the additions to the original letter made when the treatise was copied in monastic scriptoria, because it is not in all the manuscripts. Bower finds it particularly significant that the chapter is missing from an early manuscript (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale 2751) that he considers to be ‘probably an apograph of Regino's original work’ and ‘the extant text closest to Regino's original letter and tonary’.
154. M. Bernhard, Studien zur Epistola de armonica institutione des Regino von Priim (Munich, 1979), pp. 26–31, disagrees, arguing for the authenticity of the version containing Chapter 18 (which is found in the early tenth-century manuscript Leipzig, Stadtbibliothek, Rep. I 93); the Brussels manuscript may be abbreviated rather than representing the earliest, shortest version of the treatise.
155. J. Dyer, ‘The Monastic Origins of Western Music Theory’, in International Musicological Society Study Group Cantus Planus: Papers Read at the Third Meeting, Tihany, Hungary, 19–24 September 1988, ed. L. Dobszay (Budapest, 1990), p. 222, agrees with Bernhard, noting that there was little demand for music theory in the monastic environment.
156. Gushee, ‘Questions of Genre’, pp. 402–3, helpfully suggests considering the various states of Regino's text as different works rather than as different versions of the same work.
157. Epistola 1.1–6, Clavis Gerberti, p. 39.
158. ‘Scire autem oportet peritum cantorem’ (Epistola II.1, Clavis Gerberti, p. 40)
159. ‘Illud autem sumopere prudens cantor observare debet’ (Epistola n.33, Clavis Gerberti, p. 42). ‘Cantor’ can be translated either as ‘singer’ or with the more specific meaning of ‘cantor’.
160. ‘Sed multi audiunt tonum et fortassis ignorant, quid sit tonus, aut quare dicatur tonus’; Epistola IV. 1, Clavis Gerberti, p. 43.
161. ‘a minus perito musico quaeri potest, quae distantia sit inter musicam naturalem et artificialem’ (‘a less skilled musicus may ask what the difference is between natural and artifical music’); Epistola V.2, Clavis Gerberti, p. 45.
162. ‘Idcirco definiunt musici sonum ita’ (‘For that reason musici define sound thus’); Epistola v. 17, Clavis Gerberti, p. 46.
163. ‘Ex hac igitur coniectura dicunt astrologi vel musici’ (‘From this inference, then, astrologers and musici say’); Epistola V. 19, Clavis Gerberti, p. 46.
164. ‘quern tonum musici vocaverunt’ (‘which musici call a tone’); Epistola IX. 16, Clavis Gerberti, p. 54.
165. ‘Proinde scire convenit, nullum posse perfecte fieri musicum’(‘Therefore it should be known, that no one can fully become a musicus’); Epistola X.IO, Clavis Gerberti, p. 56.
166. V.61–4, on human responses to melodies (cantilenis), concerns singing as a universal activity, as opposed to ecclesiastical singing (the primary meaning of cantus in the Epistola). The final sentence of this section, however, could be taken to refer to ecclesti-cal singing as well: ‘And yet there are not a few who cannot sing with others sweetly and in a skilled manner; nevertheless, by themselves they can sing something sweet in a disagreeable fashion’ (‘Etsi sunt nonnuUi, qui docte ac suaviter aliis canere non pos-sunt, sibi tamen aliquid insuaviter suave canunt’); Epistola v.64, Clavis Gerberti, p. 48.
167. Epistola xiv.1, Clavis Gerberti, pp. 58–59.
168. Epistola XVIII.28–31, Clavis Gerberti, pp. 72–73.
169. Epistola XVIII. 1–6, Clavis Gerberti, pp. 70–71.
170. ‘numerose id faciunt ac suaviter, quamvis interrogati de ipsis numeris, vel de intervallis acutarum graviumque vocum, respondere non possint?’; Aurelii Augustini De musica, ed. G. Marzi (Florence, 1969), p. 98.
171. Epistola XVIII.10–13, Clavis Gerberti, p. 71.
172. Epistola XVIII.14–24, Clavis Gerberti, pp. 71–72.
173. The passage in brackets is from Boethius, De institutione musica, I.xxxiv, pp. 223–224.
174. ‘Neque enim ille, qui lectionem legit, sed qui lectionem exponit, magister appellatur. Et licet pueri psalmorum verba memoriter decantent, ab eorum tamen scientia alieni existunt, quia eorum sensus misticos penetrare nesciunt’; Epistola, XVIII.25–6, Clavis Gerberti, p. 72.
175. On the importance of the Psalms in monastic life, see particularly J. Dyer, ‘Monastic Psalmody of the Middle Ages’, Revue Benedictine, 99 (1989), 41–74.
176. I disagree with E. Ferrari Barassi, ‘I modi ecclesiastici nei trattati musicali dell'eta car-olingià, Studi Musicali, 4 (1975), pp. 30–31, who argues that Regino's use of the Orpheus myth implies that theory and practice are irreconcilable.
177. Phillips, ‘“Musica”’, p. 388, points out that the ‘negative view of the accessibility of knowledge’ in Chapter 19 of Musica Enchiriadis contrasts with the ‘pervasively positive approach found in Musica and Scolica’.
178. ‘Proinde scire convenit, nullum posse perfecte fieri musicum, nisi antea fuerit arithmeticis regulis pleniter institutus’; Epistola, X. 10, Clavis Gerberti, p. 56.
179. For bibliography on Aimo's Vita Abbonis, see S. Gwara, ‘Three Acrostic Poems by Abbo ofFleury’, Journal of Medieval Latin, 2 (1992), pp. 203–204
180. on Aimo, see Brunhölzl, Histoire de la litterature latine, II, pp. 155–163, with bibHography on pp. 526–7.
181. On Abbo, see Brunhölzl, Histoire de la litterature latine, 11, pp. 148–155, with bibliography on pp. 524–6.
182. Aimoinus of Fleury, ‘Vita sancti Abbonis’, Chap. Ill, PL 139.390B.
183. ‘Inde Aurelianis regressus, musicae artis dulcedinem, quamvis occulte, propter invidos, a quodam clerico non paucis redemit nummis’; ‘Vita sancti Abbonis’, PL 139.390C.
184. On Abbo's studies of the liberal arts outside Fleury, see M. Mostert, The Political Theology of Abbo of Fleury (Hilversum, 1987), p. 31
185. idem, ‘Kennisoverdracht in het klooster: Over de plaats van lezen en schrijven in de vroegmiddeleeuwse monastieke opvoeding’, in Scholing in de middeleeuwen, ed. R.E.V. Stuipt and C. Vellekoop (Hilversum, 1995), pp. 114–115.
186. On the notion of an ‘intellectual elite of the cloister’, see Mostert, ‘Kennisoverdracht’, pp. 119–120.
187. On the context of Carolingian child oblation, see M. de Jong, In Samuel's Image: Child Oblation in the Early Medieval West (Leiden, 1996).
188. ‘Igitur quae in hac arte Deo donante sapimus, utamur eis tantum in laudibus Dei, et ea, quae laboriosa veterum indagatione nobis inventa sunt, assumamus in iubilando, cel-ebrando, canendo, quae in prioribus generationibus non sunt agnita filiis hominum, sed nunc revelata sunt Sanctis eius. Pandit multa musicae rationis miracula praestantissimus auctor Boetius magisterio numerorum enucleatim cuncta comprobans’; Schmid, Musica, p. 59
189. Erickson, Musica, p. 32.
190. Bower, ‘Reception, Reaction, and Redaction’, also interprets this passage as historical narrative advocating the study of texts newly in circulation, which were not available to earlier authors.
191. ‘Si quis vero tantae profunditatis ac perplexe subtilitatis curiosus investigator existit, legat sepe dicti Boetii tertium librum de armonica institutione, et ibi fortassis non solum eius curiositati satisfiet, verum etiam suum experiri poterit ingenium. Si enim ad haec capienda idoneus inventus fuerit, noverit nihil sibi difficile in septem liberalibus disci-plinis’; Epistola, XVl.43–4, Clavis Gerberti, p. 69.
192. E.g. P. Godman, Poets and Emperors: Prankish Politics and Carolingian Poetry (Oxford, 1987)
193. L. Nees, A Tainted Mantle: Hercules and the Classical Tradition at the Carolingian Court (Philadelphia, 1991).
194. A new interpretation of these texts was available to me only after this article had already gone to press: Andreas Ostheimer, ‘Orpheus und die Entstehung einer Musiktheorie im 9. Jahrhundert’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 33 (1998), pp. 19–35.