Virgil in Medieval England: Figuring The Aeneid from the Twelfth Century to Chaucer

454 Pages·2006·10.44 MB·English

by  Christopher Baswell

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 24
VIRGIL IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
GeneraEl ditor.P rofessor Alastair Minnis, Professor of Medieval Literature,
University of York
EditorialB oard
Professor Piero Boitani (Professor of English, Rome)
Professor Patrick Boyde, FBA (Serena Professor ofltalian, Cambridge)
Professor John Burrow, FBA (Winterstoke Professor of English, Bristol)
Professor Alan Deyermond, FBA (Professor of Hispanic Studies, London)
Professor Peter Dronke, FBA (Professor of Medieval Latin Literature,
Cambridge)
Dr Tony Hunt (St Peter's College, Oxford)
Professor Nigel Palmer (Professor of German Medieval and Linguistic
Studies, Oxford)
Professor Winthrop Wetherbee (Professor of English, Cornell)
This series of critical books seeks to cover the whole area ofliterature written
in the major medieval languages - the main European vernaculars, and
medieval Latin and Greek - during the period c. 1100-1500. Its chief aim is
to publish and stimulate fresh scholarship and criticism on medieval literature,
special emphasis being placed on understanding major works of poetry, prose
and drama in relation to the contemporary culture and learning which
fostered them.
Recentt itlesi n the series
11 Rhetoric,H ermeneuticasn d Translationin the Middle Ages:A cademict raditionsa nd
vernaculatre xts,b y Rita Copeland
12 1heA rthurianR omancese fC hreliend e Troyes:O ncea ndf ature. fictionsb, y Donald
Maddox
13 RichardR ollea nd the Inventione fA uthority,b y Nicholas Watson
14 Dreamingin theM iddleA ges,b y Steven F. Kruger
15 Chaucear nd the Traditione ft he 'RomanA ntique',b y Barbara Nolan
16 1he 'Romancee f the Rose' and its Medieval Readers:I nterpretationr, eception,
manuscripttr ansmissionb,y Sylvia Huot
17 Womena ndl iteraturei n Britain, 1150-1500, edited by Carol M. Meale
18 Ideas and Formse f Tragedyfi om Aristotlet o the Middl,eA ges, by Henry Ansgar
Kelly
19 1he Making ef Textual Culture:G rammaticaa nd literaryt heory,3 50-1100, by
Martin Irvine
20 NarrativeA uthorirya, nd Power:I he medievael xempluma nd the Chauceriatnr adition,
by Larry Scanlon
21 MedievalD utchL iteraturein its EuropeanC ontexte, dited by Erik Kooper
22 Dante and the A1ystical Tradition:B ernard ef Clairvauxi n the 'Commedia,'b y
Steven Botterill
23 Heresya nd Literaq, 1000-1530, edited by Peter Biller and Anne Hudson
VIRGIL IN MEDIEVAL
ENGLAND
Figuringt heA eneid ftom the tweljthc enturyto Chaucer
CHRISTOPHER BASWELL
Associat,P, refessoer fE nglish
Bamard CollegeN, ew York
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 lRP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1995
First published 1995
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
A cataloguree corfdo r this booki s avai/.abk.ftomth e BritishL ibrary
Librarye fC ongrescsa taloguinign publicationd ata
13aswell,C hristopher
Virgil in medieval England: figuring the Aeneidf rom the twelfth
century to Chaucer / Christopher Baswell.
p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in medieval literature; 24)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN O 521 46294 0 (hardback)
1. Virgil. Aeneis. 2. Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern) - England - History.
3. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 - Knowledge - Literature. 4. Epic poetry, Latin - Criticism,
Textual. 5. England- Intellectual life - 1066-1485. 6. English poetry- Roman influences.
7. Virgil - Appreciation - England. 8. Rome - In literature. 9. Rhetoric, Medieval. 10. Virgil -
Influence. I. Title. II. Series.
PA6825.B38 1995
873'.01 -dc20 94-12708 CIP
ISBN O 521 46294 0 hardback
CE
In memorye fK evinE chart

Contents
List efi llustrations Page xi
Preface
Xlll
List ofa bbreviations
XVl
List ofc onventioris
XlX
Introduction Manuscripts and their contexts 1
1: Manuscripts and their contexts 5
2: Three dominant visions of the Aeneid 9
1 Auctort o Auctoritas:M odes of access to Virgil in medieval
England 15
1: Authority and challenge: the context of redactions 17
2: The visual context 21
3: Textual access: manuscripts and beyond 30
4: The persistence of Virgil in England 36
2 Pedagogical exegesis of Virgil in medieval England: Oxford,
All Souls College 82 41
1: Production, ownership, and history of All Souls 82 41
2: Servius and the continuity of pedagogical exegesis 47
3: The twelfth-century annotations: difference eroded 53
4: "Anselm ofLaon" and Servian tradition in the High Middle Ages 63
5: Reconstructing difference in the later annotations 68
6: Pedagogical exegesis, medieval and renaissance 80
3 Spiritual allegory, platonizing cosmology, and the Boethian
Aeneidi n medieval England: Cambridge, Peterhouse College,
158 84
1: Exegesis and its formats: from gl.osateo commentum 86
2: Late Antique Virgilianism and medieval modes of allegorical
interpretation 91
3: The emergence of allegory 101
4: Fabulizing Virgil: integumental reading and the power of the
exegete 108
ix
List of contents
X
5: "Bernard" and Boethian reading of the Aeneid 120
6: Peterhouse 158 and classicism in High Medieval England 130
4 Moral allegory and the Aeneidi n the time of Chaucer:
London, BL Additional 27304 . 136
1: "Platonizing" versus "moralizing" exegetics 136
2: The early marginalia 139
3: Commentary III, Norwich, and the Peasants' Revolt 143
4: Pedagogical annotation in the Norwich Commentary 146
5: Ethical example and Christian allegory in the Norwich
Commentary 151
6: The Norwich commentator as reader 159
7: The Latin Virgilianisms of medieval England 164
5 The romance Aeneid 168
1: Lavine at her book 168
2: The clerk al his book 173
3: Containing Dido 184
4: History at the center: empire in the Eneas 200
5: Lavine and containment through metonymy 210
6 Writing the reading of Virgil: Chaucerian authorities in the
House qf Fame and the Legendq f GoodW omen 220
I: Aeneas and Geffrey as hermeneutic heroes 223
2: Decentering authority in Housee fF ameI 230
3: Allegorical Virgilianism in Housee fF ameI I and III 236
4: Geffrey in the circles of narrative, cosmos, and hermeneutics 244
5: Authority: tyranny versus dialogue in the Prologue to the
Legende fGood Women 249
6: The temptation of authority in the "Legend of Dido" 255
Conclusion Envoi, to the Renaissance: Books of Aeneas and
of Dido 270
Appendices 285
I Manuscripts of Virgil written or owned in England during the
Middle Ages 285
II Doubtful, rejected, and ghost manuscripts 309
III Glosses to Boethius at Aeneid6 . 719 in Oxford, All Souls 82 311
IV The Aeneid-accessus of"Anselm ofLaon" 313
Notes 315
Selectb ibliography 410
Index qf manuscripts 423
Index qf namesa nd selecteds ul!Jects 425
Illustrations
1 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, fr. 60, fo. 148 recto( Roman
d'Eneas) page2 7
2 Oxford, All Souls College 82, fo. 36 recto,o pening of Aeneid 43
3a Cambridge, Peterhouse College 158, fo. 42 verso 88
3b Cambridge, Peterhouse College 158, fo. 43 recto 89
4 Cambridge, Peterhouse College 158, fo. 167 verso-169 recto 90
5 London, British Library, Additional 27304, fo. 5 recto 140
6 Oxford, Bodleian Library, printed book Wood 106, versoo f
wrapper and frontispiece 284
XI
Preface
This book has been the object of so much kind interest and of so much
generous help that it ought really to have a corporate author on the
title page. My obligations to institutions, fellow scholars, and long
suffering friends are many, so many indeed that I am certain to forget
some in the names that follow. To any unacknowledged helpers I add
my apologies to my thanks.
Time and travel for initial research and writing came from a
Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to Oxford and the Warburg Institute, and
later from the American Philosophical Society, the American Council
of Learned Societies, and a Special Assistant Professor Leave from
Barnard College. Manuscript collections across Europe made their
holdings available to me, and coped cheerfully with the special
complications posed by a researcher who moves about in a wheelchair.
All except one.
Three great teachers introduced me to classical and medieval
studies: Marcia Colish, Nathan Greenberg, and Robert Longsworth.
Their instruction and example have had a direct impact on the book I
now publish, two decades after their. tutelage. Three graduate
professors were equally important as I began thinking about the role of
classicism in medieval culture: Alice Miskimin, Marie Borroff, and
Thomas Greene. The latter two directed the doctoral dissertation on
which the present book is in part based.
Other scholars have provided help and encouragement as the book
took shape, and did so out of no greater obligation than friendship and
good will. Individual chapters and sections have been read, and always
improved, by Elizabeth Archibald, John Boswell, Virginia Brown,
Abigail Freedman, M. Victoria Guerin,James Hankins, Ralph Hexter,
Mary Louise Lord, Sandra Pierson Prior, M. Alison Stones, and
Marjorie Curry Woods. My colleagues at Barnard College have all
shown warm interest in my work; Anne Prescott and Ruth Kivette lent
Xll