Cisiojanus
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The Cisiojanus is a memorable poem which, as a verse calendar, helps to date the immovable saints and holidays of the Roman Catholic Church. It spread from the end of the High Middle Ages and was in use until the early modern period . There are numerous versions of the Cisiojanus , often these are written in onomatopoeic pseudo-Latin .
Origin and history
In the 11th century in Western Europe dating after the Roman Catholic holy days and holidays came up. This reflected the growing authority of the Pope in the course of the church reforms at the time and his universal claim to rule ( investiture dispute , oriental schism ). The new calendar dates prevailed against the previously used ancient Roman names , and the day was now named according to how it stood on the nearest holiday or saint's day, for example ipso die omnium sanctorum ("on All Saints") or feria quarta post diem omnium sanctorum ("the next Wednesday after All Saints") or pridie omnium sanctorum ("the day before All Saints") or octava omnium sanctorum ("one week after All Saints").
To imprint the numerous immovable holidays and saints' days that are not dependent on the Easter date , the Cisiojanus has been found throughout the German-speaking area since the 13th century , named after the incipit in the first line. Its forerunners were martyrologies kept in meter measure and its origin may be in the Cologne / Aachen area in the 12th century, from where it first spread to Northern and Eastern Europe and later to the west. In the most widespread versions, the poem has 24 lines (two, originally Latin hexameters, for each month), is written in the classical Roman meter of the hexameter and imitates Latin sound sequences.
Text of the Cisiojanus Accents over vowels indicate rhythmic accents, broken division lines in the lines mean short pauses in speech. |
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January císio jánus epí ¦ sibi véndicat óc feli már an |
July júl proces údal oc wíl ¦ kili frá bene márgar apóst al |
February brí pur blásus ag dór ¦ febru áp scolástica válent |
August pé steph stéph protho síx ¦ don cýr ro láu tibur híp eus |
March mártius ádria pér ¦ decorátur grégorió cyr |
September égidiúm sep habét ¦ nat górgon prótique crúx nic |
April April in ámbrosií ¦ festís ovat átque tibúrci |
October rémique fránciscús ¦ marcús di ger árteque cálix |
May phílip crúx flor gót ¦ johan látin epí ne ser ét soph |
November ómne novémbre leó ¦ qua theó martín bricciíque |
June níc marcélle boní ¦ dat jún primí ba cyríni |
December décembér barbá ¦ nico cóncep et álma lucía |
So that it can fulfill its mnemonic purpose , the Cisiojanus counts as many syllables as the year has days. The syllables give either as donkey bridges a reference to the Latin name of a holiday or saint's day (usually its first syllable), or they are filler elements. Then they continue the previous reference to the feast day (i.e. as its second, third, etc. syllable) or mark the month. In addition, the syllables can be added to meaningless but rhythmically fitting filler words. The two lines of verse for January ("cisio janus epi sibi vendicat oc feli mar an / prisca fab ag vincen ti pau po nobile lumen") dissolve as follows:
1. "ci" = circumcisio domini | 18. "pris" = Priscae virginis martiris |
2. "si" = continuation of "(circum) cisio" | 19. "ca" = continuation of "Priscae" |
3. "o" = continuation of "(circum) cisio" | 20. "fab" = Fabiani et Sebastiani |
4. "yes" = month marker "January" | 21. "ag" = Agnetis virginis |
5. "nus" = month marker "January" | 22. "vin" = Vincentii martiris |
6. "e" = epiphany | 23. "cen" = continuation of "Vincentii" |
7. "pi" = continuation of "epiphany" | 24. "ti" = Timotei martiris and Titi martiris |
8. "si" = filler word "sibi" | 25. "pau" = conversio Pauli |
9. "bi" = filler word "sibi" | 26. "po" = Polycarpi episcopi martiris |
10. "ven" = filler word "vendicat" | 27. "no" = filler word "nobile" |
11. "di" = filler word "vendicat" | 28. "bi" = filler word "nobile" |
12. "cat" = filler word "vendicat" | 29. "le" = filler word "nobile" |
13. "oc" = octava epiphaniae | 30. "lu" = filler word "lumen" |
14. "fe" = Felicis presbyteris | 31. "men" = filler word "lumen" |
15. "li" = continuation of "Felicis" | |
16. "mar" = Marcelli papae | |
17. "an" = Antoni abbatis |
Dates with the help of Cisiojanus are fixed in chronic notes such as feria tertia ante diem s. Martini et erat in hac sillaba bre videlicet omne Novembre (“on the Tuesday before Martini, and that was in the syllable 'bre', which of course means 'omne Novembre'”). Due to the large number of saints and their regionally changing meaning as well as the equally different holiday customs, numerous adaptations of the Cisiojanus of longer or shorter form were created. It was also available in the vernacular; German versions have been documented since the 14th century. As a result of the transfer to other language typologies , instead of the hexameter, other meter measures and rhymes were used , and no longer individual syllables but whole words or verses corresponded to the holidays and saints' days. Many versions are faulty due to misunderstandings in the transcription or the insertion of locally important Saints' Days, which upset the rhythm of the verse. The numerous variants also led to changing names for this calendar aid: Cisianus, Cisioianus, Cisivianus .
The Cisiojanus was a subject of instruction and was distributed in charitable publications after the introduction of the printing press. The view that Johannes Gutenberg's first publication was even a Cisiojanus from 1443/44 has been abandoned; the publication under the title Cisioianus is now set in the year 1457. In addition to serious educational versions, there were also popular, crude versions that were more like nursery rhymes , nonsense poems and drinking songs . From France, where the memorized poem was not widely known until the end of the 15th century through printed books of hours , the version most widespread there around 1500 already refers to Rabelaic texts. The verses for January are: En ian vier que les Roys ve nus sont (“In January for the arrival of the kings”) / Glau me dit fre min mor font (“Prepare horrible deaths for the cursed vineyards”) / Antoin boit le iour vin cent fois ("Anton drinks two thousand times a day") / Pol us en sont tous ses dois ("Hairy / All his fingers are polished off").
The Cisiojanus was also suitable for mechanical implementation. In the left aisle of the Marienkirche in Gdańsk there is still an astronomical clock by Hans Düringer from the 15th century with a Cisiojanus display.
The abandonment of dating after the feast days of the saints was initiated by the Reformation in the 16th century (although even Reformers taught the use of the Cisiojanus ) and spread beyond the Reformed area in such a way that the continuous counting used today became common : vicesima tertia die Junii ("June 23rd"). In the 17th century the Cisiojanus was finally largely out of use in the German-speaking area.
See also
- calendar
- Saint calendar
- List of the blessed and saints
- List of name days
- List of pawn rules
- Prague Astronomical Clock (Calendarium)
literature
- Konrad Dangkrotzheim: The holy name book . Published with an investigation into the Cisio-Jani by Karl Pickel. Trübner, Strasbourg et al. 1878 ( Alsatian literary monuments from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries 1).
- Hermann Grotefend : Pocket book of the time calculation of the German Middle Ages and the modern times. Hahn, Hannover 1991, ISBN 3-7752-5177-4 ( online version by H. Ruth. ).
- Friedrich Beck , Eckart Henning : The archival sources. With an introduction to the historical auxiliary sciences. 4th revised edition. Böhlau et al., Weimar et al. 2004, ISBN 3-8252-8273-2 , p. 249 ( UTB 8273 history ).
- Rolf Max Kully: Cisiojanus. Studies of mnemonic literature based on the late medieval calendar poem. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore 70, 1974, ISSN 0036-794X , pp. 93–123.
- Cisioianus. In: Burghart Wachinger et al. (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, volume 1. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1978, ISBN 3-11-007264-5 , Sp. 1285 ff.
Web links
- "Cisiojanus from the Bonner Gesangbüchlein from 1561, also sorted alphabetically"
- Erik Drigsdahl & CHD Center for Håndskriftstudier i Danmark: Cisio Janus in Latin and French - Printed Hore from Paris 1488-1530.
- GKS 79 2º: Speculum humanae salvationis (images of a Cisiojanus from approx. 1430), Erik Drigsdahl: Kalendarium in a Speculum humanae salvationis - Cisiojanus from Hainaut 1430 - Copenhagen - The Royal Library - Ms. GkS 79 2 ° (transcription of the images); Explanations of the structure .
- Cisiojanus with explanations of the individual syllables, University Library Graz, manuscript catalog: Catalog 1000, Bl. 52v-59v. ( Overview of the digitized pages )
- Serapeum , 1848: A Cisio-Janus in a manuscript of the Leipzig City Library , Serapeum , 1853: A German Cisiojanus from the XV. Century. , Serapeum , 1862: French Cisiojanus of the XVI. Century. , Serapeum , 1867: Latin Cisiojanus. From a Königsberg manuscript of the 14th century.
- Astronomical clock in Gdańsk's Marienkirche with Cisiojanus display.
Remarks
- ↑ According to the Latin treatment in Silesian, Saxon, Bohemian and Polish chronicles and documents from the second half of the 14th century, according to: Hermann Grotefend: Zeitrechnung des Deutschen Mittelalter und der Neuzeit , Lemma Cisiojanus , online version by H. Ruth. ( Weblink , 13-01-2007.)
- ↑ Erik Drigsdahl & CHD Center for Håndskriftstudier i Danmark: Cisio Janus in Latin and French - Printed Hore from Paris 1488-1530. ( Weblink ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , 13-01-2007.)