De Arte Metrica

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De Arte Metrica , together with De Schematibus et Tropis, is a representation of the rules and practice of spelling. Beda Venerabilis created them for teaching in the monastic environment in Latin at the beginning of the 8th century AD.

Structure and sources

The work is divided into 25 chapters with very different contents. Chapters 1–8 describe the letters and syllables in relation to their length. Chapters 9–23 impart knowledge about ancient metrics . Chapters 15, 16, 24, 25 offer more extensive explanations about poetry. His sources are Latin grammarians of the 4th and 5th centuries AD. He takes the numerous examples mainly from Christian, for him contemporary poetry; classical antiquity is used less often.

content

Chapters 1-8

The basic explanations in this chapter can be found mainly in the grammatical writings of Adhelmus , Aelius Donatus ( Ars grammatica ), Flavius ​​Mallius Theodorus ( De metris ) and Maurus Servius Honoratius . The entire chapter 5 ( De mediis syllabis ) has been copied almost verbatim from the latter's book De finibus .

Chapters 9-14, 17-23

Bede lists in chapter 9 the two- and three-syllable verse feet that have been used in ancient Greek and Latin poetry for many centuries. Then he explains various verses (mainly hexameters and pentameters ) and techniques, such as synalophas (= fusion of the end of a word and the beginning of the next word). But it also defines 7 verse forms, such as the metrum Saphicum and the iambicum senarium , which were already used by Latin poets, and even by Plautus . He takes the information from the late antique grammarians. In chapter 9 ( De pedibus ) he uses excerpts from the chapter of the same name in the Ars grammatica des Donatus.
Bede quotes numerous Latin poets to explain the meter. Of the classical poets, however, he only mentions Virgil , Lucan and Lucretius , and even these only a few times. Rather, he draws on numerous late antique Christian authors. The most frequently mentioned are Venantius Fortunatus , Sedulius , Prosper and Paulinus von Pella . In Chapter 10 he even claims the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy for the pentameter and the Book of Job for the hexameter. He could have taken this information from Isidore of Seville .

Chapters 15, 16, 24, 25

In these chapters Bede develops a progression of poetry away from the ancient models towards a new Christian, but also modern and lively poetry.
In chapter 24 he writes about something completely new, the rithmo , the rhythmic verse. He uses a term that was rarely used in classical poetry and oratory. He is attributable rather the music .:

algorithm ... non metrica ratione, sed ... aurium examinata, ut sunt carmina vulgarium poetarum
rhythm ... not according to the rule of the metric, but ... in the judgment of the ears, as are the songs of the simple poet

order he hardly means poetry in the Anglo-Saxon language of the country, but simple Christian hymns. But it already leads to rhythm as a principle peculiar to medieval poetry.

Continuation of action and tradition

Because of Beda's fame as a scholar and theologian, the book was distributed throughout Europe during his lifetime and was one of the most important textbooks in Western Europe for centuries. Almost 100 manuscripts have survived. The oldest edition can be found printed in 1473 by Antonius Zarotus.

Text output

  • Calvin B. Kendall: Bede: Libri II De Arte Metrica et De Schematibus et Tropis , Saarbrücken 1991

literature

  • Sandro Boldrini : Prosody and Metrics of the Romans , Stuttgart / Leipzig 1999
  • Franz Brunhölzl : History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages Volume 1, Munich 1975
  • Ch. W. Jones: Bedae Opera in Corpus Christianorum CXXIII C, Turnholt 1980
  • Calvin B. Kendall: Bede: Libri II De Arte Metrica et De Schematibus et Tropis , Introduction, Saarbrücken 1991
  • Calvin B. Kendall: Introduction to De Arte Metrica in Corpus Christianorum CXXIII A, Turnholt 1975

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ch. W. Jones: Bedae Opera , Indices pp. 714-803
  2. ↑ Calvin B. Kendall: Bede, p. 71, note 26
  3. ^ Sandro Boldrini: Prosody and Metrics of the Romans , p. 102, 148
  4. ↑ CH. W. Jones: Bedae Opera , Indices, p. 744
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville: Etymologiae , Book I, XXXIX
  6. ↑ Calvin B. Kendall: Bede, pp. 21f
  7. ^ Isidore of Seville: Etymologiae , Book III (de musica), XII
  8. ↑ Calvin B. Kendall: Bede, p. 161, note 92
  9. ↑ Franz Brunhölzl: History of Latin Literature of the Middle Ages Volume 1, p. 209
  10. ↑ Calvin B. Kendall: Bede, p. 15
  11. ↑ Calvin B. Kendall: De Arte Metrica in Corpus Christianorum CXXIII A, pp. 60-72