De vetula

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

De vetula ( About the Old One, the Vettel ) is a poetry in the Middle Latin language of around 2400 hexameters . The didactic poem, created at the beginning of the 13th century, builds on the fiction of being a lost and found work of Ovid (Pseudo-Ovidianum) and represents a heterogeneous text with elements of satire, allegory, didactics and autobiography.

Trends, time of origin, author, language

After Ovid's influence in the early Middle Ages was not particularly great, it increased in the 11th and 12th. Century on continuously, with the real Ovid works a colorful abundance of poems that wrongly bore Ovid's name. De vetula occupies a special position here, as the poem not only deals intensively with Ovid's life, but also develops an elaborate history of how the text was found in Ovid's tomb. In this story, the Eastern Roman Emperor John III. Dukas Vatatzes (1222–1254) called. On the other hand, around 1250 Richard de Fournival included the poem in his Biblionomia catalog . This outlines the time frame of the time of origin; Richard de Fournival is also considered a possible author of the work.

Linguistically, the work is far removed from Ovid's Golden Latinity . The author uses new words or shifts in meaning of words and integrates numerous technical terms of Greek and Arabic origin (e.g. ludus algebre almucgrabaleque (Book 1, verse 815), for the new art of arithmetic) in his text in order to be able to deal with the diverse topics. The hexameter used has also changed compared to the ancient one by breaking up the verse into smaller rhythmically similar terms.

Content and structure

The work is divided into three books. After the story of the recovery, the first book unfolds a picture of the life of Ovid, as the author believes to recognize it from his poems: feasts, splendid apartments, courtship for virgins / married / widows, hunting, etc. This is followed by several games (mainly dice , Chess , rithmomachy ). Here the author leaves his alleged source Ovid, because rithmomachy (number fighting game) is a development of the Middle Ages. The game of chess was also unknown in ancient Rome. The second book describes a fictional experience by Ovid. In love with a young girl, he tries to win her favor with the help of her wet nurse (the eponymous vetula ), but is betrayed by her. A re-encounter with the beloved after 20 years leads to a conciliatory end, but "Ovid" decides to turn more to philosophy and presents his findings in book 3.

Dice game, combinatorics

Verses 358-576, a considerable part of the first book, are devoted to the game of dice. This is more due to the importance of this game of chance in the Middle Ages than to Ovid's poetry. In fact, only in the Tristia (II, 471–484) is a short, imprecise, rather negative description. In De vetula , however, a special game idea is worked on precisely: the total number of eyes when throwing three six-sided dice . This random variable is central to some important medieval dice games. The author does not describe this, however, but restricts himself to the probabilities of the different throws. From verse 405 on, the different throws are considered and arranged in a table. Let there be 56 3- tuples from (6,6,6) to (1,1,1). The order is ignored. The scenario thus corresponds to the combinatorial model of drawing with repetition and without taking into account the order of k (= 3) elements out of n (= 6) elements with the solution , so the result of the count corresponds to the combinatorial formula. These calculations can be found in a similar, if not so clearly formulated, in Alfonso of Castile . However, both fonts were created around the same time, so it cannot be assumed that they influenced each other.

From verse 442 the author introduces the term cadentia (from cadere = to fall, something like a sequence of dice), taking into account that the order of the dice is irrelevant for the result - the sum of the eyes - but not for the frequency with which the result entry. A litter with 3 identical numbers has only one cadentia , a litter with 2 identical numbers has three (e.g. 1,2,2 - 1,2,1 - 2,1,1) and a litter with 3 different numbers has six. A short, clear table is created from this, which indicates the number of possible dice combinations and their implementation for the numbers 3 to 18.

"Ovid" comments on this with a non igitur solum ibi casus est (so not everything is a coincidence there) and adds a longer scolding of the game of dice, which was so common in the Middle Ages.

Chess game ( scacorum ludus )

In the verses (Book 1, 577 - 636), "Ovid" is dedicated to the game of chess and is thus in the tradition of older texts, such as the Einsiedeln poem ( Versus de Scachis ), which was dated around the year 1000 . In De vetula , too, the heroes of Homer before Troy are (wrongly) used as players in order to emphasize the dignity of the game. The main features of the game are not clearly shown, but the individual figures are named: rex (king), virgo (queen), roccus (rook), alphinus ( bishop ), miles (knight), pedes (pawn). These, too, resemble, with a few differences, related writings, such as the Book of Games by Alfonso the Wise .

Verses 611 - 626, in which the poet equates the characters with celestial bodies ( rex = sun, virgo = Venus, roccus = moon, ...) and thus gives the game a cosmological dimension, are without a model . In the last verses, the author turns against the rejection of the game of chess, which is widespread, especially in church circles. Chess is nobilis and everyone is allowed if it is played without the intention of winning and without dice.

Rithmomachy

The author also dedicates a short section (Book 1, verses 649 - 698) to rithmimachie , the board game that has a long mathematical tradition and was played with great enthusiasm for around 700 years after its invention (11th century). However, only the arrangement of the pieces, the armies of the even and odd , the values ​​on the pieces, based on the Pythagorean number theory, are described, not the moves. And if the game is extensively praised as philosophical and not for profit, the portrayal remains vague. While with the late antique scholar Boethius , through whom these arithmetic terms were conveyed, superparticularis is defined and explained in detail (Inst. Arithm. I, 24) it pales here to a qui ... superaddunt ... a numero vincente patris quotitium (verse 663f: which to something is added to the dominant number).

The text is embedded in a large number of comparable texts from the 11th century ( Asilo von Würzburg ) to the 17th century ( August II. (Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) under the pseudonym Gustavus Selenus ).

Cosmogony, cosmology, image of God

The following summary of the third book is mainly based on the research of the philologist Paul Klopsch . "Ovid" postulates in his cosmogony (verses 128-155) that God made the world out of nothing ( ex nihilo ) by creating matter and light. He follows the work De luce seu de inchoatione formrum by the English theologian Robert Grosseteste . From there the poet also adopts the ancient world view of the 9 spheres (verses 160-177): the 7 planets Saturnus , Iupiter , Mars , Sol , Venus , Mercurius , Luna and above them the spheres of stellae fixae and light. The planete properties (hot, cold, dry, wet) assigned (verse 463-521) as Robert Grosseteste ( De impressionibus aeris seu de prognosticatione ). But they are also associated with human body organs in the manner of an iatroastrology . Here the Persian scholar Albumasar could be the source.

Verses 527-632 can also be traced back to Albumasar. "Ovid" reports that a particularly favorable conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter took place in the 24th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus . According to the opinion of those in the know, this means that after 6 years a prophet will be born of a virgin ( ... post annum sextum nasci debere prophetam ... de virgine ). Ovid is thus taken into the Christian context by the author. This is carried out in lengthy theological discussions, and the poem ends with an invocation or prayer to the virgo felix, virgo significata per stellas (the happy starred Virgin) .

Tradition and survival

More than 30 complete manuscripts of the work are known, most of them in France; a translator was also found there (Jean Lefèvre, second half of the 14th century, Livre de Leesce ). Paul Klopsch edited the text in 1967 in his book PSEUDO-OVIDIUS DE VETULA . A translation into the German language is not available.

Often the third chapter was outsourced as a didactic text and then put together with anonymous alchemical texts, but also with the De ave Phoenice des Laktanz . The information on the game of dice in the first chapter is recognized as the first correct mathematical treatment, but a connection to the development of combinatorics or probability calculation cannot be traced.

Text edition and literature

  • Menso Folkerts : Rithmimachie in measure, number and weight , exhibition catalog of the Herzog August Library No. 60, Wolfenbüttel 1989
  • Thomas Haye : The Latin didactic poem in the Middle Ages , Leiden-New York-Cologne 1997
  • Tilman Krischer : Interpretations of the Liber de ludo aleae in Eckhard Keßler (Ed.): Girolamo Cardano , Wiesbaden 1994
  • Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO-OVIDIUS DE VETULA investigations and text, Leiden and Cologne 1967
  • Paul Lehmann : Pseudo-ancient literature of the Middle Ages , Darmstadt 1964
  • Oliver Plessow: Medieval chess books between game symbolism and conveying values , Münster 2007
  • Ulrich Schädler and Ricardo Calvo (translation, commentary): Alfons X. “the wise” The Book of Games , Berlin 2009
  • Ivo Schneider : Development of the calculus of probability from the beginnings to 1933. Introduction and texts , Darmstadt 1988

Single receipts

  1. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Latin-German concise dictionary
  2. ↑ Thomas Haye: The Latin didactic poem in the Middle Ages , p. 295
  3. ^ Paul Lehmann: Pseudo-ancient literature of the Middle Ages , p. 2
  4. ^ Paul Lehmann: Pseudo-ancient literature of the Middle Ages , p. 13
  5. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO-OVIDIUS DE VETULA , p. 103 ff.
  6. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO OVIDIUS DE vetula , S. 117f
  7. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO OVIDIUS DE vetula , p.15
  8. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO OVIDIUS DE vetula , p.16
  9. ↑ Ulrich Schädler and Ricardo Calvo: Alfons X. “the Wise”, The Book of Games , pp. 191-202
  10. ^ Karl Bosch : Statistics for non-statisticians 2012, p. 44
  11. ↑ Ulrich Schädler and Ricardo Calvo: Alfons X. “the Wise”, The Book of Games , p. 194
  12. ^ Walter Tauber: The dice game in the Middle Ages and the early modern times , Frankfurt 1987
  13. ↑ Oliver Plessow: Medieval Schachzabel Books between game symbolism and conveying values , p. 27
  14. ↑ Oliver Plessow: Medieval Schachzabel Books between game symbolism and conveying values , p. 36
  15. ^ Arnald Steiger: Alfonso el Sabio, Libros de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas , Geneva 1941, p. XXXIII
  16. ↑ Oliver Plessow: Medieval Schachzabel Books between game symbolism and conveying values , p. 36f
  17. ↑ Oliver Plessow: Medieval Schachzabel Books between game symbolism and conveying values , p. 24
  18. ↑ Menso Folkerts: Rithmimachie in Measure, Number and Weight , p. 331
  19. ↑ Menso Folkerts: Rithmimachie in Measure, Number and Weight , p. 336
  20. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO OVIDIUS De vetula , p 16f, pp 59-77
  21. ↑ Paul Klopsch: PSEUDO OVIDIUS DE vetula , p 160
  22. ↑ Thomas Haye: The Latin didactic poem in the Middle Ages , p. 296f
  23. ↑ Robert Ineichen: Dice and Probability , 1996