Ovidius moralizatus

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Ovidius moralizatus is a Latin-language prose work by the French monk Petrus Berchorius and was written around 1340 . It forms the 15th book of his main work Reductorium Morale .

With Ovidius moralizatus, Berchorius created a Christian interpretation of the Ovidic Metamorphoses , so that the often daring aspects of ancient mythology could also be perceived by Christians. Berchorius explains the figure of Phoebe as a symbol of worldly (ephemeral) fame or even of the devil, while Daphne is once again interpreted as a sign of earthly vain striving, but then again as the Christian soul threatened by temptation by the devil. The dying Pyramus stands for Christ on the cross, Eurydice for the sinful Eve .

The manuscript was soon translated into French and Castilian . Geoffrey Chaucer copied a number of his stories for his Canterbury Tales .

expenditure

  • First printed in Bruges in 1484
  • Petrus Berchorius: Reductorium Morale, Liber XV, Ovidius Moralizatus . Instituut voor Laat Latijn of the Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht
    • 1st cap. I: De formis figurisque deorum  : naar de Parijse druk van 1509. Introduction by J. Engels. 1960
    • 2nd cap. Ii-xv: naar de Parijse druk van 1509. Introduction by J. Engels. 1962.
    • 3rd cap. I. De Formis Figurisque Deorum . Textus e codice Brux., Bibl. Reg. 863-9, critice editus Joseph Engels. 1966.
    • [4.] Cap. II. [Ed.] Maria S. van der Bijl. In: Vivarium 9 (1971) p. 1ff.

literature

  • Paul Michel, Vel dic quod Phebus significat dyabolum. On the Ovid interpretation of Petrus Berchorius . In: Hans Weder u. a. (Ed.): Mediation of meaning. Studies on the history of exegesis and hermeneutics I. Pano, Zurich a. a. 2000, pp. 293-353.