Rodulfus Tortarius

Rodulfus Tortarius (* around 1063 in Gien ; † after 1122), also known in various sources as Raoul Tortaire , Raoul of Tourtier , Raoul de La Tourte , Raoul le Tourtier , Radulphus Tortarius , Rudolphus Tortarius , Radulphus Flaviacensis , was an educated Benedictine monk and poet the abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire .

Life

Rodulfus Tortarius was born around 1063 in Gien on the Loire , in the diocese of Auxerre .

Nothing is known about his family, except that Rodulfus had five brothers, two of whom died early in a feud, and two more later.

Rodulfus studied literature and linguistics, grammar and logic before he entered the Fleury convent and enriched it with his skills. He worked there as a historian and canon lawyer. The fact that Rodulfus enjoyed a high reputation with his abbot can be seen from the fact that he was called in as a missionary in important matters.

How Rodulfus got his enigmatic nickname Tortarius is unclear.

Rodolfus was personally acquainted with Bishop Galon of Paris , 1104–1116, as one inferred from a poem about Boëmundus of Antioch dedicated to the bishop .

Between 1110 and 1115 he made a trip to Normandy, especially the cities of Caen and Bayeux . Presumably he trod also at some point in his life the Santiago pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela .

The exact circumstances of death and the date of Rodulfus' death are not known. At least one knows that Rodulfus was torn from his full life and did not die before 1122.

Works

In addition to his corpus of letters, the literary legacy of Rodulfus Tortarius also includes a hymn , a wonder book and a martyrology . Here are the works in detail:

De memorabilibus (poetic adaptation of the memorabilia of Valerius Maximus)
Epistelae XII (in verse and rhyme)
Passio Beati Mauri (The Passion of St. Maurus )
Hymn in honore Beati Mauri (Hymn in honor of Saint Maurus)
Miracula Sancti Benedicti (Wonder Book of Saint Benedict )

The authorship of four other pieces is doubtful.

Epitaph for Peter Abelard
Elogium Petri
Elogium cluniacum
De ovo (poem)

Manuscripts

Poems: MS Vat.Reginensis 1357, 12th century
Miracles of Saint Benedict: Vat. Reg. 302 and Aurel. Bibl. 323.
Passio and hymn: MS Paris BN lat. 12606, MS Vat. Reg. 592.
Passio and wonder book in excerpts: MS Orléans, BM 490.

literature

J. Mabillon : Annales Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, Paris 1739, Vol. 6, pp. 383f.
Charles Clémencet : Raoul Tortaire, moine de Fleuri, in: Histoire littéraire de la France , Vol. 12, Paris, 1865–1981.
JP Migne : Patrologia Latina, vol. 160, Rodulfus Tortarius, Paris, 1854.
E. de Certain, Raoul Tortaire, in: Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 16 (series 4, vol. 1), Paris, 1855, pp. 489-521.
E. de Certain: Raoul Tortaire, in Miracula sancti Benedicti, Paris, 1858, pp. 21-23.
E. de Certain: Les miracles de Saint-Benoît, Paris 1858.
MB Ogle, DM Schullian: Rodulfi Tortarii Carmina editors, Rome, 1933.
F. Bar: Les épîtres latines de Raoul le Tourtier; etude de sources. La Legende d'Ami et Amile, Paris, 1937.
B. Grémont, A. Vidier: L'historiographie à Saint-Benoit sur Loire et les miracles de Saint-Benoit, Paris, 1965.

Remarks

↑ Everything that is known about Rudolfus' life comes from the early medieval codex of his works, Reginensis 1357, which is now kept in the Vatican. Letter 11 mentions his place of birth. The year of birth can be deduced from Letter 7, since Rodulfus was 45 years old at the time of his writing. If this letter dates from the year of King Philip I's death , as E. de Certain claims, Rodulfus must have been born in 1063.
↑ Therefore, in his later days, he could only address his letter 11 to a brother who was still alive.
↑ The epigram of Francus Beatus, which precedes the Vatican manuscript: “Rudolf, whose songs you will find in this corpus, reader, was the adornment and support of this monastery. Imbued with linguistics from his youth, he finally gave up this study along with worldly life: from that point on he was an expert on the Holy Law and historiography ... "
↑ According to a passage from Letter 4.
↑ It can be found in letters 1-4 of his collection. J. Mabillon and the authors of the Histoire littéraire suspected that Rudolf's nickname derives from the Latin toponym Torta, fr. la cake. For the many translation options see above.
↑ Hugo von Sainte-Marie mentions in his literary foreword to the miracle stories of Saint Benedict: "But now this work, Mr. Rudolf, our venerable brother, had already begun, but then he was carried away by death ..." See E. de Certain: Les miracles de Saint-Benoît, 1858, p. 357.
↑ After the beginning of the Abbatiat of Petrus Venerabilis in Cluny, to whom Rodulfus, as the newly elected Cluniac Abbot, had paid his respects in Letter 10.
↑ The manuscript history of MS Vat. Reginensis 1357 is eventful: After about four hundred years of slumber in the library of Fleury, the codex came into the hands of the lover Pierre Daniel from Orléans in the 16th century on the occasion of the destruction of the monastery library in 1562 by the Huguenots. After him it passed to Paul Petau and Jacques Bongars from Paris, then to Alexander Petau in 1614, 30 years later to Queen Christina of Sweden, after her death in 1690 to Pope Alexander VIII, who had it kept in the archives of the Vatican .
↑ These works were still recognized by J. Mabillon as genuine, even though the period in which they were written, in the former case after 1142, can hardly be reconciled with the key biographical data above. There may be some confusion with a certain Rudolf von Cluny regarding the author.
↑ The parchment manuscript , the cover of which bears the earlier number 1640, comprises 181 folios , which were written in Carolingian minuscule in one column by at least 2 copyists of the 12th century , with rubricated titles and initials on every second line. The lettering, which lacks any Gothic influence, excludes a priori the possibility that the manuscript was created in a later century. Thus the codex containing the collected works of the poet will have been drawn up in Fleury's scriptorium immediately after his death .

Web links

The poem: Ad syncopum ( online )
Excerpts from the miracles of Saint Benedict in Latin and French ( online )

personal data
SURNAME	Rodulfus Tortarius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Raoul Tortaire
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French monk, scholar, poet
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1063
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gien , France
DATE OF DEATH	after 1122

[1] Everything that is known about Rudolfus' life comes from the early medieval codex of his works, Reginensis 1357, which is now kept in the Vatican. Letter 11 mentions his place of birth. The year of birth can be deduced from Letter 7, since Rodulfus was 45 years old at the time of his writing. If this letter dates from the year of King Philip I's death , as E. de Certain claims, Rodulfus must have been born in 1063.

[2] Therefore, in his later days, he could only address his letter 11 to a brother who was still alive.

[3] The epigram of Francus Beatus, which precedes the Vatican manuscript: “Rudolf, whose songs you will find in this corpus, reader, was the adornment and support of this monastery. Imbued with linguistics from his youth, he finally gave up this study along with worldly life: from that point on he was an expert on the Holy Law and historiography ... "

[4] According to a passage from Letter 4.

[5] It can be found in letters 1-4 of his collection. J. Mabillon and the authors of the Histoire littéraire suspected that Rudolf's nickname derives from the Latin toponym Torta, fr. la cake. For the many translation options see above.

[6] Hugo von Sainte-Marie mentions in his literary foreword to the miracle stories of Saint Benedict: "But now this work, Mr. Rudolf, our venerable brother, had already begun, but then he was carried away by death ..." See E. de Certain: Les miracles de Saint-Benoît, 1858, p. 357.

[7] After the beginning of the Abbatiat of Petrus Venerabilis in Cluny, to whom Rodulfus, as the newly elected Cluniac Abbot, had paid his respects in Letter 10.

[8] The manuscript history of MS Vat. Reginensis 1357 is eventful: After about four hundred years of slumber in the library of Fleury, the codex came into the hands of the lover Pierre Daniel from Orléans in the 16th century on the occasion of the destruction of the monastery library in 1562 by the Huguenots. After him it passed to Paul Petau and Jacques Bongars from Paris, then to Alexander Petau in 1614, 30 years later to Queen Christina of Sweden, after her death in 1690 to Pope Alexander VIII, who had it kept in the archives of the Vatican .

[9] These works were still recognized by J. Mabillon as genuine, even though the period in which they were written, in the former case after 1142, can hardly be reconciled with the key biographical data above. There may be some confusion with a certain Rudolf von Cluny regarding the author.

[10] The parchment manuscript , the cover of which bears the earlier number 1640, comprises 181 folios , which were written in Carolingian minuscule in one column by at least 2 copyists of the 12th century , with rubricated titles and initials on every second line. The lettering, which lacks any Gothic influence, excludes a priori the possibility that the manuscript was created in a later century. Thus the codex containing the collected works of the poet will have been drawn up in Fleury's scriptorium immediately after his death .