Transformations of the world space: From Pliny’s Natural History to the Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium of C. Julius Solinus and the poem De Mirabilibus of Theodericus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2020-6-1-113-145Keywords:
ancient geography, medieval geography, diachrony of space, space in literature, textual criticism, bestiary, monsters in literature, medieval poetry, pliny the elder, c. julius solinusAbstract
Two successive abridgements of Pliny’s Natural History are discussed in the paper: the Collectanea rerum memorabilium by C. Julius Solinus and a medieval abridgement of Solinus, made in verse by a certain Theodericus. The main attention is paid to the biggest part of the Collectanea which gives a geographical account of the Universe corresponding to Pliny’s Books 3-6. The geographical part of the Collectanea is of particular interest for understanding the poem of Theodericus. An analysis of the text structures reveals deep differences between the studied authors. These differences can be interpreted as changes in global concepts of the World geographic space. For Solinus, the large World space was a basis for arranging the encyclopedic material drawn from Pliny, and he created a universal continuum of information that looks somewhat similar to the modern data-base structure: I call it the ramifying catalogue. In contrast to Solinus, Theodericus completely lost the idea of a World continuum. Theodericus does not mention the greater part of the geographical names, and names of large regions are all omitted, save for a few exceptions. Theodericus, however, shows a tendency to reduce the matter of the Collectanea to thematic units. Since Theodericus had but a very vague idea of how the World was arranged in geographical space, he could not recognize evident scribal errors of his copy of Solinus’ work which affected the coherence of the geographical continuum. A neglect of the geographical space can be explained by the fact that the poem was probably intended to be read as a multilevel allegory where geographical localization would be of little importance.Downloads
References
Birkholz, D. (2004). The king's two maps: Cartography and culture in Thirteenth-Century England. New York: Routledge.
Brodersen, K. (2011). Mapping Pliny's world: The achievement of Solinus. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 54(1), 63-88.
Brodersen, K. (2012). Cartography. In D. Dueck. Geography in Classical Antiquity, 99-110. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Brodersen, K. (Ed.) (2014). Solinus: New studies. Heidelberg: Verlag Antike.
Campbell, B. (2012). Rivers and the power of Ancient Rome. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
Coarelli, F. (1996). Il complesso pompeiano di Campo Marzio e la sua decorazione scultorea. In F. Coarelli. Revixit ars: arte e ideologia a Roma: dai modelli ellenistici alla tradizione repubblicana, 360-381. Roma: Quasar. (In Italian).
Deam, L. (2015). A world transformed: Exploring the spirituality of medieval maps. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Dover P. (2013). Reading Pliny's ‘ape' in the Renaissance: The Polyhistor of Caius Julius Solinus in the first century of print. In J. König, G. Woolf (Eds.). Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance, 414-443. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Elsner, J., Squire, M. J. (2016). Sight and memory: The visual art of Roman mnemonics. In M. J. Squire, J. Elsner (Eds.). Sight and the ancient senses, 180-204. London: Routledge.
Flint, V. I. J. (1982). Honorius Augustodunensis. Imago mundi. Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, 49, 7-153.
Friedman, J. B. (1981). The monstrous races in medieval art and thought. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Geus, K. (2016). Paradoxography and geography in antiquity: Some thoughts about the Paradoxographus Vaticanus. In Fr. J. González Ponce, Fr. J. Gómez Espelosín, A. L. Chávez Reino (Eds.). La letra y la carta: Descripción verbal y representación gráfica en los diseños terrestres grecolatinos; Estudios en honor de Pietro Janni, 243-257). Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá, Servicio de Publicaciones: Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla.
Grant, R. (1952). Miracle and natural law in Graeco-Roman and early Christian thought. Amsterdam: North Holland.
Hassig, D. (1995). Medieval bestiaries: Text, image, ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Haupt, M. (1876). Index lectionum aestivarum 1863. In M. Haupt. Opuscula (Vol. 2), 218-252. Lipsaie: Impensis Salomonis Hirzelii. (In Latin).
Healy, J. F. (1999). Pliny the Elder on science and technology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Hünemörder, Ch. (1976). Das Lehrgedicht "De monstris Indie" (12. Jh.). Ein Beitrag zur Wirkungsgeschichte des Solinus und Honorius Augustodunensis. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 119(3), 267-284. (In German).
Jakobi, R. (2002). Indien in der Solin-Paraphrase des Theodericus. Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch: internationale Zeitschrift für Mediävistik, 37(2), 247-256. (In German).
James, M. R. (1913). Ovidius de Mirabilibus mundi. In E. C. Quiggin (Ed.). Essays and studies presented to William Ridgeway on his sixtieth birthday August 1913, 286-298. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Janni, P. (1984). La mappa e il periplo: cartografia antica e spazio odologico. Roma: Bretschneider. (In Italian).
Kaffarnik, A. (2011). Querela magistri Treverensis. Neuedition, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Mit einer Beschreibung der Handschrift Bruxelles, BR 10615-729. Bern: Peter Lang. (In German).
Kline, R. N. (2001). Maps of medieval thought: The Hereford paradigm. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press.
McDermott, W. C. (1938). The ape in antiquity. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
Manitius, M. (1914). Zur poetischen Literatur aus Bruxell. 10615-729. Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, 39, 155-175. (In German).
Mayor, A. (2000). The first fossil hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman times. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Mittman, A. S. (2006). Maps and monsters in medieval England. New York: Routledge.
Mommsen, Th. (Ed.) (1895). C. Iulii Solini Collectanea rerum memorabilium. Iterum recensuit Th. Mommsen. Berolini: Apud Weidmannos. (In Latin).
Morta, K. (2014). Did Agatharchides mention an African name of giraffe? Živa antika = Antiquité vivante, 64, 73-92.
Murphy, T. (2004). Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the encyclopedia. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Naas, V. (2011). Imperialism, mirabilia and knowledge: Some paradoxes in the Naturalis Historia. In R. K. Gibson, R. Morello (Eds.). Pliny the Elder: Themes and contexts, 57-70. Leiden: Brill.
Pavlock, B. (2014). Paradox and the journey in the dedicatory Preface of Solinus' Collectanea. In K. Brodersen. (Ed.). Solinus: New Studies, 24-31. Heidelberg: Verlag-Antike.
Pitcher, L. V. (2012). Cassius Dio. In I. J. F. de Jong (Ed.). Space in Ancient Greek literature: Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative (Vol. 3), 257-268. Leiden: Brill.
Ramosino, L. C. (2005). Mamilio Sura o Emilio Sura? Alcune considerazioni sulla teoria della successione degli imperi nella ‘Naturalis Historia' di Plinio il Vecchio. Latomus, 64(4), 945-958. (In Italian).
Reiffenberg, Fr. de. (1841). Notice d'un manuscrit de la bibliothèque royale. Bulletin de l'Académie royale de Bruxelless sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 8(2), 247-267. (In French).
Riddle, J. M. (Ed.) (1977). Marbode of Rennes' De Lapidibus: Considered as a medical treatise with text, commentary, and C. W. King's translation, together with text and translation of Marbode's Minor works on stones. Wiesbaden: Steiner.
Rutledge, S. H. (2012). Ancient Rome as a museum: Power, identity, and the culture of collecting. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Schmidt, P. L. (1995). Solins Polyhistor in Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Geschichte. Philologus, 139(1), 23-35. (In German).
Scully, D. (2017). Medieval maps and diagrams. In C. Hourihane (Ed.). Routledge companion to medieval iconography, 399-411. London: Routledge.
Seel, O. (1982). Pompeius Trogus und das Problem der Universalgeschichte. In Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Vol. 2.30.2), 1363-1423. Berlin: W. de Gruyter. (In German).
Talbert, R. J. A. (2008). Greek and Roman mapping: Twenty-first century perspectives. In R. J. A. Talbert, R. W. Unger (Eds.). Cartography in antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh perspectives, new methods, 9-27. Leiden: Brill.
Verner, L. (2005). The epistemology of the monstrous in the Middle Ages. New York: Routledge.
Verweij, M. (2015). Florus and his ‘Vergilius Orator an Poeta': The Brussels Manuscript revisited. Wiener Studien, 128, 83-105.
Westrem, S. D. (2001). The Hereford map: A transcription and translation of the legends with commentary. Turnhout, Belgium: The Folio Society.
Woodard, R. D. (2006). Indo-European sacred space: Vedic and Roman cult. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.
Ziolkowski, J. M., Putnam, M. C. J. (Eds.). The Virgilian tradition: The first fifteen hundred years. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
