The Cambridge and the Exeter Book Physiologi: Associative Imagery, Allegorical Circularity, and Isidorean Organization
-
Mercedes Salvador-Bello
und
Mar Gutiérrez-Ortiz
Abstract
The Physiologus has survived in some twenty-four manuscripts, two of which are of English origin: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 448, and Exeter, Cathedral Library, 3501. The latter codex, also known as the Exeter Book, contains a verse Physiologus (fols. 95v–98r) in Old English. In turn, the Cambridge manuscript provides a Latin prose Physiologus (fols. 88r–89r). These two texts bear witness to the knowledge of the Physiologus in the late Anglo-Saxon period and constitute the central piece of evidence extant for the dissemination of this work in England. Even though the two versions are formally and stylistically different, the manuscripts in which they occur are roughly contemporary and both of them are of Southern provenance. Each of these Physiologi comprises three chapters describing three animals: lion, unicorn and panther in the case of the Cambridge Physiologus, and panther, whale and an unknown bird – whose identification is problematic due to a textual gap – in the Exeter codex. Despite these striking affinities, no scholarly work has offered a comparative study of the two Physiologi, with the exception of Andrea Rossi-Reder’s unpublished PhD dissertation (1992), and only passing reference has been made to the Cambridge Physiologus in discussions of the better‑known Exeter text.
In order to remedy this critical neglect, the present article offers a detailed analysis of both Physiologi, together with a first edition of the Latin text. As we will show, the Cambridge and the Exeter Physiologi share the same cultural background and apply similar compilation criteria. In both cases, the zoological motifs were selected according to organizational principles based on Isidore’s Etymologiae, such as the animals’ unclean character and size. In both, too, the creatures described are interconnected by means of recurrent associative imagery and an allegorical circular design. This combination of encyclopedic criteria and the sensory characterization of the animals discloses remarkable parallelisms in the structure and the compositional technique of these two Physiologi. Moreover, this analogous organizational method offers additional evidence to support Michael D. C. Drout’s hypothesis that the bird described in the fragmentary third chapter of the Exeter version is the phoenix instead of the partridge, as some other scholars had traditionally maintained. Our reading also effectively harmonizes with the eschatological and anagogic elements which have been pointed out for the third chapter of the Exeter Physiologus, as well as with the allegorical and tropological roles of the panther and the whale.
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Appendix
The Cambridge Physiologus (CCCC 448, fols. 88r/1–89r/12)
Editing Principles
In this edition, manuscript capitalization has been retained for the rubrics of the three chapters and chapter numbers have been added. We have also provided punctuation and have expanded abbreviations such as XP̅C for Christus. Biblical citations or paraphrases are underlined and references to them have been included in parentheses.
Edition
|fol. 88r| [I.] INCIPIT DE TRIMODA LEONIS NATURA
Leo tres naturas habet, quarum prima est: nam cum ambulet et uenatoris odor uenerit ei, cauda sua cooperit uestigia sua quocumque ierit, ne uestigia eius aut cubile uenator inueniat et capiat eum. Sic Christus Ihesus. Ortus de tribu Iuda, leo potens, uestigia deitatis sue carne cooperuit, ne eum, uerum filium Dei, diabolus agnosceret. Secunda natura: cum dormierit, uigilant eius oculi aperti. Sicut in canticis canticorum (Song of Songs 5:2) sponsi uoce dicitur: ego dormio et cor meum uigilat. Tertia eius est natura: cum enim genuerit catulum, mortuum eum generat lęena et tribus diebus custodit eum, donec ueniens pater eius die tertio inflans in faciem eius suscitet eum. Sic Deus pater, teste psalmista, ad filium dicens: exsurge gloria mea, fili. Et filius ad eum: exsurgam diluculo (Psalm 56:9). Pater omnis creaturae primogenitum suscitauit a mortuis (cf. Col. 1:18).
I.7 cor] added at the right margin (fol. 88r/11) with a thinner stroke of pen.
[II.] DE UNICORNIS NATURA
Unicornis animal est pulchrum, nimisque acerrimum hedi magnitudinem habens; portatque cornu suum in medio |fol. 88v| capitis; cui non potest uenator adpropiare nisi uirginem castam posuerit ante eum. Qui uidens uirginem statim exsilit in sinum illius et obdormit et sic capitur. Sic Deus omnipotens quem non pote`runt´ angeli et archangeli omnesque uirtutes tenere (Cf. Col. 1:16). In utero uirginis Marię figuratus factus est homo.
II.2 Unicornis animal] blank space between the two words; Unicornis pusillum animal Physiologus A, B (Carmody 1941: 128; 1939: 31). 5 pote`runt´] unt added above the line with the elongated r serving to connect pote to unt in upper level.
[III.] DE PANTHERA
Propheta dicit: factus sum sicut leo domui Iuda et sicut panthera domui Effraim (Hosea 5:14). Panthera, omnium animalium pulchritudine decoratus, hanc naturam habet: ut omnium animalium amicus sit; soli autem draconi inimicus. Est enim omnimodo uarius, sicut tunica Ioseph, et speciosus forma prae filiis omnium animalium. Sicut Christus est: speciosus forma prae filiis hominum (Psalm 44:3). Et hic panthera quietum animal est et mitissimum nimis. Christus mitem se et humilem dicit; quando enim satiatus `est´, dormit in fouea sua et tertia die |fol. 89r| surgit a somno et exclamat uoce magna et de eius ore procedit omnis odor bonus aromata cuncta superans, qui per L miliaria dispergitur. Et omnia animalia quae longe sunt et quae prope audientes uocem eius sequuntur odorem illum. Solus uero draco, ne audiat uocem eius abscondit se in spelunca sua. Sicut et dominus surrexit a mortuis, pacem euangelizans his qui prope et his qui longe omnibus (cf. Eph. 2:17), odor bonus factus est. Soli uero diabolo inimicus factus est.
III.3 pulchritudine] MS pulchritudinem. 7 Christus] MS SP̅C, i. e. Spiritus. 7 `est´] added over a blank space preceding dormit; reserved for another, longer word (alluding to eating)?; cf. manducauerit Physiologus A, comederit Physiologus B (Carmody 1941: 124; 1939: 40). 9 L] Roman numeral [for quinquaginta] not attested in any other Latin Physiologus version.
[I.] HERE BEGINS THE TRIPLE NATURE OF THE LION
The lion has three natures, the first of which is: when he is walking and the smell of the hunter comes to him, he covers his tracks with his tail wherever he goes so that the hunter does not discover his track or his lair and seizes him. Thus [is] Jesus Christ: sprung from the tribe of Judah, [who like] a mighty lion, covered the tracks of his divine nature with his flesh so that the devil did not recognize him [as] the true son of God. The second nature: when he has fallen asleep, his open eyes keep watch. Thus in the Song of Songs (5:2) the bridegroom says with his voice: I sleep, but my heart remains awake. His third nature is: when the lioness gives birth to her cub, she delivers it dead and keeps watch over it for three days until his father comes on the third day and awakens it by blowing into his face. Thus God the father, according to the psalmist’s witness, tells his son: rise by my glory, son, and the son [says] to him: I will rise at dawn (Psalm 56:9). And the father awakened the firstborn of every creature from the dead (Col. 1:18).
[II.] ON THE NATURE OF THE UNICORN
The unicorn is a small, beautiful and extremely cunning animal, which has the size of a kid; it bears a horn in the middle of his head; the hunter cannot draw near him unless a chaste virgin is placed before him. Seeing the virgin, he leaps into her lap at once and falls asleep and thus is caught. Thus [is] God almighty, whom angels or archangels or all virtues could not comprehend (cf. Col. 1:16). Shaped in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He was made a man.
[III.] ON THE PANTHER
The prophet says: I became like a lion to the house of Judah, and like a panther to the house of Ephraim (Hosea 5:14). Adorned with the beauty of all animals, the panther has this nature; he is friends with all animals; and he [is] only an enemy of the dragon. He is wholly mottled like Joseph’s tunic, and beautiful in his shape as compared with the sons of all animals. Thus is Christ: beautiful in his shape in comparison with the children of men (Psalm 44:3). And this panther is a peaceful and extremely meek animal. Christ says that he is meek and humble, as when he is satiated, he sleeps in his pit and on the third day awakens from his sleep and exclaims in a loud voice and from his mouth an excellent smell comes out which surpasses all spices and is dispersed around fifty miles. And hearing his voice, all animals that are far and near follow that smell. Actually, only the dragon hides in his cave so that he does not hear his voice. Just as the Lord rose from the dead proclaiming peace with the Gospel, he was turned into good smell to all those who were near and those who were far (cf. Eph. 2:17). In fact, he only became an enemy of the devil.
© The Parker Library. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 448, fol. 88r
© The Parker Library. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 448, fol. 88v
©The Parker Library. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 448, fol. 89r
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Scytel: A New Old English Word for ‘Penis’
- Zelotes and elnvnges: The Extension of Genitive Singular ‑es in the Gloss to the Durham Collectar
- The Cambridge and the Exeter Book Physiologi: Associative Imagery, Allegorical Circularity, and Isidorean Organization
- Framing the Romantic Artist: Goethe’s Torquato Tasso and James’s Roderick Hudson
- “The sad, proud old man stared eternally out of his canvas...”: Media Criticism, Scopic Regimes and the Function of Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait with Two Circles” in John Fowles’s Novel Daniel Martin
- Reviews
- Judith Huber. Motion and the English Verb: A Diachronic Study. Oxford Studies in the History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, xvi + 363 pp., £ 64.00.
- Review
- Rebecca Shapiro (ed.). Foreword by Jack Lynch. Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2017, xl + 608 pp., $ 150.00/£ 100.00.
- Tristan Major. Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018, xiv + 292 pp., $ 70.00.
- Elise Louviot. Direct Speech in Beowulf and Other Old English Narrative Poems. Anglo-Saxon Studies 30. Cambridge: Brewer, 2016, vii + 285 pp., 5 figures, £ 65.00.
- Joshua Byron Smith. Walter Map and the Matter of Britain. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017, xi + 254 pp., $ 69.95/£ 58.00.
- Ian Cornelius. Reconstructing Alliterative Verse: The Pursuit of a Medieval Meter. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, x + 219 pp., 6 tables, £ 75.00.
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