L’enseignement de la géographie  dans l’antiquité tardive

Patrick Gautier Dalché

doi:10.1515/klio-2014-0006

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L’enseignement de la géographie dans l’antiquité tardive

Patrick Gautier Dalché

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 11. Juni 2014

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Summarium

Cum multa vestigia de terrarum situ in scholiis perdiscendo posterior imperii Romani aetas nobis tradidisset, moderni de hoc argumento parum scripserunt. Commentariolum hoc criticam compositionem in tres partes divisam proponit. Primo, geographicae informationi per omnes institutionis gradus consulitur: in scripturae apud διδάσκαλοv vel paedagogum exercitatione; in auctorum apud grammaticum praelectione; in eloquentiae apud rhetorem vel in ecclesiasticis scholiis institutione. Hic recognoscuntur locorum nomina scripta et in Aegyptiis chartis, et in scholiis ad Sallustium Vergilium Lucanumque, et in commentis perfectis quae Servius inter alios composuit, et in operibus absolutis quae Vibius Sequester Iulius Honorius Solinus Stephanus Byzantius Priscianusque grammaticus confecerunt. Secundo, cum in posteriore aetate tabulae pictae magis in promptu fuerunt, de textibus pinacibusque (ut cum Graecis loquamur) in litterarum studio inter se colligatis disceptatur. Varia tabularum pictarum genera textuum commemorationis beneficio denotata habemus, ut Dionysii penacem secundum Senatoris Institutiones et, apud alios auctores, orbes illos in civitatis Augustodunensis porticis tempore Constantii, Constantinopoli tempore Theodosii depictos. Insuper codices in medio aevo exarati geographica, chorographica aut topographica schemata vetustioris aetatis nobis tradiderunt, exempli gratia in Lucani Oppianive operibus necnon et Commentis quae dicuntur Bernenses. Satis superque probatum est quod mundi mapparum in medio aevo descriptarum (inter quas praecipue illae orbis descriptiones in Albigensi Londoniensique bibliothecis servatae duaeque sancto Hieronymo falso tributae memoria digniores sunt) exemplaria ab quarto ad sextum seculum composita repetuntur. Denique geographica magistratuum eruditio in scholiis comperta multis monumentis illustratur: Tabula quae Peutingeriana dicitur, Divisio orbis terrarum, Dimensuratio provinciarum, Expositio totius mundi et gentium, Notitia dignitatum, varii laterculi, Ὑποτύπωσις γεωγραφίας ἐν ἐπιτομῆ , vel apud christianos Hippolyti Romani Chronicon et ex hac fonte rescriptos textus. In fine profertur quod consimilis geographiae institutio in scholiis ad id valuit, ut Romani animi cultus in omnibus provinciis idem esset, cum populi imperio subiecti variam originem traxissent et tanto extenso orbe.

Abstract

Much information has been preserved from Late Antiquity about the study of geography, but modern scholars have paid small attention to it. The present article offers a critical synthesis of the evidence, in three parts. The first part is an analysis of the geographical information learned at different stages of the curriculum, from the writing exercises given by the διδάσκαλος or by the paedagogus, to the explanation of literary texts in the middle school of the grammaticus, and to the superior level, of secular or religious schools, in which one could consult Ptolemy’s „Geography“. Our evidence goes from lists of place names in Egyptian papyri, to glosses in the manuscripts of Sallust, Vergil, Lucan, to exhaustive commentaries – like those by Servius – and to more elaborated works – like those of Vibius Sequester, Julius Honorius, Solinus, Stephanus of Byzantium, Priscian the Grammarian. The second part of the article deals with the relationship between texts and graphic representations, both used with pedagogical aims. During Late Antiquity, maps were more frequent than in previous times. Today, we know about different types of cartographic representations from literary references – such as the penax Dionysii mentioned by Cassiodorus or the monumental maps of Autun and Constantinople in the time of Theodosius II. We have also topographical sketches, in the Commenta Bernensia or in the manuscripts of Lucan and Oppian. Also, by studying medieval mappaemundi – such as the one from Albi, from the Cotton manuscript collection of the British Library, or like the archetype of the so-called Saint-Jerome’s maps – one understands that their models go back to the IV^th–VI^th centuries. Last but not least, the Tabula Peutingeriana and the texts of the Divisio orbis terrarum, the Dimensuratio provinciarum, the Expositio totius mundi et gentium, the Notitia dignitatum, the Laterculi, the Nomina provinciarum omnium, the Ὑποτύπωσις γεωγραφίας ἐν ἐπιτομῇ as well as the geography taught to the Christians by Hippolytus in his Chronicon and by his followers as late as the Chronicon Paschale, are all echoes of school geography in the culture of the high-class. These elites were educated to participate in the administration and to defend the ideological unity of the empire and of the world born after its fall. In conclusion, this static but complex picture underlines the unifying role played by the geographical teaching in the late Roman culture, shared by people from the different parts of the orbis terrarum.

Keywords: Spätantike; Geographie; Lehre; Schule; Landkarte

Published Online: 2014-6-11

Published in Print: 2014-6-1

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https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2014-0006

Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel

Spätantike; Geographie; Lehre; Schule; Landkarte