Tag: Poems in the Calendar of 354

For December, the images are preserved in the usual four manuscripts.  The poems are mainly preserved in various unillustrated manuscripts, but also appear in R1, the Barberini manuscript.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Annua sulcatae connectens semina terrae
Pascit hiems; pluvio de Iove cuncta madent.
Aurea nunc revocet Saturno festa December,
Nunc tibi cum domino ludere, verna, licet.

Mixing the furrowed earth with the annual seed-sowing,
Winter lets them grow; all things are soaked by the rain from Jove.
Now let December bring back the golden feast days of Saturn;
Now, slave, you are permitted to joke with your master.

The first two lines refer to the activities of the season, the last two relate to the image in the manuscripts.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Argumenta tibi mensis concedo December
Quae sis quamvis annum claudere possis

I leave the subjects of the month to you, O December;
You can end the year however you like.

The second line is, apparently hopelessly corrupt and is variously emended.  Housman suggested instead:

Argumenta tibi mensis concedo Decemb<ris>,
Qui squamis annum claudere piscis <amas>.

The image for the month is about Saturnalia, naturally enough.  It shows a slave in front of a gaming table with lion-feet.  On the table are dice and a dice tower, for random throwing.  A theatrical mask hangs over his right shoulder.  In his left hand he holds a full-height torch, and a flock of birds hangs on a hook behind that.  Some sort of heart-shaped vegetable lies by his left foot.

The most faithful representative of the renaissance copies is the Barberini manuscript, R1 – MS Vatican Barberini lat.2154, part B, f.23r:

This has the tetrastich written in the right margin, obviously later.  The first line of the distich is underneath the frame.

The Brussels copy  makes the theatrical mask more obvious:

The Berlin copy:

The scene is redrawn in the16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 37 (online here):

As ever, Divjak and Wischmeyer supply the details of what is shown here.

And here we are – the end.  Io Saturnalia!  Merry Christmas!

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

Four manuscripts of the Chronography contain an image for this month.  This includes the Barberini manuscript, with the poems.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Carbaseos post hunc artus indutus amictus
Memphidos antiquae sacra deamque colit.
A quo vix avidus sistro compescitur anser
Devotusque satis incola, Memphi, deis.

After this, arms limbs clad in a linen cloak,
He worships the sacred things and goddess of ancient Memphis:
The greedy goose is hardly kept in check by him with a sistrum,
And has been entirely devoted by the householder to the gods, O Memphis.
And, just enough, the ‘dweller’ devoted to the gods, O Memphis.

The “dweller” is perhaps the sacred snake in the temple, depicted in the image.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Frondibus amissis repetunt sua frigora mensem
Cum iuga Centaurus celsa retorquet eques.

Gone are the leaves, and its frosts reclaim the month,
When the rider Centaurus turns the great plough the centaur-knight Sagittarius shakes off the lofty yoke Plough.

I’m not sure of the sense of the second line here.

Probably the most faithful of the renaissance copies is R1, Ms. Vatican Barberini lat. 2154 B, fol. 22r.  The tetrastich is in the margin at the right – plainly a later addition -, the first line of the distich at the bottom.

Here’s the obviously redrawn image in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 35 (online here):

The Brussels Ms, fol.202r:

And finally the Berlin copy:

From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that November is associated with the cult of Isis and the festival of the Isaia.  The depiction is of a bald-headed priest of Isis, wearing a linen robe and holding a sistrum in his right hand.  On either side of the arm are two pomegranates, with stalks and leaves.  Below these is a goose.  In his left hand he holds a plate, from the middle of which a sacred snake rears up.  There are objects on the plate – possibly leaves or fruits. To the left is another pomegranate, and then an altar, on top of which stands an animal head, a jackal, as in Anubis, with a cloth base and some kind of plate in the middle of the neck, perhaps a hinge?  Is it perhaps an Anubis mask, worn over the head?

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

UPDATE: 10 Nov 2022: Correction to translation of Distich, thanks to Suburbanbanshee.
UPDATE: 28 Nov 2022: More corrections to both, thanks to Alexander MacAulay.
UPDATE: 29 Nov 2022: And resolution on the tetrastich from Diego – thank you.

For October, the images are preserved in four manuscripts of the Chronography.  The verses are preserved in R1, and in other, unillustrated copies of the text.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Dat prensum leporem cumque ipso palmite foetus
October; pingues dat tibi ruris aves.
Iam Bromios spumare lacus et musta sonare
apparet: vino vas calet ecce novo.

The captured hare and with the vine itself the fruits,
October gives; it gives the fat birds of the country.
Now Bromios appears, to fill with foam the basins, and the fermenting juice make sounds;
See, the cask is warming up from the new wine!

“Bromios” is Bacchus.  The heat of fermentation is referred to in line 4.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Octobri laetus portat vindemitor uvas,
Omnis ager, Bacchi munera, voce sonat.

In October the harvester happily carries the grapes,
Every field celebrates in sound the gifts of Bacchus.

Corrections are very welcome!

Probably the most faithful of the renaissance copies is R1, Ms. Vatican Barberini lat. 2154 B, fol. 21r.  The tetrastich is at the right, the first line of the distich at the bottom.

Here’s the obviously redrawn image in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 25 (online here):

The Brussels Ms, fol.202r:

The Berlin Ms, f.230, formerly f.235:

From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that the depiction is of a stocky male figure holding a  braided basket trap in his left hand.  He holds a live hare in his right hand.  There is a tray at the upper right with leaves or flowers.  Behind the figure is a bird-trap, with an animal skin on which is perched a bird of prey.  A small pot of glue hangs from a cord.  The picture shows the hunting for birds and small animals.  The figure is not realistic, but the personification or genius of the month.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

A number of manuscripts contain an image for September.  But here again it is the Vatican Barberini manuscript that gives us the 4-line poem, the tetrastich:

Turgentes acinos, varias et praesecat uvas
September, sub quo mitia poma iacent.
Captivam filo gaudens religasse lacertam
Quae suspensa manu mobile ludit opus.

The swelling berries and the different coloured grapes,
September cuts them down; beneath him lie the ripe fruit.
Delighted to have tied up the captive lizard with a string;
Which suspended from a raised hand plays an active game.

September 5 is Vindemia, the start of the grape harvest.  The lizard can be a pest (Pliny, Natural History 30, 89), but on a thread in a container it produces medicine (NH 30, 52).

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Tempora maturis September vincta racemis
Velate e numero nosceris ipse tuo.

The season of September, covered September, temples girded with ripe grapes;
Blindfolded Concealed, you will be recognised by your number.

I made these translations months ago, and I cannot remember if I revised them, so I apologise for any errors.

The 17th century R1 manuscript, Vatican Barberini lat.2154B (online here), fol. 20r, gives us the most accurate version of the drawing, complete with the tetrastich in the right margin, and the first line of the distich at the bottom:

The redrawn16th century Vienna manuscript 3416 (V), folio 10v (online here):

Divjak and Wischmeyer give us an image from the important (but offline) Brussels manuscript 7543-49, fol. 201r.

They also give an image from the Berlin manuscript, f.234:

From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that the depiction is of the wine harvest.  The cluster of grapes, the figs on a tray at the top left, and the two large amphoras / jars, set in the ground, to hold the new wine, seem clear enough.  The lizard on a thread is of uncertain meaning, as is the basket with skewers on top.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

UPDATE: Thank you Diego for correcting the distich!  And to Michael Gilleland for pointing out that “suspensa” must have a short “a” and so be nominative and agree with lacerta.

Finally!  At last we have more than one manuscript containing an image for August, the first month where this is so since March.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Fontanos latices et lucida pocula vitro
cerne, ut demerso torridus ore bibat.
Aeterno regni signatus nomine mensis
Latona genitam quo perhibent Hecaten.

Look for spring waters and transparent cups in glass,**
So that a thirsty man may drink with submerged mouth.
By the immortal name of a reign is the month designated,
In which, they maintain, that Hecate was born from Latona.

“vitro” is ablative singular, so I am not sure how that fits with the rest of the first line.  The reign mentioned in line 3 is that of Augustus.  On line 4, the Roman goddess Diana in one of her aspects took on the role of the Greek Hecate as goddess of the underworld. Her birthday was celebrated at Nemi on August 13th.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Tu quoque Sextilis venerabilis omnibus annis
Numinis Augusti nomen †in anno venis†.

You also, venerable Sextilis, in every year,
(Under) the** name of the divinity of Augustus †in the year you come†.

The last words are those in the manuscripts, but Divjak and Wischmeyer suggest that they are corrupt; apparently the editions give various suggested emendations.   I don’t see how the nominative “nomen” should be understood – “under” is a guess.

The 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 29 (online here), gives us this clearly redrawn image:

The rather more authentic 17th century R1 manuscript, Vat. Barb.lat.2154B (online here) gives us this, including the tetrastich and the first line of the distich (the other is on the facing page):

The Brussels 7543-49 manuscript, f.201r, gives us this image:

From the Berlin copy, Berol. lat. 61, f.233 (formerly f.228) we get this:

Divjak and Wischmeyer explain all this, so I shall summarise what they tell us.

All these images represent the heat of August, unsurprisingly, and ways to cool off.  The image shows a naked man, thirsty from the summer heat, drinking from a bowl.  The chin is visible through the bowl, so this is a glass bowl, as the first two lines of the tetrastich indicate.  Around the man are three melons; a large vessel with a flame coming out of it; a flabellum (ceremonial fan) with peacock feathers atop a spiral pole; and a jacket with elaborate decoration, including fringes at the cuffs, perhaps associated with the .  In the Vienna manuscript the vessel has a coat of arms with “ZO” on it; the others show “ZLS”.  The Vienna manuscript omits the jacket.  The R1 manuscript shows the (surely original) frame.

The jacket is perhaps associated with the Vulcanalia of August 23, a festival when fires were lit.  At this time garments were hanged up in the sunlight, according to a poem by ps.Paulinus:

nunc omnis credula turba / suspendunt soli per Vulcanalia vestes^[1]

They add that the ZO/ZLS means “ΖΗΣ(ΗΣ) / ZES(es), a formula that is very often found in connection with precious drinking vessels such as gold glasses.”

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

1. ^[1]Ps. Paulinus, carmen 32 (CSEL 30), 138 f.↩

The image for July is preserved once again only in a single manuscript of the Chronography, MS Vienna 3146, which never contains the text of the poems, only the pictures. So for the text of the poems, once again we are reliant on other, unillustrated, manuscripts, or the indirect tradition.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich), with the draft translation that I made earlier in the year.  Comments are always welcome!

Ecce coloratos ostentat Julius artus
crines cui rutilos spicea serta ligat.
Morus sanguineos praebet gravidata racemos,
Quae medio cancri sidere laeta viret.

Look! July shows off his tanned limbs,
Whose reddish hair a garland of corn ties.
His reddish hair, to which he ties a garland of corn.
The glad mulberry, loaded down with fruit, offers blood-red berries,
It flourishes with joy  to hang down in the middle of the summer heat.
It is green in the middle star of Cancer.

I.e. in the heat of summer.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Quam bene, Quintilis, mutasti nomen! honori
Caesareo, Juli, te pia causa dedit.

How rightly, Quintilis, you changed your name!
A pious motive assigned you to the honour of Caesar.
The honour of Caesar, O July, gives you a pious motive.

I can’t work out the syntax for the second line: honori is dative, of course, not nominative.  The sense is that the motive for the change of name is to honour Caesar.

Again the image is only preserved in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 27 (online here):

As usual with this manuscript, the image is in the style of the renaissance, not antiquity.  But probably the layout is much the same as the original.  From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that the depiction shows a naked young man – an image of summer, holding a bag in his right hand with extra long tassels.  In his left hand he holds a flat round basket containing three bunches of fruit with leaves, perhaps mulberries.  By his right foot is some kind of vessel – a money bag? – filled with coins marked with crosses and other symbols.  Two conical vessels stand by his left foot.  The whole picture is of a good harvest with the resulting wealth.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

UPDATE: Many thanks to those who sent in corrections!

Once again only a single manuscript of the Chronography contains an image for this month.  This is MS Vienna 3146, which never contains the text of the poems, only the pictures. So for the poems, once again we are reliant on other, unillustrated, manuscripts, or the indirect tradition.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Nudus membra dehinc solares respicit horas
Iunius ac Phoebum flectere monstrat iter.
Lampas maturas Cereris designat aristas
floralisque fugas lilia fusa docent.

June unclad then views the sundial’s time,
And shows that the sun is changing its course. Phoebus reveals that its path is changing.

The Lamp-festival marks Ceres’ ripe ears of corn,
And the scattered lily-petals show the fading of the flower.

“Phoebus” here means the sun. The reference to “Lampas”, a festival with torches on the solstice is also attested in the ps.Chrysostom, De solstitiis et aequinoctibus (translated elsewhere on this site), the “dies lampadarum” or “day of torches”, or, more briefly, “lampas”, “the torch”.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Iunius ipse sui causam tibi nominis edit
praegravida attollens fertilitate sata.

June itself gives you the reason for its name,
Extolling having brought forth abundant fruitfulness.

Again the image is only preserved in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 25 (online here):

From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that the depiction is of a naked youth carrying a torch, symbolising the solstice, a sundial on a pillar, and – indicating the harvest – a sickle, a basket of fruit, and a plant.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

As with April, only a single manuscript of the Chronography contains an image for the month of May.  This is MS Vienna 3146, which never contains the poems. So again we are reliant on other unillustrated manuscripts, or the indirect tradition, for the poems.

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Cunctas veris opes et picta rosaria gemmis
liniger in calathis, aspice, Maius habet.
Mensis Atlantigenae dictus cognomine Maiae
quem merito multum diligit Uranie.

All the treasures of spring, and the roses coloured like gems,
Behold! May has them, wrapped in linen in a basket.
The month is named after Maia, the daughter of Atlas,
Which Urania rightly loves most.

The 2-line verse (distich) is as follows:

Hos sequitur laetus toto iam corpore Maius
…Mercurio et Maia quem tribuisse Jovem.

Blessed May in now follows these (months) with all its strength,
Which (it is said) Jove has assigned to Mercury, son of Maia.

Housman noted that the second line was clearly corrupt and suggested that Mercurio is a gloss.  To me the obvious accusative and infinitive Jovem … tribuisse indicate reported speech, and therefore that the missing text must have a sense something like “it is said”.  Divjak and Wischmeyer thought the same in their German version.

Again the image is only preserved in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 23 (online here):

The depiction is of a figure holding something to his nose, together with a peacock and flowers in a kalathos.  From the first two lines of the tetrastich, the vessel is perhaps full of roses; and the figure is holding a rose in his right hand.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

Only a single manuscript of the Chronography contains an image for the month of April.  This is MS Vienna 3146, which never contains the poems.  (I am told that the same image reappears in the Leiden MS Voss.Lat.Q 79, a manuscript of the Aratea!  But this I have not seen)  So we are reliant on other unillustrated manuscripts, or the indirect tradition, for the poems.  Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich):

Contectam myrto Venerem veneratur Aprilis,
lumen veris habet, quo nitet alma Thetis
cereus et dextra flammas diffundit odoras;
balsama nec desunt, quis redolet Paphie.

April worships a Venus robed with myrtle,
He has the light of spring, in which nurturing Thetis blooms,
And the waxen candle on the right diffuses the scents of flame;
Nor is balsam wanting, of which the Paphian (Venus) is redolent.

The 2-line verse (distich), preserved in the St Gall unillustrated manuscript, is as follows:

Caesareae Veneris mensis, quo floribus arva
prompta virent, avibus quo sonat omne nemus.

This is the month of Caesar’s Venus, in which the fields are green,
resplendent with flowers, in which every wood resounds with birdsong.

Divjak and Wischmeyer add an interesting comment, that the tetrastich verse is about the relationship of Venus to April.  The picture shows an older man dancing with castanets in front of a male cult statue.  The man is perhaps a Gallus named “April”, dancing before a statue of Attis, the “Venus” of the Magna Mater cult.

The 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416 (online here) gives us the image:

The figure is treating on what look like a set of pipes, perhaps belonging to an organ.

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).

A number of manuscripts contain an image for March.  But here again it is the Vatican Barberini manuscript that gives us the 4-line poem, the tetrastich:

Cinctum pelle lupae promptum est cognoscere mensem
Mars olli nomen, Mars dedit exuvias.
Tempus vernum haedus petulans et garrula hirundo
indicat et sinus lactis et herba virens.

Know the month clothed with the wolf’s pelt;
Its name is Mars, and Mars gave us the skins.
The springtime brings the unruly kid, and the chattering swallow,
And the pail of milk, and the greening grass.

These items are depicted in the image, as we shall see.

The 2-line poem (= distich) is also present, one line under the left-hand page, one under the right:

Condita Mavortis magno sub nomine Roma
non habet errorem: Romulus auctor erit.

Rome was founded under the great name of Mars
There is no mistake. Romulus will be the founder.

The images show a consistency for once: a figure dressed in skins, holding a goat, standing on greenery, with pails of milk and a swallow, with characteristic forked tail.  A butter churn is to the left, and above it metal tools that perhaps relate to cheese-making (or so I am told!)

The 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416 (online here) gives us this, clearly redrawn, image:

The 17th century R1 manuscript, Vat. Barb.lat.2154B (online here) gives us this, with the tetrastich and the first line of the distich:

As before, the offline Brussels MS. , f.201, gives us an image mid-way between the two:

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354).