Remember the Hand: Bodies and Bookmaking in Early Medieval ...

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Downloaded by [catherine brown] at 13:48 24 October 2011 Table 3. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 80. Closing sequence. 499r Colophon 1 2-page 499v blank spread 500r blank 2-page 500v Colophon 2 spread 501r Omega 501v blank except for catchword ‘‘lxii’’ 270 CATHERINE BROWN Color Plate 2. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 80, f.500v. Florentius’s Second Colophon.
Downloaded by [catherine brown] at 13:48 24 October 2011 24 – Neither Latin nor arithmetic is Florentius’s strong point. Like other early medieval Iberian scribes, he likes to give dates in elaborately roundabout ways. Megan McNamee pointed outtomethatthisapparentobsessionwith rendering numbers as equations---shared by other early medieval Iberian copyists of Latin--isnotasperverseasitseemstoamoderneye. Florentius and his contemporaries related to number through Roman numerals, and to produce or interpret a date in Roman numerals you have to do sums. I cannot see any way to render the Latin to make it agree with the date of era 983 in Colophon 1 (f. 499r). Díaz y Díaz (‘‘El Escriptorio,’’ p. 72, note 89) suggests that Florentius was trying to render the number ‘‘80’’ as 4x2x10: bis quater dena or bis dena quater. 25 – Text from Díaz y Díaz, ‘‘Prólogos,’’ pp. 516-17. 26 – For more information on all of these historical figures, see Agustín Millares Carlo, ‘‘Un códice notable de los libros morales de San Gregorio Magno sobre Job,’’ in his Estudios paleográficos (Madrid: s/n, 1918), pp. 27-63. 27 – Giving his age is a tic of Florentius’s: it is not without what feels like boastfulness, especially when he identifies himself as seventeen years old in a charter that he wrote (literally ‘‘painted’’ [depinxit]) on 1 March 937 CE; see Williams, ‘‘Contribution to the History,’’ pp. 232-35 . 28 – Ferreolus of Uzès, Regula ad monachos XXVIII; in J.P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus ... Series latina (Paris: Garnier, 1844-1904), vol. 66:969C. Discovery of the proto-Italian riddle is reported in Pio Rajna, ‘‘Un indovinello volgare scritto alla fine del secolo VIII o al principio del IX,’’ Speculum 3:3 (1928), pp. 291-313. Thanks to Pierluigi Erbaggio for the reference. first text block repeats information from f. 499r, but adds detail and precision about places, persons and emotions: I say that with the support of thundering celestial mercy this work is finished on the third day before the ides of April, during the era nine times one hundred, twice ten, and four tens plus three. 24 At Valeránica, in the honor, namely, of its patrons, saints Peter and Paul, great apostles and martyrs. I, Florentius, inscribed this book, at the command of the whole monastery represented in abbot Silvanus, when I had accomplished twice ten and two or nearly five and double ten years of my little life. These things certainly being done, I copiously pray and amply request that you who shall read this codex might direct your frequent prayer to the Lord for me, miserable Florentius, that we might deserve to please Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And so, with the assent of the world and the world’s creator, may we be freed from outer or inner blemish in this uncertain age, even as received on high out of this miserable sojourn and gathered to the chorus of the bountiful blessed ones, for long happy ages rejoicing continually in heaven. May we be joined to our chief, Christ, who draws us unto himself. Amen. Indeed it may be that this work will snatch me out of the fire so that I may deserve to gain the blessed kingdoms of the sky. Amen. Which thing may he deign to bring to pass. [Suffragante tonanti inquam alti clementia perfectum est hoc opus III idus aprilis currente era centena nobies bis dena et quater decies terna. ob honorem scilicet sanctorum Petri et Pauli maximi apostolorum et martirum domum dicatum locum situm uel uocitatum Baleria. hic nempe liber ego Florentius exaraui imperante mihi uel uniuersa congeries sacra monasterii Silbani uidelicet abbati. quum iam meae etatulae annorum spatia peregissem bis deni bini aut circiter quini et bisdeni. His nempe explosis copiosissime uobis praecor et affatim rogo qui in hoc codice legeritis ut frequens uestra pro me Florentio misero ad dominum dirigatur oratio ita ut in hac uita placere mereamini domino Ihu Xpo. Amen. Et ita in hoc labili exemti euo fore queamini annuente arbe polique conditor ab interno externoque neuo qualiter ex hac sursum adsciti deflenda peregrinatio iucundemur almorum adglomerati beatorum coro longo felicique euo obantes iugiter in polo innecti capiti nostro traente Christo. Amen. Hoc opus hoc etenim forsan me subtraet ab igne ut merear adipisci regna beata poli. Amen. quod ipse prestare dignetur.] 25 Obviously once was not enough. We already know that the book was finished on Friday, 11 April 945 CE at prime---that is, 6 AM. Now Florentius reckons the time by politics as well as calendar: Ramiro was king in León and Fernán González was count of Castile. We know that the book was made in the see of bishop Basilius at the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul at Valeránica, under the government of Abbot Silvanus. 26 We know that the book was made by someone named Florentius, and that by his reckoning he was 22 or 25 years old at the time. 27 He of course asks that we pray for him. ‘‘I, Florentius, inscribed this book’’ [‘‘Hic nempe liber ego Florentius exaraui’’]: the verb he uses for his activity is worth our attention. Exarare does mean to write, but it is a buried metaphor, from arare, to plow. Of the words at his disposal to describe his work, Florentius has chosen the dirtiest, sweatiest one, and with good precedent: the sixth-century commentary on Benedict’s Rule by Ferreolus of Uzès, for example, commanded that one ‘‘who does not write the earth with the plow must embellish the page with his finger’’ [‘‘ut paginam pingat digito, qui terram non praescribit aratro’’], and the first surviving text in proto-Italian (ninthor tenth-century) is a riddle turning on this very identification of pen with plow. 28 271
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