CatholicaFloss (ed.), PL 122 / Opera Omnia (1853), cols. 1221–1250 — translated from the Latin and Greek.
From a manuscript of the Armamenian library of Paris, edited by Félix Ravaisson in the book entitled: Reports to the Minister of Public Instruction on the libraries of the western departments, Paris 1841, p. 358 sqq.
One. He dedicates to Charles the Bald the translation of the Ambigua of St Maximus. #
(An acrostic poem whose opening letters spell KAROLVS REX.)
O Christ, in whom the grace of heavenly beauty has its power, Whom starry diadems gird with imperial countenance, Offspring of kings, whom fortunate France exalts, Whom the whole world of lands greets with loud acclaim — Magnifies with praises, venerates, enriches, honours, Flocking from every side, cleaves the sea, traverses the fields — Hail, summit of Christ’s people, most gracious of kings! Pious king, spurn not the little gifts of your devoted servant: A small gift, but drawn from the great fount of the Christ-bearing Fathers, treating of many mysteries. This work the abbot Maximus built in the Greek tongue — That excellent shepherd, an author famous in the Scriptures — Smoothing out the far-reaching sayings of great Gregory, Revolving in his mind theorems deep for human senses. Dionysius the Areopagite himself is added besides — Him he adorns with ample praises, explains, and calls Him witness and blessed Father, touching the symbolic Books with a brilliant light — whom we once published Long ago at your bidding. For this reason also the Aforementioned abbot Maximus has lately been brought out By our sweating labour; and in pious effect following Your pious commands, we have swiftly rendered things That demand much time, and learned senses, and the Acumen of a pure mind.
Two. On the same translation. #
Whoever delights in the rhetorical train of words — Let him seek the grandiloquent, haunting Tully’s camp. For me it will be enough if, slow of speech, I could But gather plain senses, following the matter alone. The inward virtue of words is rightly to be held; The bombast of words is custom often to deceive. If any man by divine gift is strong in both together, He must by right first of all keep the mean. But if you can scarce express perspicuous senses aloud, Be content moreover — for you hold the better things. If you hold the better things, what care is it of yours, Reader, what lies in another’s field? Seek ever beyond.
Three. To the reader of the Ambigua of St Maximus. #
Whoever loves to praise the form of fair wisdom — Let him read you assiduously, O Greek-born Maximus. And first, moved by reasons of higher things, Let him forsake the sensible world, and deny it — Yes, and his very senses, which are accustomed to struggle While he spreads abroad the gnosis-laden path of the mind. He who is free of frail life’s joys and the fleeting world, And free of the care of the flesh — let him read these things. But the man given over to worldly studies, slow and sluggish, Let him not approach — there is no entrance here for him. Let him stand far off who is puffed up with his own senses, Swollen and proud, denying that he finds place here. Imbued with the arts which sharpness of mind may know, Let him go forward faithful — for there his fatherland stands. Here Practice leads on, fair mistress of morals, Guard of the virtues, watchful and meet. Here Theory tracks down the dark causes of things, And having found them, sunders them and makes them one. Here the fairest among all sayings bears the palm: All that is, and all that is not, it denies at once.
Section Four. Fragments of the Verses of John Scotus. #
One. Verses of John Scotus to King Charles. #
Manuscript of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College no. 223, ninth century.
The heavens praise you; the famed world praises you with vows. Be to Charles a present protectress, defence and bulwark — You who built for him wondrously a noble dwelling, Halls of marble. The lofty house, wrought with various columns, Fairly made beneath its starry vaulting — See the many winding turns, the vaulting arches, The fabric like the walls, the capitals, the bases, Towers and turrets, ceilings of daedal weave, The slanting lattices that draw in draughts of heavenly light, The paintings within, the stone pavements, the steps, And round about on every side the peoples above and below, The altars round about, the lanterns full of lamps, And other crowns besides — all things shine together, Glittering with gems and gold. Hangings and curtains Surround the temple on every side; the king himself, Borne up on a lofty throne, looks out over all, Wearing on his sublime head his father’s diadem, And in his hands a golden book full of writings.
Great Mother of God, thrice blessed, holy Mary, Grant to our king Charles, to whom you gave the sceptre, That he may ever live your servant with a kindly heart; Grant him prosperous returns of fleeting life, And with you the joys of the heavenly kingdom. May the great-souled hero live on to long years.
Two. Praise of Wisdom. #
From a manuscript of the Royal library of Paris, edited by Cousin, Fragments philosophiques, vol. III, appendix, p. 326 (cf. poem VIII, col. 1150).
If you would fly upward through the heavenly airs, You shall survey with far-seeing eye the temples of Wisdom.
Section Five. Greek Verses of John Scotus. #
One. Verses to Charles, Hincmar, and others. #
From a manuscript of St Germain des Prés, edited by Labbé in the preface to the Glossaries. The text is exceedingly corrupt; I have very often emended it. Labbé’s reading is marked L.
(The manuscript prints each Greek verse with an interlinear Latin gloss; the English below follows that gloss.)
1. — Right-believing, pious, glorious king — Temperate, Christ-bearing — the lord Charles himself.
2. — Favour in Christ our king Charles, That he may be able to possess the heavenly choirs.
3. — Verses of John to king Charles.
4–8. — O Lord who are round about the highest quarters And from there the centre of the world — O measureless, unspeakable… Lord Charles, may Christ ever give you life eternal; Lord, are you live many years here — Augustus Caesar… To the King: Being, End, Beginning of all things — Of all things that are, of things that subsist — Being the best and the good, the beauty and exemplar of forms — (Verses of John to the lord.) Moon and Mercury and Lucifer…
9. — To the glorious king Charles.
10–12. — You who live now, O king, are you for many Years yet to come be joined with Christ for endless ages. O Christ, save Charles, to whom you gav the kingdom. All things good — great and small alike…
13. — Most radiant herald, shining with the loftiest proclamation, Bearing in his mouth the arrows of the living God’s word — (Here the manuscript’s gloss runs on to the kinds of the medical art.)
14. — O Christ, save your servant, my lord, Charles, our great king over many: See the resurrection of him that was buried in the depth of death, And to the living Christ cry aloud a glorious Alleluia.
15. — Peace to the people of God, and glory to the highest king, Whom God now holds elect above all kings; Take up arms and shield, O Christ, and help this man. He who is of good fame, all-wise and great of heart, Pious, orthodox, rejoicing — the renowned ruler, Holy, heavenly, bright star of the diadem, Like a brilliant sun that rises light-bearing over the earth — Give glory to Charles the king for all the ages. Pray, all others now; pray — the supplication is for all.
16. — The most radiant herald, shining with the loftiest proclamation — May Hincmar live long, wise and ever to be remembered, Holding in his mouth the arrows of the living God’s word.
17. — John remains the glory of the Roman people; Liudilo, a Greek among Greeks, now shines — worthy of reverence.
Two. To Charles the Bald, concerning Dionysius the Areopagite. #
Manuscript Fulgensius 10078–10084 of the Burgundian library at Brussels, on parchment, seventh century.
O wise and precious emperor Charles — Lo, the high exalted martyr Dionysius shines, Whom God from heaven — and you on earth — do magnify. Beholding the darkness, while the Lord took it away By the cross… He spoke the world’s sins — Which nature is not custom to minister and pass in silence. Now it is straightened, and therefore the world’s Maker — I know Him, and now I know Him who suffered. To him also the lord of barbarian nations is subject.
(Variant readings of the Greek are recorded in the edition’s apparatus; they concern single words only — “king” for “anax”, “nations”, “glory”, “save”, “shield”, “he who will be”, and like readings of Labbé’s.)
Editorial Notes (Floss, after Labbé and Mai). #
How Labbé describes the manuscript. — Labbé described the codex thus: it is a parchment manuscript of the library of the monastery of St Germain des Prés, written in a semi-uncial script, bearing the age of Charles the Bald — which may be gathered also from this, that after the glossary and the Greek words of Priscian explained in Latin there are read certain grammatical exercises in Graeco-Latin, ill-digested, composed by a man who had hardly touched the elements of the Greek tongue, and copied by a certain Martin, a teacher (for he also betrays his own name); wherein certain rather clumsy Greek verses are inscribed, partly by John Scotus Eriugena and partly by Martin himself, in praise of Charles the Bald, of his wife Hermintrudis, and of Hincmar — but in another hand, as is plain to see, than that in which the glosses were written, so that it is reasonable to suppose the glosses were copied somewhat earlier. And again, lower down, he adds: “Moreover, lest anyone should miss those trifles — those unpolished Greek poems which we have shown to exist in the St-Germain codex — we have had them copied here with all their blemishes, both because they pertain in some measure to our history, and also that it may be gathered from there that John Scotus and the other teachers of his age in Greek letters were not so versed in that language that Athens must be thought to have migrated into France in Carolingian times — though Alcuin and the monk Héric profess as much elsewhere.”
Note. — Nor perhaps was this John any other than the one who excerpted Macrobius’ book On the Differences and Relations of the Greek and Latin Verb, for learning the rules of Greek words. And Angelo Mai also, in Classicorum Auctorum, vol. V, p. 451, makes these remarks on the same verses: “Certain Greek verses of John Scotus, addressed to Charles the Bald, are written in a coeval manuscript of the Greek glossaries of St Germain of Paris… I am deterred from reciting them here not so much by their slight worth as by the corruption of the text, which can hardly be healed. Yet nothing of our Scotus is lost thereby, since the verses stand printed in square letters in the preface to the aforementioned glossaries, including the recent London edition.” And a little further on: “As for the St-Germain glossary — may it be conjectured that it was the work of our Scotus, since it bears his verses inscribed? Certainly he needed these lucubrations, given his slender skill in the Greek tongue; as the Cambridge codex also, cited by Ussher (p. 45), bears witness that our Scotus made an anthology from Macrobius’ book on the relation of the Greek and Latin verb, for learning the rules of Greek words.”
Addendum. #
Codex Laudunensis (Laon) 81 — from which F. Ravaisson published John Scotus’ Commentary on the Holy Gospel according to John, though less accurately, since it came into my hands late — whose whole variety of reading I have taken care to record most diligently in this place. Moreover I have thought fit to append a fragment of the same Commentary attached to the end of the codex, which he neglected. The various readings are distinguished by variety of type.
Variant Readings in John Scotus’ Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Collated against MS 81 of the Laon Library. #
Col. 298. — line 8: “so that through Him man might ascend to God.” — This evangelic sentence recurs in the manner of a proposition. For as we say “the Word was made flesh”, so we can say “and the flesh was made Word.” — And “He lived among us”, that is, He conversed… (“And the Word was made flesh” — these words recur at line 10; lines 11–12 are missing in the codex.) — line 40: “but it declares His subsistence.” — line 47: “incorruptible”, and the rest that follows.
Col. 301. — line 19: “but concerning the whole Trinity.” — line 26: “He asserts without hesitation.” — line 41: “may be said of” is missing in the codex. — line 43: “who ever.”
Col. 302. — line 13: “that is, in divine apparitions.” — line 18: “likewise the virtues of the most exalted.” — line 51: “in the bosom.” — line 54: “He Himself declared.”
Col. 305. — line 1: “doctrine and manifestation.” — line 13: “from Jerusalem”, and the rest. And this is the order… — line 29: “‘are you Elias?’ He says, ‘I am not’” (the “And” is omitted in the codex). — line 31: “in the power of Elias he came.”
Col. 304. — line 2: “He considered His human subsistence.”
Col. 306. — line 37: “And those who had been sent were…” — line 39: “Therefore the Pharisees were specially sent, because the Pharisees, hearing the preaching…” — line 24: “of justice is accustomed to be made.”
Col. 307. — line 13: “is divine Scripture.” — line 28: “a most intricate investigation, of which…”
Col. 309. — line 12: “and discern between…” — line 16: “of violence.”
Col. 310. — line 32: “is of the whole human nature.”
Col. 311. — line 14: “See the Lamb of God, see Him who takes away…” — line 25: “crucifies Christ for himself” (“ipsum” is missing in the codex).
Col. 317. — line 35: “who has not yet been born in the spirit” (“of” is missing in the codex).
Col. 320. — line 5: “His own body opens His shadow.” — line 19: “is figured by that form.” — line 40: “we were buried with Christ through baptism into death” (“unless” is missing in the codex). — line 47: “is the cause of human salvation.”
Col. 321. — line 30: “Although His judgement, by which…” — line 48: “but he who does not believe Him” (“in” is missing in the codex).
Col. 325. — line 16: “For he had not been cast into prison.” — line 54: “by John? For it sufficed” (sic!). — line 7: “by John.” — line 11: “of John’s baptism to have effected.” — line 31: “but lest they should err in this” (“lest” is missing in the codex). — line 47: “In this place John has put ‘Given’ for ‘Giver’.”
Col. 326. — line 53: “who is now baptising in Judea.”
Col. 327. — line 21: “You think to be greater…”
Col. 328. — line 11: “He who comes from heaven is above all.” — He repeats the same sentence which he spoke a little above: “He who comes from above is over all”; now again, “He who comes from heaven is above all.” The words are the same, except that… — line 51: “and to be equal to Him.”
Col. 329. — line 18: “He who receives His testimony has set his seal that God is true.” And what is “has set his seal”? That is, in his heart, etc.
Col. 330. — line 3: “from measure.” — line 36: “and of the ignorance of all truth.”
Col. 331. — line 28: “For the law brought no one to perfection… and he went away again into Galilee.” — line 32: “After this He came…”
Col. 312. — line 13: “and are advanced by understanding.” — line 35: “to be flesh, since now…” — line 41: “into the mysteries…”
[The manuscript’s wish of variants breaks off at this point, mid-way through the collation.]