Hrabanus Maurus

469J   Rabanus Maurus. 784-856?

 Magnencij Rabani Mauri De Laudib[us] sancte Crucis opus. erudcione versu prosaq[ue] mirificum. edited by Jacobus Wimpheling.

Phorçheim. [Pforzheim : In ædibus Thom[ae] Anshelmi., 1503.     $24,000

ChanceryFolio 31 x 21cm. signatures: Aa6 Bb4 a-k6; A, B6 C4. [Complete] Types 3:109R, 4:180G; 40 lines of transcribed verse + headline, 40 lines of commentary + headline, red and black printing throughout, calligraphic woodcut initial (Proctor, fig. 24) M on title page, woodcut initials printed in red, and a figured prefatory poem, 28 carmina figurata, the first entirely xylographic, the remaining poems combining printed and xylographic letters with the versus intexti printed in red (except fig. xvi), enclosed by either woodcut figures (of the emperor, Christ, the Evangelists, Cherubim, etc.) printed in black or by Christian symbols and characters, most defined by metal rules in red.

∞ This copy is bound in a quarter bound vellum  spine over a 15th century printed leaf of a part of Luke from a Latin Vulgate Bible over boards with central gilt arms of Signet Library to covers,  Provenance: Signet Library (gilt arms to covers); and then Alan G. Thomas .(one of my favorite booksellers)∞The text is divided in two books. The first, preceded by some poems praising the author of the book, consists of figures-poems typed out on the opposite page of the illustrations with following comment and explanation. The second part consists of remarks on each figure. In this copy the final 3 signatures (part II) were supplied from another copy.

This book  is one of the most  remarkable typographical achievement (ever),  probably the earliest attempt to reproduce a medieval manuscript.

One of the most complicated and successful  Carmina figuratum, {acrostic/ figurative/ shape {concrete} }   collection of poems  ever written.* 

Hrabanus Maurus, the abbot of Fulda, wrote in the midst of the ‘new monasticism,’ a period associated with a revival of literacy and learning. In both the religious and secular spheres. This ‘script culture,’ as Rosamond McKitterick has it, used the written word not only as a mode of communication but as ‘a resource, a guide, a key, and an inspiration,’ especially in the devotional practice of Christianity. printed in red and black, Roman type, 2 woodcuts, one of the Alcuin presenting his book to Pope Gregory IV, the other of two monks kneeling before the Pope, Lombard initials in red, title with small marginal losses, strengthened at inner margin verso and soiled, occasional marginal worming, some water-staining and finger-marking.

It is one of the earliest books printed at Pforzheim and earliest examples of figurative poetry (carmina figurata).     Includes preliminary verses by Sebastian Brant, Wimpheling, Johann Reuchlin and Georg Simler and Joannes Tritemius.

Many woodcut initials printed in red, two woodcuts of Alcuin interceding on behalf of Rabanus before Pope Gregory iv, and of Rabanus presenting his poems to the Pope; a figured dedicatory poem to Louis the Pious and a figured prefatory poem, 28 carmina figurata, the first entirely xylographic, the remaining poems combining printed and xylographic letters with the versus intexti printed in red (except fig. xvi), enclosed by either woodcut figures (of the emperor, Christ, the Evangelists, Cherubim, etc.) printed in black or  by Christian symbols and characters, most defined by metal rules in red.

This is a spectacular collection of poems all centered on veneration and meditation upon the cross.

“Hrabanus created  the various shapes and figures by highlighting individual letters in underlying poens in colour (in the printed editions red), and theses individual letters together make up meaningful text , ranging from simple declarations to very elaborate ones.  For example, Carmina 2 contains a simple cross inside a square (Hrabanus calls it a “tetragonum”)whose sides form a border for the poem as a whole. The text from the underlying poem that makes up the figure consists of six hexameters, each one an address to the cross beginning with the words ‘O crux…’ When we follow Hrabanus’s instruction in the accompanying prose text for reading these hexameters, we find the following: even though the verse that forms the top of the square is also the opening of the underlying poem, he insists that we begin reading with the stem of the cross, from top to bottom.” (Schipper)

Sunt quoque uersus duo in ipsa ccruceconscripti, quorum prior est:

O CRVX QVAE SVMMI ES NOTO DEDICATA TROPAEO

a summo in ima descendens. Alter uero:

O CRVX QVAE CHRISTI ES CARO BENEDICTA TRIVMPHO

a dextra in sinistram crucis tendens ‡

‡“there are also two verses inscribed in the cross, The first of which is :

“ O cross , thou who art at the height of fame, a dedicated moment”

running from the top down.  And a second;

“O Cross thou who through the body of Christ art the blessed triumph”

running from the right to the left.”

Further more Hrabanus flips left and right the texts point of view alternates , Hrabanus tells us the cross is looking out at the reader, not the other way around. “ Only after we have read the hexameters in the cross are we free to read the verses in the four sides of the tetragon, and even then Hrabanus constrains the order in which they are to be read: first the top, then the bottom, then the right side then finally the left side.”

More complex figures present further challenges in reading. The figure in Carmen 25, for example, consists of eight letters of the word ‘ALLEVIA’ arranged around a small cross. It does not take much effort to notice that we need to start with the A, read down to the E, continue on the left, and end on the right of the figure; and that each time we trace out those letters we make the sign of the cross. It becomes more difficult when we also try and read the text that is enclosed in the figures (the intext). The letters of ALLEVIA are made of the following letters from the underlying poem.

A  cruxa

A  crux[a

L  eter

L  na[de

 E  i]es[lave[v

L  ivis

V  in]arc

I   e]po

A  lorvm

CRUX AETERNA DEI ES LAVS VIVIS IN ARCE POLORUM‡

‡ Eternal cross, thou art the praise of God, thou livest in the arc of the skies.

William Schipper, ‘Hrabanus Maurus in Anglo-Saxon England: In Honorem Sanctae Crucis’, in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, ed. Stephen Baxter, Catherine Karkov, Janet L. Nelson, David Pelteret (Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2009), 283-98.

G. Rigg and G. R. Wieland, ‘A Canterbury Classbook of the Mid-eleventh CenturyAnglo-Saxon England 4 (1974), 113-30.

Peter Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 249.

Literature:  VD16-H 5271’Adams R3; Fairfax-Murray, German, 350;  Brunet IV, 1035 (‘Édition rémarquable à cause de la singulière disposition typographie d’une partie du texte’).  Proctor, R. Index to the early printed books in the British Museum,; 11747; 350; Panzer, G.W.F. Annales typographici,; VIII 227, nº2; Pollard, A.W. Catalogue of books mostly from the presses of the first printers … collected by Rush C. Hawkins,; 189   

 Cf  Peter Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 249.

Rigg and G. R. Wieland, ‘A Canterbury Classbook of the Mid 11th CenturyAnglo-Saxon England 4 (1974), 113-30.

William Schipper, ‘Hrabanus Maurus in Anglo-Saxon England: In Honorem Sanctae Crucis’, in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of   Patrick Wormald, ed. Stephen Baxter, Catherine Karkov, Janet L. Nelson, David Pelteret (Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate,

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464J. Rabanus Maurus Opera Omnia

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2. 464J   Rabanus Maurus; Hrabani Mauri; Archbishop of Mainz, 784?-856 

Trithemius, Johannes,; 1462-1516. Pamèle, Jacques de Joigny de,; 1536-1587. Henin, Antoine de,; 1555-1626.  Colveneere, George,; 1564-1649.

Magnentii H-rabani Mauri ex abbate Fuldensi, archiepiscopi Sexti Moguntini, Opera, quae reperiri potuerunt, omnia, in sex tomos distincta. Collecta primum industriâ Iacobi Pamelij Brugensis s. theol. licentiati, canonici & archidiaconi, & postmodum designati Episcopi Audomarensis ; nunc vero in lucem emissa curâ R.mi Antonij de Henin, Episcopi Iprensis ; ac studio & opera Georgij Colvenerij s. theol. doctoris, & regij ac ordinarij in Academia Duacena professoris, collegiatae S. Petri praepositi ; ac dictae Academiae Cancellariae.

Coloniae Agrippinae : Sumptibus Antonii Hierati, sub signo Gryphi: 1626-1627                        $7,500

6 folio volumes bound in 3: 30 x 19 cm. 

 Signatures:

 t.2: π² (π1 blank) A-2P⁶ 2Q⁴;

 t.1:≠≠,-≠≠≠⁴ a-d⁶ A-Y⁶ Z⁴ 2A-2E⁶ 2F⁸;

 t.3:  ≠² A-2T⁶ 2U⁸ (2U8 blank);

 t.4: π² ( -π2) A-2N⁶ (2N6 blank); 

 t.5: pi² A-3P⁶ 3Q⁸ 3R-3X⁶ 3Y⁸;   

t.6: π² A-2D⁶ 2E⁴ 2F² ( -2F2).

Pagination:

 t.1: [12], 15, [49], 348 p

t.2: [4], 463, [1] p. 

t.3: 4, 514 [i.e. 518], [2] p.

t.4: [2], 429, [3] p.

t.5: [4], 823, [1] p. 

t.6: [4], 334 p 

Tome 1 has added engraved title-page dated 1626 and letterpress title-page dated 1627; t.2-6 dated 1626. 

¶ This set is bound in original stamped full leather over wooden boards with 5 massive original cords at the spine, gilt labels in compartments, an impressive opera. 

First edition of the works of Maurus including a life of Rabanaus Maurus by Rudolf of Fulda.

“Hrabanus was a skilled scholar and prolific writer. He wrote many commentaries on Scripture, works on clerical practises, and an encyclopaedic text De Rerum Naturis (On the Nature of Things), which drew heavily on the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (b. c. 560, d. 636). Hrabanus also composed a work known as De Inventione Linguarum (The Invention of Languages), which presents the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and runic alphabets as well as a brief explanation of the origins of each language. 

Another of Hrabanus’ works is the poem  collection :De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis (In Praise of the Holy Cross). (see above) This elaborate work comprises a set of verses where the words both embody and celebrate the cross, drawing on an Antique tradition of arranging words and phrases within figures. The poem and its images were widely circulated throughout the medieval period, and many copies survive from England and on the Continent. 

Hrabanus’ large volume of work, and his reputation as a great scholar and teacher, has caused him to become known as the praeceptor Germaniae (Teacher of Germany).”   https://www.bl.uk/people/hrabanus-maurus

“His voluminous works, many of which remain unpublished, comprise commentaries on a considerable number of the books both of canonical and of apocryphal Scripture (Genesis to Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Judith, Esther, Canticles, Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Maccabees, Matthew, the Epistles of St Paul, including Hebrews); and various treatises relating to doctrinal and practical subjects, including more than one series of Homilies. Perhaps the most important is that De institutione clericorum, in three books, by which he did much to bring into prominence the views of Augustine and Gregory the Great as to the training which was requisite for a right discharge of the clerical function; the most popular has been … De laudibus sanctae crucis. Among the others may be mentioned the De universo libri xxii., sive etymologiarum opus, a kind of dictionary or encyclopaedia, designed as a help towards the historical and mystical interpretation of Scripture, the De sacris ordinibus, the De discipline ecclesiastica and the Martyrologium. All of them are characterized by erudition (he knew even some Greek and Hebrew) rather than by originality of thought. In the annals of German philology a special interest attaches to the Glossaria Latino-Theodisca. 

The first nominally complete edition of the works of Hrabanus Maurus was that of Colvener (Cologne, 6 vols. fol., 1627). The Opera omnia form vols. cvii.-cxii. of Migne’s Patrologiae cursus cornpletus. The De universo is the subject of Compendium der Naturwissenschaften an der Schule zu Fulda im IX. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1880).

 Lives by his disciple Rudolphus and by Joannes Trithemius are printed in the’ Cologne edition of the Opera. See also Pertz, Monum. Germ. Hist. (i. and ii.); Behr, Gesch. d. romischen Literatur im Karoling. Zeitalter (1840), and Hauck’s article in the Herzog-Hauck Realencyklopeidie, ed. 3.”   Encyclopedia  Britannica. 1911

https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/h2/hrabanus_maurus_magnentius.html

“The Encyclopaedy – De Rerum Naturis

Apart from De Laudibus sanctae crucis, probably Rabanus’ most successful work was his encyclopaedia De rerum naturis in 22 books, which, based on the Etymologiae of Isidor of Seville, places man (with his anatomy and diseases), the stars and the plant kingdom in a cosmic context. Accordingly, the structure of the work is not based, like the Isidors, on the system of the septem artes liberales, but takes its starting point from the Supreme Good, the Creator God, and treats things in descending order according to their position within the hierarchy of the cosmic order. Their extensive handwritten tradition extends from the 9th to the 15th century and includes several illustrated copies, the oldest of which is the famous 11th century copy from Monte Cassino. The first incunabulum print by Adolf Rusch appeared in Strasbourg shortly before 1467. The work served primarily as an aid to Bible exegesis. Whether the illustrations can be traced back to Rabanus is disputed, but not unlikely. According to a communication from the diocese of Mainz, the Mainz scholar Franz Stephen Pelgen discovered another manuscript fragment of the 9th century from this work in the Martinus Library in Mainz at the end of June 2011.” http://scihi.org/encyclopaedia-rabanus-maurus/

(Not identical to VD17 1: 047076S (prefix there "Magnentii H-Rabani Mauri Opera", without a comma) / year of publication on the secondary: 1626.)



The De inventione linguarum (The Invention of Languages) presents the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Runic alphabets as well as a brief explanation of each language’s origins.