{"id":35836,"date":"2022-11-03T15:38:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T15:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=35836"},"modified":"2022-11-03T15:38:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T15:38:46","slug":"the-november-poems-in-the-chronography-of-354","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2022\/11\/03\/the-november-poems-in-the-chronography-of-354\/","title":{"rendered":"The November Poems in the Chronography of 354"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four manuscripts of the Chronography<\/em> contain an image for this month.\u00a0 This includes the Barberini manuscript, with the poems.<\/p>\n

Here is the 4-line poem (tetrastich<\/em>):<\/p>\n

\n

Carbaseos post hunc artus indutus amictus
\nMemphidos antiquae sacra deamque colit.
\nA quo vix avidus sistro compescitur anser
\nDevotusque satis incola, Memphi, deis.<\/p>\n

After this, arms<\/del> limbs clad in a linen cloak,
\nHe worships the sacred things and goddess of ancient Memphis:
\nThe greedy goose is hardly kept in check by him with a sistrum,
\nAnd has been entirely devoted by the householder to the gods, O Memphis.
\n<\/del>And, just enough, the ‘dweller’ devoted to the gods, O Memphis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The “dweller” is perhaps the sacred snake in the temple, depicted in the image.<\/p>\n

The 2-line verse (distich<\/em>) is as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

Frondibus amissis repetunt sua frigora mensem
\nCum iuga Centaurus celsa retorquet eques.<\/p>\n

Gone are the leaves, and its frosts reclaim the month,
\nWhen the rider Centaurus turns the great plough<\/del> the centaur-knight<\/del> Sagittarius shakes off the lofty yoke<\/del> Plough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure of the sense of the second line here.<\/p>\n

Probably the most faithful of the renaissance copies is R1, Ms. Vatican Barberini lat. 2154 B, fol. 22r.\u00a0 The tetrastich is in the margin at the right – plainly a later addition -, the first line of the distich at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
MS. Vatican Barberini lat. 2154 part B, folio 22r. November.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s the obviously redrawn image in the 16th century Vienna manuscript 3416, folio 35 (online here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
MS Vienna 3146 f.35. November.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Brussels Ms, fol.202r:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally the Berlin copy:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From Divjak and Wischmeyer, I learn that November is associated with the cult of Isis and the festival of the Isaia.\u00a0 The depiction is of a bald-headed priest of Isis, wearing a linen robe and holding a sistrum in his right hand.\u00a0 On either side of the arm are two pomegranates, with stalks and leaves.\u00a0 Below these is a goose.\u00a0 In his left hand he holds a plate, from the middle of which a sacred snake rears up.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Is it perhaps an Anubis mask, worn over the head?<\/p>\n

(For more information on this series of posts, please see the\u00a0Introduction to the Poems of the Chronography of 354<\/a>).<\/p>\n

UPDATE: 10 Nov 2022: Correction to translation of Distich, thanks to Suburbanbanshee.
\nUPDATE: 28 Nov 2022: More corrections to both, thanks to Alexander MacAulay.
\nUPDATE: 29 Nov 2022: And resolution on the tetrastich from Diego – thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four manuscripts of the Chronography contain an image for this month.\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[422,1354],"class_list":["post-35836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-chronography-of-354","tag-poems-in-the-calendar-of-354"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}