Carolingian glosses on Martianus Capella

The work by the fifth-century author Martianus Capella, 'On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury', was a key text for Carolingian scholars. It became the standard work on the seven liberal arts in the early Middle Ages. Its allegorical books (detailing the celestial journey of Philology and her marriage to Mercury) had a profound influence on emergent European culture, inspiring commentators, illuminators and painters throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Carolingian period - an important moment in intellectual, cultural and political history - represents a pivotal point in the reception of the text. Though not in a vacuum, it helped establish the enduring reputation of Martianus in the Middle Ages, in particular, through the production of three major commentaries. And whilst considerable scholarly effort has been spent on the later Carolingian commentaries, the earliest still awaits a critical edition. It exists as sets of glosses (marginal and interlinear comments) which form a coherent but fluid body of commentary that was copied along with the text throughout Northern and Northeastern France during the ninth century. These glosses not only demonstrate how Martianus was read by Carolingian scholars, but also help improve our understanding of a text that lies at the origins of modern ideas on education and learning. In addition, the ninth-century reception of Martianus enables investigation into the nature of the Carolingian revival, famous for its broad programmatic efforts to instigate educational reform, as well as its scholarly and intellectual endeavours.

The earliest glosses on Martianus demonstrate how the text was understood in the ninth century. Martianus' rich blend of astral religion, classical mythology and pagan tradition in the first two allegorical books had an enormous impact, enabling Carolingian commentators to reflect on visible and invisible reality, the cosmic harmony and the unity of the universe. The earliest glosses also illustrate without doubt that the highly unfavourable opinions of Martianus from the early modern and modern period were not shared by Carolingian scholars. In their commentaries they expressed particular interest in just those features of the text that post-medieval scholars have found least comprehensible: its dense metaphorical imagery, arcane allusions, antique references and Greek vocabulary.

More broadly, the glosses on the opaque aspects of the text illustrate the wider importance of obscurity. For the annotators, obscurity as much as perspicuity played a central role. Indeed, the obscurities of the text provided clues to be followed, not just puzzles to be solved once and for all. They concealed hidden truths under an allegorical veil. This essentially Macrobian image, an image well documented for the twelfth century, is central to the Carolingian understanding of Martianus. Crucially, it enabled the glossators to interpret Martianus' myths according to an important hermeneutic device: that is, it allowed them see hidden truth under a pagan surface.

The glosses thus provide a specific example of Carolingian appropriation of pagan learning. They also furnish evidence for the transmission of ancient learning. Martianus himself self-consciously reached back into the ancient and late antique world for much of the lore he transmitted and modified in the process. And the glossators, in turn, used Martianus as a bridge to the sources of ancient wisdom. The technology of glossing furnished storehouses of information which enable investigation into a central problem of cultural heritage: exactly how inheritance takes place. Study of the oldest glosses on Martianus provides a case-study toward a better understanding of that problem.