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The Eleventh-Century Shift in the Reception of Plato's "Timaeus"
and Calcidius's"Commentary"Author(s): Anna SomfaiReviewed
work(s):Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,
Vol. 65 (2002), pp. 1-21Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4135103 .Accessed: 06/03/2013
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THE ELEVENTH-CENTURY SHIFT IN THE RECEPTION OF PLATO'S TIMAEUS
AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY*
Anna Somfai
T he Timaeus is the only one of Plato's dialogues to have been
continuously available in Latin translation in the West from the
time of classical antiquity.' Two Latin versions, both incomplete,
circulated in the period prior to the Renaissance: one by Cicero
from the first century BC (Timaeus, 27D-47B, with some passages
omitted), the other by Calcidius from around 400 AD (Timaeus,
17A-53C), accompanied by his Latin Commentary. In his Middle
Platonic commentary Calcidius does not provide a detailed
explanation of each theme which arises in the Timaeus. Instead he
discusses selected issues dealt with in the portion of the
dialogue which he translated and considered by him to be in need
of further explanation. The Commentary was often copied and bound
together with Plato's dialogue in medieval manu- scripts. Scant
knowledge of Greek in the Middle Ages blocked access to Plato's
original text and the extant Greek commentaries and scholia.
Calcidius's Commentary consequently became the most important tool
for the interpretation of the Timaeus. The manuscript evidence
shows that the Commentary was annotated by its earliest medieval
readers long before the dialogue itself became the object of
scrutiny. The twelfth-century glosses on the Timaeus, attributed to
Bernard of Chartres and William of Conches, also relied on
Calcidius as their chief source. And even this new twelfth-century
hermeneutic apparatus did not displace the Commentary, which
attained renewed popularity during the Renaissance. In order to
understand the medi- eval reception of the Timaeus, therefore, we
have to explore the transmission of Calcidius's Commentary.
There are in total 156 extant medieval manuscripts of the two
translations, many equipped with marginal and interlinear glosses
and diagrams which were produced and later
augmented by generations of scholars. These annotations, some
dating from the ninth century and still found in fifteenth-century
manuscripts, were often copied together with the texts. Their
presence made possible a variety of readings and interpretations,
generating an ongoing dialogue with the texts of Plato and
Calcidius. Apart from registering the impressions of readers, the
glosses outline the main currents of interpretation.
The central aim of my inquiry is to determine how the
transmission and interpretation of Plato's Timaeus and the
Commentary of Calcidius changed over the course of the eleventh
* Archive abbreviations used in this article: Bamberg:
Staatsbibliothek = SB Berlin: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Preussicher Kultur-
besitz = SBPK Brussels: Bibliotheque Royale Albert Ier = BR
Cologne: Erzbisch6fliche Di6zesan- und Dombibliothek
= Dombib. El Escorial: Real Biblioteca = RB Florence: Biblioteca
Medicea Laurenziana = Laur. Leiden: Universiteitsbibliotheek =
UB
London: British Library = BL Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana =
Ambr. Munich: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek = BSB Oxford: Bodleian
Library = Bodley Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France = BnF
Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana = BAV Vienna:
Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek = ONB
1. I am grateful to Charles Burnett, David Juste and Jill Kraye
for reading and commenting on drafts of this article.
JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES, LXV, 2002
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2 ANNA SOMFAI
century. I shall argue, on the basis of a close study of the
manuscripts and of some late tenth- and eleventh-century texts,
that an important shift in the reading pattern of the dialogue and
its commentary occurred at this time. Many of the new tendencies
generally associated with the twelfth-century revival of Platonic
thinking, in fact, emerged during the period of transition from the
Carolingian era to the twelfth century, characterised in modern
literature as the two 'Renaissances' of the Middle Ages.2
The mistaken belief that the twelfth century produced the first
significant medieval in-
terpretation of Plato's text has so far gone almost completely
unchallenged, since little effort has been made to uncover the
reception of the Timaeus and of Calcidius's Commentary from the
ninth to the late eleventh century. Raymond Klibansky introduced
the concept of the con-
tinuity of the Platonic tradition during the Middle Ages,
briefly touching on the Arabic and
Byzantine heritage as well.3 He outlined a reception history,
identified tendencies present throughout the transmission and
suggested future lines of research. Some twenty years later Tullio
Gregory, in his study of the Timaeus and of medieval Platonism,
drew on quotations from
anonymous twelfth-century marginal annotations, as well as from
the glosses of Bernard of Chartres and William of Conches.4 Jan
Hendrik Waszink's outstanding edition of Calcidius's translation
and commentary, with a thorough introduction including a study of
the manu-
scripts, gave new impetus to research in this area.5
EdouardJeauneau, in a series of articles, published a selection of
twelfth- to fourteenth-century glosses.6 Following in his
footsteps, Margaret Gibson edited the glosses of four
eleventh-century manuscripts, making the first
major exploration of the transmission prior to the twelfth
century.7 She omitted, however, annotations which were not common
to all four manuscripts and limited herself to the first
part of the Timaeus. Neither Jeauneau nor Gibson paid attention
to the interlinear anno- tations and to the gloss to Calcidius's
Commentary or to the several variants of its original set of
explanatory diagrams. These elements, however, are of great
importance as evidence for
changing attitudes towards the texts of Plato and Calcidius. As
a result of the growing interest of modern scholarship in these
manuscripts and their
annotations, two independent twelfth-century glosses, one by
William of Conches,8 the other
by Bernard of Chartres,9 were identified, edited and studied.
Lately, moreover, along with a new focus on twelfth-century
Platonism, scholarly attention has turned to the periods before
2. The reception of Platonic thought during this period is
outside the scope of this article, so I shall not discuss other
Latin sources such as Boethius or Macrobius.
3. R. Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tra- dition
during the Middle Ages, London 1939, repr. 1950, rev. ed. with a
new preface and four supplementary chapters, 1981.
4. T. Gregory, Platonismo medievale: studi e ricerche, Rome
1958.
5. Plato, Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque
instructus, ed.J. H. Waszink (Plato Latinus, Iv), London and Leiden
1962, repr. 1975 (hereafter Calcidius, Timaeus and Commentary).
6. E. Jeauneau, 'Gloses sur le "Timee" et commen- taire du
"Timee" dans deux manuscrits du Vatican', Revue des etudes
augustiniennes, viii, 1962, pp. 365-75;
idem, 'Gloses marginales sur le "Timee" du Platon, du manuscript
226 de la Bibliotheque d'Avranches', Sacris Erudiri, xviI, 1966,
pp. 71-89; idem, 'Gloses sur le "Timee", du manuscript Digby 217 de
la Bodleienne, A Oxford', ibid., pp. 365-400; these three articles
are reprinted in E. Jeauneau, 'Lectio philosophorum': Recherches
sur l'Ecole de Chartres, Amsterdam 1973, PP. 193-264. See also
idem, 'Extraits de Glosae super Platonem de Guillaume de Conches
dans un manuscrit de Londres', this Journal, Lx, 1977, pp.
212-22.
7. M. Gibson, 'The Study of the "Timaeus" in the Eleventh and
Twelfth Centuries', Pensamiento, xxv, 1969, pp. 183-94-
8. William of Conches, Glosae super Platonem, ed. I. Jeauneau,
Paris 1965-
9. The 'Glosae super Platonem' of Bernard of Chartres, ed. P. E.
Dutton, Toronto 1991.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 3
and after the twelfth-century Renaissance. Michel Huglo, with an
eye to the musical diagrams of the Commentary, surveyed ninth- and
tenth-century manuscripts.'0 Rosamond McKitterick, too, briefly
considered the Carolingian codices when excavating the historical
background to, and genesis of, Valenciennes, Bibliotheque
Municipale MS 293.11 Paul Dutton traced the fortune of the texts
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, with an emphasis on the
thir- teenth,1'2 and James Hankins studied their reception in the
early Italian Renaissance.13 The most recent studies of the
medieval reception of the Timaeus and the Commentary of Calcidius
have been devoted to philological and philosophical questions.
Instead, however, of providing an overview of the medieval
tradition, as they seem to promise, they focus on late antiquity
and the 'School of Chartres', omitting the tenth and eleventh
centuries and barely touching either on the ninth century or
anything beyond the twelfth.14
In this article I shall firstly provide a brief introduction to
the texts of Plato and Calcidius and to their pre-eleventh-century
manuscript transmission. I shall then examine the shift which
occurred in the interpretation of Plato in the eleventh century,
through a comparison based on forty-eight extant Plato and
Calcidius manuscripts, ranging from the ninth to the fifteenth
centuries, paying particular attention to the glosses and the
diagrams, which often furnish the
only evidence we have of how medieval scholars read the texts
and attempted to untangle Plato's concepts.15 Finally, I shall
explore the various levels of textual transmission and inter-
pretation in relation to each other in order to outline a
history of the reception of the Timaeus and of Calcidius's
Commentary on it.
The Timaeus and its Commentary In the cosmological monologue of
the interlocutor Timaeus, Plato presents a scientific model of the
cosmos by means of a narrative of the creation of the body and soul
of the universe and of man, along with a description of their
structure and operations. Creation is described as the imposition,
by the divine artifex or craftsman, of a mathematical order on
matter, which has
10o. M. Huglo, 'Trois livres manuscrits pr6sent6s par
H61isachar', Revue binddictine, Ic, 1989, pp. 272-85; idem, 'La
r6ception de Calcidius et des Commentarii de Macrobe A l'6poque
carolingienne', Scriptorium, XLIV, 1990, pp. 3-20; idem,
'D'H61isachar A Abbon de Fleury', Revue benidictine, civ, 1994, pp.
204-30. Because he was primarily concerned with the musical
diagrams, Huglo excluded the 9th-century Vatican City, BAV MS Reg.
Lat. io68 from his study, since it does not contain the Commentary.
He failed to realise, therefore, that the manuscript contains two
of the standard musical diagrams in its margins and an additional 1
th-century musical diagram on the fly- leaf.
1 i. R. McKitterick, 'Knowledge of Plato's Timaeus in the Ninth
Century: The Implications of MS Val. Bibl. Munic. 293', in From
Athens to Chartres: Neoplatonism and Medieval Thought: Studies in
Honour ofEdouardJeauneau, ed. H.J. Westra, Leiden 1992, pp.
85-95.
12. P. E. Dutton, 'Material Remains of the Study of the Timaeus
in the Later Middle Ages', in L'enseigne- ment de la philosophie au
XIIe siecle, ed. C. Lafleur, Turnhout 1996, pp. 203-30.
13. J. Hankins, 'The Study of the Timaeus in Early Renaissance
Italy', in Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in
Renaissance Europe, ed. A. Grafton and N. Siraisi, Cambridge, MA
1999, pp. 77-119-
14. B. Bakhouche, 'La transmission du Timie dans le monde
latin', in Les voies de la science grecque, ed. D. Jacquart, Geneva
1997, PP. 1-31; P. Annala, 'The Theory of Designation in the
History of the Latin Timaeus from Late Antiquity to the Twelfth
Century', in Philosophical Studies in Religion, Metaphysics, and
Ethics: Essays in Honour of Heikki Kirjavainen, ed. T. Koistinen
and T. Lehtonen, Helsinki 1997, pp. 198- 213.
15. For a detailed study of the 9th- and loth- century
manuscripts, with their glosses and diagram variants, and a
discussion of Calcidius's Commentary, see A. Somfai, 'The
Transmission and Reception of Plato's Timaeus and Calcidius's
Commentary during the Carolingian Renaissance', Ph.D. diss.,
University of Cambridge 1998. It includes an edition of the glosses
of the five extant 9th- and oth-century manuscripts and the diagram
variants of some 24 codices, ranging from the 9th to the 15th
century, discussed within the intellectual context of the
quadrivium.
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4 ANNA SOMFAI
previously existed in a state of chaos, but is now transformed
into the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. These elements
constitute both the cosmic and the human body and soul and are
joined together through a mathematical bond: the continuous
geometrical propor- tion. It is within this mathematical
construction that metaphysical questions arise about the
relationship between the creator, the eternally existing model
of creation and the constantly changing created universe. The
cosmological account is prefaced by a series of mythological and
historical narratives about creation and destruction. These
narratives present Timaeus's
description of creation against the background of Plato's chief
concern: the political structure and moral fabric of the ideal
state and its ideal citizens, as well as the laws which govern
them. The exploration of the laws of nature in the Timaeus is the
counterpart of the search for
positive law in the Republic and Laws. The long history of
Platonic philosophy is marked by an alternation between two
different approaches to the Timaeus: one based on mathematics, the
other on metaphysics, with a distinct preference, in most periods,
for the latter.
The fragmentary rendering of the Timaeus by Cicero leaves out
the introductory mytho- logical stories, as well as those passages
which discuss time, the model of the created universe, the motion
of the soul's circles and the description of the human body
(Timaeus, 37C-38B and 43B-46A), and it begins instead with the
mathematical exposition of Timaeus.16 Cicero's version thus offers
a cosmological account of the constitution of the universe, removed
from the context of Plato's discourse on the various aspects of law
and political order, hence its medieval title: De mundi
constitutione.17 Cicero's method of translation often borders on
para- phrase, with his hesitations over introducing new terminology
and his use of synonyms or brief clauses to approximate the
original meaning. It was this version of the Timaeus, taken out of
its original context, which was known to the Latin Church Fathers
of late antiquity and which formed the basis for the influential
judgements of Augustine and Ambrose on Plato's philosophy.s8
Calcidius's Middle Platonic Commentary consists of two parts,
corresponding to his division of the translated portion of the
Timaeus (17A-39E and 39E-53C).19 In order to better under- stand
the responses of medieval readers to Calcidius's text, I present my
own interpretation of the structure of the Commentary, which
differs fundamentally from the generally accepted view of modern
scholars, who regard it as an encyclopedic work and no more than a
Latin vehicle for the transmission of Greek sources. Read without
such preconceptions, however, it reveals a coherent structure and
original concepts. Calcidius, in his introduction, suggests that
the ancients regarded the Timaeus as a difficult text on account of
their inappropriate approach to it. Each question which arises in a
text has to be addressed in terms of the specific discipline to
which it belongs. The puzzles posed by the Timaeus are related to
the sensible world and
16. Cicero, De divinatione, De fato, Timaeus, ed. R. Giomini,
Leipzig 1975 (hereafter Cicero, Timaeus), pp. 177-227.
17. In addition to the missing passages, the preface to the
translation ends abruptly. It is therefore assumed that, in its
present form, it is a fragment. The nature of the missing passages
and the absence of the only sentence which interrupts Timaeus's
monologue-- Socrates's exhortation for him to continue his expo-
sition-allows, however, for another conclusion: Cicero
may have wanted to create a version focused solely on cosmology,
possibly as a preparatory study of the theme or as a text to be
included in one of his own dialogues.
18. See especially Augustine, De civitate dei, x and Ambrose,
Hexaemeron libri sex, I.1.
19. In the prefatory letter, Calcidius states that if the
completed sections meet the approval of his addressee, Ossius, he
will continue the commentary. If he ever did so, the text does not
survive.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 5
therefore have to be studied by means of the four mathematical
disciplines.20 The first part of the Commentary thus provides an
introduction to the philosophically relevant concepts of the
quadrivium. Calcidius does not give his readers a lesson in
elementary mathematics, instead, he introduces them to a method of
thinking. The study of the quadrivium serves, in a Platonic
fashion, as a path for the mind to ascend from sense perception to
abstract concepts, from the basics of the liberal arts to pondering
complex philosophical and theological questions. This section
contains twenty-five diagrams related to the four disciplines of
the quadrivium: they function as mathematical proofs and help the
reader to follow the argument. The diagrams are an organic part of
the Commentary, and scribes copied them into the body of the text.
Medieval readers developed variants of the diagrams which helped
them to visualise Calcidius's
concepts more easily and which accommodated their own
interpretations. Within this math- ematical part Calcidius inserted
two metaphysical sections concerning the nature of time21 and that
of the soul.22
The second part of the Commentary addresses the structure of the
created universe and the forces at work within it. It follows
Plato's description of the created beings which populate the
heavens, the earth and the sea. Building on his introduction to the
quadrivium in the first
part, Calcidius discusses the various opinions of Greek
philosophical schools and thinkers on several topics in Plato's
dialogue, such as the nature of created beings, the definition of
fate, necessity, providence and matter and their relation to each
other. In this way, he manages to combine the mathematical and
metaphysical readings that are inherent in the dialogue. The two
parts of the Commentary correspond roughly to these two approaches,
but with many cross- references and an interweaving of various
sections and methods. The medieval marginal and interlinear glosses
and the diagrammatic annotations follow this twofold approach, not
only in their content but also in their visible form, revealing a
sensitive reading of the Commentary, as I shall suggest below.
Unlike Cicero, Calcidius translated the introductory stories
and, by doing so, gave his medieval readers a fuller context. He
also refers to this section in his Commentary, treating the
discussion in the Timaeus as a continuation of the Republic and
drawing a parallel between Socrates's search for positive law and
that of Timaeus for natural law.23 Calcidius's decision not to
comment on the mythological and historical narratives, together
with their absence in Cicero's version, determined the early
medieval understanding of the Timaeus. Manuscript evidence
indicates, however, that in the eleventh century scholars began to
take a new
approach, turning directly to the dialogue and to the previously
neglected narratives and hence to the original moral context of the
cosmological account.
The Ninth- and Tenth-Century Manuscripts The first extant
medieval manuscripts of the two Latin versions of the Timaeus, as
well as of the Greek original,24 date from the ninth century. There
are five manuscripts of Cicero's translation and three of
Calcidius's, two of which also contain his Commentary. These early
manuscripts provide the most significant evidence for the presence
of an interest in the dialogue and its late ancient
interpretation.
20. Commentary, I-II, p. 57, 1. 1-p. 58, 1. 12. 21. Commentary,
XXIII-XXV. 22. Commentary, XXVI-XXXI.
23. Commentary, V, p. 59, 11. 3-5 and VI, p. 59, 1. 14-p. 60, 1.
3-
24. Paris, BnF MS grec. 1807.
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6 ANNA SOMFAI
Cicero's version was transmitted by means of two different
manuscript traditions. Firstly, it appeared in the Leiden Corpus, a
collection of eight of Cicero's philosophical works, prob- ably
assembled in late antiquity.25 Secondly, a series of excerpts from
this collection formed
part of a compilation in the ninth century, known as the
Collectaneum Hadoardi and extant in a single contemporary copy.26
The Cicero texts are glossed throughout, strikingly, however, the
text of the Timaeus received no contemporary annotation in either
version, save for a few notes, some in Tironian shorthand.27 The
collection of excerpts made by Hadoard reflects the personal tastes
of an enthusiastic reader of classical texts.28 It shows his keen
interest in the mathematical disciplines, while the exclusion of
the Topica, on the other hand, suggests an indifference towards
logic. Hadoard's alterations to the text of the Timaeus reveal a
subtle
attempt to Christianise Plato's concept of creation. By skilful
editing, he removed the signs of
polytheism from the Timaeus, changing the plural dei to the
singular deus. In addition, he
replaced the word gignere (to come into being) with creare (to
create) in order to make the account of creation from pre-existing
matter more acceptable. Probably critical of the anthro-
pomorphic tendencies in Plato's creation myth, he also left out
the description of the universe as a
'Living Creature'.29 The text of Plato's dialogue in Calcidius's
translation,30 like its Ciceronian counterpart,
received no ninth-century annotation, with the exception of a
few notes to the introductory section in Lyons, Bibliotheque
municipale MS 324. The Commentary, on the other hand, acquired in
both ninth-century copies a gloss, with a handful of notes in
common, suggesting that they were present in the pre-Carolingian
exemplar.3" In both manuscripts the gloss to the Commentary
consists primarily of marginal indexing of philosophical and
mathematical
terminology and of the names of some of the philosophical
schools and authors referred to or
25. The Leiden Corpus contains De natura deorum, De divinatione,
Timaeus, De fato, Topica, Paradoxa stoicorum, Lucullus (Academica
priora) and De legibus. The 9th-century manuscripts include Leiden,
UB MSS Voss. Lat. F. 84 and F. 86; Florence, Laur. MS San Marco
257; and Vienna, ONB MS Lat. 189.
26. Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1762. This manuscript was
based on Florence, Laur. MS San Marco 257, which in turn was made
from a careful collation of the two Leiden manuscripts. The compi-
lation contains excerpts from the works in the Leiden Corpus, with
the exception of the Topica, and from the Tusculanae Disputationes,
De officiis, De amicitia, De oratore, De senectute, Sallust's
Catilina and Jugurtha, Macrobius's Commentary on the Somnium
Scipionis and Martianus Capella's De nuptiis (only the books on
geometry and arithmetic).
27. This lack of annotations remained a feature of the
transmission; see, e.g., the 13th-century Paris, BnF MS lat. 6333.
The glosses to the rest of the texts in the Leiden Corpus reveal an
interest in logic, which may provide an explanation for the
relative absence of interest in the Timaeus with its focus on
metaphysics. I have examined the two Leiden manuscripts, the
Timaeus section of the Vienna manuscript and the Vatican copy of
the Collectaneum Hadoardi. Leiden, UB
MS Voss. Lat. F. 86 is a particularly heavily annotated
manuscript with notes on logic (fols 136r-v, 137r) and drawings of
logical diagrams in the margins (fols 103',
o104r, lO9v, 110o-'). 28. Hadoard may have been the librarian at
Corbie
(he refers to himself as custos), as suggested by Bischoff and
Ganz, though he could have been based at Tours, as proposed by
Beeson. See B. Bischoff, 'Hadoard and the Manuscripts of Classical
Authors from Corbie', in Didascaliae: Studies in Honor of Anselm M.
Albareda, ed. S. Prete, New York 1961, pp. 41-57; D. Ganz, Corbie
in the
Carolingian Renaissance, Singmaringen 199o, esp. pp. 92-93; C.
H. Beeson, 'The Collectaneum of Hadoard', ClassicalPhilology, XL,
1945, pp. 201-22.
29. Compare Vatican City, BAV MS Lat. 1762, fol. 13r, 'de dei
natura ortuque mundi' with Cicero, Timaeus, 3.8, p. 182, 11. 8-9,
'de deorum natura ortuque mundi'. For the 'Living Creature' see
Cicero, Timaeus, 6.17-19, p. 190, 1. 22-p. 192,1. 22.
30. Valenciennes, Bibl. municipale MS 293; Lyons, Bibl.
municipale MS 324; Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1068 (dialogue
only).
31. I am currently preparing an edition of the glosses found in
the five extant 9th- and ioth-century manuscripts.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 7
quoted in the text. In Valenciennes, Bibliotheque municipale MS
293, there are several brief marginal headlines which serve as
pointers to concepts, topics and definitions. In addition, there
are notes expressing the annotator's opinion, such as criticism of
certain pagan philo- sophers.32 The marginal indexing and headlines
acted as a running guide to the text, creating a reader-friendly
edition of the Commentary, while the critical remarks served as
pointers for Christian readers.
After the initial ninth-century effort to produce copies of the
Timaeus written in the new, more legible Carolingian minuscule
script-a sign that it was considered to be an important text-only
two extant manuscripts, both preserving Calcidius's translation and
his Commentary, can be dated to the tenth century.33 Although no
tenth-century manuscript of Cicero's version survives, it was not
unknown at this time.34 The quantitative decline in manuscript
production, part of a general trend in the transmission of
classical texts,35 does not reflect the intensity and quality of
scholarly attention which was devoted to the study of Calcidius's
Commentary. It was during this period, as both manuscripts testify,
that a standard gloss to the Commentary first took shape. Building
on the useful material in Valenciennes, Bibliotheque municipale MS
293, but making up for its lack of annotation to most of the second
part of the Commentary, the tenth-century annotators enlarged the
gloss. The new themes include the nature of time, motion, matter,
elements, forms, the syllogism and the division of philosophy. From
then on, the standard gloss was copied together with the text. It
grew continuously in the same style and remained part of the
transmission of the Commentary throughout the later Middle Ages and
the Renaissance.36 A previously unstudied codex, Brussels, BR MS
9625-9626, contains a gloss to the first part of the Commentary,
which explores the mathematical philosophy of Calcidius by means of
a close reading, providing diagram variants, along with additional
diagrams, as part of the marginalia.37 By deconstructing and
reconstructing Calcidius's diagrams, the annotator not only entered
into the argument, but also gave other readers a practical tool for
use in the study of geometry. Figure i shows the page layout of a
folio with one of Calcidius's diagrams which explains the concept
of the continuous geometrical proportion. The diagram is a
32. See, e.g., Valenciennes, Bibl. municipale MS 293, fol. 76r,
11. 14-15, 'de insana sententia plato- nicorum'.
33. Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164; Brussels, BR MS 9625- 9626.
34. The annotator of Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164 remarked that the
term translated by Calcidius as analogia competens was elsewhere
rendered as proportio. See Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164, fol. 28va, 11.
34-36 for Calcidius, Commentary, XVI, p. 68, 1. 1 and see Cicero,
Timaeus, 4.13, P. 186, 1. 25-p. 188, 1. 1 for proportio. Both
ioth-century manuscripts contain another com- parative note: while
Calcidius translated the definition of time as simulacrum evi
(Commentary, XXIII, p. 74, 1. 13), Cicero rendered it as similitudo
eternitatis (Cicero, Timaeus, 3.8, p. 182, 11. 2-8). See Paris, BnF
MS lat. 2164, fol. 29gb, 11. 22-23 and Brussels, BR MS 9625- 9626,
fol. 14', 11. 36-38.
35. For a summary of the general tendencies see Texts and
Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D. Reynolds,
Oxford 1983, esp. p. xxvii. For a brief
analysis of the dynamics of book production during the ioth
century see J. Vezin, 'La Production et la circulation des livres
dans l'Europe du xe siecle', in Gerbert I'Europien: Actes du
colloque dAurillac ... 1996, ed. N. Charbonnel and J.-E. lung,
Aurillac 1997, PP- 205-18.
36. See, e.g., Paris, BnF MSS lat. 10195 and 6282; Vatican City,
BAV MSS Reg. Lat. 13o8 and 1861; Cologne, Dombib. MS 192; Bamberg,
SB MS M. V. 15 (Class. 18) (1 1 th century); London, BL MS Add.
19968 (11 th/1 2th century); Vatican City, BAV MS Barb. Lat. 21
(12th century); Oxford, Bodley MSS Canon. Lat. 175 and 176 (15th
century).
37. For this manuscript and its gloss see my forth- coming
article 'The Brussels Gloss: a Tenth-Century Reading of the
Geometrical and Arithmetical Passages of Calcidius's Commentary
(ca. 400 AD) to Plato's Timaeus', to appear in the proceedings of
the confer- ence Ecrire dans les marges: une expression de la
pensie scientifique (antiquiti tardive-Renaissance), held at the
Warburg Institute in April 2001.
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8 ANNA SOMFAI
0 0 (5)(6) (8)0
0 (3)(4)
(7) 3 i#
(1)2 -----(2)
Figure 1. Brussels, BR MS 9625-9626, fol. 13r, page layout
geometrical proof in which two extreme cubes are bound by two
middle ones: (1) marks the standard diagram, in (2) the scribe has
separated the four cubes, and (3) to (8) represent squares which
make up the cubes. Glosses are added inside the squares to instruct
the reader about the process of
creating cubes from squares. This gloss reflects the skill and
knowledge of a scholarly circle with a predilection for the
subjects of the quadrivium and a mathematical approach to the
Timaeus.
The Eleventh-Century Shift: The Manuscript Evidence
From the eleventh century, we have twenty-five extant Timaeus
manuscripts: twenty-three containing Calcidius's version,38 and two
with Cicero's.39 Although in absolute terms more
manuscripts were produced both in the twelfth century and in the
fifteenth, the rate of growth in the eleventh century was never
again matched and only in the fifteenth century do we find a
similar interest in Calcidius's Commentary (see Figure 2).40
Calcidius's Calcidius's Calcidius's Cicero's Timaeus and Timaeus
only Commentary TOTAL Timaeus Commentary only
gth century 2 1 - 3 5
1 oth century 2 - - 2 - I ith century 17 5 1 23 2
12th century 5 45 3 53 -
13th century 3 12 15 4
14th century 2 6 1 9 1
15th century 11 18 6 35 4 TOTAL 42 87 11 140 16
Figure 2. The chronological distribution of manuscripts of
Plato's Timaeus in Cicero's translation and in Calcidius's
translation with his Commentary
38. Of the 1 ith-century manuscripts which I have studied
closely, the following contain glosses: Leiden, UB MS Voss. Lat. Q.
lo; London, BL MSS Add. 156o0i, Add. 19968, Harley 261o; Paris, BnF
MSS lat. 6280, lat. 6282, lat. 10195; Vatican City, BAV MSS Reg.
Lat. 1308, Reg. Lat. 1861; Cologne, Dombib. MS 192; and Bamberg, SB
MS M. V. 15 (Class. 18). Other manu- scripts are thinly glossed;
these include London, BL MSS Add. 15293 and Harley 2652. The
following
manuscripts do not contain any gloss at all: Vatican City, BAV
MSS Barb. Lat. 22 and Reg. Lat. 123.
39. Leiden, UB MS Voss. Lat. Q. io and Munich, BSB Clm 528.
40. The table is based on the manuscript descrip- tions in
Waszink's edition (as in n. 5, pp. 106-31) and includes excerpts
but not fragments. I have added more recently discovered
manuscripts based on P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum II, London and
Leiden 1967,
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 9
The geographical distribution of the manuscripts also reveals an
increasingly widespread interest in these texts. All ten
manuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries were written in
northern France. At least eight eleventh-century manuscripts of
Calcidius's version and one of Cicero's, however, were produced in
Germany, while an excerpt from the Commentary was
copied in Spain. In the German manuscripts the Timaeus is always
accompanied by Calcidius's Commentary,41 implying a reading of the
dialogue which relied heavily, or entirely, on the late ancient
interpretation.
During the eleventh century, various changes occurred on
different levels of manu-
script production, transmission and reception, involving page
layout, the distribution of the annotations between Plato's
dialogue and the Commentary, the location of the glosses and their
character, the interpretation of the texts and the appearance of a
new readership. The shift is manifest most clearly in the
production of a larger number of Timaeus manuscripts without the
Commentary. In addition, after a break of a century, two copies of
Cicero's version were produced. While previously it was almost
always the Commentary which was glossed, in the eleventh century
the Timaeus attracted most of the new annotations.42 The tendency
to anno- tate the Timaeus was not restricted to new copies of the
text: a ninth-century codex, Vatican
City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 10o68, the only one from before the
eleventh century without the
Commentary, now received an elaborate gloss. The dominant
feature of the period, therefore, was a shift of interest from
Calcidius's Commentary to the Timaeus itself.
A closer look at the glosses in eleventh- century manuscripts
reveals a new geography of the page. While the gloss to the
Commentary had been located, and remained, in the mar-
gin, the new gloss to the Timaeus included both marginal and
interlinear annotations.
Although the introduction of the interlinear
gloss was seemingly only a formal change, a wide range of
phenomena derived from the differences between marginal and
interlinear annotations. Marginal notes were used to index themes
and sources, to highlight points of interest and, on a deeper
level, to engage with the text by giving longer explanations
animae vis
ratio appe nabilis tibilis
intel opi cupi iracun lectus nio ditas dia
Figure 3. Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164, fol. 56vb, 11. 47-52
pp. 503, 558-59, and 264, and on Dutton, 'Material Remains' (as
in n. 12), esp. pp. 204-05. Having studied the manuscripts myself,
I redated Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164 from the 9th to the ioth century,
and Cambridge, St John's College MS 107 from the 11th to the 12th
century. For the sake of clarity I have divided the period into
centuries rather than 50-year intervals as used by R. W. Southern,
Platonism, Scholastic Method, and the School of Chartres, Reading
1979, p. 14, and Dutton, 'Material Remains', p. 205.
41. The only exception is London, BL MS Harley 2652, held at
some stage in the library of Nicolaus of Cusa. It contains only a
very brief fragment of the
Commentary with the folios of the Timaeus bound in the wrong
order, suggesting that the loss of text occurred during
transmission.
42. There was also a structural change in the arrangement of the
two texts. In the earliest Calcidius manuscripts each of the two
parts of the translation is followed by the relevant sections of
the Commentary, with reference numbers connecting the text of Plato
to its exposition. Starting in the 1 ith century, in some
manuscripts the entire Commentary follows the entire Timaeus, with
the reference numbers still in place. This change paved the way for
the independent circulation of the two texts.
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10 ANNA SOMFAI
and more substantial interpretations. They are very visible and
catch the eye immediately, even if a reader is merely flicking
through a manuscript. By virtue of their position they emphasise
vertical connections and often accommodate logical tree diagrams,
as in the gloss to the Com- mentary. These diagrams, consisting of
words with lines establishing logical links between them, make
verbal connections visual (see Figure 3).
Interlinear annotations, on the other hand, are squeezed between
the lines and become visible only when one reads the text
carefully. They present the horizontal approach of the annotator,
explaining individual words, suggesting synonyms, specifying
meanings or giving brief definitions. They enter the body of the
text, restating and rephrasing parts of it rather than engaging
with it. They explain grammatical problems or offer factual
information. The introduction of interlinear annotations to the
formerly neglected text of the Timaeus signals an attitude towards
glossing which catered for a new readership, one that needed, and
wanted, basic facts. The synonyms facilitated an easier reading of
the dialogue, whose Latin must have been by then, if not
antiquated, certainly in need of explanation, while the
mythological char- acters and geographical names were unfamiliar.
The nature of the explanations points to a school environment. The
appearance of interlinear notes in the dialogue, but usually not in
the Commentary, suggests that they were subject to different
reading practices. The Commentary was now read more as an
exposition of the Timaeus and not seen primarily as an object of
study in itself.
The marginal glosses to the Timaeus are also different from
those to the Commentary. The dialogue, being much shorter than the
Commentary, has less need for an index. The anno- tations,
moreover, are visibly longer than those in the Commentary and
usually do not merely highlight important points or convey
favourable or dismissive comments but instead provide summaries and
explanations. They engage with the text on a new level, tapping
into the argu- ment of the dialogue, as we shall see.43 During the
course of the eleventh century the new gloss to the Timaeus became
standardised, just as that of the Commentary had done a century
earlier. Both the marginal and the interlinear notes were copied
into newly produced manuscripts, where they continued to develop.
The standard gloss to the Commentary also kept growing throughout
the period.
The glosses to the Timaeus and to the Commentary both contain
diagrams, indicating the importance of visual aids in the reading
of these texts. Attempts at problem-solving found their expression
not so much in the often meagre verbal notes as in the diagram
variants. These constitute the most original contribution to the
pre-twelfth-century analysis of Calcidius's interpretation of the
Timaeus. The diagrammatic annotations to the Commentary were either
medieval variants of Calcidius's standard diagrams, inserted into
the body of the text, re- placing the original versions, or else
new diagrams created by medieval readers specifically to explain
Calcidius's text, usually copied in the margin. Diagrams, selected
from the standard ones in the Commentary, were occasionally
introduced into the Timaeus gloss as well, in the margin or
sometimes at the end of the text. They, thus, functioned in the
same way as the textual quotations. The diagrams most often used in
this way were the three musical ones.44
43. Signs of closer reading appear even on the level of textual
editing. In Paris, BnF MS lat. 6282 para- graph marks were added to
the texts-a seemingly minor addition which none the less signals an
attempt
to structure the dialogue. Another such novelty in Paris, BnF MS
lat. 10195 and Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 123 is the use of
colours to highlight impor- tant expressions in the text and
annotations.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 11
They were designed to express the musical proportions on which
the harmony of the Platonic world soul is based. Since the section
in the Timaeus on musical harmony (Timaeus, 35B-36B) is complicated
and requires background knowledge, when Calcidius's Commentary no
longer accompanied the dialogue, some other form of explanation was
needed; hence, the incorpor- ation of the diagrams into the gloss
to the dialogue.
Calcidius's diagrams were used in the glosses of other texts as
well. Since the Timaeus on its own, without the Commentary, is a
short text, it was usually copied or at least bound together with
other works. During the eleventh century it quickly became part of
what was considered to be a Platonic corpus in the wider sense,
including Macrobius and Boethius, and this, in turn, had an impact
on the circulation of the Commentary. On some occasions when the
dialogue was still accompanied by the Commentary, they were both
copied together with texts which tended to be combined with the
Timaeus when it circulated separately. For instance, Paris, BnF MS
lat. 10195 contains, in addition to the Timaeus and the Commentary,
Cicero's Somnium Scipionis with Macrobius's commentary, as well as
excerpts from Sallust's Catilina and Jugurtha. In the second book
of Macrobius's commentary, where he discusses Plato's views on the
creation of the world soul and on musical harmony, the annotator
copied two of the standard musical diagrams from Calcidius's
Commentary in the margin.45 The first of Calcidius's musical
diagrams is also copied in the same place in another
eleventh-century manuscript, London, BL MS Harley 2652.46 Such
diagrammatic intertextuality is a visual counterpart to the use of
textual quotations.
Also added to the texts in the eleventh century were two
accessus: one on Plato and another on Calcidius. The need for these
introductory passages arose when the philosopher and his
commentator began to exist as authors of separate texts.47 The fact
that they were written at this time indicated not only an interest
in the two ancient thinkers themselves but also a wish to, in some
way, define and place them among the authors who were read in the
schools. The information in the accessus, furthermore, gave them
human dimensions and made them more acceptable to Christian readers
by connecting Plato to Christian authors and to the Bible, and by
placing Calcidius within the Church hierarchy.
The first occurrence of the accessus on Plato known to me is in
a late tenth- or early eleventh-century hand in the ninth-century
codex, Valenciennes, Bibliotheque municipale MS 293 (fol. iv). The
same text can also be found in two eleventh-century manuscripts:
London, BL MS Harley 2652 (fol. 61r) and, in a longer version,
Leiden, UB MS Voss. Lat. Q. 10 (fol. 3r). The accessus contains
excerpts from Ambrose and Jerome. The text from Ambrose is his
account of the journey which Plato made to Egypt in order to study
the laws of Moses and the words of the prophets, so that later he
could turn them into dialogues on virtue.48 The passage from Jerome
describes Plato's capture by pirates on the Egyptian journey
which
44. Commentary, XXXII, p. 82, XLI, p. 9go, XLVIII, p. 98. See,
e.g., London, BL MSS Add. 19968 and 15601 and Paris, BnF MS lat.
6282.
45. Paris, BnF MS lat. 10 195, fol. 27v. 46. London, BL MS
Harley 2652, fol. 12r 47. In some of the earlier manuscripts, not
only
were the texts copied together but the incipits and explicits,
separating the two texts, were also missing. See, e.g., Lyons,
Bibl. municipale MS 324, fol. 45r, 1. 8,
Brussels, BR MS 9625-9626, fol. 39r, 1. 1, and Paris, BnF MS
lat. 2164, fol. 43va, 1. 19, 'Platonis pars prima explicit
feliciter', marking the explicit of the first part of Calcidius's
Commentary.
48. Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi CXVIII, 18.4.2, in his Opera
(Corpus Christianorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum [hereafter CCEL],
LXII), ed. M. Petschenig, Leipzig 1913, v, p. 398, 11. 3-8.
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12 ANNA SOMFAI
he took in pursuit of knowledge.49 In the Leiden manuscript
(fol. Ir) a third excerpt, from Claudianus Mamertus, was added and
placed before the texts from Ambrose and Jerome. It describes Plato
as the prince of all philosophers, who should be admired because,
despite living centuries before Christ, he sought the one God.50
The inclusion of this excerpt took the accessus beyond the
narrative approach and furnished it with a theoretical dimension.
The reference to the Old Testament and the emphasis on the one God
presented an image of Plato which, without attempting to
Christianise him, made him suitable for a Christian readership. In
this way, it helped to generate a new interpretation of the
Timaeus. In London, BL MS Add. 15601 (fol. 88r), the compiler added
another text after the Timaeus. He drew on Augustine for the
opinions of Ambrose and Jerome on Plato, once again emphasising his
excellence among pagan philosophers and his acceptability to
Christians.51
From the eleventh century, a scribal note was copied into some
manuscripts describing Calcidius as the deacon or archdeacon of
Ossius, Bishop of Cordoba.52 The note, our only evidence for this
information, served as an accessus, to which, in later manuscripts,
more details were added. The ecclesiastical rank with which
Calcidius was credited helped to increase his authority by placing
him among Christian philosophers and defending him from negative
associations with pagan thinkers. It is this accessus which lies
behind the assumption of modern scholars that Calcidius was
considered to be a Christian during the Middle Ages. The only
evidence, however, for this from the early medieval period is the
statement of a tenth-century annotator who was puzzled at
Calcidius's discussion of the soul and expressed his surprise that
'a Christian thought in this way'.53 The Commentary itself offers
no signs that it was written by a Christian. The philosophical
concepts, range of quotations and vocabulary indicate a pagan
background with strong Greek influences. Calcidius's presumed
Christianity does not hold against the evidence of the text.54 By
the twelfth century, however, his connection with Bishop Ossius was
taken for granted and incorporated into the glosses on the Timaeus
by Bernard of Chartres55 and William of Conches.56
Leiden, UB MS Voss. Lat. Q. io, with its longer and more
theoretical accessus to Plato, preserves a unique collection of
Platonic works. It contains the two translations of the Timaeus by
Cicero and Calcidius, copied in the same hand, also the De dogmate
Platonis, De philosophia, Cosmographia and De deo Socratis of
Apuleius, and a Latin translation of Hermes Trismegistus's Ad
Asclepium, attributed to Apuleius. The Timaeus translations of both
Cicero and Calcidius appear in this manuscript in a new context:
rather than being copied in the Leiden Corpus or
49. Jerome, Letter 53, 1, Epistulae (CCEL, LIv), ed. I. Hilberg,
Vienna 1996, I, p. 443, 11. 13-16.
50. Claudianus Mamertus, De statu animae, 11.7 (CCEL, xI), ed.
A. Engelbrecht, Vienna 1885, p. 128, 11. 8-11 (paraphrase) and p.
122, 11. 11-20.
51. Augustine, De doctrina christiana, II.io7-08 (CCEL, Lxxx),
ed. G. M. Green, Vienna 1963, p. 64, 11. 11-26 (paraphrase).
52. See El Escorial, RB MS S. III. 5; and Vatican City, BAV MS
Reg. Lat. 3815-
53. See the loth-century marginal note (to Com- mentary, XXVI,
p. 77, 1. 15) in Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164, fol. 30r, 1. 48, 'miror
sic sapuisse hominem chris- tianum'.
54. The only Christian author to whom Calcidius refers by name
is the Greek Father, Origen. The Commentary contains no references
to classical Latin authors, apart from Cicero, nor to Latin
theological sources. Calcidius's use of the Bible in chapters
CCLXXVI-CCLXXVIII of the Commentary is so unusual that the
1oth-century annotator of the Brussels manu- script added a longer
source-mark in the margin: 'hinc de divina scriptura sumit
testimonium' (Brussels, BR MS 9625-9626, fol. 75r, to Commentary,
CCLXXVI, p. 280, 1.4).
55. 'Glosae' of Bernard of Chartres (as in n. 9), p. 142, 1.
4.
56. William of Conches, Glosae (as in n. 8), p. 63.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 13
together with the Commentary, they are part of a Platonic
corpus.57 Yet the compiler was familiar with the Commentary and, in
a long incipit, or rather accessus, to Calcidius's Timaeus
translation, expressed his high opinion of Calcidius as
commentator.58 There are only a few marginal and interlinear
annotations in the manuscript, but simple versions of the first two
musical diagrams are present in the margin of the Calcidius
translation. This is a book designed for the study of Platonic
thought, approached, not, as previously, by means of commentaries
such as those of Macrobius and Calcidius, but rather at first hand
and in the context of Apuleius's philo- sophical writings. This
manuscript reveals a specific interest in the Timaeus and a new
concern to disentangle Plato's text from the late ancient and
earlier medieval traditions.
Like the Timaeus, the Commentary of Calcidius, too, embarked on
a separate career. The field within which it made an independent
appearance was astronomy, a topic which receives
very little attention in the Timaeus but which is given ample
space in the Commentary. Plato
merely refers to the celestial bodies as aids in the creation of
time. He lists the earth, moon, sun, Mercury and Venus, then points
out that it would be a waste of time to discuss the rest of the
planets.59 This brief, uninviting statement, certainly not an
inspiration for an elaborate discussion, prompted Calcidius's
lengthy digression on the subject.60 There is an excerpt from the
astronomical section of the Commentary in Vatican City, BAV MS Reg.
Lat. 123.61 The
manuscript is of Catalan origin and was compiled around the
middle of the eleventh century at Ripoll by a monk named Oliva.62
It is usually considered to be an astronomical collection. Yet the
excerpts centre on different aspects of 'time' and go well beyond
the themes of
astronomy and computus. The compilation progresses from
liturgical time (religious festivities, ecclesiastical dates),
through historical time and the philosophy of history (ranging from
local history to the six ages of the world) to time considered
within an astronomical and philoso- phical framework. There are
several annotations in various hands throughout the manuscript,
dating from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, indicating that
the manuscript remained in use from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance.
The arrangement of the compilation follows the encyclopedic
tradition.63 It is divided into four books and structured around a
sequence of opinions or narratives by various authors
concerning a single topic, or by a single author on diverse
subjects.64 The excerpts in the first
57. An awareness in the I1th century of 'Platonisms' (as opposed
to 'Platonism' in the singular) is reflected not only in the nature
of this compilation but also in the gloss found in other
manuscripts. The standard annotation, 'de insana sententia
platonicorum' (to Commentary, CXXXVI, p. 176, 11. 15-17: see Valen-
ciennes, Bibl. municipale MS 293, fol. 76r, 11. 14-15; Paris, BnF
MS lat. 2164, fol. 48ra, 11. 24-25; Brussels, BR MS 9625-9626, fol.
49r, 11. 5-6), was altered in London, BL MS Add. 19968, fol. 61r,
11. 26-28 to 'de insana sententia quorundam platonicorum'.
58. Leiden, UB MS Voss. Lat. Q. o, fol. 3', 'Incipit prologus In
Timaeum platonis de greco in latinum petente iosio a chalcidio viro
claro translatum et miro ingenio commentatum et elucidatum'.
59. Timaeus, 38D-38E. 6o. Commentary, LVI-CXVII. 61. There had
been some interest in the astro-
nomical portion of the Commentary during previous
centuries, as can be seen from short excerpts, amount- ing to
only a few folios: e.g., a 9th-century collection of scientific
texts compiled at Corbie or Fulda, and extant in Paris, BnF MS lat.
13955. From the late loth century another excerpt, made by Abbo of
Fleury, is preserved in Berlin, SBPK MS Phill. 1833.
62. See A. Wilmart, Codices Reginenses latini, 2 vols, Vatican
City 1937, 1, pp. 289-92 and E. Pellegrin, Les manuscrits
classiques latins de la Bibliotheque Vaticane, II.1, Paris 1978,
pp. 35-38.
63. The main sources include Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose,
Isidore, Bede, Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia, Hyginus's
Astronomica, Aratus's Astrologia, Macrobius's Commentary on
Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, Calcidius's Commentary, with shorter
excerpts from various other authors.
64. Throughout most of the manuscript, the source of each
passage is provided in the margin and is high- lighted in colour.
Each book, with the exception of the
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14 ANNA SOMFAI
book, De sole (fols 1 r-53v), proceed from 'micro-time' to
'macro-time', from minutes and hours to the six ages of the world
based on Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede, with occasional
references to Augustine. The second book, De luna (fols 54r-1 22v),
contains several tables of calendars, with excerpts again from
Isidore and Bede. The third book, De natura rerum (fols 123r-50o),
draws primarily on Bede, Isidore and Pliny the Elder, with some
references to Macrobius. The absence of Plato's Timaeus in this
section would seem odd were it not for a quotation from Bede: 'In
the beginning of creation the sky, the earth, the angels, the air,
and the water were made from nothing' (fol. 124r).65 Given this
standpoint, it is hardly surprising that the compiler did not refer
to the Timaeus with its account of creation from pre-existing
matter. The quotation from Bede is, nevertheless, intriguing.
Angels appear to be a part of a cosmological structure which
otherwise contains only the four elements. Calcidius in his
discussion of demons associated angels with aether, the fifth
element. Though the compiler does not mention Calcidius here, he
probably made use of his Commentary in this section.66 He followed
Isidore (fol. 128v) by relating the universe etymologically to the
Latin mundus67 and the Greek cosmos,68 and by using the Greek yle
and its Latin equivalent, rerum prima materia, that is, silva, for
matter.69 Next he considered the elements with their qualities and
used two diagrams, based on Isidore, to accompany his text.
The fourth book, De astronomia (fols 152r-219'), draws on a
wider range of source material. Although Isidore, Bede and Pliny
are still the most frequently quoted authors, new names appear.
Hyginus and Fulgentius are cited for their mythological stories
about the con- stellations, Macrobius occurs in connection with the
ten circles of heaven, and Aratus is quoted on the zodiac. Finally,
there is a long excerpt from the first part of Calcidius's
Commentary. It is preceded by a passage from the third book of the
Etymologiae, in which Isidore discusses astro- nomy. The compiler,
after providing mythological stories and splendid colour
illustrations of the constellations, quotes Isidore on the 'insane
pagan habit of transferring animals into the sky'.70 In the same
passage Isidore refers to the Timaeus, connecting the creation of
the celestial bodies by God to motion and time. Plato appears here
condemning astrology, and Isidore, very much in accordance with
Calcidius's perspective, points out that knowledge of astronomy and
of the seven liberal arts in general aids the ascent of the soul
towards higher contemplation. The astronomical chapters from
Calcidius's Commentary follow a warning about the dangers of
slipping from the true path of astronomy to the false science of
astrology.71 The section
first, starts with a table of contents. The contents include the
chapter number, title and the authority cited. The manuscript
begins with a description of symbols used in the reckoning of time
and provides astronomical tables.
65. Bede, De natura rerum, II, in his Opera (Corpus
Christianorum Series Latina, cxxIIIA), ed. C. W. Jones, Turnhout
1975, p. 192, 1. 17-P. 193, 1. 1.
66. Commentary, CXXXIV, p. 175, 11. 8-11, CXXXV, p. 175, 11.
16-18. See A. Somfai, 'The Nature of Demons: a Theological
Application of the Concept of Geometrical Proportion in Calcidius'
Commentary to Plato's Timaeus (4oD-41A)', in Ancient Approaches to
Plato's 'Timaeus' (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies,
supplement 78), London 2003, pp. 129-42.
67. According to Isidore the term mundus originated from moveo,
since the universe is in constant motion; see his Etymologiarum
sive originum libri XX, xiII.i.1, ed. W. M. Lindsay, 2 vols, Oxford
191 1 (hereafter Etymologiae).
68. The compiler linked cosmos with the Latin ornamentum; see
Etymologiae, XIII. 1.2.
69. 'Ylen graeci rerum quendam primam materiam dicunt' (fol.
128'); see Etymologiae, xIII.3.1.
70. Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 123, fol. 205v; see
Etymologiae, 1II.71.32, 'Et miranda dementia gen- tilium, qui non
solum pisces, sed etiam arietes et hircos et tauros, ursas et canes
et cancros et scorpiones in celum transtulerunt'.
71. The excerpt on fols 205-18 8 includes Commen- tary,
LIX-LXIII, p. 10o6, 1. 19-p. 111, 1. 2 with diagram
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 15
excerpted starts with the discussion of the spherical shape of
the body of the universe.72 Apart from a few missing sections,73 it
covers the whole of the astronomical portion of the first part of
the Commentary, including the standard diagrams.
This compilation reveals a new attitude towards the Commentary.
The astronomical section is treated as an independent treatise,
without any indication of its origin as a commentary on Plato's
Timaeus. It appears separately from Plato's text and is used as
part of a context with which it has intellectual affinities.
Previously the Commentary was only copied together with the
Timaeus, and in Paris, BnF MS lat. 2164 with Claudianus Mamertus as
well. Now it is associated with, and complements, the natural
scientific works of Isidore and Bede.74 The existence of
excerpts is a measure of its popularity. By the middle of the
eleventh century, Calcidius's Commentary was used as a textbook for
the mathematical disciplines and other related subjects. While
remaining the chief tool for studying the Timaeus, the Commentary
also took on a life of its own.
So, the production of copies of the Timaeus without the
Commentary, while reflecting an increased interest in Plato's
dialogue, does not necessarily imply a lack of interest in
Calcidius's text. The growing number of separate copies could,
moreover, have resulted, at least in part, from teaching practice.
It may have been sufficient for students to have an annotated text
in their hands, while the teacher needed to have a copy of the
Commentary at his disposal. The Commentary was not indispensable to
a beginning reader of the dialogue, who would have received more
help from the marginal and interlinear annotations and the diagram
variants -produced by contemporary scholars with a contemporary
readership in mind-together with the explanations of a master.
Beyond the Physical Evidence: Reading the Glosses The new gloss
to the Timaeus gravitated around the first part of the dialogue,
although there are some exceptions, such as in London, BL MS Add.
15601, where the second part of the Timaeus contains a large number
of interlinear notes and logical tree diagrams.75 The main themes
which received annotations were the world soul, time, the elements,
proportions, and the nature of the soul, motion and matter. Some of
the glosses cite or refer to authors such as Boethius (London, BL
MS Harley 261o) or Calcidius (Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1o68).
The gloss in BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1068 epitomises the new phenomena
involved in glossing the Timaeus. Its author uses Calcidius and
possibly Macrobius. He provides interlinear synonyms for words in
order to aid students who were struggling with the technical
terminology,76
io; LXIX-LXXXIX, p. 116, 1. 1-p. 142, 1. 9 with diagrams 12-19;
LXIV-LXVIII, p. 111, 1. 3-P. 115, 1. 19 with diagram 11 (the order
of the chapters is altered); XC-XCVII, p. 142, 1. 9-p. 150, 1. 7
with diagrams 20-22; CX-CXVIII, p. 157, 1. 6-p. 164, 1. 3 with
diagrams 23-24.
72. Commentary, LIX, p. 10o6, 1. ig9. 73. Commentary, XCVIII-CX,
pp. 150-57, containing
philosophical passages on space, motion and time, and diagram 25
in Commentary, CXVI.
74. This manuscript, containing texts by both Calcidius and
Bede, may provide the explanation for the presence of some of the
Calcidius diagrams,
together with their textual explanations, in the glosses of
Bede's De natura rerum and De temporum ratione, an
example of the diagrammatic intertextuality mentioned above. See
Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, Paris
1844-64, xc, cols 203-04, 217-18.
75. Though most of the glosses were written by con- temporary
hands, some manuscripts remained in use and were glossed in later
hands as well. Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1861, for example,
contains anno- tations from the 11 th to the 13th centuries, and
BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1308 was glossed up to the 15th century.
76. See, e.g., fol. 23r, 1. 21, 'id est studio et augmento' to
'impendio'.
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16 ANNA SOMFAI
explains mythological, historical and geographical terms,77 and
expands phrases for clari- fication.78 Some remarks are of a more
philosophical nature.79 The longer marginal notes concern the model
of the universe and the nature of the soul, matter and the
elements. The musical diagrams are copied in the margin of the
dialogue, and interlinear notes provide help in grasping the
concept of proportion. On the final folio there is a very complex
figure: a com- bination of the three standard musical diagrams with
the one on the creation of the world soul, supplemented by features
which express the relation between the creation of the soul and
musical harmony.
The standard gloss to the Commentary was expanded during the
eleventh century. In addition to the topics in the dialogue which
were annotated, there are several notes on logic, especially the
syllogism. Although the same themes often attracted attention in
both the Timaeus and the Commentary, in certain cases we encounter
a marked absence of annotations in one or the other. Paris, BnF MS
lat. 10195, for instance, contains an unusually elaborate
mathematical gloss to the first part of the Commentary, yet the
corresponding sections of the Timaeus are without annotation. The
earlier interest in the mathematical portion of the Com-
mentary remained a feature of its eleventh-century reception. A
number of annotators took over the mathematical gloss found in the
Brussels manuscript. Particularly complex versions of it are
present in Paris, BnF MS lat. 10195 and Vatican City, BAV MS Reg.
Lat. 13o8, both of which use coloured diagrams, while a partial
version appears in Paris, BnF MS lat. 6280, London, BL MS Add.
15293 and Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1861. An interest in
mathe- matics is also apparent in the glosses of Cologne, Dombib.
MS 192 and Bamberg, SB MS M. V. 15 (Class. 18). Marginal
annotations were added to the geometrical, arithmetical and musical
diagrams, new variants of which were developed as well. The
tradition of using intra-diagram- matic annotations, present in the
Brussels manuscript, was also followed here. These consist of
glosses placed within geometrical diagrams in order to explain
their structure or the con- nection between their components.
Figure 4 provides an example of an intra-diagrammatic annotation
which makes it easier to comprehend how two extreme triangles are
joined
through a middle one. These diagrammatic variae lectiones, which
have been completely ignored in modern editions and in the
scholarly literature, are an invaluable aid to understanding how
the Commentary was
interpreted. They reveal a grasp of concepts which cannot be
found in textual glosses. Some of the previous diagrammatic
dis-
crepancies were corrected80 and imaginative graphic designs were
introduced together with new ornaments.
A F primus
triangulus tercius ABr triangulus ABA B
secundus triangulus ABE
A E
Figure 4: Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat. 1308, fol. 8v
77. See, e.g., fol. 11v, 1. io, 'mediterraneum' to 'fretum'; and
fol. 29v, 11. 17-18, 'ante urbem conditam' to 'ante novem
milia'.
78. See, e.g., fol. 29v, 1. 15, 'scilicet creatore' to 'a
se'.
79. See, e.g., fol. 17r, 1. 12, 'scilicet sensilis mundi qua
ipse animatur' to 'anima'.
80o. See Somfai (as in n. 15), chap. 3.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 17
The emerging interest in astronomy can be detected, not only in
the astronomical excerpt found in Vatican City, BAV MS Reg. Lat.
123, but also in the way in which the gloss and the standard
diagrams evolved. In Paris, BnF MS lat. 10195, which contains a
large number of
marginal notes, the astronomical diagrams are in colour,
rendering phenomena such as the lunar eclipse more visible and
intelligible. Such features again emphasise the attraction which
Calcidius's diagrams held for the medieval mind.
The gloss, too, evolved, incorporating a growing number of
logical tree diagrams, especially in the second half of the
Calcidius commentary, as well as references to Aristotle and
explanations of the nature of syllogisms. The addition of such
diagrams to this portion of the Commentary, which calls for a gloss
on logic, reflects the acute sense which medieval readers had of
the connection between form and content, as well as their keen
interest in employing visual aids to deepen and enhance their
comprehension of a text. The general trend of turning to logic, and
the debate which began to take shape around the use-or abuse-of it
within the discipline of theology, was a fundamental feature of the
contemporary scholarly scene. From Peter Damian, Manegold of
Lautenbach and Gerard of Csanid to Anselm of Canterbury, the fight
against the application of logical methods to other fields
approached its peak at this time. The tenth century seems to have
been less aware of the problem it was creating by intro-
ducing logic and mathematics into theology, while the twelfth
century was apparently better
equipped to deal with this approach or less troubled by
self-doubt. The notable presence of
logic in eleventh-century interpretations of Plato and Calcidius
was part of an awakening interest in the possibility of explaining
doctrines which appeared to be in opposition to the Christian faith
by means of an ingenious use of syllogisms and the Aristotelian
categories.81
The standard diagrams in the Commentary became more elaborate in
eleventh-century manuscripts, as additional features and brief
textual explanations were added to them. The musical and
astronomical diagrams, in particular, were closely studied and
evolved into com-
plicated visual interpretations. The connection between the
creation of the soul, the harmony of musical proportion and the
creation and motion of the celestial bodies was better under- stood
and more clearly depicted in the new I diagrams and diagram
variants. Additional
diagrams were produced to explain issues
relating to other disciplines as well. A dia-
gram which first appeared during the tenth
century,82 and expressed the link between the elements through
their qualities, was copied into new manuscripts.83 Figure 5 is a
twelfth- century, ornamented version of the diagram. Diagrams
created as part of the tenth-century geometrical and arithmetical
gloss, together
IGNIS - - acutus subtilis
AER mobilis
AQUA obtusa corpulenta el
TERRA immobilis mn
Figure 5. Paris, BnF MS lat. 6281, fol. 19r
81. The most obvious case in point is the Eucharist debate. For
a good introduction to this topic see The Cambridge History of
Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, ed. A. H. Armstrong,
Cambridge 1967, esp. pp. 6oo-o8.
82. Brussels, BR MS 9625-9626, fol. 14r. 83. See, e.g., Paris,
BnF MS lat. 6282, fol. 1 or.
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18 ANNA SOMFAI
with a few astronomical and musical diagrams, followed the same
path as the textual anno- tations: they were copied into new
manuscripts and became standardised.
The increasing number of logical tree diagrams, combined with
the careful attention
given to both the standard diagrams from Calcidius and the newly
invented ones, mitigated the
predominantly verbal nature of the glossing tradition. The
anonymous annotators moved the discourse from the text to the
margins. The eleventh-century glossing of the Timaeus and the
Commentary was the prelude to the cosmological and metaphysical
analyses which became
prevalent in the following century. It also underlines the
existence of a critical community which required, and produced, a
new interpretation of these works.
Beyond the Margins: Reading the Timaeus and the Commentary
Although evidence, apart from the glosses, for the reading of
the Timaeus and the Commentary is scarce, it is clear that by the
late tenth century they were known and available to at least a
small circle of students. Around that time Abbo of Fleury and
Gerbert of Aurillac studied both the dialogue and the Commentary
and referred to Calcidius in the exposition of their mathematical
philosophy.84
Abbo's interest in the quadrivium and in logic is apparent in
the use he made of the
Commentary, especially Calcidius's concept of numbers,
geometrical bodies and sense per- ception. The structure of his
commentary on the Calculus of Victorius of Aquitaine and his
handling of diagrams exhibit a considerable knowledge of
Calcidius's Commentary. He refers to the Timaeus and discusses one
of Calcidius's musical diagrams, along with its textual expla-
nation. He praises the first musical diagram because it wonderfully
expresses the subtleties of the disciplines of the quadrivium.85 He
directs his readers to Calcidius and Macrobius, an-
nouncing that their commentaries contain various explanations
related to these disciplines.86 These comments suggest that Abbo
assumed Calcidius and his Commentary were known to his readers and
needed no further introduction.87
Gerbert of Aurillac relied on Calcidius when he connected
mathematics to theology by means of numbers and geometrical forms.
Mathematics, in his view, was a pathway for the mind's ascent to
comprehension of the incorporeal. In addition, Gerbert, who was
interested in the use of diagrams and in the possibility of
constructing three-dimensional visual aids, refers to Calcidius and
to the Timaeus in his discussion of plane geometry.88
84. For Abbo see esp. G. R. Evans and A. M. Peden, 'Natural
Science and the Liberal Arts in Abbo of Fleury's Commentary on the
Calculus of Victorius of Aquitaine', Viator, xvi, 1985, pp. 109-27.
For Gerbert see esp. Gerberto. Scienza, storia e mito. Atti del
Gerberti Symposium, Bobbio 1985; P. Riche, Gerbert d'Aurillac. Le
pape de l'an mil, Paris 1987.
85. Berlin, SBPK MS Phill. 1833, fol. 9va, 11. 18-20, 'Idque
manifesta predicta psicogonie figura arith- metice geometrice
musice et astronomie subtilitatibus contenta ac hoc modo
mirabiliter expressa.'
86. Ibid., fol. 9va, 11. 27-28, 'De quibus omnibus quam
chalcidii et macrobii commenta multiplicam absolutionem
continent.'
87. Abbo may also have drawn on several of Calcidius's
astronomical diagrams and provided an
annotated version of the one which depicts the creation of the
world soul. Ibid., fols 38r, 39r-v and 36v. Since, however, these
diagrams are not described or referred to in Abbo's text and
moreover are copied together in groups in just a few folios, it is
possible that they were not his own addition but rather were
produced by an- other scholar who stood behind the Berlin
manuscript.
88. See Gerbert of Aurillac, De geometria, 2.6 and 6.7, in his
Opera mathematica, ed. N. Bubnov, Berlin 1899, p. 56, 11. 6-13 and
p. 93, 1. 15-p. 94, 1. 4. Although the work is not consistently
attributed to Gerbert in the manuscripts and some internal evidence
suggests that, as a whole, it may be a later compilation, the first
section, which contains all the references to Calcidius and to
specific approaches to geometry, is likely to have been written by
him.
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 19
The explicit use which Abbo and Gerbert made of the Commentary,
and their knowledge of both its mathematical arguments and the
basic concepts expounded by Calcidius, are
unique. Since the extensive mathematical gloss to the Commentary
in Brussels, BR MS 9625- 9626 displays a similar understanding of
the text, I would suggest that it might be linked to the circles of
Abbo or Gerbert, or to Gerbert himself. Both scholars had an
unusual interest in collecting manuscripts and a large circle of
students. As we have seen, Paris, BnF MS lat.
10 195 and Cologne, Dombib. MS 192, both of German provenance,
contain the standard gloss and display an interest in the
mathematical disciplines. It was probably through Gerbert's per-
sonal influence and through his students, such as the future
emperor Otto III, that Calcidius's translation and Commentary began
to be copied in Germany during the eleventh century.
It may also have been Gerbert's influence in Cologne which
resulted in an interpretation of the Timaeus and of Macrobius by a
local scholar, Wolfelm, whose views were strongly op- posed by
Manegold of Lautenbach. Manegold, an Augustinian canon regular,
born in Alsace, travelled and studied in France and Germany. His
writings reflect his pro-papal stand during the increasingly
acrimonious controversies between the papacy and empire and his
philoso- phical arguments are infused with references to current
ecclesiastical politics.89 Manegold's attack on Wolfelm for his
reading of Macrobius was equally directed against Plato and against
attempts to discover a harmony between pagan philosophy and
Christian theology. Like many a worthy critic, Manegold managed to
acquire a knowledge of Plato and Macrobius which was
deeper than that of some of the authors whose Platonism he
attacked. In the course of reject- ing Macrobius's interpretation
of Plato's cosmology, he refers to both Plato and Calcidius.
The occasion for his polemical treatise was a walk in the
gardens of Lautenbach, during which he and Wolfelm had discussed
Macrobius. Manegold assumed that Wolfelm was aware of the dangers
inherent in Macrobius's text and that he only pretended to be
ignorant of its heretical nature.90 Manegold engaged with the
creation myth as described in the Timaeus,
including the role of numbers and the nature of the Living
Creature, though he found its
argument excessively obscure.91 He was fiercely opposed to any
attempt to accommodate elements of the Platonic creation narrative
within Christian speculation. He especially disap- proved of the
Platonic creation of the world soul, the theory of transmigration,
attributed to
Pythagoras, and the concept of matter pre-existing the creation.
Manegold's treatise is, never-
theless, imbued with Platonic vocabulary and theories. He drew a
subtle parallel, for instance, between hot and cold, the qualities
of the elements, and the moral qualities of good and bad.92
Manegold's work is extant in a single manuscript.93 Though his
approach was taken up by some
twelfth-century scholars, it does not seem to have had any
impact on their reading of Plato.
Instead, they interpreted the Timaeus and the Commentary in line
with the tradition present in the anonymous glosses which they
found in their manuscripts. This development shows that the glosses
were not merely passively copied but were also actively read
together with the texts.
They exercised an influence which extended beyond the immediate
context of manuscript transmission at a time when Platonic
treatises, the 'secondary literature' of the period, were either
unavailable or ignored.
89. See Manegold of Lautenbach, Liber contra Wolfel- mum, ed. W.
Hartmann, Weimar 1972, pp. 46-47. See the preface for a general
introduction to Manegold's life and work.
9o. Ibid., p. 41,11. 9-11. 91. Ibid., p. 48. 92. Ibid., p. 40,
1. 12-p. 41, 1. 2. 93. Milan, Ambr. MS N. 118. sup.
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20 ANNA SOMFAI
The writings of two eleventh-century churchmen reveal an
altogether different use of the Timaeus and Calcidius's Commentary.
Lanfranc, who taught at the abbey of Bec, where his students
included Anselm of Canterbury, experimented with methods and texts
which transcended disciplinary boundaries, applying grammar and
logic to theological issues. In his annotations on Augustine's De
civitate Dei he first quotes Cicero's translation of the Demiurge's
speech in the Timaeus, 41A-41B, referring to it as 'the sentence
which St Augustine took from Plato's Timaeus and put into the
thirteenth book of this work'.94 He then turns to Calcidius, whose
version of the same passage he introduces with the revealing
comment: 'one can find this in the translation of the Timaeus which
we use now and which is explained by Calcidius'.95 This remark
suggests that by the time of Lanfranc, Calcidius's translation was
the one in use and that Cicero's rendering, though still known, was
a text associated with the bygone patristic era. Lanfranc used
these quotations as examples rather than for their philosophical
content, indicating that Plato's work had entered the curriculum
and was starting to be read by scholars whose primary interest was
outside philosophy.
The other eleventh-century churchman to deal with the Timaeus
was Gerard of Csanaid, an Italian who went to the court of King
Steven of Hungary and became a bishop. Gerard refers to Plato in an
exegetical work entitled Deliberatio. This encyclopedic text shows
traces of
knowledge of Greek and touches on various topics which can be
broadly defined as falling within the realm of philosophy, though
he does not use philosophical methods or address issues of
philosophical interest. Gerard was educated in Italy and then in
France, where he came across a copy of Calcidius's Commentary, an
event which he presents as a distant memory: 'I am certain that
once, while in France, I read in Plato some argument about the God
of the Hebrews and about the heavenly souls'.96 Despite the
vagueness of his wording, it is clear that he had read Plato
together with the Commentary. Although Gerard's brief encounter
with these works does not seem to have had much effect on his later
thinking or writing, it provides further evidence that the Timaeus
and the Commentary were read as part of a school curriculum.
Conclusion
During the eleventh century a many-layered shift took place in
the reading of Plato's Timaeus and the Commentary of Calcidius. In
previous centuries the Timaeus had been read through the
Commentary. Now, however, the dialogue started to emerge as the
main focus of attention and Plato and Calcidius each acquired an
accessus. The two texts began to circulate separately and while for
most of the time they were still studied together, they also
embarked on distinct careers, providing material for textbooks in
subjects to which they lent themselves when read independently.
This produced new interpretations of both texts and ensured them
wider
readership.
94. M. Gibson, 'Lanfranc's Notes on Patristic Texts', Journal of
Theological Studies, xxvii, 1971, pp. 435-50, at p. 439, 11. 3-4:
'Sententia quam beatus Augustinus de Tymeo Platonis sumit et in
tercio decimo huius operis libro ponit'. See for Timaeus, 41A-41B,
Cicero, Timaeus, p. 214, 11. 8-17.
95. Ibid., p. 439, 11. 7-8: 'Sic in ea translatione Tymei qua
nunc utimur et a Calcidio exponitur in-
venitur'. See for Timaeus, 41A-41B, Calcidius, Timaeus, p. 35,
11. 9-17.
96. Gerard of Csandid, Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum
(Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medi- evalis, xix), ed. G.
Silagi, Turnhout 1978, Iv, p. 41, 11. 104-07: 'In Platone quippe
disputationes, quondam apud Galliam constitutus, quasdam deo
Hebreorum confidenter fateor me legisse et celestibus animis.'
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PLATO'S TIMAEUS AND CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY 21
These trends were paralleled by changes on the micro-level of
manuscript transmission and in glossing technique. Both the Timaeus
and the Commentary developed an ever-expanding gloss, which
gradually became standardised and included both textual and visual
elements.
Alongside the standard gloss, instances of individual glossing
in the increasing number of
manuscripts prove the existence of explorative new readings. The
medieval glosses to the
Commentary followed Calcidius's complementary mathematical and
metaphysical approach by providing diagram variants, new diagrams
and a verbal mathematical gloss for the first part, and a marginal
index of terms, logical tree diagrams and a metaphysical gloss for
the second
part. The tenth- and eleventh-century interpretation and visual
glossing of the Timaeus and the Commentary gave precedence to the
mathematical over the metaphysical reading, but also
paved the way for the latter. By the end of the eleventh century
the interest in the mathematical
aspects of the dialogue and the commentary slowly began to give
way to a more verbal, less
visual, metaphysical reading. This was part of a general
development within Western philo- sophy, which was turning
increasingly towards logic and metaphysics. This change coincided
with the introduction of Arabic and Greek sources of mathematics
and logic, which provided more appropriate tools for the study of
the mathematical disciplines. It was not until the Renaissance that
a more theoretical and theological mathematics drew attention once
again to the mathematical aspects of the dialogue and the
Commentary.97 Within the Timaeus itself, the topics which emerged
in the eleventh century as the focus of attention were similar to
those which had intrigued scholars in late antiquity and would do
so again in the Renaissance.
The increasing number of manuscripts and the new readings of
Plato and Calcidius in the eleventh century reflected a new milieu
within which the texts were studied. They were no
longer read by only a few isolated scholars and in a small
number of centres, instead they found their way to a larger
audience. It was this intellectual and philosophical context which
led to the genesis of the twelfth-century Renaissance.
Warburg Institute
97. It is worth noting in this respect that during the 15th
century, when the mathematical interpretation returned, more
separate Commentary copies were made than during the whole of the
Middle Ages. Nicolaus of
Cusa, whose application of mathematics to theology drew heavily
on Plato and on Calcidius, owned more than one copy of the texts
(Paris, BnF MS lat. 6282 and London, BL MS Harley 2652).
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Article Contentsp. [1]p. 2p. 3p. 4p. 5p. 6p. 7p. 8p. 9p. 10p.
11p. 12p. 13p. 14p. 15p. 16p. 17p. 18p. 19p. 20p. 21
Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, Vol. 65 (2002), pp. 1-300Front MatterThe
Eleventh-Century Shift in the Reception of Plato's "Timaeus" and
Calcidius's "Commentary" [pp. 1-21]'Palma Dabit Palmam': Franciscan
Themes in a Devotional Manuscript [pp. 22-66]Ludovico il Moro and
His Moors [pp. 67-94]A Regulated Suasion: The Regulating Lines of
Francesco di Giorgio and Philibert de l'Orme [pp. 95-131]The De'
Rossi Collection of Ancient Sculptures, Leo X, and Raphael [pp.
132-200]A New Inventory of the Royal Aragonese Library of Naples
[pp. 201-243]Bartoli, Giambullari and the Prefaces to Vasari's
"Lives" (1550) [pp. 244-258]NotesDioscorides in Utopia [pp.
259-261]Leo Africanus's "Descrittione dell'Africa" and Its
Sixteenth-Century Translations [pp. 262-272]Characterising the
Passions: Michel Anguier's Challenge to Le Brun's Theory of
Expression [pp. 273-296]
Back Matter [pp. 297-300]