4/2/2021 Cicero's Map to the Stars - Medieval manuscripts blog

Cicero's Map to the Stars

Marcus Tullius Cicero, born on 3 January 106 BC, bestrides Latin literature like a colossus. The combination of
an immense output of writings and a strong afterlife in the schools of late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the
Renaissance, means that more manuscripts of Cicero’s work survive than of any other classical Latin author.
Only Augustine of Hippo can claim a more fertile manuscript tradition.

Harley MS 4329, f 130r. Miniature of Cicero debating the nature of

friendship. From a manuscript containing translations of the De Senectute and
De Amicitia into French by Laurent de Premierfait. France, Central (Tours),
1460.

Cicero’s popularity should come as no surprise. His speeches and rhetorical treatises (together with the
anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium, erroneously attributed to Cicero) were the cornerstone of Latin education
for generations. Ciceronian style became the benchmark against which other Latin prose was measured. During
the Renaissance, the extent to which Cicero should be followed as a model was a matter of fierce debate.

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Harley MS 4796, f 66r, detail. Historiated

initial of Cicero and his son in discussion.
From a Spanish translation of the De
Officiis, De Senectute, and Pro Marcello.
Spain, N., 1st half of the 15th century.

In addition to his rhetorical works, Cicero’s letters give a great insight into the world of the late Roman Republic
– both the public world, in which he was of course actively involved, and everyday private life. Finally, there is
Cicero’s great output of philosophical literature. Not only did this have the virtue of contributing greatly to the
development of a Latin vocabulary for philosophical terms, it also constitutes a serious advancement in
philosophical learning in itself. Indeed, Cicero’s philosophical works were probably the most popular of his
works during the Middle Ages, and provided important points of entry into Greek philosophy for medieval
scholars without any knowledge of Greek.

One part of Cicero’s output that has traditionally been less highly valued has been his poetry. Partly because of
one notorious verse, o fortunam natam me consule Romam (“Happy Rome, born when I was consul”), and partly
because he was eclipsed by the astonishing virtuosity achieved by the poets of the next generation (especially
Catullus and Lucretius), it is only recently that scholars have begun to turn a more sympathetic eye to Cicero’s
verse.

Harley MS 647, f 10v, detail. Eridanus.

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The situation was different in the Middle Ages, however, and one of Cicero’s most popular works was a
translation of the Phaenomena of the Hellenistic poet Aratus. This poem, which describes the constellations, was
hugely popular in antiquity, and was repeatedly translated into Latin - by Cicero, Germanicus (grand-nephew of
Augustus and father of Caligula), and Varro of Atax in the first century BC alone. Cicero prepared his version of
the poem in the 80s BC, when he was in his late teens or early 20s.

Harley MS 647, f 19r. Solar System.

Astronomical treatises continued to be hugely popular in the Middle Ages, and are frequently to be found in
miscellaneous manuscripts. We are fortunate at the British Library to have two particularly fine decorated
manuscripts of Cicero’s Aratea: Harley MS 647, and Harley MS 2506.

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Harley MS 647, f 3v. Pisces.

The Ciceronian section of Harley 647 was created in Northern France, around 820. The manuscript is a marvel:
Cicero’s text is presented at the bottom of each page, accompanied by a drawing of the relevant constellation.
Yet these drawings are formed out of words, taken from the relevant passages of the Astronomica of Hyginus.
(You can read more about such text-pictures in a recent blog post by Erik Kwakkel). The manuscript later
travelled to the Abbey of Saint Augustine at Canterbury. Three descendants of this manuscript are also now in
the British Library: Cotton MS Tiberius C I, Cotton MS Tiberius B V, and Harley 2506.

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Harley MS 2506, f 36v. Pisces.

Harley 2506 is laid out a little differently, however. Here, the drawings are rather more traditional, and the text of
Hyginus is kept separate (at the beginning of the volume). Attributed to one of the artists of the Ramsey Psalter,
it was created at Fleury probably in around the 990s, before being brought to England. It would be interesting to
know what Cicero would have made of the fact that, of all of his works, it was the Aratea that inspired the
greatest creativity in medieval scribes and illuminators.

Cillian O’Hogan

Posted by Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Manuscripts at 12:01 AM

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