Cosmologizing the sublunar world: conventions and inventions

a. Poetical play and generic conventions

This subchapter will overview how Celtis represents in his poetry cosmic influences based on the microcosm-macrocosm analogy; however, this cannot happen without first emphasizing the role of poetical play, rhetoricity, generic and topical conventions in humanist poetry in general and in Celtis’s work in particular. Some of the early Celtis-scholars tried to summarize or reconstruct his “world view” (Weltbild or Weltanschauung), happy to have found abundant related source material;¹⁰² in doing so, they took into consideration only part of the relevant passages, and they took them too often at face value. However, since Celtis’s works are humanist literary texts, feeding not only on real experience and beliefs but also the

101 I can refer here again to the great number of studies from Bezold to Wuttke or Robert that have emphasized the general impact of Florentine Platonism on Celtis; see ch. I,2,c; the end of II,1.

102 F. Pindter, Die Lyrik des Conrad Celtis, PhD Dissertation (Vienna, 1930), ch. 3: “Das Weltbild” (p. 81-192);

E. Novotny, Die Weltanschauung des Konrad Celtis, PhD dissertation, Vienna, 1938.

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huge storehouse of literary traditions, one can draw at most some cautious and general conclusions after a comprehensive survey concerning the poet’s view − or rather views − about the cosmos, having taken into account in each relevant text their genre, rhetorical function and other literary characteristics. The difficulty is not only that Celtis was not a philosopher, and that he often just caught up cosmological ideas instead of building a comprehensive system;¹⁰³ in addition, he often just used and played with ideas in accordance with rhetorical purposes, generic or other literary requirements. In typical humanist literature the meaning of the text is born from an interplay of primary meaning and various connotated generic, topical and other literary traditions.¹⁰⁴ For instance, when in a certain type of Celtis-odes a superficial reference to the power of the stars appears in the context of the power of destiny and the transitoriness of human life that has to be answered by a carpe diem attitude, the reference to the stars may have simply fulfilled a generic-topical function; only when astrological references appear repeatedly, in more detail and in various contexts, can one consider the possibility of an earnest and strong belief in astrology. In a creative emulation with the classical models, the poet plays with topoi and conventions; the very fact of involving the classical world (classical history, mythology and so on) in the poet’s actual historical reality may already give a playful character to the poem.

The above mentioned caveats have to be considered all the more since the issue in question is micro-macrocosmical correspondences in Celtis’s thought, while humanist poets are a priori inclined to apply analogical correspondences and syncretism: first, because allegories and metaphors, these basic poetical devices, are based on analogical thinking, second, because the humanist poet often fuses the classical world with all its gods and the contemporary world, which is already a kind of syncretism. The most basic example for cosmic forces that give opportunity for poetical play is the group of seven planets identified with classical gods;

this ancient identification was reinforced in Late Antiquity when the systematization of cosmic correpondences were in fashion. In poetry and fine arts, the planets could be easily personified, or the gods “planetarized”: examples are legion from classical through Renaissance art and literature.¹⁰⁵ Florentine Platonic syncretism could only encourage this;

Ficino’s correspondence, one of the most popular Ficino-works in Germany, is especially worth mentioning, since it abounds in letters with playful mythological personifications of the planets. Naturally, cosmic syncretism could fuse more conceptual frameworks than just

103 This general attitude of Celtis is well summarized by Spitz, “The Philosophy.”

104 Cf. e.g. H-G. Roloff, “Bemerkungen zum Problem der deutschen neulateinischen Literatur,” Jahrbuch für internationale Germanistik. A/1 (1971); related to Celtis: Robert, Konrad Celtis, esp. 1-7.

105 Cf. e.g. Seznec, The Survival, esp. 37-83; 184-218.

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astronomy and Greek-Roman mythology: the poet could mix cosmology, mythology, Christianity and Neoplatonic, Stoic or other philosophical ideas in various combinations (see the solar syncretism discussed above). It is often difficult to say to what extent we are dealing with personal philosophical convictions, fashionable topoi or just poetical plays.

For Celtis, the caveats concerning poetical play particularly apply; his general attitude of serio ludere, mixing seriousness and play is a long perceived characteristic of his poetry, and he explicitly expounds on this in the Amores-preface with regard to the relation between the poet and the lyrical subject.¹⁰⁶ That the two are not identical is an important element in the apology of love poetry in the Amores, and the whole argumentation follows the tradition of fiction-topos as applied by many authors.¹⁰⁷ One of the a macro-level applications of poetical play is roleplay. Although the lyrical subject and the poet of the Amores are both called Celtis, the lyrical subject, just as the other characters of the Amores, is a literary construction:

biographical elements could be incorporated only in so far as they are in line with the generic conventions of love elegy, and his poetical self-representation and self-mythologizing in general (in a certain sense, roleplay is characteristic for the whole Celtis-oeuvre: he formulated his Arch-humanist or archagetes-role in various ways, and we will see later its cosmological dimensions). A number of earlier Celtis-scholars fell in the trap of attributing too much biographical validity to the poems. The most spectacular case is undoubtedly that of

“Hasilina Rzytonicz na Kepsstaynie,” the first of Celtis’s four loves in the Amores. From her appearance in the elegies, what is more, in four letters and other literary works as well, scholarship had considered her a Czech noble woman who got in touch with Celtis in Cracow, until Ursula Hess exposed her as a literary construction feeding in large part on topoi and playful fantasy; as for her very name, Hasilina means “beloved” or “little treasure,” Rzytonicz incorporates the words for “to bellow” and “anus,” and Kepsstaynie the word for “vulva.”¹⁰⁸

106 Robert, Konrad Celtis, esp. 228-240.

107 Ibid.

108 U. Hess, “Erfundene Wahrheit. Autobiographie und literarische Rolle bei Conrad Celtis,” in Akten des VII.

Internationalen Germanistenkongress. Vol. 7: Bildungsexklusivität und volksprachliche Literatur, ed. G. Hess et al. (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1986), 470-497.

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Fig. 6. Region-woodcut for Amores I in the Amores-edition.

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b. Types of micro-macrocosmic correspondences and influences in Celtis’s poetry

The world is a network of correspondences; most importantly, various channels of influence exist between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the latter meaning here both the sublunar world and the human being. Not a new idea in itself,¹⁰⁹ but the extent to which this idea permeates Celtis’s poetry, and the playful creativity by which he adds fresh colors to the traditional palette. He liked to involve in a cosmic context such things or in such a way that was not customary before: for instance, the four rivers and four parts of Germania are involved in the tetradic cosmological system of the Amores, or the amorous nature of the elegic lovers is expressed in terms of natal or iatromathematical / catarchic astrology. This is why I have added “inventions” to “conventions” in the title of the subchapter, and used the word “cosmologizing.” In the following I am going to provide a brief general overview of the main kinds of micro-macrocosmic correspondences and influences in Celtis’s poetry, including conventional as well as creative applications.

The most spectacular appearance of a system of correspondences is in the Amores, and in the “region-woodcuts” at that: each of the four Amores-books of the 1502 edition are preceded by a woodcut that represents the region and the season in which the book is set, and in the upper part, nine characteristics of the book that correspond to each other (see, for instance, fig. 6 for book I, Hasilina Sarmata).¹¹⁰ Summarized in a table, the system looks like this:

Book I II III IV

lover Hasilina Elsula Ursula Barbara

town / river Cracow,

Vistula

Regensburg, Danube

Mainz, Rhine Lübeck, Mare Codoneum (Baltic sea)

season ver aestas autumnus hiems

age of life pubertas adolescentia iuventus senectus

time of the day [and point of the compass]

oriens meridies occasus nox

wind Eurus Auster Zephyrus Boreas

temperament sanguis colera flegma melancolia

[cardinal] sign Aries Cancer Libra Capricornus

character fervor calor tepor torpor

element aer ignis aqua terra

color violaceus purpureus puniceus lividus

109 In all premodern cultures that I know of this was a basic idea in some ways. A short summary from a philosophical perspective is e.g. G. P. Conger, Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1922).

110 For the region-woodcuts cf. Luh, Werkausgabe, 156-189.

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The division of characteristics is generally based on tetradic divisions that had been crystallized by hellenistic / late antique times;¹¹¹ Celtis, however, links each series of nine characteristics to the four lovers and the four parts / border rivers of Germany, thus endowing Germania and the whole cycle with a cosmic universality. The tetradic-nonadic system is also highlighted by the nine strophes of Longinus’s dedicatory poem In Conradi Celtis novenarium,¹¹² otherwise it is in fact the number four and not the number nine¹¹³ that organizes the Amores. The tetradic system is represented by the four segments of the wreath in the title page and the Philosophia-woodcut, as well as in the titles of the books; in all these, only some of the nine characteristics appear. The background of the tetradic division is debated: on the one hand, the four points of the compass and Ptolemy’s Germania-description provided an obvious pattern to follow, as Robert has argued; on the other hand, the whole cosmic context might suggest a link between the tetradic division of the Amores and the tetrad of the Pythagoreans, as has long been perceived in scholarship, and argued in detail by Luh.¹¹⁴ At any rate, the four as a cosmic number, the nine with its reference to the muses and the totality of arts and sciences, and each of the tetrad-series that represent the basic constituents of the world − all these refer to universality. It is a whole world that the poet creates, a

“microcosm” in a certain sense, that mirrors the macrocosm: and we arrived again to the vates-ideology, the divinity of the poet.¹¹⁵ As for the realization of the system of correspondences in the actual poems of the Amores, Celtis remains in the reader’s debt: only some of the nine characteristics really characterize the Amores-books (the geographical division, the ages of life, to some extent the zodiacal signs and the temperaments),¹¹⁶ and even the tetradic divisions of the woodcuts themselves differ to some extent.¹¹⁷ Two things are

111 For the similarity of Celtis’s system and that of Antiochus of Athens, cf. Luh’s table: Werkausgabe, 189.

112 F. a7v-a8r.

113 The reason for using number nine is made explicit by the superscription of each region-woodcuts: Nota novenarium Numerum / novem musis dedicatum; the Amores was originally dedicated to Apollo and the nine muses (Luh, Werkausgabe, 74). Anyway, nine is the square of three, and both three and four, as constituents of the cosmic numbers seven or twelve, play a great role in symbolical numerology.

114 See p. 80.

115 This aspect of the tetradic system has been particularly emphasized by Luh, e.g. in Werkausgabe, 400.

116 Cf. J. Gruber, “Von der neunfachen Sicht der Dinge. Conrad Celtis’ ‘Amores’ als humanistisches Bildungsprogramm,” in Humanismus und Bildung. Beiträge zur Bildungstheorie und zur Didaktik der Alten Sprachen. Vol. 2: Interpretationen, Auxilia, ed. J. Gruber (Bamberg: Buchner, 1991), 113: “Es entsteht […] der Eindruck, als sei dieses Prinzip den im Laufe eines Jahrzehnts entstandenen Liebesgedichten erst nachträglich aufgepropft […] oder habe sich […] mehr oder weniger verselbständigt;” Robert, Konrad Celtis, 184: “In den

‘Amores’ […] werden zwar alle Elemente des ‘Novenarium’ von Buch zu Buch aufgegriffen, eine intensivere Berücksichtigung finden aber nur jene Vierheiten, die Celtis am Beginn der Vorrede ausdrücklich bezeichnet, darunter vor allem das jeweilige Lebensalter und in Zusammenhang damit das vierfach differenzierte Temperament.”

117 For instance, the ages of life in the title page are adolescentia, iuventus, senectus, mors; in the region-woodcuts pubertas, adolescentia, iuventus, senectus; the Philosophia-woodcut represents two young wind-heads, a middle-aged / old and a very old one.

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important for us here: first, Celtis made explicit his predilection for micro-macrocosmical correspondences through the Amores-woodcuts and -titles; second, this general habit of mind is heavily represented − although not as systematically as in the region-woodcuts − both in the Amores and in many other of his other works.

Beyond establishing the fact of analogical relationship between various things, micro-macrocosmical influences are often treated in the poems, and in this respect, astrology and − to a lesser extent − magic come to the front. In the case of magic, humans are not simply passive recipients of cosmic influences, but they themselves exert influence, based on the principle of analogy. Magic is on the periphery of Celtis’s poetical world in general, and when a character in a poem uses it, play and irony is never far; however, it adds an intriguing color to his poetry, and expresses in a spectacular way the idea of immanency and a network of correspondences. Nevertheless, the central and most frequently emphasized aspect is astrology. In the region-woodcuts, too, the key role of the heavenly bodies is spectacularly represented. First of all, the position of the Sun (represented in the relevant cardinal sign) determines the conditions in the sublunar world, and in general, the terrestrial sphere is dependent upon the celestial: the representation of heavenly bodies and earthly activities borrows elements from the iconography of calendar-pictures and the “children of the planets”

tradition.¹¹⁸ In the Amores, astonomy-astrology has a structural role related to the main generic model: in the classical love elegies it was the mythological sphere, the world of the gods, that served as a backgound for the human world, while in the Amores the mythological layer is replaced by a geographical (the presentation of “Germania”) and an astronomical-astrological layer;¹¹⁹ whenever possible, the Greek-Roman gods and the planets meld.

Astrology is a heterogeneous term;¹²⁰ one could differentiate, for instance, between astrologia naturalis and superstitiosa.¹²¹ In the investigation of Celtis’s astrological ideas, the

118 Luh, Werkausgabe, 184-8. Cf. also Ep. III,70-76 VII de horis et diebus planetariis, with seven distichs dedicated to each planet and one’s character born under that planet: this and other epigrams may have also belonged to visual representations (ibid., 186).

119 Robert, Konrad Celtis, 274-5.

120 For the basics of Renaissance astrology, cf. Reiner Reisinger, Historische Horoskopie. Das iudicium magnum des Johannes Carion für Albrecht Dürers Patenkind (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 17-98.

121 The main types of astrology can be classified from different points of view. With regard to complexity, the scale ranges from a simple astrological idea (e.g., the appearance of a comet signifies the death of the king) to methods requiring complex calculations (horoscopes). The stars’ effect can be restricted to the material world, or it can involve the dimension of the soul and free will; one can also differentiate between a fatalist and a non-fatalist (astra inclinant, sed non necessitant) concept of astrology. All these aspects relate to the differentiation between astrologia naturalis and superstitiosa: these opposed terms of Isodore of Seville (Etymologiae, III, 27) were often used in medieval academic circles (cf. Benedek Láng, “Asztrológia a késö középkori tudományos diskurzusban” [Astrology in late medieval academic discourse], Magyar filozófiai szemle, 43 [1999], 747-774).

Hugh of St. Victor, an authoritative scholar for the later Middle Ages, based on Isidore in defining the two terms:

in astrologia naturalis the stars influence the bodies which are subject to natural order, while in astrologia

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most fruitful perspective seems to be the consideration of the traditional medieval classification of methods, as laid down, for instance, by the Speculum astronomiae of¹²² Albert the Great, whom Celtis held in high esteem. One can apply general or mundane astrology (de revolutionibus), natal (nativitates); catarchic (electiones)¹²³ and horary (interrogationes, horaria)¹²⁴ astrology.¹²⁵ Natal astrology, and in most cases, catarchic and horary astrology deal with the fate of the individual: among these, Celtis applies mostly natal astrology − and also catarchic astrology, but it occurs rarely¹²⁶ −, and since our main topic is the use of cosmic symbolism in the vates-ideology, individual astrology will be investigated in detail later. Mundane astrology deals with the stars’ effects on nations, regions or world history: this, too, has its subgenres, but it occurs in Celtis relatively rarely and without the mention of horoscopic details. Considering all these, one may classify the astrological references in Celtis under four categories:

− individual astrology;

− mundane astrology;¹²⁷

− the effect of the stars¹²⁸ or a certain planet¹²⁹ in general, without the mention of concrete cases;

superstitiosa the stars can also affect things subordered to free will (Didascalion, PL 176. II./IV. 753. col. De mathematica). Indeed, there seems to have been two basic attitudes to astrology in the Middle Ages (however the different authors expressed this dichotomy). On the one hand, the very fact that the stars affect the sublunar material world was generally accepted and formed part of scholastic teaching at the universities. Based on experientia, certain (rather general) predictions can be made, but the predictability of the future is in many ways limited. On the other hand, in the view of most astrologers quite concrete and exact predictions could be made by certain complex methods, and not only about material changes, but also things pertaining to the soul. The opposers of this astrologia superstitiosa argued that the predictability of human properties, deeds and events is irreconcilable with human free will. This was one of the most important issues also in the Renaissance debates over astrology. Garin and others have observed that astrology was criticized on moral and religious, not rational, grounds; the problem was free will and human dignity: E. Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life, tr. C. Jackson and J. Allen (London: Routledge, 1983), 30; Seznec, The Survival, 58; Roger French,

“Astrology in Medical Practice,” in Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death, ed. Luis García-Ballester, Roger French et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1994), 34; Broecke, The Limits. About Celtis’s criticism against certain astrological practices, see the end of this section; Celtis does not seem to have rejected superstitious astrology in general − or rather, there is no trace that the above outlined differentiation between astrologia naturalis and superstitiosa would have been decisive in his astrological habits of mind.

122 Albert the Great’s authorship is debated by some scholars.

123 The election of a favorable date for a future event based on the planetary positions.

124 One raises a question and looks for the answer in the horoscope cast for the exact time of the question.

125 This is a classification transmitted by Albert the Great and others: for this and medieval astrological terminology in general, cf. Charles Burnett, “Astrology,” in Medieval Latin: an Introduction and Bibliographical guide., ed. F. A. C. Mantello, A. G. Rigg (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1996).

126 Am. II,12,81-88; III,11,21-24.

127 Am. III,9,37-8; III,14,33; Ep. I,35; I,68,4; Od. II,2, 57-72.

128 From among the vast number of examples, a few typical ones: Od. II,17,37-40; Ep. I,6; II,34.

129 In the case of Venus e.g. Am. I,7,53-4; in the case of Saturn e.g. Od. I,18,17-19.

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− texts criticizing astrologers¹³⁰ (they also mirror Celtis’ attitude to astrology, although indirectly).

However, Celtis often used astrology in a creative way, combining it, for instance, with magic, number symbolism or the idea of cosmic love. It seems more fruitful to include all kinds of micro-macrocosmical correspondences and influences in our overview, and classify them according to components of the sublunar world that are often treated from a micro-macrocosmical perspective. Taken into account the vast number of relevant texts, I will treat the material summarily and provide only a few representative examples for each categories.

(Within astronomy-astrology, I do not include such effects of the heavenly bodies on the material world − related to climate and meteorology, for instance − that were generally accepted.)

− Cosmologizing Germania. When the protagonist of the Amores wanders through the four parts of what he calls Germania according to the points of the compass, he wanders − symbolically − through the whole of Germania, what is more, the whole world. Ruling the

“four points of the compass” has been an ancient metonymy for the symbolic rule over the cosmos (since Sargon of Akkad at the latest, more than four thousand years ago), and Celtis himself applies this symbolism to Maximilian in the Rhapsodia, for instance.¹³¹ It was a tradition in Germany to think in terms of tetradic groups representing the Holy Roman Empire (four margraves, four cities and so on; this Quaterniontheorie was often discussed in fifteenth-century legal works),¹³² but Celtis, the poet, made his claim for the cosmic dimensions of Germania explicit by the tetradic system discussed above. This dimension is further reinforced by the obvious parallel between the journey of the protagonist and that of the Sun:¹³³ the cycle begins in the east and goes south, west and north (there will be more word later on the Phoebean-solar aspects of Celtis’s self-represention). Furthermore, a

“cosmic” tetrad also appears in Celtis’s homeland proper, Franconia, likewise with rivers:

four rivers spring from the pinifer mons (Fichtelgebirge, the topographical unit most frequently mentioned by Celtis), from the symbolic center of Germania, towards the four points of the compass. This seems to be Celtis’s own construction, unprecedented in classical

130 E.g. Am. III,10,59f and 71-8; Ep. I,35; I,59,1-10; I,60; II,73.

131 Rhapsodia 203-6.

132 Müller, Die ‘Germania generalis,’ 326 n. 109.

133 Robert, Konrad Celtis, 355; the region-woodcuts explicitly display the four stations of the Sun’s annual movement.

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literature; it may be related to the four rivers of the Paradise.¹³⁴ The rivers may also refer to poetical inspiration, thus to the symbolical career-defining function of Celtis’s homeland: in the “imperial eagle” woodcut, too, water flows through four outlets from the central muse-fountain, and Wuttke rightly assumes that the four outlets stand for the four points of the compass, thus the universe in general.¹³⁵

− The natural world. Beyond those traditional correspondences that Celtis involved in his tetradic system, specific micro-macrocosmical analogies occurring in classical and medieval thought − either simple conventions or elements of elaborate cosmological systems

− were legion; they could be reactivated both by the Renaissance philosopher and the poet.

From the stones through the human being and the celestial entities, correspondences could be postulated for many things between any levels of the great chain of being. Celtis liked to remind one of micro-macrocosmical analogies − especially with the heavenly bodies − perhaps more than any other contemporary German poet. A representative example for this habit of mind is provided by Amores I,11. The issue of attraction between lovers gives opportunity for the poet to muse on the question what kind of spirit moves body and matter (v. 1-14); the human eye, the “messenger and window of the mind” (mentis qui nuntius atque fenestra est), issues rays that link the seer and the thing seen, and may have great power, as Hasilina’s glance had on Celtis (v. 15-24).¹³⁶ Next, the author shifts to a cosmic point of view

− and this is typical for him: the stars’s rays, too, have power over the sublunar world; he enumerates each planet, and naturally, it is Venus to whom he attributes absolute power in the given context (v. 25-34). Then he widens the perspective further:

Et veluti gemmas herbasque sub orbe creavit Natura et vires iussit habere suas,

Quas ex cognati capiunt virtutibus astri Et sua de radiis mira sigilla ferunt:

Hinc adamas ferrum trahit inviolabilis ictu, Ille tamen capri sanguine mollis erit;

Sicque cutem teneram fervens urtica perurit Socraticamque tulit dira cicuta necem;

Sic radium sibi quisque suo concepit ab astro, Quo movet et tacito membra vigore regit….¹³⁷

And since nature created gems and herbs under the sky, and decreed that each must have a specific force, which they receive from the power of their related star, and each bears a wondrous imprint from these rays, so the diamond that no blow can harm, attracts the iron, but softens from the he-goat's blood; and the stinging nettle burns the tender skin, and the dreadful hemlock caused Socrates's death. So everything receives a ray from its star that can in this way move and govern it with secret power.

134 For the role of the pinifer mons in Celtis: Müller, Die ‘Germania generalis,’ 370-3.

135 Wuttke, “Humanismus,” 89. The four outlets do not literally face the four points of the compass, but this has certainly technical reasons: the recipient of the woodcut must be able to see all the four outlets.

136 Discussing the eye’s rays, Celtis combines (1) a topos of love poetry, (2) the most widespread contemporary theory of seeing, and (3) Ficino’s theory about visus in the De amore: Robert, Konrad Celtis, 296-7.

137 Am. I,11, 35-44.

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In document Submitted to the Medieval Studies Department, and the Doctoral School of History (HUNG doctoral degree) (Pldal 96-112)