Ars poetriae

The Latin term ars poetriae ("art of poetry", plura artes poetriae) refers both to the medieval theory of poetic composition ^[1] and to a genre of technical treatise on the same. ^[2] A core set of four texts known as artes poetriae was first published by Edmond Faral in 1924. Two more were later added. ^[3] All six of them were written in Latin between about 1175 and 1280 by five different authors all connected to the University of Paris. ^{[4] [5]} All six texts have received critical editions and English translations. ^[6]

Garland's Parisiana

The six artes are:

• Matthew of Vendôme, Ars versificatoria ("Art of versifying"), c. 1175 ^[4]
• Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova ('New poetry'), c. 1210 ^[4]
• Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi ("Instruction in the method and art of prose and verse writing"), c. 1210 ^[4]
• Gervase of Melkley, Ars poetica ('Poetic art'), c. 1215 ^[4]
• John of Garland, Parisiana poetria de arte prosaica, metrica, et rithmica ("Paris poetics of the art of prose, meter, and rhythm"), after 1229 ^[4]
• Eberhard the German, Laborintus ("That which contains difficulty"), before 1280 ^[4]

The most important of these is the Poetria nova. ^{[6] [5]} At least twelve medieval commentaries on the Poetria nova are known and it survives in over 200 manuscripts. It is itself written in verse and was used as a school text for primary (i.e., preuniversity) education. The works of Gervase and Eberhard are closer to the grammatical tradition than the others. ^[4]

The artes poetriae draw heavily on three classical works: Cicero's De inventione , Horace's Ars poetica and the Pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium . A few make use of Cicero's De oratore and Quintilian's Institutio oratoria . ^[3] They stand at the intersection of rhetoric, grammar and poetry. ^[7]

References

1. Nims 1982 , p. 553: "the theory of poetic art, in its medieval formulation".
2. Ziolkowski 2001: "compositional textbooks written in Latin for the Latin-based school curricula".
3. Nims 1982, p. 553.
4. Ziolkowski 2001.
5. Nims 1982, p. 554.
6. Purcell 1996, p. 9.
7. Purcell 1996, p. 7.

Bibliography

• Kelly, Douglas (1991). The Arts of Poetry and Prose. Brepols.
• Murphy, J. J. (2008). "The Arts of Poetry and Prose". In Alastair Minnis; Ian Johnson (eds.). The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism. Vol. II: The Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–67.
• Nims, Margaret F. (1982). "Ars Poetica". In Joseph R. Strayer (ed.). Dictionary of the Middle Ages . Vol. 1. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 553–555.
• Purcell, William Michael (1996). Ars Poetriae: Rhetorical and Grammatical Invention at the Margin of Literacy. University of South Carolina Press.
• Ziolkowski, Jan (2001). "Medieval Rhetoric". In Thomas O. Sloane (ed.). Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Oxford University Press.