Bern Riddles

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Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 73v: two of the Bern Riddles (De sale, salt, and De mensa, table), from the manuscript that gives the collection its name. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 73r - Composite manuscript Merovingian excerpts from grammatical, patristic, computistic and medical works.jpg
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 73v: two of the Bern Riddles (De sale, salt, and De mensa, table), from the manuscript that gives the collection its name.

The Bern Riddles, also known as Aenigmata Bernensia, Aenigmata Hexasticha or Riddles of Tullius, are a collection of 64 rhythmic Latin riddles, named after the location of their earliest surviving manuscript, which today is held in Bern (though probably produced in Bourges): the early eighth-century Codex Bernensis 611. [1] [2]

Contents

Origin

Although it has been suggested that they were composed in late antiquity, [3] most scholars consider that the Bern Riddles were inspired by the c. fourth-century collection of riddles attributed to Symphosius, [4] and date to around 700 AD.

The author of the Bern Riddles is not known but the book might have been written by "a Lombard familiar with Mediterranean flora and food". [5] According to Archer Taylor, "The Berne Riddles are especially interesting for the author's familiarity with the North Italian landscape and its plants. Whoever he was, we may safely call him the first medieval riddle-master in Italy". [6] Some scholars have proposed that the Bern Riddles originated in early England, where several early medieval collections of verse riddles were created, including the Enigmata of Aldhelm. However, it is more probable that the Bern Riddles were written under the influence of Aldhelm's collection and therefore post-date it.

Subjects

The subjects of the Bern Riddles are as follows: [7] [8]

Examples

LI. De alio.
Multiplici ueste natus de matre productor
Nec habere corpus possum, si uestem amitto.
Meos, unde nasco, in uentre fero parentes;
Viuo nam sepultus, uitam et inde resumo.
Superis eductus nec umquam crescere possum,
Dum natura caput facit succedere plantis. [7] : 598 

Translation:

51. Garlic.
I am brought forth, born from my mother, with many-layered clothing;
I cannot have a body if I lose my clothing.
I carry my parents, from whom I am born, in my womb/stomach;
I live though interred, and from that place I resume my life.
I can never grow up, nurtured, to a great height,
since Nature makes my head go beneath my shoots/the soles of my feet.

LII. De rosa.
Mollis ego duro de corde genero natos;
In conceptu numquam amplexu uiri delector.
Sed dum infra meis concrescunt fili latebris,
Meum quisque nascens disrumpit uulnere corpus.
Postquam decorato uelantes tegmine matrem
Saepe delicati frangunt acumine fortes. [7] : 599 

Translation:

52. Rose.
Soft as I am, I produce sons from my hard heart;
in conceiving I am never delighted by the embrace of a man.
But as my sons grow strong beneath my hiding-places,
each ruptures my body with a wound as it is born.
Thereafter, covering their mother with an ornate blanket,
the weak often break the strong with a sharp point.

The riddles are written in Latin rhythmic hexameter.

Manuscripts

The Bern Riddles come down to us in the twelve medieval manuscripts, including: [9]

SiglumNameFoliosDateNumber of RiddlesComments
HCod. Bern 61173-80v8th c. (1st half)33 See manuscript here. Parts of this manuscripts are missing.
ICod. Berlin Philipps 16737v-45ca. 80061
RCod. Leipzig Rep. I 7415v-249th (middle)63 See manuscript here.
W1Cod. Vienna 67168v-17012th c.62
W2Cod. Vienna 2285206-1214th c.62
QCod. Paris Lat. 5596165-9th (early)9 See manuscript here.
Q1Cod. Paris Lat. 8071no foliation9th c.2 See manuscript here. Sometimes referred to as Codex Thuaneus.
U4Cod. Vatican Reg. Lat. 15538v-21 (passim)9th c. (early)52 See manuscript here. Mixed with riddles of Symphosius and Aldhelm. [10]
AChicago, Newberry MS f.1112th c. (first half)62

Editions and translations

Key modern editions of the Bern Riddles include:

References

  1. ↑ Mittenhuber, Florian (2016). "Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611".
  2. ↑ David Ganz, 'In the Circle of the Bishop of Bourges: Bern 611 and Late Merovingian Culture], in East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective, ed. by Stefan Esders, Yaniv Fox, Yitzhak Hen and Laury Sarti (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 265-80; doi : 10.1017/9781316941072.018.
  3. ↑ Finch, Chauncey E.; Barb, Lat (1973). "and Newberry Case MS f 11'". Manuscripta. 17: 3–11. doi:10.1484/J.MSS.3.726.
  4. ↑ Finch, Chauncey E. (1967). "Codex Vat. Barb. Lat. 721 as a Source for the Riddles of Symphosius". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 98: 173–79. doi:10.2307/2935872. JSTOR   2935872.
  5. ↑ Bitterli, Dieter (2009) Say What I am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), p. 22
  6. ↑ Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 59.
  7. 1 2 3 'Aenigmata in Dei nomine Tullii seu aenigmata quaestionum artis rhetoricae [aenigmata "bernensia"]', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), II 541-610.
  8. ↑ Bitterli, Dieter (2023). "Die Berner Rätsel / Aenigmata Bernensia: Lateinisch - deutsch". Die Berner Rätsel / Aenigmata Bernensia. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter (A). ISBN   978-3-11-133731-9.
  9. ↑ Bitterli, Dieter (2023). Die Berner Rätsel/Aenigmata Bernensia: Lateinisch - deutsch. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN   9783111333076.
  10. ↑ Finch, Chauncey E. (1961). "The Bern Riddles in Codex Vat. Reg. Lat. 1553" . Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 92: 145–155. doi:10.2307/283806. ISSN   0065-9711.

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