Marginalia
The Seven Sages...
...of the Bamboo Grove
In Newsletter 16 (1989), pp. 4-5, Alan Deyermond
quoted the Independent newspaper of 31 May 1989, p. 3: “Japanese
bidders do not always go over the top when presented with the opportunity
to buy Japanese art in the West, as was underlined by Sotheby‘s marathon four-session
sale in New York last week. The star turn, a pair of seventeenth-century paper
screens painted with The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove--famous
Chinese scholars of the third century AD who escaped from political troubles
to enjoy wine, dance, song and philosophical discussion in a bamboo grove--was
left unsold. Sotheby‘s had expected between $200,000 and $250,000. The quality
of the painting was inescapable but which of the distinguished Japanese
painters of the Muromachi period has executed it was in doubt. [...] Sotheby‘s
scholarly footnote [...] hovered between Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506), Hasegawa
Tohaku (1539-1610) and Unkoku Togan (1547-1618).”
In The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama Japan
[1576-1615] (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997) Kendall H.
Brown explores why depictions of Chinese hermits such as the semi-historical
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and the legendary Four
Greybeards of Mount Shang were so popular in Japan. (See a review of
Brown by Jeroen P. Lamers in International Institute for Asian Studies
[Leiden] Online Newsletter 16 [Summer 1998]: www.iias.nl/iiasn/16/index
and click on Publication.)
The Merry vidua of England
"Rod Boroughs notes that Princess Caraboo, a
1994 U.K. movie, tells the story, based on fact, of a servant girl who in
1817 managed to hoodwink the British aristocracy into believing that she
was a Javanese princess. At a lavish costume ball presided over by the Prince
Regent, the guests were entertained with a performance of Charles Dibdin's
1769 opera inspired by Petronius' The Ephesian Matron." (Quoted from
The Petronian Society Newsletter 26.1-2 [May 1996]: 4.)
"
London Unexpurgated, a companion volume to
New York Unexpurgated (New York: Grove Press, 1968), lists Petronius
as the author but seems ignorant of that worthy Roman. However, in a chapter
entitled "Where the Pick-Ups Are," Petronius makes this startling revelation:
'In the Garden of Remembrance in Golder's Green Crematorium some young men
have re-enacted the tale of the
Widow of Ephesus and discovered that
grief was seldom inconsolable.' One observes that the authorities in Golder's
Green are as lax as was the Roman soldier guarding the crucified men in
Sat. 111.
London Unexpurgated, London: New English Library,
1969." (Quoted from
The Petronian Society Newsletter 26.1-2 [May 1996]:
4.)
Fable Research News:
Professor Pack Carnes is preparing Fable Scholarship
II (Dept. of Foreign Langs. & Lits., Lake Forest College, Lake Forest,
IL 60045-2399, USA) (23 May 1997).
Sahar Amer, "Kalila wa Dimna
and the Esope [of Marie de France]: Fables East and West." Kalamazoo:
Thirty-First International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1996. Abstract
in Le Cygne: Bulletin of the International Marie de France Society
3 (Spring 1997):1-2.
Varia
In 1997, the Historia septem sapientum Romæ
printed in Gouda by Gheraert Leeu c. 1480 could be purchased for $300,000
from Forum, Antiquarian Booksellers, Tuurdijk 16, NL-3997 MS 't Goy-Houten
(Utrecht). (Catalogue 100: The Children's [sic] World of Learning 1480-1880,
pp. 787-88).
Keller, John E., and Robert W. Linker, eds., Barlaam
e Josafat: Edicion critica, 1979, was available from William H. Allen,
Bookseller, 2031 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. (Catalogue 330,
Spring 1998, p. 54).
Of Stars in French Version M
(continued from
previous Newsletters)
“The emperor’s son says to Caton and the other sages:
‘Esgardés […] es compas d’Aquilee en cele estoile
acchincual [?] comment elle jete rais de piere asure
et arompinmade [?]’ (ed. Runte, p. 6). The reading and meaning
of ‘acchincual’ and ‘arompinmade’ have never been elucidated. Siegfried
Holzbauer, the Society’s unofficial astronomer, notes: ‘Aquilee
is probably the constellation Aquila (Eagle). The brightest
star [‘cele estoile’?] in Aquila is the pale-yellow [‘acchincual’?]
Altair. Together with Deneb, Vega and Alberio, Altair forms the
asterism called Summer Triangle; Deneb is a brilliant white, Vega
is pale sapphire, and Alberio is a binary pair of topaz yellow and
sapphire blue [‘arompinmade’?]. [3 November 2002] If ‘acchincual’
and ‘arompinmade’ are not colors to be found in the Summer Triangle,
perhaps they refer to other physical or mythological characteristics
of the constituent stars. […]”
Cf. Dörr,
Stephen. Der älteste Astronomietraktat in französischer
Sprache: “L’introductoire d’astronomie”. Beihefte
zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 289. Tübingen:
Max Niemeyer, 1998.vii+208 p. ISBN 3-484-52289-5. Dr. Dörr,
of the Dictionnaire étymologique de l’ancien
français (Heidelberg), was unable to document either
expression (22 June 2005).
Very close
inspection of the manuscript may yield the reading “aechinocial”
= equinoxial for *achincual. But what is an “etoile equi-noxial[e]”?
(Hans R. Runte)
See also, unhelpfully
here, Michael Witzel, “Sapta rsayah—The Big Dipper,”
at
“In the oldest
Indian text, the Rgveda, the seven stars of ursa
maior, in English variously called ‘Great Dipper’, ‘Great Wagon’
(Wain), ‘Great Bear’, appear just once as rksa¯h ‘the bears’
[…]. This name is similar to that of the Homeric Greeks, where
the Bearess […] is followed by her children (Iliad 18.487, Odyssey
5.273 […]). Both indicate an Indo-European age of the concept,
and probably a still older hunters’ idea of stone age antiquity.
But in a very
late passage of the same Vedic text […] we already find
this asterism under the name ‘the Seven Sages’ (sapta
rsayah). The seven primordial sages (rsi) have been transported
into Heaven, again not unlike the Greek heroes, as one
of the few exceptions of persons admitted after the gods
reached heaven and ‘shut the door behind them’. There, their
white bones shine each night. However, the concept of Seven
Sages is purely Indian, a local development.
The Seven
Sages are seen close to the celestial North Pole,
so that they can forever be seen (if one lives above circa 30
degrees North), as the seven stars of the ‘Great Dipper’ (ursa
maior). Therefore, they appear to be forever ‘in the highest heaven’,
never to leave this position, like other deceased persons, whether
transposed as stars or just following the yearly movement of
the Milky Way.
This is connected with the
movement of the Big Dipper as well. Kuiper pointed out
some 20 years ago that the gods such as Varuna turn over a
heavenly casket and empty its contents over the earth beneath it
[…]. However, the identity of this heavenly casket has escaped
us for many years.
The key for an understanding
is Atharvaveda 10.9.8 which runs as follows: ‘A bowl (camasa)
with the orifice downwards, bottom-side up, in it is deposited glory
of all forms; there sit together the seven seers, who have become
the keepers of it, the great one’. Even clearer is […] Upanisad
2.2.4 […]: “There is a cup with its mouth below and its bottom up. In
it is placed every form of glory. On its rim […] sit seven seers. Voice
as an eighth is united with prayer […]’. The ‘commentary’ by
the author of this Upanisad passage even identifies the very
Rsis: ‘On its rim sit seven seers... these are Gotama and Bharadva¯ja,
...¯mitra and Jamadagni, ... Vasistha and Kasyapa,..
and Atri’, clearly, the sapta rsayah, the seven Rsis identified
with ursa maior.
This asterism actually can
be observed to turn upside down every night. Ursa maior
has the form of a big spoon that is emptied out every night:
it slowly turns around, scooping up the heavenly water and then
releases it over the earth. […]”
Terme dei Sette Sapienti
For the Baths of the Seven
Sages at Ostia (Rome), see
dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Italy/Regions/Lazio/Provinces/Rome/Community/History/
Starry Sages
Anthony Gordon O'Brien published a book in 1996
(ISBN 0195634748) that looks at the Saptarsi Era (Era of the Seven Sages
or of the Seven Stars of Ursa Major). The Seven Sages qua Ursa Major are
supposed to remain 100 years in each of the 27 naksatras or lunar mansions.
"I don't know whether [...] this has anything to do with the Sindbad-nameh
or the [...] Seven Sages, but it might." (26 April 1999)
Indian Art
Sudha Satyawadi, a freelance artist and art researcher,
has created the website Gallery Ananya featuring paintings on a variety
of aspects of Hindu religion in Indian folk and traditional art:
http://members.tripod.com/SSatyawadi/draft1.html
Libro de los exenplos por A.B.C.
Keller, John E., and Connie L. Scarborough, eds. Libro
de los exenplos por A.B.C. [by Clemente Sánchez de Vercial (c.
1435)]. Madrid: Ars Libri-Edilán, 2000. 416 p. (New edition from
MSS. Paris, B.N. Espagnol 432, and Madrid, B.N. 1182)
The Case of the Unacknowledged Miniature
To illustrate a review of two books on terrorism,
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) of 16 February 2002 (pp. D2-D3) printed
a miniature (available in the print version of this Newsletter) over
the following caption: “Medieval assassins (from the Arabic ‘hashashim’) being
offered drugged wine during their initiation into a terror cult.” The miniature
proper is preceded by three lines of text: “Et par ceste maniere faisoit
le viel [the Old Man of the Mountain] occiere trestous ceulx que il leur
coman / doit. Et pour la tresgrant doubte que les seigneurs avoient de luy,
il lui ren / doient treu pour avoir paix a luy et amistance[?].”
Regrettably, requests for source information have remained unanswered.
If you know this miniature, or the manuscripts of the French translation
of Marco Polo’s travels, or the reviewed book(s) from which it may have
been copied, please contact H. Runte (hrunte@dal.ca) URGENTLY. The books
in question are: How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War, eds.
James F. Hoge, Jr. and Gideon Rose, and The Lessons of Terror by
Caleb Carr.
Travail semestriel des étudiants du Séminaire
littéraire «Conte didactique et de sagesse au Moyen Age: Le
Roman des sept sages» dirigé par le professeur Anna Kukułka-Wojtasik
(hiver 2004/2005).
Nous présentons une version du Roman des sept
sages en français moderne. Notre traduction est une compilation
de deux textes en ancien français venant d’époques différentes.
Le premier texte est publié par Hans R. Runte
sous le titre Les sept sages de Rome: An On-Line Edition of French Version
A From All Manuscripts sur le site Internet <http://www.dal.ca~hrunte/FrenchA.html>.
Cette version comprend onze récits complets et finit au milieu du
douzième récit qui constitue le conte du sixième sage
sous le titre Vidua.
Corrections
Le lien <http://www.dal.ca~hrunte/FrenchA.html>
qui renvoie au texte en ancien français
est fautif; le lien correct
est
Le texte en ancien français ne finit pas au milieu du douzième récit; il continue en fait
jusqu'à la fin du Roman sur les sites
et
http://myweb.dal.ca/hrunte/FrenchA3.html
Voici la traduction en français moderne: