Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus
Zodiacus Vitae
Book 11, Aquarius
Palingenius was an Italian poet (Pier Angelo Manzolli of Stellato?)
About whom precious little can be ascertained. He published his epic
philosophical poem, Zodiacus Vitae, which was divided into twelve
books, one for each sign of the zodiac, in the 1530's, which is to say
that it is a pre-Copernican text. It is also a book published prior to
the inception of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, begun with the
Council of Trent (1545-63). He managed to die quietly before his book
(probably published in the early 1530's) before the Catholic Church
burned his heretical bones and Pope Paul IV placed his book upon the
very first Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or Index of Prohibited
Books, in 1559.
This greatly increased his popularity among Protestants, and the poem
did brisk business in England. At the age of nineteen, Barnabe Googe
zealously undertook the translation of Zodiacus Vitae, publishing
the first three books in 1560. A version with the first six books
translated appeared in the following year, and finally, the complete
translation, The Zodiake of Life, in 1565, republished in 1588.
The Latin edition first appeared in 1572, and went through no fewer than
six subsequent printings in the ensuing decades.
The poem as a whole presents an unorthodox philosophy, but this is not
to say it is particularly original. It is an odd mash of traditional
sentiments and beliefs, and novelties old and new. For example, in
"Aquarius," the book concerned with astronomy which is presented here,
one finds an essentially Ptolemaic construction, but with some
interesting variations. Yet what is perhaps its most controversial
point, the suggestion of a plurality of worlds, can be traced to a
decree by Étienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, in 1277.
Palingenius' principal aim was not dogmatic, but rather social
commentary, partly through satire, and he attempted to dissociate
himself from many of the ideas he presented. Nevertheless, this was
not 1277, and the atmosphere for independent thinkers in Catholic
countries was becoming decidedly unhealthy in the wake of Luther's
ninety-five theses. The specifics of Palingenius' offenses in Zodiacus
Vitae offended are unknown, but it has been conjectured that the
eleventh book, "Aquarius," would have been sufficient in itself to cause
its condemnation.
Students are given a copy of Googe's translation of "Aquarius" which
MATC has transcribed into modern type, though not into modern
spelling.
The first questions put to the class are literary ones: Can we describe
the form of the poetry? Are there any recognizable poetic conventions?
What genre would you place it in? Do you have to make up a new
category? Finally, with the publication information supplied to the
class, do you like it? Do you think it's good, whether or not you like
it? Is it literature with a capital "L" or with a small one? After
discussing why we read what we read, and who makes such decisions at
various times, I confess (assuming the class hasn't already come to a
consensus) that I don't find Googe's translation to be very good poetry,
but I do find it very interesting to read. For example:
- All Starres are not of bignes like, for many lesse there bee,
- And in such sort, as comprehend no man may them we see:
Such cramped grammar and twisted sense for the sake of rhyme
and meter is not at all pleasing. But the notion that there are stars
invisible to the human eye, some seven decades before the telescope
could prove such a thing, or the claim that some stars "do in compasse
farre exceede both seas, and earth, and all," surely make both this text
and its subsequent influence worthy of study.
Students are asked to identify what they believe in the text to be
orthodox Ptolemaic/Aristotelian statements, and which they find to be
heterodoxy or heresy.
- For Creatures doth the Skies containe and every Starre beside
- Be heavenly townes and seates of saincts, Where Kings & Commons bide
