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    THE Alleged BY Bishop OF Freising: Arbeo

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    cornjaco
    The document analyzes whether Bishop Arbeo of Freising used rhythmic prose, or cursus, in his writings from the 8th century. While some earlier scholars claimed to find evidence of cursus, the author conducts two different analyses and finds little statistical evidence that Arbeo intentionally incorporated cursus patterns, and it is better to analyze his Latin without considering rhythm.

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    THE Alleged BY Bishop OF Freising: Arbeo

    Uploaded by

    cornjaco
    68 views3 pages
    The document analyzes whether Bishop Arbeo of Freising used rhythmic prose, or cursus, in his writings from the 8th century. While some earlier scholars claimed to find evidence of cursus, the author conducts two different analyses and finds little statistical evidence that Arbeo intentionally incorporated cursus patterns, and it is better to analyze his Latin without considering rhythm.

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    style of writings of bishop Arbeo

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    Howe, CursusArbeo

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    The document analyzes whether Bishop Arbeo of Freising used rhythmic prose, or cursus, in his writings from the 8th century. While some earlier scholars claimed to find evidence of cursus, the author conducts two different analyses and finds little statistical evidence that Arbeo intentionally incorporated cursus patterns, and it is better to analyze his Latin without considering rhythm.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    68 views3 pages

    THE Alleged BY Bishop OF Freising: Arbeo

    Uploaded by

    cornjaco
    The document analyzes whether Bishop Arbeo of Freising used rhythmic prose, or cursus, in his writings from the 8th century. While some earlier scholars claimed to find evidence of cursus, the author conducts two different analyses and finds little statistical evidence that Arbeo intentionally incorporated cursus patterns, and it is better to analyze his Latin without considering rhythm.

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    THE ALLEGED USE OF CURSUS

    BY BISHOP ARBEO OF FREISING

    Did Arbeo (d. 783) write rhythmical prose ? The answer af-
    fects the way scholars evaluate his contorted Latin. For in-
    stance, does Arbeo's overuse of the pluperfect subjunctive,
    naturally often at the ends of clauses, result from a desire for
    rhythrnical effect or from some other cause ? Since Arbeo's
    writings together with the Bavarian laws and some inscriptions
    and documents provide the only clues to the Latin used in
    Bavaria prior to the Carolingian literary reforms, his language
    '
    is of special interest. This note is written to resolve the prob-
    lem of his alleged cul-sus.
    Bruno Krusch first claimed to find rhythmical cadences in
    Arbeo's lives of saints. Georg Baesecke presented supporting
    documentation by analyzing the first thirty full stops of the vita
    Haimhran~miand of the vita Corbiniani. Subsequent scholars
    who have presumed that Arbeo used cursus include Heinrich
    von Lowe and Bernhard Bischoff.

    1. Arbeo's language is analyzed in Bengt Lofstedt, " Zu Arbeos Latein,"


    ALMA, 41 (1979), pp. 5 1-73.
    2. My thanks to Profs. Bengt Lofstedt (University of California at Los
    Ahgeles) and Tore Janson (Stockholms Universitet) for encouragement and
    suggestions.
    3. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS Rer Mer VI (1913) 528, rpt. in Arbeonis Vitae
    Sanctorum Haimhrammi et Corbiniani ( a Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in
    Usum Scholarum »), Hannover, Hahn, 1920, p. 147.
    4. Georg Baesecke, Der deutsche Abrogans und die Herkunft des deutschen
    Schrifrtunzs. Halle (Saale). Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1930, p. 118n.
    5. Heinz Lowe. "Arbeo von Freising: Eine Studie zu Religiositat und
    Bildung im 8. Jahrhundert," Rheinische Vierteljahrsblatter, 15/16 (1950/1951)
    [not seen]. rpt. in Von Cassiodor zu Dante: Ausgewahlte Aufsatze zur Gcs-
    chichtschreiburig und politischen Ideenwelt des Mittelalfers, Berlin. De Gruyter,
    1973, p. 83.
    6. Bernhard Bischoff, Leben und Leiden des hl. Emmeram (Munich, Ernst
    Heimeran Verlag. 1953). p. 94.
    Yet Arbeo's cursus was never systematically examined. The
    traditional method for identifying rhythmical prose is to isolate
    al1 concluding metrical cadences and to consider them intentional
    if they constitute a high percentage of the total. The distortion
    produced by Baesecke's concentration on only the first 30 full
    stops can be seen in the disproportion between the 6 instances of
    planus found there in the vita Haimhrammi and the 15 found in
    the remaining 187 acceptable full stops. Since the first 30 sen-
    tence endings cover chapters i-vii of the vita Haimhrammi and the
    prologue and chapters i-v of the vita Corbiniani, their more fre-
    quent rhythmical cadences do not appear to be due to any
    ornate prologue style, but rather to chance or to Baesecke's delib-
    erate choice of a particularly fruitful sample. Overall, the stan-
    dard cursus patterns - velox, tardus, and planus - constitute
    only 8 %, 9 %, and 10 % of the full stops in the vita Haimhrammi ;
    and 6 %, 14 %, and 14 % in the vita Corbiniani. Since the major
    forms appear in such low percentages, it does not seem likely that
    Arbeo was carefully seeking them.
    Cursus can also be measured by the method of interna1 com-
    parison developed by Tore Janson. He determines whether par-
    ticular cadences are favored by comparing their observed fre-
    quencies to the frequencies that would be expected from a ran-
    dom juxtaposition of their components (i.e., the product of the
    probabilities of each element occurring separately). The signifi-
    cance of any discrepancy is tested by the chi-square formula :
    observed frequency - expected frequency
    chi-square =
    expected frequency
    By comparing the value obtained from this formula with the
    values listed in chi-square tables in standard statistical hand-
    books, it is possible to discover whether or not a given distri-
    bution is likely to be due to chance. For most purposes statis-
    tical significance is not assumed unless the probability of
    chance occurrence is less than 5 %.

    7. Oinitted from this and from subsequent tabulations are sentences ending
    with questions. exclamations. or quotations from other authors.
    8. Tore Janson, Prose Rhythm in Medieval Latin from the 9th to the 13th Centu-
    ry («Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Studia Latina Stockholmiensia o. 20).
    Stockholm. Almquist & Wiksell International, 1975.passim, esp. pp. 19-34, 116-17.
    Interna1 comparison reveals little evidence of cursus in Ar-
    beo's lives. No possible cadence in the vita Haimhramrni is
    signiflcantly favored or slighted. The chi-square value for a11
    cadences occuring five or more times and for " other " (al1
    remaining cadences) is only 2.9, while a value of 25.0 or more
    would have been required for statistical significance. The vita
    Corbiniani shows more variation : apparently favored cadences
    consist of the unmetrical sequence where a proparoxytone
    word is followed by a five syllable paroxytone word and also
    of tardus ; apparently avoided is the unmetrical sequence of a
    proparoxytone word followed by a four syllable proparoxytone
    word. Yet these and mucli smaller anomalies are insignificant
    according to the standard chi-square test, since they yield a
    value of 18.0, which falls below the 22.4 required. The varia-
    tions observed are best explained as the result of chance, since
    ihere is n o metrical reason why this particular collection of
    cadences should be singled out in this way for favor and disfa-
    vor. Overall, the two Eives together yield a chi-square value of
    10.9, well below the 28.9 required for statistical significance.
    Tlierefore Arbeo's use of cursus appears extreinely doubtful.
    By the traditional method of external cornparison, he must be
    classified as an unrhythmical author. By Janson's method of
    interna1 comparison, the vita Haimhrammi exliibits no non-ran-
    dom patterns and the vita Corbiniani only some very dubious
    biases that are apparently chance aberrations. It is better to disre-
    gard rhythmical considerations in analyzing Arbeo's language.

    Texas Tech University John HOWE.


    Lubbock, Texas

    9. There are in fact two ways througli whicli the ungainly combination of a
    proparoxytone word followed by a five syllable paroxytone word could be
    construed as a rhythmical cadence : 1) if the final word contains an " i " which
    could have been pronounced as a consonant rather than as a vowel, e.g.
    " existeret Corbinianus " (= velox) ; or 2) if a secondary accent is postulated,
    e.g. " trhnsmittebhntur " (a rhythm akin to planus). However, the former case
    occurs only in one of the nine examples of this cadence found in the ~ i t a
    Corbiniani. while the latter does not explain the phenornenon observed,
    because if a secondary accent existed it would have transformed into planus
    cadences al1 final five syllable paroxytone words, not just those following a
    proparoxytone word. Thus there is no metrical reason to favor the cadence.

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