Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/565

522 quality of his work, is remarkable. The Glossa Ordinaria, an abridgment of patristic commentaries on all the books of the Bible, a predecessor of the Synopsis Criticorum of more modern times, was his great monument. In the twelfth century no monastic library of any consideration lacked a set, and even the smallest owned a few of the principal volumes. It is no more than a compilation, from sources which still exist, but it was a source of primary importance to students of the Bible for many years.

Walafrid's poetry is more interesting to us than the gloss. There is a good deal of it, but only two pieces shall be selected for special mention. De imagine Tetrici is notable for its subject (which is the equestrian statue of Theodoric removed from Ravenna to Aix-la-Chapelle by Charlemagne in 801), and also for its form; it is a dialogue between the poet and Scintilla (roughly, his genius), which is succeeded by a remarkable description of the Emperor Louis the Pious and his train. De cultura hortorum is the first of medieval Georgics. Those who have seen it will at least remember the epilogue, addressed to Grimaldus of St Gall, in which Walafrid says: "Think of me when you are sitting in your walled garden under the shade of a peach tree.

The lines are not "great poetry," but the picture is pleasant.

A group of three writers whose works bear on the preservation of Roman literature shall next be noticed.

The first part of the ninth century (805-862) is covered by the life of Servatus Lupus, Abbot of Ferrières, whose letters, not uncelebrated, are by far the most remarkable of his writings. The frequent requests he makes for books, and especially classical books, have long since attracted attention. From Einhard he borrows Aulus Gellius and the rhetorical works of Cicero; from Altsig of York, Quintilian; from another he tries to get Livy; from the Abbot of Fulda, Suetonius in two small volumes. He owns and has read Caesar; he quotes Horace, and may have had some other Latin lyrics. A line which he cites as Horace's, (Meos dividerem libenter annos), is not to be found in Horace now.

Mico of St Riquier seems to have compiled his work on prosody about the year 825. It is a collection, arranged alphabetically, of lines from upwards of thirty poets, pagan and Christian, exemplifying the scansion of particular words, the name of the source being written beside each. One could hardly have a more convenient key to the contents of the St Riquier library as regards Latin verse. The list need not be set out in full here, but a few remarks may be made. The Aratea both of Cicero and of Germanicus and the medical poem of Q. Serenus Sammonicus, to which Lucretius may be added, count as rarities. We miss Calpurnius and Nemesianus, who were known to the Carolingian court, and