{"id":90,"date":"2016-08-23T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/?p=90"},"modified":"2016-08-23T13:38:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T12:38:00","slug":"sidonius-for-the-edification-of-german-nuns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/2016\/08\/23\/sidonius-for-the-edification-of-german-nuns\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidonius Edifies German Nuns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Dedicated to spiritual ladies in general, and to all abbesses, prioresses, and nuns in particular.\u2019 A pious female audience was the target group for the prestigious edition, in four volumes, of an illustrated saints\u2019 calendar, T\u00e4gliche Erbauung eines wahren Christen<\/em>, which saw the light in Augsburg between 1753 and 1755. This \u2018Daily Edification of a True Christian\u2019 was an instant success: a second edition was put out in 1762\/63. For every day there was an engraving of the day\u2019s saint provided with a \u2018synopsis\u2019 in Latin, and followed by a short life, a meditation, and a prayer in German. In volume 3, July-September, on the 23rd of August, the pious ladies were meant to be edified by Sidonius Apollinaris. Here is his portrait:<\/p>\n

\"Sidonius<\/p>\n

Sidonius is depicted as a poet-bishop at his desk in front of a cross; next to him on the floor are a lyre and an overturned bust of Apollo (?) with a laurel wreath. The synopsis underneath runs:<\/p>\n

Poeta fuit insignis ex Gallia: carmen pietate condivit, non eo usus ad fabulas, et ineptias, sed ad res divinas, et castas, quo ceteris scribendi norma(m) dedit: alluditur ad appellationem ipsius Apollinaris.
\n<\/em>
\n\u2018He was a famous poet from Gaul, who seasoned his verse with piety, not using it for idle tales, but for divine and chaste purposes, providing others with a standard in writing. This is an allusion to his surname Apollinaris.\u2019<\/p>\n

The biographical note goes on to specify Sidonius\u2019 merits as a panegyrist, while the ensuing description of his lavish care of the poor and the smear campaign against him by two of his priests is essentially a free adaptation of Gregory of Tours\u2019 account (Hist<\/em>. Franc<\/em>. 2.22-23) [1]. In the meditative section, the stress is on the humility of the saint who exemplarily waived his worldly success as an orator. The author then goes on: \u2018And you, dear Christian, do you also leave the world\u2019s vanities behind out of love for God?\u2019<\/p>\n

Well, the pious ladies no doubt got enough material for self-reflection (who wouldn\u2019t?), but note that the edifying part in German does not match the Latin synopsis, which is only about poetry and about Sidonius applying it \u2018for divine and chaste purposes\u2019. The ladies might indeed have wondered why Sidonius (who?) figured in their book at all, along with other little known, foreign saints. It would have been more logical if a local saint had been picked for their devotion than an unknown \u2018French\u2019 one. <\/p>\n

Mascolo\u2019s Encomia coelituum<\/em><\/strong>
\nAs a matter of fact, the publisher, in his foreword, had drawn the reader\u2019s attention to the fact that the Latin original was also in the house\u2019s catalogue: Encomia coelituum<\/em>, by the Napolitan Jesuit Giovanni Battista Mascolo. And in the foreword to that publication, he had pointed out Mascolo\u2019s idiosyncratic selection of saints, aiming at \u2018\u03c4\u1f78 \u03b8\u03b1\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd et inaspectatas sententias\u2019 (\u2018the marvellous and unexpected observations\u2019). The layout of the items in this calendar is, however, different: the portrait (the publisher\u2019s unique selling point) and the synopsis are the same, but they are followed by a one-page \u2018Encomium\u2019. Both the synopsis and the encomium come directly from Mascolo\u2019s work. But that takes us more than a century back.<\/p>\n

In 1638, Mascolo (1582-1656) published Encomia coelituum<\/em> (\u2018Eulogies of the Saints\u2019) with the intention of comparing the glorious deeds of the Christian saints to the superseded exploits of the Ancients. Each month is provided with an introduction in which Mascolo explains why he picked the saint for each day, preferring stories that were revealing to those that were conventional. Each saint then receives a \u2018Synopsis\u2019 and an \u2018Encomion\u2019, one page in all. <\/p>\n

We have seen that the synopsis for Sidonius stresses the divine and the chaste in his poetry. The ‘encomion’ praises him for being both a lyrical poet and a prefect of Gaul [sic], which is reflected in his name: a Sidone accepit purpuram, ab Apolline lauream<\/em> (\u2018from Sidon he got the purple, from Apollo the laurel\u2019, p. 378). Of course his inspiration was non Venus, sed virtus<\/em> (\u2018not Venus, but virtue\u2019). The introduction to the month (p. 346) explains that, from amongst other laureati, Sidonius is selected because he truly chastened the laurel (qui laurum ex incesta, vere fecit innubam<\/em>, \u2018he made the laurel truly virginal, from being unchaste\u2019) [2].<\/p>\n

Chaste poetry, that is the catchword. It finally takes us to the reason why Mascolo chose Sidonius. One of his pivotal works is the Lyricorum sive Odarum libri XVI<\/em> from 1625, Christian odes in the style of Horace. Mascolo dedicates the work to casto lyricorum poetarum choro<\/em> (\u2018the chaste choir of lyrical poets\u2019). For him, Horace\u2019s genius, rid of Venus and replete with virtue, is the supreme weapon to defend Catholicism against Protestantism. Horace is his instrument of Counter-Reformation [3], and Sidonius \u2026 is Mascolo himself (though, judging by the text, one might wonder if the Jesuit ever really read the Saint).<\/p>\n

Baumgartner\u2019s oil sketches<\/strong>
\nBack to the Sidonius engraving and the T\u00e4gliche Erbauung<\/em> project. Augsburg boasted a huge production of similar calendar sets of saints and other devotional prints [4]. In the production process, engravers were employed to cut the plates that were used for printing the illustrations. They worked on the basis of artists\u2019 designs. The Sidonius portrait was designed by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner (1702-1761). In 2009, the former Salzburger Barockmuseum devoted an exposition to this Augsburg rococo painter [5]. Baumgartner was one of the best artists around in Augsburg and the most prominent designer in the T\u00e4gliche Erbauung<\/em> project, contributing up to 280 portraits of saints for as many days. What is special about these portraits is that he executed them carefully in colour oil paint instead of the usual throw-away grisaille, which makes the ca. fifty surviving pieces an important testimony of rococo art. Here, to conclude, is one of these, more or less similar to the Sidonius portrait: St Leopold (15 November) [6]. <\/p>\n

\"Sidonius<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong>
\n[1] Curiously, the author states that Sidonius died \u2018im 36. [a typo for 56?] seines Alters, und im 15. seiner Regierung\u2019. The author refers to Sur(ius), Luther\u2019s Carthusian opponent, and the Jesuit hagiographer Ribad(eneira), both sixteenth-century, as his sources.
\n[2] Compare Daphne in Ov. Met<\/em>. 10.92.
\n[3] See Ludwig 2014.
\n[4] See Bailey 2014, 124.
\n[5] See Stra\u00dfer 2009.
\n[6] It is not known whether the original portrait of Sidonius is still extant.<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

  • G.A. Bailey, The Spiritual Rococo<\/em>, Farnham, 2014<\/li>\n
  • W. Ludwig, \u2018Horaz als Instrument der Gegenreformation: Die horazisierenden Oden des Johannes Baptista Masculus\u2019, in W. Ludwig, Opuscula historico-philologica: Ausgew\u00e4hlte Aufs\u00e4tze 2008-2013<\/em>, Hildesheim, 2014, 115-34<\/li>\n
  • J. Stra\u00dfer, Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, 1702-1761: \u00d6lskizzen und Hinterglasbilder<\/em>, catalogue Salzburger Barockmuseum, Salzburg, 2009<\/li>\n
  • Encomia coelituum<\/em> online:
    \n– Mascolo\u2019s original from Naples<\/a> (Sidonius is on p. 378<\/a>)
    \n–     Augsburg illustrated edition, volume 1 (January)<\/a><\/li>\n
  • T\u00e4gliche Erbauung<\/em> online:
    \n–     volume 1 (January-March)<\/a>
    \n–     volume 3 (July-September)<\/a> (contains Sidonius\u2019 portrait, followed by his life, a \u2018Betrachtung\u2019, and a \u2018Gebet\u2019 on pp. 705-706)<\/li>\n
  • Mascolo, Lyricorum sive Odarum libri XVI<\/em> online<\/a><\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u2018Dedicated to spiritual ladies in general, and to all abbesses, prioresses, and nuns in particular.\u2019 A pious female audience was the target group for the prestigious edition, in four volumes, of an illustrated saints\u2019 calendar, T\u00e4gliche Erbauung eines wahren Christen, which saw the light in Augsburg between 1753 and 1755. This \u2018Daily Edification of a … Continue reading “Sidonius Edifies German Nuns”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/sidonius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}