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Archpoet
The Archpoet (c. 1130 – c. 1165), or Archipoeta (in Latin and German), is the name given to an anonymous 12th-century author of ten medieval Latin poems, the most famous being his "Confession" found in the Carmina Burana manuscript (under CB 191). Along with Hugh Primas of Orléans (with whom he has sometimes been confused), he is cited as the best exemplar of Goliardic poetry and one of the stellar poets of the Latin Middle Ages.
Knowledge about him comes essentially from his poems found in manuscripts: his noble birth in an unspecified region of Western Europe, his respectable and classical education, his association with Archchancellor Rainald of Dassel's court, and his poetic activity linked to it in both content and purpose. As such, it has been speculated that the bibulous, extravagant personality emanating from his work could be only serving as a façade despite its apparent autobiographical trend.
His existence has been elaborated upon the authorial superscription "Archipoeta" appearing with the poems now ascribed to him in a small number of manuscripts. While some recent—and so far inconclusive—attempts have been made to identify the Archpoet as either one of two Rodulfuses from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's entourage, his real identity has never been found and is most likely lost for good.
It has been suggested by W. H. T. Jackson and others that his nickname could be a play on his patron Rainald of Dassel's title of Archchancellor (Archicancellarius in Latin), even if its exact origins are ultimately left open to speculation. Moreover, it is not known how he came to earn the nickname or who bestowed it to him: whether as a mark of esteem from the audiences, other poets, Rainald himself; as a satirical jest on his patron's title; or as an ironical mock self-attribution.[citation needed] There has been report of at least two other "clericus vagus", itinerant clerics, bearing the "Archipoeta" pseudonym or title around that time: one Nicholas who briefly resided with the Cistercians at their abbey, and Henry of Avranches (around 1250); yet both are distinct from the "Archipoeta" of Barbarossa's reigning period (1155–1190).
The Archpoet's living circumstances have been surmised from the indicative content of his poems but mostly from the life of Rainald of Dassel. Because he designates Rainald as Archbishop of Cologne, it shows that he must have been alive and active for at least some time between 1159 (when Rainald became archbishop) and 1167 (when he died); furthermore, all of his datable poems fall within 1162 and 1164. With the passing of his patron in 1167, no more is heard from the Archpoet. Also, in poem X, Peter Dronke writes, "he counts himself among the iuvenes: while technically a iuvenis can be any age between twenty-one and fifty, it would seem plausible to imagine the Archpoet as thirty or thirty-five at the time of this composition, and to set his birth not too far from 1130."
Several indications concur as to establish that the Archpoet came from a place north of the Alps, although no solid claim can be made as to which country, even though Germany has repeatedly and traditionally being taken as his birthplace. He refers to himself as "ortus a militibus", of knightly birth, and, coming from such a high class, was most certainly well-educated in the liberal arts, theology and the classics. In poem IV, he states that he chose the pursuit of poetry (as symbolized by the Roman poet Virgil) over a career in the military (as symbolized by the Trojan warrior Paris) as his birth permitted and disposed him to. It has been deduced from the same poem that he first traveled to Salerno in order to pursue medical studies but that due to ill health, he had to abandon this project.
It was probably then that he began working—possibly as a "dictamen", a "master of the art of writing letters"—at the court of Rainald of Dassel, the bishop elector of Cologne and Archchancellor to Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, about which he wrote, according to Ernst Robert Curtius, "[t]he most brilliant stanzas" among the many written about and/or for him during the 35 years of his reign. His references to Salerno, Vienna, and Cologne in his poems, as well as several details gleaned from the Archchancellor's court displacements, suggest that he did travel around northern Italy, Provence, Burgundy, Austria and Germany during his life. It is known that the Archpoet lived for some time—possibly the last years of his life—at the monastery of St. Martin in Cologne. As is the case with many medieval and/or anonymous authors, very little else can be said with certainty about his life.
While it is still commonly assumed that the Archpoet was a follower of the Goliard tradition—writing student drinking songs, parodies critical of the Church and satires on the life of itinerant clergy in the Middle Ages—, the noted scholar Peter Dronke proposed a very different portrait in his 1968 book The Medieval Lyric:
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Archpoet
The Archpoet (c. 1130 – c. 1165), or Archipoeta (in Latin and German), is the name given to an anonymous 12th-century author of ten medieval Latin poems, the most famous being his "Confession" found in the Carmina Burana manuscript (under CB 191). Along with Hugh Primas of Orléans (with whom he has sometimes been confused), he is cited as the best exemplar of Goliardic poetry and one of the stellar poets of the Latin Middle Ages.
Knowledge about him comes essentially from his poems found in manuscripts: his noble birth in an unspecified region of Western Europe, his respectable and classical education, his association with Archchancellor Rainald of Dassel's court, and his poetic activity linked to it in both content and purpose. As such, it has been speculated that the bibulous, extravagant personality emanating from his work could be only serving as a façade despite its apparent autobiographical trend.
His existence has been elaborated upon the authorial superscription "Archipoeta" appearing with the poems now ascribed to him in a small number of manuscripts. While some recent—and so far inconclusive—attempts have been made to identify the Archpoet as either one of two Rodulfuses from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's entourage, his real identity has never been found and is most likely lost for good.
It has been suggested by W. H. T. Jackson and others that his nickname could be a play on his patron Rainald of Dassel's title of Archchancellor (Archicancellarius in Latin), even if its exact origins are ultimately left open to speculation. Moreover, it is not known how he came to earn the nickname or who bestowed it to him: whether as a mark of esteem from the audiences, other poets, Rainald himself; as a satirical jest on his patron's title; or as an ironical mock self-attribution.[citation needed] There has been report of at least two other "clericus vagus", itinerant clerics, bearing the "Archipoeta" pseudonym or title around that time: one Nicholas who briefly resided with the Cistercians at their abbey, and Henry of Avranches (around 1250); yet both are distinct from the "Archipoeta" of Barbarossa's reigning period (1155–1190).
The Archpoet's living circumstances have been surmised from the indicative content of his poems but mostly from the life of Rainald of Dassel. Because he designates Rainald as Archbishop of Cologne, it shows that he must have been alive and active for at least some time between 1159 (when Rainald became archbishop) and 1167 (when he died); furthermore, all of his datable poems fall within 1162 and 1164. With the passing of his patron in 1167, no more is heard from the Archpoet. Also, in poem X, Peter Dronke writes, "he counts himself among the iuvenes: while technically a iuvenis can be any age between twenty-one and fifty, it would seem plausible to imagine the Archpoet as thirty or thirty-five at the time of this composition, and to set his birth not too far from 1130."
Several indications concur as to establish that the Archpoet came from a place north of the Alps, although no solid claim can be made as to which country, even though Germany has repeatedly and traditionally being taken as his birthplace. He refers to himself as "ortus a militibus", of knightly birth, and, coming from such a high class, was most certainly well-educated in the liberal arts, theology and the classics. In poem IV, he states that he chose the pursuit of poetry (as symbolized by the Roman poet Virgil) over a career in the military (as symbolized by the Trojan warrior Paris) as his birth permitted and disposed him to. It has been deduced from the same poem that he first traveled to Salerno in order to pursue medical studies but that due to ill health, he had to abandon this project.
It was probably then that he began working—possibly as a "dictamen", a "master of the art of writing letters"—at the court of Rainald of Dassel, the bishop elector of Cologne and Archchancellor to Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, about which he wrote, according to Ernst Robert Curtius, "[t]he most brilliant stanzas" among the many written about and/or for him during the 35 years of his reign. His references to Salerno, Vienna, and Cologne in his poems, as well as several details gleaned from the Archchancellor's court displacements, suggest that he did travel around northern Italy, Provence, Burgundy, Austria and Germany during his life. It is known that the Archpoet lived for some time—possibly the last years of his life—at the monastery of St. Martin in Cologne. As is the case with many medieval and/or anonymous authors, very little else can be said with certainty about his life.
While it is still commonly assumed that the Archpoet was a follower of the Goliard tradition—writing student drinking songs, parodies critical of the Church and satires on the life of itinerant clergy in the Middle Ages—, the noted scholar Peter Dronke proposed a very different portrait in his 1968 book The Medieval Lyric: