Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 73v: two of the Bern Riddles (De sale, salt, and De mensa, table), from the manuscript that gives the collection its name.

The Bern Riddles, also known as Aenigmata Bernensia, Aenigmata Hexasticha or Riddles of Tullius, are a collection of 63 metrical Latin riddles, named after the location of their earliest surviving manuscript, which today is held in Bern (though probably produced in Bourges): the early eighth-century Codex Bernensis 611.[1][2]

Origin

Although it has been suggested that they were composed in late antiquity,[3] most scholars consider that the Bern Riddles were inspired by the c. fourth-century collection of riddles attributed to Symphosius,[4] and date to around the seventh century.

The author of the Bern Riddles is not known but the book might have been written by "a Lombard familiar with Mediterranean flora and food";[5] perhaps in the monastery of Bobbio.[6] According to Archer Taylor, "The Berne Riddles are especially interesting for the author's familiarity with the North Italian landscape and its plants. Whoever he was, we may safely call him the first medieval riddle-master in Italy".[7] However, some scholars see the origin of the Bern Riddles in Anglo-Saxon England, where several early medieval collections of metrical riddles originated, such as the Enigmata of Aldhelm.[8]

Subjects

The subjects of the Bern Riddles are as follows:[9]

  • 1. de olla (bowl)
  • 2. de lucerna (lamp)
  • 3. de sale (salt)
  • 4. de scamno (bench)
  • 5. de mansa (table)
  • 6. de calice ((glass) chalice)
  • 7. de uesica (air-bubble)
  • 8. de ouo (egg)
  • 9. de mola (millstone)
  • 10. de scala (ladder)
  • 11. de naue (ship)
  • 12. de grano (grain of corn)
  • 13. de uite (grapevine)
  • 14. de oliua (olive)
  • 15. de palma (palm-tree)
  • 16. de cedride (cedar-berry)
  • 17. de cribro (sieve)
  • 18. de scopa (broom)
  • 19. de cera (wax tablet)
  • 20. de melle (honey)
  • 21. de ape (bee)
  • 22. de oue (sheep)
  • 23. de ignis scintilla (fire-spark)
  • 24. de membrana (parchment)
  • 25. de litteris (letters)
  • 26. de sinapi (mustard)
  • 27. de papiro ((papyrus)-paper)
  • 28. de serico (silkworm)
  • 29. de speculo (mirror)
  • 30. de pisce (fish)
  • 31. de nympha (siphon)
  • 32. de spongia (sponge)
  • 33. de uiola (violet)
  • 34. de rosa (rose)
  • 35. de liliis (lilies)
  • 36. de croco (saffron)
  • 37. de pipere (pepper)
  • 38. de glacie (ice)
  • 39. de hedera (ivy)
  • 40. de muscipula (mousetrap)
  • 41. de uento (wind)
  • 42. de glacie (ice)
  • 43. de uermis bombycibus sericas uestes formantibus (silkworms)
  • 44. de margarita (pearl)
  • 45. de terra (earth)
  • 46. de pistillo (pestle)
  • 47. de cochlea (snail-shell)
  • 48. de castanea (chestnut)
  • 49. de pluuia (rain)
  • 50. de uino (wine)
  • 50a. de charta (wood-pulp paper)
  • 51. de alio (garlic)
  • 52. de rosa (rose)
  • 53. de trutina (weighing-scales)
  • 54. de insubulo (weaving-loom)
  • 55. de sole (sun)
  • 56. de sole (sun)
  • 57. de sole (sun)
  • 58. de luna (moon)
  • 59. de luna (moon)
  • 60. de caelo (sky)
  • 61. de umbra (shadow)
  • 62. de stellis (stars)
  • 63. de uino (wine)

Examples

The riddles are written in Latin rhythmic hexameter.

Manuscripts

The Bern Riddles come down to us in the following manuscripts:[8]

Siglum Name Folios Date Number of Riddles Comments
H Cod. Bern 611 73-80v 8th c. (early) 33 See manuscript here. Parts of this manuscripts are missing.
I Cod. Berlin Philipps 167 37v-45 9th c. 61
R Cod. Leipzig Rep. I 74 15v-24 9th or 10th c. 63 See manuscript here.
W1 Cod. Vienna 67 168v-170 12th c. 62
W2 Cod. Vienna 2285 206-12 14th c. 62
Q Cod. Paris Lat. 5596 165- 8th or 9th c. 9 See manuscript here.
Q1 Cod. Paris Lat. 8071 no foliation 9th c. (late) 2 See manuscript here. Sometimes referred to as Codex Thuaneus.
U4 Cod. Vatican Reg. Lat. 1553 8v-21 (passim) 9th c. (early) 52 See manuscript here. Mixed with riddles of Symphosius and Aldhelm.[10]
A Chicago, Newberry MS f.11 12th c. (first half) 62
M Cod. Vatican Barb. Lat. 1717 16th c. 42

Editions and translations

The best modern editions of the Bern Riddles are:

  • 'Aenigmata in Dei nomine Tullii seu aenigmata quaestionum artis rhetoricae [aenigmata "bernensia"]', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), II 541–610.
  • Strecker, Karl (ed). “Aenigmata Hexasticha.” MGH: Poetae Latini aevi Carolingi, Vol. 4.2; Berlin, 1914. pp. 732-759.
  • The Bern Riddles, in The Riddle Ages: Old English Riddles, Translations and Commentaries, ed. by Megan Cavell and Neville Mogford, with Matthias Ammon and Victoria Symons (2013-). An edition and English translation of the Bern Riddles begun in 2020.

References

  1. Mittenhuber, Florian (2016). "Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611".
  2. David Ganz, 'In the Circle of the Bishop of Bourges: Bern 611 and Late Merovingian Culture], in East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective, ed. by Stefan Esders, Yaniv Fox, Yitzhak Hen and Laury Sarti (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 265-80; doi:10.1017/9781316941072.018.
  3. Finch, Chauncey E.; Barb, Lat (1973). "and Newberry Case MS f 11'". Manuscripta. 17: 3–11. doi:10.1484/J.MSS.3.726.
  4. Finch, Chauncey E. (1967). "Codex Vat. Barb. Lat. 721 as a Source for the Riddles of Symphosius". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 98: 173–79. doi:10.2307/2935872. JSTOR 2935872.
  5. Dieter Bitterli, Say What I am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), p. 22.
  6. Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 58.
  7. Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 59.
  8. 1 2 Klein, Thomas (2019). "Pater Occultus: The Latin Bern Riddles and Their Place in Early Medieval Riddling". Neophilologus. 103 (3): 399–417. doi:10.1007/s11061-018-9586-4. S2CID 166052153.
  9. 1 2 3 'Aenigmata in Dei nomine Tullii seu aenigmata quaestionum artis rhetoricae [aenigmata "bernensia"]', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), II 541-610.
  10. Chauncey E. Finch, 'The Bern Riddles in Codex Vat. Reg. Lat. 1553', Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 92 (1961), 145-55 (p. 145); https://www.jstor.org/stable/283806.

Further reading

  • Neville Mogford, 'The Moon and Stars in the Bern and Eusebius Riddles', in Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition: Words, Ideas, Interactions, ed. by Megan Cavell and Jennifer Neville (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), pp. 230–46 ISBN 9781526133724, doi:10.7765/9781526133724.00028.
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