The Berlin Commentary on Martianus Capella’s De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii Book I: With the Assistance of C. Vester

This critical edition presents a complete, later-medieval Latin commentary on the first two books of Martianus Capella’s influential handbook of the Seven Liberal Arts. Using his allegorical interpretation of the programmatic marriage of Mercury (eloquence) and Philology (learning) as a speculative, proto-scientific method of inquiry, the commentator provides coverage of medieval philosophy, theology, science, myth, language, literature and education. Intellectually the author is still connected with early scholasticism and the School of Chartres , being more sympathetic to Neoplatonism than to the newly arrived Aristotelianism. He is particularly interested in the role of good works, which he sees revealed sub integumento in the function of Iuno in the Capitoline trinity. The commentary has been designed with a reading audience and a reference in mind. This edition is keyed to Dick’s as well as Willis’s editions of Martianus Capella.