''Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis'' ("Praises of the City of Milan"), also known as the ''Versum de Mediolano civitate'' ("Verse of the City of Milan") or ''Versus in laudem mediolanensis civitatis'' ("Verse in Praise of the City of Milan"), is an early
medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...
poem, which describes and praises the Italian city of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. It dates from the mid-8th century, during the era of the
Lombard Kingdom
The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established ...
. The poet is unknown. The poem is an
encomium
''Encomium'' is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greek ''enkomion'' (), meaning "the praise of a person or thing." Another Latin equivalent is ''laudatio'', a speech in praise of someone or something.
Originally was the song sung by the c ...
, an example of the urban eulogy genre.
It celebrates not only the Christian heritage of Milan, but also its
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
Roman history
The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced ma ...
.
It is considered to be the earliest surviving medieval description of a city.
The poem served as a model for the
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
''
Versus de Verona
The ''Versus de Verona'', also ''Carmen Pipinianum'' or ''Rhythmus Pipinianus'' (''Ritmo Pipiniano''), was a medieval Latin poetic encomium on the city of Verona, composed during the Carolingian Renaissance, between 795 and 806. It was modeled on ...
'', a similar encomium to its rival
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
, written around 50 years later.
[
]
Background and history
''Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis'' has been dated at around 738, or 739–49. The Milan of that date was a bustling city in the Lombard Kingdom
The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established ...
in northern Italy, which had regained its stability after the collapse of the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. The anonymous poet is likely to have been a clergyman. No contemporary Milanese manuscript copies have survived, and the poem is known from a single 9th-century manuscript from the Chapter Library of Verona 250px, Verona Cathedral (2022)
Verona Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Santa Maria Matricolare; Duomo di Verona) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Verona, northern Italy, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the designation ''Santa Maria Matricolare ...
, another city in Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
.
Milan was a popular subject for writers. ''Ordo Nobilium Urbium'', a 4th-century poem by the Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
poet Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...
, includes a brief section on the city. Later medieval descriptions include the anonymous ''De situ civitatis Mediolani'' (780–1000), and ones written by Bonvesin da la Riva Bonvesin da la Riva (; sometimes Italianized in spelling Bonvesino or Buonvicino; 1240 – c. 1313) was a well-to-do Milanese lay member of the '' Ordine degli Umiliati'' (literally, "Order of the Humble Ones"), a teacher of (Latin) grammar and a n ...
(1288) and Benzo d'Alessandria (around 1316), all of which are in prose.
Other 8th-century poems on an urban subject include Alcuin
Alcuin of York (; la, Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; 735 – 19 May 804) – also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin – was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student o ...
's poem praising the English city of York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
(780s), and a poem lamenting the destruction of the Italian city of Aquileia
Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river N ...
, which was possibly written by the city's ruler, Paulinus II
Saint Paulinus II ( 726 – 11 January 802 or 804 AD) was a priest, theologian, poet, and one of the most eminent scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance. From 787 to his death, he was the Patriarch of Aquileia. He participated in a number of syn ...
(late 8th century).
Structure
The poem has 72 lines, arranged in 24 stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s, each of which has three lines. The opening stanzas read:
The poem is organised on an alphabetical scheme; the stanzas start with the letters "A", "B", "C", and so on, with the penultimate stanza starting with a "Z". An additional Gloria concludes the poem.
Subject
The poem opens with a brief description of Milan's city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
, towers and gates; its public buildings, including the forum
Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to:
Common uses
* Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States
*Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city
**Roman Forum, most famous example
*Internet ...
; and its paved streets and water supply. For example, lines 16–18 praise the city's "forum, with very beautiful buildings, and all its roads are solidly paved with blocks; it draws water for its baths through an aqueduct".Bryan Ward-Perkins
Bryan Ward-Perkins is an archaeologist and historian of the later Roman Empire and early Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the transitional period between those two eras, an historical sub-field also known as Late Antiquity. Ward-Perkins i ...
(1984), ''From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, AD 300–850'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), 224. These buildings, however, were in use at the time; the Roman structures mentioned in the ''Versus de Verona'' were strictly monuments. The reference to "solid paving" appears to conflict with archaeological evidence.
In describing the city's buildings, the poet pays particular attention to the churches. The bulk of the verses retell the spiritual history of Milan and discuss the characteristics of the Milanese church, including its unique Ambrosian rite
The Ambrosian Rite is a Catholic Western liturgical rite, named after Saint Ambrose, a bishop of Milan in the fourth century, which differs from the Roman Rite. It is used by some five million Catholics in the greater part of the Archdiocese o ...
. The poem praises the Milanese citizens for their piety and charitable nature, and expounds on their artistic and scientific successes.[ These virtues, together with their wealth and their close connection with the ]Lombard kings
The Kings of the Lombards or ''reges Langobardorum'' (singular ''rex Langobardorum'') were the monarchs of the Lombard people from the early 6th century until the Lombardic identity became lost in the 9th and 10th centuries. After 568, the Lombar ...
, are also cited in support of Milan's pre-eminence among the cities of northern Italy.[ The poet then lists the many ]saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
s, martyrs and bishops buried within the city, stating that they are responsible for Milan's prosperity.
The poet goes on to praise the Lombardian monarch, Liutprand, who reigned from 712 to 744, as well as the city's bishop, Theodore II, who died in 735. Aside from this mention of Liutprand, the poet does not refer to the state of Lombardy. The poem concludes with a prayer.
The subject matter is typical of later medieval Christian urban eulogies. It expresses the unknown author's sense of civic pride. The choice of topics and their organisation follow the classical scheme of a eulogy to a city, originating in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
and commonly practised in Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
. The poet might have followed an 8th-century guide to the form called ''De laudibus urbium'', adapting it to his Christian perspective. He does not seem to have been inspired by Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...
's earlier poem.
Several scholars have suggested that the ''Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis'' might be the contribution of Milan, the ecclesiastical capital of Italy, to a literary rivalry with the royal capital, Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
. Nicholas Everett has pointed out that Milan is described as "the queen of towns, mother of the realm ... who bears the eminent title of metropolis. The immense dignity of her power endures, so that all the bishops of ancient Italy 'presules Ausoniae''come to her to be instructed according to the dictates of canon law."[Nicholas Everett (2003), ''Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–774'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 285.] Pavia also had a canon law school. Giovanni Battista Pighi ( it), one of the poem's editors, and Gina Fasoli ( it) have argued that the poem inflates Milan's contemporary importance by a set of clever overstatements; for example, it was not the "''urbs regia''" and had not been the administrative capital since the end of the 4th century. The poem's opening also stresses that Milan's name stretched back into antiquity, while Pavia was then known by two different names, "Papia" and "Ticinum
Ticinum (the modern Pavia) was an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, founded on the banks of the river of the same name (now the Ticino river) a little way above its confluence with the Padus ( Po).
It was said by Pliny the Elder to have been ...
".
The Verona encomium
The poem appears to have been the inspiration for a eulogy to Verona, known variously as the ''Versus de Verona
The ''Versus de Verona'', also ''Carmen Pipinianum'' or ''Rhythmus Pipinianus'' (''Ritmo Pipiniano''), was a medieval Latin poetic encomium on the city of Verona, composed during the Carolingian Renaissance, between 795 and 806. It was modeled on ...
'', ''Laudes Veronensis'' or ''Veronae Rythmica Descriptio'', dated to around 796–800, which follows a very similar plan and contains numerous borrowed phrasings. The Milanese encomium is written in polished Latin and has a more consistent, more regular prosody than the Veronese poem.[Peter Godman (1985), ''Latin Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 29–31.] It emphasises the characteristics of the city's inhabitants, and omits details of defunct Roman edifices such as the theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
and circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
.
The English historian J. K. Hyde considers that neither ''Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis'' nor the Verona poem was a significant influence on the later evolution of the genre of urban descriptions, many of which were written in prose.
Modern critical reception
The poem was first edited by the German historian Ernst Dümmler
Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 183011 September 1902) was a German historian.
Biography
Ernst Ludwig was born in Berlin, the son of (1777–1846), a Berlin bookseller. He studied law, classical philology and history, among other things, at B ...
in 1881. A modern edition was prepared by G. B. Pighi in 1960. It is discussed in early reviews of medieval descriptions of cities by Margaret Schlauch
Margaret Schlauch (September 25, 1898 – July 19, 1986) was a scholar of medieval studies at New York University and later, after she left the United States for political reasons in 1951, at the University of Warsaw, where she headed the depa ...
(1941) and Hyde (1966).
Hyde notes the "originality" of the poem's subject matter and method of treatment but describes its execution as "technically competent, but no more than mediocre" and "cold and wooden". Italian academic Paolo Zanna praises the poem's "very logical" organisation, and writes that the classical eulogy structure has been transformed into a "powerful and skilfully composed profession of the Italian civic pride." Diego Zancani, a specialist in Italian literature, writes that the poem displays "the consciousness of belonging to a privileged place."
See also
*List of literary descriptions of cities (before 1550)
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
External links
*{{wikisourcelang-inline, la, Versum de Mediolano civitate
''Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis''
Complete Latin text from ''Poetae latini medii aevi'' (1880)
Medieval Latin poetry