Prologue, Chapter 8: Using Pagan Philosophers and Poets as Sources

Vincent defends himself against the charge of taking information from ancint pagan authors as well as from sacred books deemed apocryphal by the Catholic Church. (In my mind, he's maybe a little too defensive!) But he says that he has scriptural authority on his side. If anyone disagrees with his approach, he says,

"he will otherwise be contradicting the apostles who, in their letters, made use of some evidence from both kinds of book. For, as an example, Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, placed a saying of the comic poet Menander's verse: Bad company corrupts good character. He does the same thing when writing to Titus, introducing a saying from the verses of the poet Epimenides: Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies. He also, when disputing in the Areopagus at Athens, makes use of the evidence of the poet Aratus, talking about God: For we too are his offspring.”

I had two thoughts when I read this. First, it's been a long time since I've read the Bible straight through and so I had forgotten Paul quotes several pagan poets in his teaching; I think that's fascinating. Second, I think it's very interesting that Vincent is implying some sense of equality between himself and Paul - "Paul quotes pagans, so it's OK for me to do so, too."


Later in the chapter, Vincent explains an important point regarding his methodology of using pagan authors. He acknowledges that philosophers often disagree with one another and present information that contradicts other philosophers (and, indeed, even the Bible and teachings of the Church). Therefore, he says,

"I follow the habit not of a treater of literature but of an excerptor. And so I have not particularly worked to bring the words of the philosophers into agreement but to recite as much as several of them know or write about each topic, leaving it to the judgment of the reader whose opinion he should rather adhere to."

 Vincent thus disavows responsibility of telling us as readers what to believe; he assumes we're intelligent enough to decide which expert opinion we should trust and accept.

Prologue, Chapter 5: Kings, Wars, and Dating of Events

In Chapter 5 of the Prologue ("Apology regarding kings and wars in this work"), Vincent addresses his method of recording history in the Speculum Historiale, the historical part of his book which I will not be translating. He says that he feels justified in inserting the names of kings in his history as a method of dating Church events. After all, he says,

"Luke wove the history of the Lord's incarnation [and] in the very beginning of his gospel, he made mention of King Herod and, after a few words, of Caesar Augustus. So those things which were little noted by people were confirmed and corroborated by those things which are carried by frequent report to almost everyone."

In other words, "The writer of the Gospel of Luke used Herod and Augustus and date the birth of Jesus, so why shouldn't I do likewise in my history?"


Later in the same chapter, Vincent explains why he has no problem recording wars and slaughter in his history, despite their apparent display of un-Christian virtues:

"The reader will be able to pay attention to the rest of the famous wars which took place everywhere throughout the world within different kingdoms before our peaceable king came who spoke peace to his people; with how much fervor should we fight against spiritual enemies for the sake of our own spiritual health and for the eternal glory which has been promised to us when those certain people (namely infidels) – who are completely arising and ignorant of this health and glory – so bitterly fight for temporal health only and for acquiring or guarding momentary glory."

That is, meditating on warfare is a way to think about the vanity of the world and encouragement to fight for spiritual health. He goes on to say that reading about warfare is a way for readers to consider God's righteous punishment of unbelievers.

Prologue, Chapter 3: Citing Sources

In the Prologue, Vincent lays out the plan and scope of his work as well as his method when it comes to selecting and quoting authors. In Chapter 3 ("Regarding the book's title and plan of making"), he writes about citing his sources:

 "so that it can be known what is from which author, I noted their names with the words of each and so that they are not easily transposed from their proper places, I never inserted them in the margins (as is done in the glossed Psaltery and the epistles and opinions of Paul) but I inserted them between the lines themselves (as Gratian did in the compilation of the canon law)."

Vincent not only is concerned with proper attribution, he's also concerned about the process of copying and distributing his manuscript. If he writes his citations in the margins, he's concerned that copyists will ignore them or move them around in the text as they copy. If he puts his citations directly after the quotation, then it's less likely a copyist will be able to move them to the wrong place.

I find it amazing that a 12th-century monk is upholding modern scholarly conventions when it comes to avoiding plagiarism by correctly and consistently citing his sources!

A Brief Intro to This Project

Vincent of Beauvais and the Speculum Naturale

Vincent of Beauvais was a 13th-century monk who lived and worked in a monastery in northern France from the 1220s till his death in the 1260s. His major work was the Speculum Maius (Great Mirror), which Vincent presented as a compendium of complete world knowledge - not unlike John Hodgman's trilogy of complete world knowledge but, you know, real.

The Speculum Maius was divided into three parts: the Speculum Naturale (Mirror of Nature), the Speculum Doctrinale (Mirror of Doctrine), and the Speculum Historiale (Mirror of History). These were massive tomes; in total, the entire Speculum ran to over 3 million words. Much of these works were made up of quotations from ancient Roman writers, medieval theologians, Roman Catholic Church Fathers, and contemporary historians. It appears that Vincent conducted his work with the financial support of the French royal family. More detailed information on the composition of the Speculum Maius can be found here.

Vincent wrote a number of other works; for more on him and his works, check out the Wikipedia entry on him.

What My Project Is

Parts of the Speculum Maius (particularly the Speculum Historiale) have been translated into English and other modern languages, but there is no complete translation of the Speculum Naturale into English. I am currently working in my spare time on just such a translation and I plan to post interesting portions of the work on this blog as I work. I'm doing this in order to bring more attention to Vincent's work and its importance for understanding medieval ways of understanding the world as well as to highlight weird and wild things that he discusses.

I'm working from the Google Books scan of Hermann Liechtenstein's 1494 edition of the Douai text, published in Venice.

Why I'm Doing This

I enjoy translating ancient Greek and Latin texts, mostly for my own benefit to regularly practice my language skills (I have a PhD in these languages, after all, and it's important to to me that I maintain my skills). For a time, though, I translated several early Renaissance works for Smith and Press Publishing Co., among them the Fasciculus medicinae. This project, though, is a bit different in that I am not currently being paid for translating Vincent but yet the translation will be more public-facing and extensive; the Speculum is a long work, the longest I've ever translated and transliterated.

 I don't know how I came across Vincent's work; I stumbled across a reference to him in something I was reading for fun, looked up some information on him on the internet, and discovered that no one had translated his work into English. Seeing an opportunity to translate something new and fresh, I decided to get started. I look forward to sharing pieces of my translation with you in the coming months and years as I work on it!