Book of Rules of Tyconius, The: Its Purpose and Inner Logic

THE BOOK OF RULES - A NEGLECTED CLASSIC

CHAPTER ONE THE BOOK OF RULES - A NEGLECTED CLASSIC THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF RULES In tracing the manuscript tradition of the Book of Rules, Burkitt came across a memoria technica of the seven rules of Tyconius in a thirteenth century Laon manuscript, first published in the French Departmental Catalogue 5/1849. Regula prima caput nostrum cum corpore iungit. corpore de uero loquitur mixtoque secunda. tertia describit quid lex quid gratia possit. quarta genus speciem tatum partemque rependit. tempora disiungit maiora minoraque quinta. sexta refert iterum que primo facta fuerunt. septima serpentis tibi 1 membra caputque resoluit. The first rule links our Head with the Body. The second speaks oftheBody, true and mingled. The third describes what Law and what grace can do. The fourth decides between genus and species, the whole and the part. The fifth differentiates greater and lesser times. ITibi variant of the Roman mss. Vat 4296 (15th Cent.). Sibi 13th cent MS at Laon (Departmental Catalogue of 1849, vol i, 88). 16 PAMELABRIGHf The sixth reports yet again the things which took place originally. The seventh destroys for you the head and members of the serpent.2 There are two Roman manuscript copies of the fourteenth and fif­ teenth centuries of this deft abridgment of the Book ofRules. It should come as no surprise that such an exegetical tool exists since the Book ofRules had been part of the standard listings of exegetical works in the Church since the time of Cassiodorus in the sixth century. Isidore of Seville described the Rules in his Liber Sententiarum in the seventh century and Bede prefixed his Explanatio Apocalypsis with a description of Tyconius' Book ofRules. The scholarly Hincmar, in his dispute with Godescalc, referred to Tyconius and his seven rules. Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims in the second half of the ninth cen­ tury, has a special place in the literary history of the Book ofRules since he gave what B urkitt considers to be "the oldest and best manuscript of it now known ,,3 to the Cathedral library at Reims. This vellum quarto Codex Remensis in Carolingian minuscules consists of 35 lines of 1 39 columns in all. B urkitt has traced the rest of the intact manuscripts of the Book of Rules, with one exception, to a single Vatican manuscript of the tenth cen­ tury, Codex Vaticanus Reginensis 590. The exception referred to is a vellum manuscript of the ninth century, Codex Modoetianus, "Ambrosiaster's" commentary on the Pauline epistles. The last five pages of the manuscript are an abridgment of the Book of Rules known as the Monza Epitome. 2B urkitt, Book of Rules, 86. Memoria Technica for the Rules of Tyconius, from a 13th cent MS at Laon (Departmental Catalogue of 1 849, vol i, 88). 3Burkitt, Book ofRules, xxi. THE BOOK OFRULES OF TYCONIUS 17 Burkitt has included a transcript of this document in an appendix to his criti­ cal edition of the Book ofRules.4 Burkitt's study of the literary history of the Book ofRules demon­ strates how problematic the textual transmission proved for the understanding of Tyconian hermeneutics. When one compares the Vatican codex and Hincmar's copy of the Book of Rules, the latter is far superior. Since, ac­ cording to Burkitt,S the Vatican Codex is the ancestor of the remaining wit­ nesses, Codex Parisiensis of the eleventh century and Codex Oxoniensis of the twelfth century, the corruption of the manuscript tradition had an adverse effect upon the reception of Tyconius' exegetical teachings. THE NEGLECTED CLASSIC What does it mean to describe the Book of Rules as a neglected classic? Burkitt argued that what led to its being neglected and gradually for­ gotten by the end of the nineteenth century was the poor state of its textual transmission. However, there is another sense in which the Book ofRules may be described as neglected. A close study of the references to the Book of Rules reveals that Tyconius' work has been read indirectly rather than directly from the original. The Book ofRules has been read mainly through the eyes of Augustine who included a summary of the seven rules of Tyconius in his own exegetical work, the De Doctrina Christiana. Burkitt sums up the influence of Augustine upon the reception of the Book ofRules in the Introduction to the critical edition. 4Burkitt, Book ofRules. 89-98. 5Burkitt, Book ofRules, xxv. 18 PAMELA BRIm-IT . . . the sole...