The Archpoet ( 1130 – c. 1165),Adcock 1994: xix; Waddell 2000: 295. or (in Latin and German),Jeep 2001: 21. was an anonymous 12th-century author of ten medieval Latin poems, the most famous being his "Confession" found in the manuscript (under CB 191). Along with Hugh Primas of Orléans (with whom he has sometimes been confused),Various sources (for example, see Lejay 1913: 33) have erroneously taken "Archipoeta" to be an alias or pen name of Hugh of Orléans while in fact there are numerous indications establishing their being two different individuals. Peter Dronke goes even as far as to call the Archpoet Hugh's "brillante discepolo e successore" (Dronke 2007: 137), brilliant disciple and successor. he is cited as the best exemplar of Goliardic poetryWhicher 1949: 102; Haskins 1971: 179–181; Adcock 1994: ix; Harrington and Pucci 1997: 566. and one of the stellar poets of the Latin Middle Ages.
Knowledge about him comes essentially from his poems found in manuscripts: his noble birth in an unspecified region of Western Europe, his respectable and classical education, his association with Archchancellor Rainald of Dassel's court, and his poetic activity linked to it in both content and purpose. As such, it has been speculated that the bibulous, extravagant personality emanating from his work could be only serving as a façade despite its apparent autobiographical trend.
Biography Identity and nickname His existence has been elaborated upon the authorial superscription "" appearing with the poems now ascribed to him in a small number of manuscripts.Adcock 1994: xxii; Jeep 2001: 21. While some recent—and so far inconclusive—attempts have been made to identify the Archpoet as either one of two Rodulfuses from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's entourage,Adcock 1994: xx. his real identity has never been found and is most likely lost for good.
It has been suggested by W. H. T. Jackson and othersWhicher 1949: 102. that his nickname could be a play on his patron Rainald of Dassel's title of Archchancellor ( in Latin), even if its exact origins are ultimately left open to speculation.Adcock 1994: xii. Moreover, it is not known how he came to earn the nickname or who bestowed it to him: whether as a mark of esteem from the audiences, other poets, Rainald himself; as a satirical jest on his patron's title; or as an ironical mock self-attribution. There has been report of at least two other "", itinerant clerics, bearing the "" pseudonym or title around that time: one Nicholas who briefly resided with the Cistercians at their abbey,Waddell 2000: 209. and Henry of Avranches (around 1250);Henshaw 1937: 195. yet both are distinct from the "" of Barbarossa's reigning period (1155–1190).
Conjectured life
The Archpoet's living circumstances have been surmised from the indicative content of his poems but mostly from the life of Rainald of Dassel.Adcock 1994: xii, xvii. Because he designates Rainald as Archbishop of Cologne,Keeping in line with the hypothesis that his nickname or pseudonym was inspired by the titles of his patron, it explains why he is sometimes referred to as the "Archpoet of Cologne"; for example, see Whicher 1949: 102–103 and Curtius 1990: 29. it shows that he must have been alive and active for at least some time between 1159 (when Rainald became archbishop) and 1167 (when he died); furthermore, all of his datable poems fall within 1162 and 1164.Adcock 1994: xix. With the passing of his patron in 1167, no more is heard from the Archpoet.Jeep 2001: 22. Also, in poem X, Peter Dronke writes, "he counts himself among the : while technically a can be any age between twenty-one and fifty, it would seem plausible to imagine the Archpoet as thirty or thirty-five at the time of this composition, and to set his birth not too far from 1130."Adcock 1994: xix. See poem X (CB 191), line 27.
Several indications concur as to establish that the Archpoet came from a place north of the Alps,The main evidence being his using the word "" (meaning "which lives or comes from beyond the mountains" in Latin) in line 14 of poem III, when it is made clear that he is writing from within Italy and thus south of the Alps. although no solid claim can be made as to which country,Adcock 1994: xxi–xxii. even though Germany has repeatedly and traditionally being taken as his birthplace.Harrington and Pucci 1997: 567. He refers to himself as "",See poem IV, line 70 (CB 220, line 10). of knightly birth, and, coming from such a high class, was most certainly well-educated in the liberal arts,Haskins 1971: 181; Harrington and Pucci 1997: 567; Adcock 1994: xix; Emmerson 2006: 44. theology and the classics.Adcock 1994: xii. In poem IV, he states that he chose the pursuit of poetry (as symbolized by the Roman poet Virgil) over a career in the military (as symbolized by the Trojan warrior Paris) as his birth permitted and disposed him to.Jeep 2001: 21. See poem IV, lines 69–72 (CB 220, lines 9–12). It has been deduced from the same poem that he first traveled to Salerno in order to pursue medical studies but that due to ill health, he had to abandon this project.Haskins 1971: 181; Adcock 1994: xix.
It was probably then that he began working—possibly as a "", a "master of the art of writing letters"—at the court of Rainald of Dassel, the bishop elector of Cologne and Archchancellor to Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, about which he wrote, according to Ernst Robert Curtius, "[t]he most brilliant stanzas"Curtius 1990: 29. among the many written about and/or for him during the 35 years of his reign. His references to Salerno, Vienna, and Cologne in his poems, as well as several details gleaned from the Archchancellor's court displacements, suggest that he did travel around northern Italy, Provence, Burgundy, Austria and Germany during his life.Haskins 1971: 53, 181; Adcock 1994: xix; Jeep 2001: 21; Emmerson 2006: 44. It is known that the Archpoet lived for some time—possibly the last years of his life—at the monastery of St. Martin in Cologne.Waddell 2000: 172; Harrington and Pucci 1997: 567. As is the case with many medieval and/or anonymous authors, very little else can be said with certainty about his life.
Modern critical reassessment
While it is still commonly assumed that the Archpoet was a follower of the Goliard tradition—writing student drinking songs, parodies critical of the Church and satires on the life of itinerant clergy in the Middle Ages—, the noted scholar Peter Dronke proposed a very different portrait in his 1968 book The Medieval Lyric:
This view of the Archpoet and his milieu, severely contrasting with that of the previous generations of researchers and writers such as J. A. Symonds and Helen Waddell, created a break in modern High Middle Ages scholarship about the Goliards and, in spite of not creating consensus within the academic community, has since been embraced by many scholars.See Jackson 1980: 2–3; Adcock 1994: xx; Godwin 2000: 191–192. Summarizing Dronke's view by using English writer Geoffrey Chaucer as an example of differentiation between actual (historical) self and poetic (fictional) persona, Jan Ziolkowski wrote that the Archpoet's shenanigans "may be little more than a stance struck by the poet to entertain his audience; the persona could be as far from the reality as that of Chaucer the character was from Chaucer the poet or man."Jeep 2001: 21–22. Dronke further argued that the Archpoet could well have been Hugh Primas's student in Orléans, getting acquainted through him with various rare Classical poets and also with his personal style (themes and techniques).Adcock 1994: xxi–xxii; Dronke 2007: 137.
Works Overview The Archpoet is known today through ten Latin poems or (plural form of carmen, Latin equivalent of "song" or "chant") found in various manuscripts dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Listed here are the poems, identified, as is customary, by their incipit:
I: "" II: "" III: "" IV: "" V: ""
VI: "" VII: "" VIII: "" IX: "" X: """" is also found as a variant to "" since medieval manuscripts do not always use the same spelling for the same texts. ("Confession")
The works of the Archpoet have been found and preserved in the following manuscripts, among others: Univ. Bibl. Göttingen Codex philol. 170Adcock 1994: xxii, 129. (12th century): I-VII; first stanza of VIII. Brussels Bibliothèque Royale 2071 (13th century): IX and X; stanzas 1–5 of VII. Codex Buranus: München Bayer. Staatsbibl. Clm 4660/4660aDronke 1984: 249. (13th century): X; 4 stanzas of IV.
The thus contains the 25-stanza "" (X) under the reference number CB 191While CB 191 is sometimes presented as having 30 stanzas, the last 5 (often put under CB 191a) are believed not to be the Archpoet's own work. See Wolff 1995: 529. as well as 4 stanzas from "" (IV) under CB 220,As with the other poem, CB 220a (or sometimes CB 221) is believed to be another anonymous author's work. See Wolff 1995: 533. Both the Bibliotheca Augustana's and David Stampe's (reproducing Bischoff's) versions display these poems of contested origin as 191a and 220a. starting with "" in the collection.
Presentation
Despite being quite dissimilar from one another in terms of tone and intent, the ten poems are all "occasional"Jeep 2001: 21; Emmerson 2006: 44. in the sense that they have been written for a specific purpose under precise circumstances, whether to celebrate an event or respond to a request; in the Archpoet's case, concerning the court of his patron: eight of them are directed to Rainald of Dassel, while the two others are addressed to Frederick Barbarossa himself.Sidwell 2002: 347. For example, the fourth poem, "", was most probably written as a plaintive answer to what he felt was the unreasonable demand from Rainald that he write within one week an epic recounting the Emperor's campaign in Italy.Waddell 2000: 167; Sidwell 2002: 347; Whicher 1949: 103.
The Archpoet's poems are known for appearing "intensely personal":Jackson 1976: 320. he features in almost all of them, and deals in an outspoken manner with intimate subjects such as his material (e.g. poverty, wandering) and spiritual (e.g. distress, anger, love) condition, his flawed and sinful nature, his wishes and aspirations. Many of his poems, whether panegyric or not, amount to very elaborate pleas to obtain food, drink, clothing, and money from his powerful patron.Jeep 2001: 21; Whicher 1949: 102–103. Yet far from falling into mere lyricism or honest confidence, they are often undermined by subtle sarcasm and disguised mockery, fitting with the persona the Archpoet seems to have created for himself as a free-spirited, vagabond hedonist, unrepentant in his propensity to overindulge and unblushing in the judgment of his self-worth.Adcock 1994: xiii–xv. Aside from their recognized technical merits,Whicher 1949: 103; Dronke 1980: 22, 39–40; Adcock 1994: xiii, xv. the poems are imbued with a strong and pervading sense of humor manifested in the consummate use and manipulation of classical and biblical sources for parodic, sarcastic and ironic purposes.Whicher 1949: 102–103; Adcock 1994: xiv; Jeep 2001: 21.
"Confession"