Μέλη / Ὑμνοι … — Paris 1556/1570

Ἀνακρέοντος, καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν λυρικῶν ποιητῶν μέλη. Anacreontis et aliorum Lyricorum aliquot poetarum odae. In easdem Henr. Stephani observationes.  Eadem Latinae. — M.D.LVI. Parisiis. Apud Guill. Morelium, & Rob. Stephanus.

Paris, Guillaume Morel & Robert II Estienne, 1556

Bound with:

Synesius Cyrenensis

Ὑμνοι δεκα. Γρηγοριου του Ναζιανζηνου ᾠδαὶ τέσσαρες. Προετέθη ὁ τοῦ Ἰοαννου Δαμασκηνου ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Θεογονίαν. — Apud Ioann. Bene-natum. MDLXX.

Paris, Jean Bienné, 1570

8vo (165 x 101 mm). Near contemporary vellum over stiff boards. The size of the Anacreon a bit smaller than of the Synesius.  

Anacreon: A-G⁸ H⁶ (but lacking blank H6): 120 (= 122) pp. Basilisk device of the Royal Greek Printer on title. A few contemporary marginal annotations. On page 21 a former owner has written his translation of Δότε μοι δότ᾽ ῷ γυναῖκες … beside the Greek text.

Henri’s observationes on pp. 70-100, his translation on pp. 101-122. Robert II has added a heading on page 54: Τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἀνακρέοντος καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν λυρικῶν μέλη σποράδην. The two errors in the text listed on the last page of the 1554 editon have been corrected in the 1556 edition. On page 69 Robert has added a poem by Sappho not in the 1554 edition, starting: Φαίνεταί μοι κεῖνος ἴσος θεοῖσιν …

BP16 114524: Suit l’édition de 1554 d’Henri Estienne, avec la même épître latine au lecteur. Texte grec, précédé d’un extrait de la Souda relatif à Anacréon et suivi de la traduction latine. Contient aussi d’autres poèmes d’Anacréon ainsi que quelques poèmes d’Alcée et de Sappho. Première édition où apparaît le nom de Robert II Estienne. Mention « Typis regiis » au titre [refers to Morel as Royal Greek Printer]. Les exemplaires sont souvent reliés avec la traduction latine d’Élie André, qui paraît la même année chez les mêmes imprimeurs-libraires [BP16 11425].

Synesius: ã⁴ A-I⁸ K⁶: (8), 1-155, (1) pp. Basilisk device of the Royal Greek Printer on title.

BP16 114978: Texte grec, suivi de la traduction latine. Suit la traduction de Franciscus Portus, publiée à Genève en 1568 par Henri II Estienne. Contient quatre poèmes de Grégoire de Nazianze et un hymne de Jean Damascène

P. Renouard, Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du XVIe siècle. Tome III. Baquelier-Billon, Paris, 1979, n° 644 p. 478

¶ Wikipedia: The hymns of Synesius (c. 370 – c. 415):

„The hymns provide insight into the author’s worldview, in which pagan Neoplatonic ideas are mixed with Christian ones without any contradiction being seen in this. Synesius describes the task he has set himself with the words that the spirit of the mystic – the initiate into the mysteries or, more generally, the pious – circles ‘the unspeakable source in the dance’. As a poet, he sets out to put the unspeakable into words. The hymns glorify ‘the One,’ the absolutely transcendent highest principle of Neoplatonism, which the philosopher equates with the Christian God. Like the pagan Neoplatonists, he regards it as the ‘source of all things’ and calls it the ‘number of numbers.’ He addresses this supreme deity as the ‘Father of all Fathers,’ who is ‘beyond the gods’ and represents the ‘lifeline of the gods.’ With such formulations, he acknowledges the reality of pagan polytheism, treating the gods as real beings.

For the hymn writer, the One is not only father, but also mother and womb; it appears as both female and male. The Neoplatonic doctrine of the One as the origin of all being is mixed with the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity. Whether the maternal aspect of the deity, whose significance the poet emphasises, refers to the Holy Spirit is a matter of debate among scholars.

From the creative deity, who is both father and mother, the Son of God emerges in a ceaseless birth. Synesius emphasises the paradoxical identity of the one who gives birth and the one who is born; the Son is not separate from the Father and is not subordinate to him. The Son is brought forth by the paternal will, which occupies a middle position between Father and Son. The Son is the aspect of the deity that is focused on the creation of the world and is also responsible for salvation. He therefore does not remain in divine seclusion, but turns to the world. Synesius uses the terms ‘father,’ “mother” and ‘son,’ which are taken from human kinship relationships, only as metaphors in the hymns, not in a literal sense.

The poet assumes the existence of a plurality of spiritual worlds, whose creator is the One, and which in turn bring forth the sensually perceptible, material world through emanation. The immortal souls of human beings, which are at home in the purely spiritual realm, have descended into the material world. There they have lost their way, wandering in a foreign land, and are now exposed to manifold hardships. In the first hymn, the poet lets his soul speak and lament its fate. It has descended to serve the earth; like a drop from heaven, it has fallen to earth. Now it must realise that instead of being a servant, it has become a slave, after matter has captivated it with enchanting arts. Her bonds are the addictions that oppress and mislead her. The means by which the earth beguiles and holds her captive is the ‘joyless joy’ of sweet delusions. She is at the mercy of ‘piercing passions’ and has forgotten her own values. After realising this, she wants to free herself from the deceptive delusions and return to the divine source from which she once flowed. Therefore, she asks her divine father to let a light shine that will lead her upwards. She asks Helios, the divine sun, for protection on her ascent to her heavenly home.

After her return home, as Synesius assures her in the ninth hymn, she will ‘dance the round dance, united with the Father, God in God’.

The poet dedicates his hymns to this goal. In doing so, he emphasises the importance of devout silence, which should prevail when ‘sacred hymns’ are offered to the deity as a ‘bloodless sacrifice’. Emotions must be calmed. The soul must be free of passions and desires, toil and lamentations, anger and strife when it approaches the deity.

The cosmology of the hymns is based on the ideas that were common at the time, primarily those of Aristotle. According to this geocentric world view, the spherical universe is made up of spheres. The celestial spheres are transparent, hollow spheres arranged concentrically around the Earth as the centre of the world, which rotate uniformly. The stars are attached to them. This attachment keeps the celestial bodies in their circular orbits. Their movements do not originate from themselves, but are transmitted to them by the spheres. Synesius assumes nine spheres. The seven inner hollow spheres each carry a variable star, i.e. the moon and sun, as well as the five planets known at the time and visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. All the fixed stars are attached to the eighth, apparently fastest hollow sphere. A ninth, starless sphere envelops the whole, propels it and keeps it in motion. It forms the boundary of the universe. The cosmos is divided by the lunar sphere, the lowest planetary sphere: above the moon’s orbit is the region of immortal heavenly beings, below it the realm of transience.“