Aethicus Ister

Aethicus ( often wrongly Aethicus Ister ) is the name of the fictitious author of a travelogue, which allegedly arose in antiquity. Tradition has it only an early medieval text whose unknown author claims that it was a translated into Latin and revised version of the original, written in ancient Greek work of Aethicus, entitled " description of the world " ( Cosmographia or in the spelling of the author Chosmografia ) wear. According to the currently prevailing opinion, the Latin cosmography is originated in the 8th century. The circumstances of the origin and identity, ethnicity and objectives of the unknown author are controversial. What is certain only that the name Aethicus is fictitious and that the alleged ancient Greek travelogue has never existed.

The cosmography

According to the title and the introductory words, a priest named Jerome - meaning the father of the church of that name, who lived in the 4th and early 5th century - the work written on the basis of the report of a traveler named Aethicus. Aethicus, which is called the Scythian and according to the fiction lived in pre-Christian times is said to have traveled to all countries and islands in the world between India and the Iberian peninsula from Africa to the far north. He is described as bold seafarers and as the greatest scholar of his time and should also have been an engineer and philosopher. However, the alleged agent " Jerome" wants to convey the impression, over the depictions of " Aethicus " which he reproduce and comment claiming to be critical of; he warns against credulity. However, this does not prevent him from spreading a wealth of fabulous material.

Content, sources, and language

The cosmography begins with a presentation of the biblical creation story and then goes on to describe the earth, the sea, the stars and astronomical phenomena, the author presents a theory of volcanism. He regarded the earth as a flat disc, the mainland is completely encircled by the ocean. Hell and the biblical heaven, which is rigidly connected with the earth, appear as constituents of the material world. The hell that is located below the surface, consists of four parts, corresponding to the four cardinal points; the southern part is purgatory. Then, the author reports on the sometimes adventurous travels of Aethicus. He begins with the islands in the far north and then go to south across; then he turns to the west coast of Europe with their islands. At length he describes the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus, including the mythical Amazons, as well as Greece and the Balkans. His special interest is the islands. The legendary founder of Rome, Romulus king, he can against " Francus " and " vassus " successfully lead alleged ancestors of the Franks, War. Then he deals again with Asia, where he chooses India as a starting point and turns from there to the west. About Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria, he leads the reader to North Africa, where he proceeds to to Mauritania. About Italy and Gaul, he seems to know little. As a foreign body inserted into the text is a comprehensive catalog of largely fanciful fictional ship types. It concludes with a chapter on the development of wind and water, and a supposedly invented by Aethicus secret alphabet.

From the geographical names as well as persons and peoples names, indicating the author, some are completely unknown, others are attested only here modifications and extensions of known words. Such enigmatic expressions he scatters not only in the representation of exotic countries, but also in the treatment at that time well known regions such as Greece and Asia Minor, where he invents islands and landscapes. Although these numbers may come from his mother tongue unknown to us or are distorted by oral tradition, but is little doubt that he has invented some of the names for the purpose of misleading bona fide readers.

His dealings with his previously determined sources reveals to deceive the reader 's intention. By selectively and arbitrarily modifies and alienates the details of his sources for no apparent reason, he tries to cover up his dependence on them and to fake a mysterious scholarship. He also refers occasionally for his inventions of famous authors, in which nothing is to find it, and to alleged sources, which probably come from his imagination. He primarily draws from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Additional area to which it has writings include De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae the Irish Augustine Hibernicus, the world history of Orosius and the Latin translation of the Revelations of Pseudo- Methodius. Maybe he knew the frühkarolingische Hofgeschichtsschreibung ( Liber historiae Francorum, Fredegar Chronicle, Historia Daretis Frigii ) and the Liber Monstrorum. In many cases, his relationship with alleged to which it has sources is unclear.

Since 2006, the turn -considered back in the 19th century speculative hypothesis is discussed that the author of the Cosmography might have known the lost poem Orpheus of ancient poet Lucan, or at least quotes from the Orpheus containing font, because it appeals to a Lucanus, the I mention specific names of animal species.

The work moves on different levels of style. The supposedly literally translated passages of Aethicus are held in a particularly dark, sometimes barely comprehensible Latin. The author assigns the blame for the confusion and incomprehensibility of his fictional presentation. The greater part of the work form the alleged paraphrases and comments from Jerome. Although they are in the style of the church father - especially at the of his letters - ajar, but far from his manicured Latin. Also, they are not easy to read.

Overall, the cosmography part because of the highly idiosyncratic handling of the imaginative writer with the language of the most difficult Latin texts that are out there. One of the often confusing features in morphology and syntax of individual peculiarities and carelessness are added, and a general tendency to deliberate darkening and rendering difficult the understanding. An abundance of newly formed words that are part of Greek and isolated derived from Semitic roots, partly pure fantasy products, the appearance of mysterious knowledge and an exclusive formation generated. In places, the author shows droll sense of humor, such as gadgets with names or intemperate, obviously caricaturing use of alliteration.

Author, dating, textual tradition

In 1854 it was demonstrated that the church father may have nothing to do with the text. One consequence of this insight was the realization that the Greek original is an invention. Thus, it turned out that the work represents a double fiction: the passages of the " Aethicus " come from the same early medieval writers such as those of " Jerome".

Who the author - apparently a clergyman - was and what he was intended, despite numerous studies to date is unclear. There is general agreement in the research that he is not really gone, but his entire details; took the literature accessible to him, partly invented and produced by distortion of its information sources. What is striking is his enthusiasm for the Greek and his interest in the legends of Alexander the Great. He harbored resentment against the Romans, Franks, Saxons and Irish.

Different explanations have been proposed:

• After today regarded as refuted hypothesis of Heinz Leo cosmography is derived from the Irish Bishop Virgilius of Salzburg († 784 ), and was written after 768. Virgil wanted to concealed against a deceased adversary, the famous missionary Boniface, polemics.
• Kurt Hill Schukowitzgasse has also adopted a written after 768. In his view, came the unknown author from Istria and lived in Bavaria.
• Franz Brunhölzl dated cosmography in the second half of the 7th century. He relates the statement at the end of the work, the alleged Aethicus was a noble Scythian, to the actual author and suspects that it is the original home to the Dobrogea region (an area in present-day Romania), and that it lived in Istria.
• Prince Otto holds Istria for the home of the author, and believes that he came into the Frankish Empire as an immigrant. There he wrote his description of the world in the mid- 8th century. Prince called evidence that this may be done at the Carolingian court.
• Michael Men believed that the author came at a young age into the Frankish Empire, and later lived in Ireland and England and spent his life in the abbey of Bobbio in northern Italy. He worked over a long period of cosmography and they finally completed soon after 727 in Bobbio. After men- view a satirical intention is apparent in some passages, credulity and bragging scholarship are being targeted. However, other parts of the text are quite serious. For a humorous background, for example, the claim by the end of the cosmography, the term ethics is derived from the name of the Aethicus.

Get more than thirty partly incomplete manuscripts. This text witnesses as well as mentions in medieval library catalogs indicate the popularity of the cosmography that in the late Middle Ages, however, greatly decreased.

Text output

• Prince Otto (Ed. ): The cosmography of Aethicus. Monumenta Historica Germaniae, Munich 1993 ( Monumenta Historica Germaniae, sources for intellectual history of the Middle Ages Volume 14 ), ISBN 3-88612-074-0
• Michael Herren ( ed.): The Cosmography of Aethicus Ister. Brepols, Turnhout, 2011 ( Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin No. 8), ISBN 978-2-503-53577-7 ( edition with translation and commentary )