The Berlin Commentary on Martianus Capella's de Nuptiis Philologiae Et Mercurii, Book II

Completing Prof. Westra's 1994 edition of Book I (published by Brill as "Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, 20"), this critical edition presents the only complete, late medieval Latin commentary on Book II of Martianus Capella's influential handbook of the Seven Liberal Arts. It also provides an Index of Proper Names to both Book I and II. Using his allegorical interpretation of the programmatic marriage of Mercury (eloquence) and Philology (learning) as a speculative, proto-scientific method of enquiry, the commentator provides encyclopedic coverage of medieval philosophy, theology, science, myth, language, literature and education. Intellectually the author is still connected with early scholasticism and the School of Chartres, being more sympathetic to Neoplatonism than to the newly arrived Aristotelians. The present edition has been keyed to Dick's as well as Willis' edition of Martianus Capella.