Saturday, November 2, 2019

Translation of the Alexander Romance

The French Alexander Romance in Prose is a 10th-century translation by Leo the Arch-Priest into Latin of a 2nd century Greek text. A German edition for that translation is available from the Internet archive, edited by Alfons Hilka.

There has been much discussion how much the Alexander knowledge of Albrecht Altdorfer was influenced by the Romance and its descendents. After all, the inversion of the order of Alexandria | Darius in the Nuremberg Chronicle may be due to the Prose Alexander Romance, which has the same order and also assigns Olympias (who falls sick and exchanges letters with Alexander) a role that carries through the whole narrative.

If this is so, then this would most likely be in the recension by Johann Hartlieb, der Alexander-Roman von 1454 (Ernst Wilhelm Bredt, Albrecht Altdorfer, 1919), one of the "most-read books of early Modernity", in the words of Andersen Vinilandicus (Peter Lang, 2013). The work survives in a staggering 22 manuscripts and 18 (eighteen) print editions! At the same time, it is said that Aventin, who collaborated with Altdorfer on the painting for Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, hated the book (Hirsch, Das Alexanderbuch Johann Hartliebs, Berlin 1908). That would make it less likely that Altdorfer would have used it, perhaps.

The Hanse in London

The Hanse operated the so-called Stalhof (the Steelyard) in London in the 15th and 16th century.
In addition to the information on Wikipedia, linked above, there is also a talk on Project Gutenberg, by Reinhold Pauli, on the Hansische Stahlhof in London, held in Bonn on March 11th, 1856, but published in a newspaper in Bremen.

Online Translations for the deeds of Alexander the Great

In my preparations for the talk in Zagreb, I used several online translations of the works of Alexander the Great.
  • Plutarch's Life of Alexander, available here, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (part of the Lexundria project, which has a lot of interesting literature, for example the Muratorian Canon).
  • Marcus Junianus Justinus' Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum, available here, with the Latin text and the English translation of Watson (1853) and the French by Arnaud-Lindet from 2003 (part of the Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum, including interesting people of the Middle Ages and modern times ... though with many broken links).
I also downloaded Arrian ($2.99) for the Kindle from the Delphi Classics people. In the end however, this all would have been less than helpful without two great books on Alexander the Great, both by two Canadians:

  • Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander, translated by John Yardley, introduction and notes by Waldemar Heckel, in: Penguin Classics, London (Penguin Books), revised edition 2001 (translation), 2004 (bibliography).
  • Waldemar Heckel, John C. Yardley, Alexander the Great: Historical Sources in Translation, Oxford (Blackwell Publishing) 2004.
Because of how Reinhart Koselleck interpreted Altdorfer's painting Alexander-Schlacht, I ended up also looking into Niccolo Machiavelli, and his works are largely available through the online library of the Liberty Fund (including the smaller writings in four volumes). 

TEI Markup for paintings

For my presentation in Zagreb, I was experimenting with the surface element in the TEI markup. The only thing that stumped me was how to tell the TEI document that multiple JPEGs represent the same information, possibly at different points of resolution.

Just like that this image

or this image

are both  part of this image

and some things are easier to see in the one and in the other.

Drawing cool Graphs Quickly

In the process of working out how to sketch the knowledge for my DH talk in Zagreb, I found a Graphviz website that allows one to experiment with the DOT material immediately.

WebGraphviz has a type-in box for the graph description and a display area below where a simple click of [Generate Graph] will output the results. I usually keep the DOT Language Guide close at hand in the adjacent tab. GraphViz supports such a rich set of output formats, but unfortunately, Google Slides (nor Blogger) will not handle SVGs correctly ... :P

Here a rather sizeable graph from my presentation for Zagreb.

Schedels Chronicle of Nuremberg

The World Chronice of Schedel is really a fascinating book. The Latin version is available online, from the Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft, with the help of the Munich Digitalization Center and the Bavarian State Library.

Here for example is the city of Regensburg, were Albrecht Altdorfer worked as a painter and city head of construction (Baumeister). Or the two-page world map (missing the Euphrates and Tigris ...).

And the German translation of the Schedel'sche Weltchronik is available on Google books.

Mozart, Seraglio and Interest in Turkish Customs

On the face of it, one would be tempted to think that the Western fascination with Turkish culture coincided with its dominance (Treaty of Passarowitz 1718; Treaty of Belgrade & Nis 1739).

Consider Mozart’s abduction from the Seraglio: 


It may have been [Emperor] Joseph [II] himself who suggested the subject of Mozart's new opera [The Abduction from the Seraglio]. The occasion of its premiere was to be the state visit in September [1781] by Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia and his wife. The purpose of the visit -- to negotiate a secret agreement that would allow Austria and Russia to begin carving up the Ottoman Empire [Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792, with Austrian assistance) -- made the Turkish subject of Belmonte und Constanze especially appealing. According to Nicholas Till, it was "a story that would serve the emperor's propagandist campaign against the Turks." 

Since Mozart did not finish the opera on time, two pieces by Gluck made for the less diplomatically problematic substitute (cf. Mozart Project on KV-384).


But the truth of the matter is that earlier interest had already given us visual feedback.


Codex Vindobonensis 8262, for example, I Turchi, contains images from harem scenes, such as this one, or the Turkish illustrated book of manners from the University Library in Kassel, or the so-called Bremen Album by Lambert de Vos, the Turkish Costume Book (though both of the latter contain images from the Osman possession in Asia minor as well, such as Greek priests or Jewish doctors).