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Chapter 18Erud.1.18

De scribendi exercicio contra aliena.

The Third Discipline: Writing

Writing is added as a third discipline alongside reading and speaking, praised by Cassiodorus as a noble pursuit that separates the skilled from the unskilled.

To these two it is also sometimes fitting to add a third—namely, writing. writing. For as Cassiodorus says in his book on orthography: 'It is a glorious pursuit . . that you should speak fittingly, write carefully, and set down in writing things that are free from any ambiguity of error. For articulate speech separates us from brute creatures; the practice of writing, from the unskilled. .

The Need to Alternate Between Writing and Reading

Writing and reading must be alternated to prevent mental exhaustion, following Seneca's counsel that each activity tempers and restores the other.

. So these two things claim and defend the perfect person for themselves. That is why I say you should alternate between them—because even though it generally delights the eager student and relieves his weariness, if it goes on without interruption, it dulls the mind. So it is necessary to pass through certain alternations, moving from one thing to another, following that saying of Seneca to Lucilius: 'Reading,' he says, 'nourishes the mind, and when it has been worn out by study, it restores it—but not without study.' So we should neither only write nor only read. One activity—I mean the work of the pen—will weary and exhaust your strength; the other will loosen and wash it away. You must go back and forth between the two, each one tempering the other, so that whatever has been gathered through reading, writing may shape into a coherent whole. These words are Seneca's.

Cassian on Alternation and the Work of Another's Words

Cassian teaches that weariness is eased by alternation, and the student should begin by working on another's words through correcting, transcribing, excerpting, and translating.

Likewise Cassian, in the passage cited above: 'Always,' he says, 'any weariness is endured more calmly'. . . 'if some alternation or change of work, of whatever kind, is interposed.' So it is fitting for the student to write either about his own words or about someone else's. And first of all, one must direct attention to what is another's rather than presume to rely on one's own. One must work at what is another's in many ways, namely: what is faulty, by correcting it; what is good, by transcribing it; what is better, by excerpting it; writings in a foreign language, by translating or even expounding them.

Correcting and Transcribing Manuscripts

Augustine and Jerome teach the duty of correcting faulty manuscripts and the care required in transcribing, warning against both scribal negligence and the copyist's presumption.

When it comes to correcting a book, Augustine says in On Christian Teaching, book 2: 'When manuscripts are to be emended, the first care must belong to those who desire to know the Scriptures.' Thus far Augustine. But some love the beauty of their own books so much that they are afraid to disfigure them by correcting them. Hence Jerome in the prologue on Job: 'Let those who wish,' he says, 'have—' . . books written on purple parchment in gold and silver, or in uncial letters—as they commonly say—inscriptions that are burdens more than manuscripts, provided only that they let me and mine allow the poor to have notebooks, and not manuscripts so much beautiful as corrected. On transcribing, note that two things are necessary for it, namely— The truth of the exemplar and the skill of the writer. On both points Jerome writes to Domnio and Rogatianus: 'The faultiness of books must generally be attributed to the fault of copyists, while in corrected texts they copy uncorrected readings, and often they compress three words into one by removing syllables from the middle, or because of spacing they divide one word into two or three.'1 . . they divide into two or three words.'2 Likewise, concerning the writer's inexperience, the same Jerome says to Lucinus: 'There are certain unskilled scribes who write not what they find in the text but what they understand, and while they strive to correct others' errors, they reveal their own.' On the falsity of the exemplar, Origen says on Matthew, book 15: 'We find great difference among exemplars, whether through the negligence of copyists—'3 .

Excerpting: Gathering Flowers from the Meadow

Jerome and Seneca compare excerpting to gathering flowers from a meadow or imitating bees, collecting the best from many authors to form a unified whole.

. or on account of them. . . who, whatever seems right to them, either add to or take away from what has been corrected. On excerpting, Jerome says against Vigilantius: 'It is the work and business of my study to read many authors, so that from a wide range I may pluck a variety of flowers—not so much aiming to approve everything, but to pick out what is good.' The same Jerome, on Psalm 77: 'We have come into the meadow of the Scriptures, which has blooming herbs, here the rose glows red, there the lilies shine white. Jerome also says, on this same point: We have come into the meadow of the Scriptures, and our soul is pulled this way and that, if we gather roses, we leave the lilies; these are Jerome's words. Seneca also says to Lucilius: we ought to imitate bees. .

Blending Many Flavors into One

Seneca and Peter Cantor teach that the student must sort and blend what has been gathered from reading into a single harmonious whole, with brevity and unity of purpose.

. And so must we. . . Whatever we have gathered from various reading, we must sort out. . . Then, with our own ability brought to bear. . . to blend those various offerings into one flavor by ability. . . I want our mind to be such that many arts, many precepts, and examples from many ages are harmonized into one in it. These things are from Seneca. And from here Peter Cantor of Paris, in the abridged Word: 'Because,' he says, 'time is short, it is expedient to collect better things from many and to serve brevity.'4

The Three Virtues of Translation

Translation requires faithfulness to the original meaning, clarity of expression, and humility of heart, as Jerome exemplifies in his prologues and letters.

When translating, three things should be kept in mind— faithfulness to the meaning of the original, directness and clarity of expression, and humility of heart.5 On faithfulness in translation, Jerome says in his 'Helmeted Prologue': 'I am fully conscious that I have not altered anything from the Hebrew truth in my rendering of the sacred books.'6 But you, reader, if you are skeptical, read the Greek and Latin manuscripts and compare them with these little works of mine.' On clarity of language, the same Jerome writes to Pammachius: 'Sacred translation, even if it possesses the charm of eloquence, ought to disguise and set it aside, so that it may speak not to the idle schools of philosophers and a handful of disciples, but to the whole human race.'7 As an example of the translator's humility, the same Jerome, writing on Isaiah in book five, says: 'The land of Judah will be,' says the prophet, 'to Egypt' a stumbling block.8 a source of humiliation.9

Humility in Error and the Method of Exposition

Jerome models intellectual honesty by acknowledging his own translation error, and teaches that exposition should clarify the obscure, touch the clear, and linger over the doubtful.

…into panic—which I translated as 'into festivity.' But I think it is better to censure one's own error than, through shame, to confess inexperience—and so to persist in error. These are Jerome's words. On the method of laying out and writing brief commentaries, Jerome speaks concisely in his exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians, saying: 'It is my duty to discuss obscure matters, to touch upon clear ones, and to linger over what is doubtful.' Hence also Symmachus the patrician, in his letter-book, says: 'In a clear matter, it is irksome to be long-winded… . . …but in difficult matters, one must linger.'

Against Showing Off: Following the Author's Meaning

Hugh of St. Victor and Augustine warn against those who show off by cramming entire books into titles or imposing their own meaning rather than following the author's intent.

And as Hugh says, from the passage above: 'Some people so confuse reading or exposition that they read almost the entire book in the title—which is laughable—and by the third reading they have already wrapped it up.' 'Such people,' he says, 'don't teach others; they show off their own knowledge—and if only they appeared to everyone as they do to me!' These are Hugh's words. Hence also in the second chapter of Matthew it is said: 'It is foolish to pour forth before the history; rather, be girded within the history itself.'10 Indeed, some people, when expounding a text, don't follow the author's meaning but strive to fit the author's words to their own meaning. And such people, even if they do perceive what's true, 'nevertheless,' as Augustine says in Book 10 of On Christian Teaching, 'they need to be corrected—11 . .

The Best Reader: Drawing Meaning from the Text

Jerome and Hilary teach that the best reader draws meaning from the words themselves rather than imposing his own, and the chapter concludes by summarizing the exercise of writing about another's words.

By asserting recklessly what the author they are reading or expounding doesn't actually mean, they commonly wander off into other matters that they cannot weave together with that author's meaning. And as Jerome says to Paulinus: 'The most corrupt kind of speaking is to twist the meaning of statements and to drag resisting Scripture over to suit one's own agenda.'12 That agrees with the passage from Hilary quoted above. 'The best reader,' he says, 'is one who waits to draw the meaning of what is said from the words themselves rather than imposing a meaning on them, and who reports more than he brings, and who doesn't assume that what he had already decided to understand before reading is actually contained in the words.'13 These are the points on the exercise of writing about the words or writings of others.

Read the original Latin

Hiis eciam interdum conuenit tercium intermiscere, videl. scribere. ut enim dicit cassyodorus in libro de orthographia: ‘gloriosum est studium . . . quod loqui debeas conpetenter scribere, et que scripta sunt, sine aliqua erroris ambiguitate proferre. vox enim articulata nos sequestrat a brutis, scribendi ratio ab imperitis . .

. Ita perfectum hominem duo sibi ista uendicant ac defendunt.’ Ideo inquam intermiscere, quoniam et si plerumque studiosum delectat eiusque fastidium releuat, tamen, si continue fiat, ingenium hebetat. unde per quasdam vicissitudines oportet de uno ad aliud transire, iuxta illud senece ad lucilium: ‘lectio,’ inquit, ‘ingenium alit et studio fatigatum, non tamen sine studio, reficit. Itaque nec tantum scribere, nec tantum debemus legere. Altera res, de stilo dico, uires contristabit et exhauriet, altera soluet ac diluet. inuicem hoc et illo conmeandum et alterum altero temperandum, ut quicquid lectione collectum est, stilus redigat in corpus.’ Hec seneca.

Item Cassianus, ubi supra, ‘Semper,’ inquit, ‘equanimius fatigacio quelibet sustinetur . . . si ei uicissitudo quedam uel operis immutacio qualiscunque interponitur.’ Itaque studioso scribere conuenit uel dicta propria uel aliena. Et primo quidem oportet circa aliena intendere quam propria presumere. Circa aliena laborandum est multipliciter, videl. ea, que uiciosa sunt, corrigendo; que bona sunt, transcribendo; que meliora sunt, excerpendo; peregrine lingue scripturas interpretando uel eciam exponendo.

De corrigendo libro dicit augustinus de doctrina christiana libro iio: ‘Codicibus emendandis primum debet inuigilare sollercia eorum, qui scripturas nosse desiderant.’ Hec augustinus. Sed nonnulli adeo librorum suorum pulcritudinem amant, quod eos deturpare corrigendo formidant. unde Jeronimus in prologo super Job: ‘Habeant,’ inquit, ‘qui uolunt . . . libros uel in membranis purpureis auro argentoque descriptos uel uncialibus, ut uulgo aiunt, litteris onera magis exarata quam codices, dum modo michi meisque permittant pauperes habere cedulas et non tam pulchros codices quam emendatos.’ De transcribendo nota, quod ad id duo sunt necessaria, scil.

veritas exemplaris et pericia scribentis. De utroque dicit ieronimus ad domnionem et rogacianum: ‘viciositas librorum plerumque ascribenda est culpe scriptorum dum in emendatis inemendata scriptitant et sepe tria uocabula subtractis e medio sillabis in unum vocabulum cogunt uel e regione . . . propter latitudinem in duo uel tria uocabula diuidunt.’ Item de scribentis impericia dicit idem ieronimus ad lucinum: ‘Sunt quidam imperiti notarij, qui scribunt, non quod inueniunt, sed quod intelligunt, et dum alienos errores emendare nituntur, suos ostendunt.’ De falsitate exemplaris dicit origenes super matheum libro xvo: ‘Multam differenciam inter exemplaria inuenimus, siue per scribentium negligenciam . .

. siue propter eos . . . qui, quod eis uidetur, in emendacionibus uel adiciunt uel subducunt.’ De excerpendo dicit ieronimus contra uigilancium: ‘Operis ac studij mei est multos legere, ut ex plurimis diuersos flores carpam; non tam omnia probaturus, quam que bona sunt electurus.’ Idem super psalmum LXXVII: ‘venimus in pratum scripturarum, quod habet herbas florentes. Hinc rosa rubet, hinc lilia candent .

. . et anima nostra huc illucque trahitur, ut flores pulcriores carpat. Si rosas colligimus, lilia relinquimus, si lilia tulerimus, viole nobis supersunt.’ hec ieronimus. De hoc etiam dicit seneca ad lucilium: ‘Quicquid lectione collectum est, stilus redigat in corpus. Apes enim imitari debemus, que uagantur et flores ad mel faciendum ydoneos carpunt, deinde quicquid attulerint, disponunt ac per fauos digerunt . .

. Sic et nos debemus . . . quecunque ex diuersa lectione congessimus, separare . . . deinde adhibita ingenij nostri .

. . facultate in unum saporem illa varia libamenta confundere . . . talem animum nostrum esse uolo, ut multe in illo artes, multa precepta, multarum etatum exempla sint in unum conspirata.’ hec seneca. Hinc et petrus cantor parisiensis in uerbo abbreuiato, ‘quia tempus,’ inquit, ‘breue est, expedit ex multis meliora colligere breuitatique seruire.’

Interpretando autem debent seruari tria, sc. translacionis veritas, apercio siue claritas et cordis humilitas. De translacionis veritate dicit ieronimus in prohemio galeato: ‘Michi omnino conscius non sum in sacrorum librorum interpretacione mutasse me quippiam de hebraica veritate. Tu autem, o lector, si incredulus es, lege grecos et latinos codices et cum hiis opusculis meis confer.’ De sermonis apercione dicit idem ieronimus ad palmachium: ‘Ecclesiastica interpretacio, eciam si habet eloquij uenustatem, dissimulare eam debet et fugere, ut non ociosis philosophorum scolis paucisque discipulis sed uniuerso loquatur humano generi.’ De interpretis humilitate exemplum habetur in eodem ieronimo super ysaiam libro v, ubi dicit: ‘Erit, ait propheta, terra iuda egypto . . .

in pauorem, quod ego transtuli “in festiuitatem.” Sed melius reor proprium errorem reprehendere, quam erubescendo impericiam confiteri, in errore persistere.’ Hec ieronimus. De modo exponendi et conmentariolos faciendi breuiter loquitur ieronimus in exposicione epistole ad galathas, dicens: ‘Officii mei est obscura disserere, manifesta perstringere, in dubiis immorari.’ Hinc et symachus patricius in epistolari suo, ‘In re,’ inquit, ‘aperta, piget esse prolixum, . . . in arduis autem immorandum.’

Ac, ut dicit hugo, unde supra: ‘quidam ita lectionem uel exposicionem confundunt, quod in titulo pene totum librum, quod irrisione dignum est, legunt et incipit tercia lectione expediunt. Tales,’ inquit, ‘non alios docent, sed scienciam suam ostentant, et utinam quales michi tales omnibus apparerent.’ Hec hugo. hinc et in secundo mathei ii dicitur: ‘Stultum est ante hystoriam effluere, in ipsa uero hystoria succingi.’ Quidam uero sensum actoris non secuntur in exponendo, sed actoris uerba nituntur aptare sensui suo. Et tales, etiam si uera senciunt, ‘tamen,’ ut dicit augustinus in libro io de doctrina christiana, ‘corrigendi sunt . . .

nam asserendo temere, quod non sentit auctor ille, quem legunt uel exponunt, in alia plerumque incurrunt, que illi sentencie contexere nequeunt.’ Et ut dicit ieronimus ad paulinum: ‘viciosissimum dicendi genus est deprauare sentencias et ad uoluntatem suam trahere repugnantem scripturam.’ Cui consonat illud hylarii superius positum. ‘Optimus,’ inquit, ‘lector est, qui dictorum intelligenciam expectat ex dictis pocius quam imponit et refert magis, quam affert, nec id uideri dictis contineri cogit, quod ante lectionem intelligendum presumpserit.’ Hec de scribendi exercicio circa dicta uel scripta aliena etc.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin sentence is incomplete in the source — it breaks off after 'uel e regione' and is continued in s5. The translation joins the two parts as a single flowing quotation, which is the most plausible reading given the neighboring context.
  2. 2 ↩This sentence is the continuation of the Jerome quotation begun in s2. It completes the thought about copyists dividing words to fill space. Joined logically with s2 in the translation above; rendered here as a standalone fragment to preserve the sentence ref.
  3. 3 ↩The quotation from Origen on Matthew is cut off mid-sentence. The source text appears incomplete here.
  4. 4 ↩uerbo abbreuiato likely refers to an abridged version of a scriptural or devotional text; the exact source is uncertain.
  5. 5 ↩'apercio' (openness/directness) and 'claritas' (clarity) are paired with 'siue' as near-synonyms; rendered as 'directness and clarity' to capture both the transparency and the intelligibility Jerome intends.
  6. 6 ↩'prohemio galeato' refers to Jerome's 'Prologus galeatus' (the 'Helmeted Prologue' to the books of Samuel and Kings), so called because it serves as a helmet or defense. The abbreviation 'sc' in s1 likely continues into this sentence listing the three points.
  7. 7 ↩'aperclonis' (clarity/openness of speech) is rendered as 'clarity of language.' The verb 'dissimulare' carries the sense of concealing or setting aside — here, the translator should not flaunt eloquence but serve plain communication to all.
  8. 8 ↩The Latin source for this sentence is a single period mark ('.'), which appears to be a textual corruption or truncation. The supplied normalized text reads only '.'. The rendering 'a stumbling block' is supplied as the most plausible intended sense given the context of Jerome's humility — that a literal, unadorned rendering offends polished readers — but the source text is too corrupt to be confident.
  9. 9 ↩The Latin source for this sentence is a single period mark ('.'), which appears to be a textual corruption or truncation. The rendering 'a source of humiliation' is supplied as the most plausible intended sense, continuing the thought that the plainness of sacred translation exposes the translator to contempt — but the source text is too corrupt to be confident.
  10. 10 ↩The quoted saying ('Stultum est ante historiam effluere, in ipsa vero historia succingi') does not appear verbatim in Matthew 2 in standard Vulgate or Moses reference databases. It may be a paraphrase, a patristic gloss attributed to Matthew's chapter, or a source not resolvable by Moses. Candidate scripture allusion retained.
  11. 11 ↩The quotation from Augustine is incomplete in the source text (ends with 'corrigendi sunt .' with trailing punctuation). The next section (Erud.1.18.13) likely completes it. Translation preserves the open quotation.
  12. 12 ↩repugnantem scripturam: 'resisting Scripture' captures the sense that Scripture itself pushes back against the interpreter's imposed meaning.
  13. 13 ↩nec id uideri dictis contineri cogit: the phrasing 'does not assume … is actually contained in the words' preserves the ironic force — the reader should not think what he presumed beforehand is genuinely found in the text.

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