Lucifer Orbis

I was rereading the book “Arte e Beleza na Estética Medieval” by Umberto Eco, edited by Editorial Presenca in 1989 (EU Portuguese edition). The title in English is “Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages” but when citing the book I'm using my translation unless stated otherwise. It's a slow-paced reread that I've been doing. Umberto Eco has always been my favorite for studies about the Middle Ages and semiotics. Finding more than one of his books in our literature lists at the university was to be expected. “Art and Beauty...” was one of those books. It works more or less like a guide with the most fundamental concepts on aesthetics coupled with a variety of sources to pave the way for further study. There must be better and much more comprehensive sources by now. Everything changes. The reason why I'm still so attached to these books is purely emotional because it comes from a time I'm still longing for. I'm not the same person, I don't have the same life, I'm not surrounded by the same things, but I still have the same nature.

I was reading a section about the Chartres school and found an excerpt of a poem in Latin that goes like this:

O Dei proles genitrixque rerum. vinculum mundi, stabilisque, nexus, gemma terrenis, speculum caducis, lucifer orbis. Pax, amor, virtus, regimen, potestas, ordo, lex, finis, via, dux, origo, vita, lux splendor, species, figura, Regula mundi.

Alain the Lille (Alanus ab Insulis) (1128 – c. 1202) De Planctu Naturae, ed. N. Häring, Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 1978

It's one of the primary sources cited in the book on page 49. The poem was followed by a Portuguese translation and I got stuck in the word lucifer which was translated the same as lux. The person who translated the translation from Italian (the original “Art and beauty...” is written in Italian) chose to use the same word – luz – to translate lucifer and lux. Since I don't live in a place where I can go to the library and easily find Latin sources and romance languages, I had to search online. A possible translation for lucifer that isn't Lucifer, the angel, is estrela d'alva – morning star – with reference to the planet Venus and it's seldomly used, at least with that wording. After a while I found what I was looking for. Lucifer: that brings light (que traz a luz), that gives (or reveals?) clarity (que dá claridade), luminous (luminoso). I very badly need to read this translation in Italian but I'm going to leave you with an English translation by Douglas M. Moffat that, accurate or not, shows the beauty of this poem:

O offspring of God, mother of all things, Bond and firm chain of the universe Jewel of earth, mirror to mortality, Light-bringer of the world! Peace, love, virtue, government, power, Order, law, end, way, light, source, Life, glory, splendor, beauty, form, Pattern of the world!

I may have seen a number of English translations and couldn't decide which one to choose. The Italian translation I was looking for is locked behind a paywall. But if the title De Planctu Naturae appears often translated as The Complaint of Nature in English, in Italian it's instead called, in direct translation, The Lament of Nature. The frustration I have to deal with for now is that the Portuguese translation of the excerpt could have been reworked, but it still depicts what touched me about this poem (which is much longer that what's written here). Umberto Eco selected this strophe to express the organic sense of nature in contrast with static mathematical principles, where the immanence of the Son is the organizing principle of aesthetic harmony, the Father is the effective cause (causa efectiva), the Holy Spirit is the final cause (causa final) – amor et connexio, anima mundi. (Eco, p. 49).

What is accuracy in translation after all? With spiritual texts and prayers in Latin I prefer to go for perceived meaning instead of exact meaning or, say, a translation with literary flourishing. However, when reading these works from an academic and study perspective is when my hands are tied. I may (or may not) know that it means, as in what it refers to. What is the spiritual link that connects the soul of the world? What lies in the root of nature's primordial force? What's the sense we make of it and its connection to God's creation?

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By a stroke of luck I found another translation. The book “Art and Beauty...” is available online for your perusing. Let's go to page 34 of this translation by Hugh Bredin and see how he nailed the poem (spoiler alert: he did):

Oh child of God, mother of creation, Both the universe and its stable link, Bright gem of those on earth, mirror for mortals, Light-bearer for the world: Peace, love, virtue, guide, power, Order, law, end, way, leader, source, Life, light, splendor, beauty, form, Rule of the world.

In the Portuguese edition species is translated as aspect (aspecto). There's a reason for it. Species can mean beauty, yes, but its meaning is not only confined to value. It can be aspect, appearance, look, exterior. It can also be beauty! And, let's face it, between splendor and form isn't beauty so vibrant?

The light-bringer, the light-bearer presupposes an agent: the one that brings the light, the one that bears the light. Can the light be brought or borne with the passive voice? What was Alain thinking? Did he mean the so-called offspring of God or the children of God as agents? The progeny of God born from the origin (female/ genitrix) of creation, the one who brings light, stability, bond (vinculum), the one that unveils the world (orbis) and brings the world to light? Or the creative nature of all things from which the offspring generated? Well, we could be here all day but if Umberto Eco moved on to the next point, so will we.

Just to close the subject, De Planctu Naturae is, to put it simply, an allegorical depiction of the Creation, the order of the universe and its disorder. Alberto Bartòla on the article “Filosofia, Teologia, Poesia nell 'Planctu Naturae' e nell 'Anticlaudianus' de Alano di Lilla” page 233, wrote the following:

Nella seconda scena della prima parte, attraverso un lungo monologo, il personaggio feminille svela sua vera identità e definisce il ruolo che assume rispetto al Creatore e nel contesto de tutta la creazione: ella è la vicaria Dei, la mediatrice dei disegni della divina volontà sulla terra.

“In the second scene of the first half, there's a long monologue, the female character reveals her true identity and defines the assumed role in relation to the Creator and in the context of all creation: she is the vicar of God, the mediator of the divine will's design on earth.” – My extremely direct translation. It gives some clues on Who in fact is our secret agent!