Peter of Eboli

Self-portrait inLiber ad honorem Augusti,1196.

Peter of EboliorPetrus de Ebulo(flourishedc. 1196–1220) was adidacticversifierandchroniclerwho wrote inLatin.

AmonkfromEboli(Campania,then part of theKingdom of Naples), Peter became a court poet toHenry VI, Holy Roman Emperorand King of Sicily. His flattering verseLiber ad honorem Augusti,sive de rebus Siculis(Book to honor the Emperor, or The Affairs of Sicily), probably written inPalermo,was his first work; it was dedicated to Henry VI, King of Sicily by right of his wifeConstance,theNormanheiress and mother of the heir who would be "in every way blessed" according to Peter—Frederick II,stupor mundi— whose birth is described in terms reshaped fromVirgil's fourthEclogue,which Christians read as foretelling the coming of Christ. The book celebrates in glowing terms the victory of Henry over his opponent, the illegitimate usurperTancred,who, though a doughty fighter, was of such short stature that Peter ridicules him asTancredulus( "Little Tancred" ). The copy from Palermo is illuminated with palace scenes, processions, and battles in tableaux that vie with the text itself and form a precious record of twelfth-century life, as those of theBayeux tapestrydo for the eleventh.

Peter of Eboli also wrote a didactic poem,De balneis Puteolanis( "The Baths ofPozzuoli") that is the first widely distributed guidebook to thermal baths, a weapon in the local economic rivalries that arose over healing, medicinal bathing and the medieval tourist industry in southern Italy during the High Middle Ages. A copy is included in the historical miscellany at theHuntington Library,HM 1342.

Peter is known to have written three poems because he lists them all at the end ofDe balneis Puteolanisin the followingelegiac couplets:

Suscipe, sol mundī, tibi quem praesentŏ libellum:
dē tribus ad dominum tertius iste venit.
Prīmus habet patriōs cīvīlī marte triumphōs;
mīra Fedērīcī gesta secundus habet;
tam loca quam vīrēs quam nōmina pēne sepulta
tertius Euboÿcīs iste reformat aquīs.

Sun of the World, pick up this little book I offer you:
This is the third of the three to reach my Lord.
The first contains our national victories in civil war;
The second contains the remarkable deeds of Frederick;
This third sets in order the waters of the Euboean colony,
Their locations, their powers and their almost buried names.

The second poem of the three listed here, themira Federici gesta( "remarkable deeds of Frederick" ) is lost.

References

• "Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library" HM 1342See folios 176-187.
• Mario Sirpettino, "The healing powers of the thermo-mineral waters in the Phlegraean Fields"Archived2007-03-11 at theWayback MachineBaths listed by Peter of Eboli.
• Theo Kölzer und Marlis Stähli (Edd.):Petrus de Ebulo: Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis. Codex 120 II der Burgerbibliothek Bern. Eine Bilderchronik der Stauferzeit,Textrevision und Übersetzung von Gereon Becht-Jördens (Jan Thorbecke Verlag), Sigmaringen 1994ISBN3-7995-4245-0(reproductions in high quality of the entire manuscript)

External links

• Peter of Eboli:De balneis Puteolanis,Italian digitized codex, atSomni