Colloquia Maruliana ..., Vol. 12 , 2003.
Original scientific paper
From Style to interpretation: Paratext and Loci Biblici in the Evangelistarium by Marko Marulić
Neven Jovanović
Abstract
The style of the Evangelistarium (an approximately 700 pages-long Latin text Marulić wrote between 1480 and 1500; first extant edition, Venice, 1516) inheres not only in the rhetorical figures and selection of words; style may be everything that consistently affects the reader. With this in mind, we open the 1516 Venice edition, look at it through the eyes of a modern, 21st century reader, and see what we see.
Firstly, it is to be noted that the Evangelistarium of 1516 is not the same as the Evangelistarium of 1985 (the date of the last modern edition, by the Književni krug Split, as a part of Marulić’s Opera omnia). There are many variant readings, unaccounted for in the modern 1985 vulgate; the differences range from a single word to whole clauses and sentences, to book titles and even chapter sequence (cf. Prilog). Moreover, in the 1516 edition the text is on practically every page surrounded by marginal notes, which are absent from the 1985 edition. However, these notes – written by Marulić himself – are important pointers to effects of style; if style is something a reader notices in the text, everybody is sure to notice the marginally marked passages.
Marginal notes suggest a non-linear reading of the Evangelistarium, jumping from one marked passage to another, selecting just those we are interested in.The notes turn a text from around 1500 into a kind of hypertext. But this is not all; an effect of style should also contribute to meaning. There is a reason why a passage is marked. How are we to explain and interpret what is typographically marked in the Evangelistarium of 1516?
The notes in Evangelistarium mostly mark the loci Biblici. In recurring instances of one such quotation (Mt 25: 34), we encounter differences in wording; by different choice of verbs (percipite / possidete) Marulić presents the subject – the blessed – as more or less active in deserving God’s grace.
The repeatedly quoted passage is found in stylistically different surroundings; analysis of these immediate contexts leads us to recognize antithesis and variation as structuring principles of the discourse in the Evangelistarium. Another important structuring device is the per cola et commata sentence organization, suggesting that the text is written with oral performance in mind.
Turning from the Evangelistarium quote to its source, the Gospel, we find intertextual relationships which are much closer and more complex than we would expect; in the text-world of the Evangelistarium, the marginal note “Mt 25” and the words “Venite benedicti” stand not only for exhortation to works of mercy, but also as signs and pointers to the Last Judgement – the main theme of the sermon in Mt 25: 31-46.
Both the Biblical quotes in Evangelistarium and their marginal notes function, then, not only as a part of the scholarly “apparatus” and persuasive strategy, but also as a reminder and invitation to take part in a fundamental Christian activity: of reading the Bible. This leads “us” – meaning the community of modern secular readers, puzzled by the Evangelistarium – to recognize that we do not quite know, that we are not quite taught, how to read the Bible. Reading the Bible is not the same as reading a novel or a book of poetry or the newspapers. Instructions on achieving a special “Biblical literacy” are available – even on the Internet, e. g. www.bible-researcher.com – but they are not part of common knowledge; today, Biblical literacy is a special edifying and meditating technique for those who consider religion very important.
The Evangelistarium is usually described as a treatise on practical Christian ethics. However, this brief foray into typographical, paratextual and intertextual features of its style brings forth another interpretation. The Evangelistarium may be read not only as a set of instructions on how to live as a Christian, but also how to read as a Christian. The Evangelistarium may be considered a Biblical metatext, a readable and accessible collection of key Bible passages, selected and rearranged by theme, annotated and explained and rhetorically reinforced for a new generation – for new generations – of pious readers.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
642
URI
Publication date:
22.4.2003.
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