Scansion problem

[RBee]

Hi! I'm new to this forum - I'm an Anglo-Saxonist, and I do a little Latin too. At present I need to scan this short set of lines, and I have tried to do it myself, but so far have failed to produce anything I trust. I'm hoping someone here can help me - this is in aid of a small point in my PhD thesis, so I'd be looking to thank whoever is able to assist me in a footnote if at all possible! The lines are as follows:

corpus ad eximii merito venerabile Petri
dedicat ecclesiae quem caput alta fides
ceolfridus, anglorum extimis de finisbus abbas
evoti affectus pignora mitto mei
meque meosque optans tanti inter gaudia patris
I am working with the manuscript of the Codex Amiatinus (link: https://www.wdl.org/en/item/20150/view/1/2/) and am trying to see if the mid-line breaks on this page tally with foot-breaks in each line (the breaks are after merito, ecclesiae, anglorum, affectus, optans and memorem - some of the words have been erased and written over in the manuscript!). My feeling is that they do not do so consistently. Any help would be much appreciated!
Thank you.

 

[Pacifica]

It seems to scan this way, for the most part at least (there's one line I'm unsure of).

cor-pus ad /e-xi-mi/i || me-ri/to ve-ne/ra-bi-le / Pet-ri
de-di-cat / ec-cle-si/ae || quem ca-put / al-ta fi/des
ceol-fri-dus, / ang-lo/r(um) ex-ti/mis || de/ fi-ni-bus / ab-bas*
de-vo/t(i) af-fec/tus || pig-no-ra / mit-to me/i
me-que me/os-qu(e) op/tans || tan/t(i) in-ter / gau-di-a / pat-ris
in cae/lis me-mo/rem || sem-per ha/be-re lo/cum

*This line looks weird. The only way I could make sense of it was to make the first i of extimis long while it's normally short. This sort of mistake isn't impossible in medieval Latin, though.

Edit: But the MS says extremis, not extimis! Then it becomes normal, as all three syllables of extremis are long. However, I'm still a bit unsure about the placement of the caesura.

Edit2: Given as the line breaks in the MS correspond to caesurae in the other lines, they would seem to suggest a caesura after merito, which I suppose isn't impossible instead of after eximii, and one after anglorum, which is perhaps possible as well, but I'm not sure it's OK to have a caesura after an elision.

 

[Godmy]

There are some strange things indeed, I see you treat mūta cum liquidā somewhat with later phonetics... how about the quantities of ecclēsia or mittō?

But I don't have any 'constructive' criticism at this point, I just had a quick look at it.

 

[Pacifica]

I see you take mūta cum liquidā somewhat with later phonetics...

Sorry, I don't know what you mean. EDIT: Maybe the fact I divide patris as pat-ris rather than pa-tris? I thought both were possible. In any case, it can't scan otherwise than as pat-ris here, unless you make the a long. But this is medieval Latin anyway, so "later phonetics" wouldn't be wholly unexpected I suppose...

how about the quantities of Ecclēsia or mittō?

Ecclesia has a variant with short e: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=ecclesia

As for mitto, I believe the final -o of the first person singular is sometimes shortened even in classical poetry. (E.g. Catullus: Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. / nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.)

 

[Godmy]

Sorry, I don't know what you mean. EDIT: Maybe the fact I divide patris as pat-ris rather than pa-tris? I thought both were possible. In any case, it can't scan otherwise than as pat-ris here, unless you make the a long. But this is medieval Latin anyway, so "later phonetics" wouldn't be wholly unexpected I suppose...

Yeah, that's what I meant. (and: yes^ )

Ecclesia

has a variant with short e: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=ecclesia

Mmm... interesting.

As for mitto, I believe the final -o of the first person singular is sometimes shortened even in classical poetry. (E.g. Catullus: Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. / nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.)

I thought of that, I just found those one-syllabled feet at the end strange at times... But I guess there is no help.

 

[Pacifica]

I just found those one-syllabled feet at the end strange at times...

That is normal in the pentameters of elegiac couplets (which is what we've got here).

 

[Godmy]

You're right, I had momentarily forgotten

 

[Dantius]

I'm not sure it's OK to have a caesura after an elision.

It's not common, but it does occur:

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.

 

[Matthaeus]

Beautiful song. In fact I like it so much I gotta post it here: