Carmina Burana (CB) is a manuscript written in 1230 by two different scribes in an
early gothic minuscule on 119 sheets of
parchment. A number of free pages, cut of a slightly different size, were attached at the end of the text in the 14th century. At some point in the
Late Middle Ages, the handwritten pages were bound into a small folder called the
Codex Buranus. However, in the process of binding, the text was placed partially out of order, and some pages were most likely lost as well. The manuscript contains eight
miniatures: the
rota fortunae (which actually is an illustration from songs CB 14–18, but was placed by the book binder as the cover), an imaginative forest, a pair of lovers, scenes from the story of
Dido and
Aeneas, a scene of drinking beer, and three scenes of playing dice,
tables, and chess.
History Older research assumed that the manuscript was written in Benediktbeuern where it was found. Today, however,
Carmina Burana scholars have several different ideas about the manuscript's place of origin. It is agreed that the manuscript must be from the region of central Europe where the
Bavarian dialect of German is spoken due to the Middle High German phrases in the text—a region that includes parts of southern Germany, western Austria, and northern Italy. It must also be from the southern part of that region because of the Italian peculiarities of the text. The two possible locations of its origin are the
bishop's seat of Seckau in
Styria and
Neustift Abbey near
Brixen in
South Tyrol. A bishop named Heinrich was
provost in Seckau from 1232 to 1243, and he is mentioned as provost of
Maria Saal in
Carinthia in CB 6* of the added folio. This would support Seckau as the possible point of origin, and it is possible that Heinrich funded the creation of the
Carmina Burana. The
marchiones (people from
Steiermark) were mentioned in CB 219,3 before the
Bavarians,
Saxons, or
Austrians, presumably indicating that Steiermark was the location closest to the writers. Many of the hymns were dedicated to Saint
Catherine of Alexandria, who was venerated in Seckau, such as CB 12* and 19*–22*. In support of Kloster Neustift, the text's open-mindedness is characteristic of the reform-minded Augustine
Canons Regular of the time, as is the spoken quality of the writing. Also, Brixen is mentioned in CB 95, and the beginning to a story appears in CB 203a which is unique to Tirol called the
Eckenlied about the mythic hero
Dietrich von Bern. It is less clear how the
Carmina Burana traveled to Benediktbeuern. Fritz Peter Knapp suggested that the manuscript could have traveled in 1350 by way of the
Wittelsbacher family who were
Vögte of both Tirol and Bavaria, if it was written in Neustift. The attached folio contains a mix of 21 generally spiritual songs: a prose-prayer to
Saint Erasmus and four more spiritual plays, some of which have only survived as fragments. These larger thematic groups can also be further subdivided, for example, the end of the world (CB 24–31), songs about the
crusades (CB 46–52) or reworkings of writings from
antiquity (CB 97–102). Other frequently recurring themes include: critiques of
simony and greed in the church, that, with the advent of the
monetary economy in the 12th century, rapidly became an important issue (CB 1–11, 39, 41–45); lamentations in the form of the
planctus, for example about the ebb and flow of human fate (CB 14–18) or about death (CB 122–131); the hymnic celebration of the return of spring (CB 132, 135, 137, 138, 161 and others);
pastourelles about the rape/seduction of shepherdesses by knights, students/clergymen (CB 79, 90, 157–158); and the description of love as military service (CB 60, 62, and 166), a
topos known from
Ovid's
elegiac love poems. Ovid and especially his
erotic elegies were reproduced, imitated and exaggerated in the
Carmina Burana. Following Ovid, depictions of
sexual intercourse in the manuscript are frank and sometimes aggressive. CB 76, for example, makes use of the
first-person narrative to describe a ten-hour love act with the goddess of love herself,
Venus. players, from the
Carmina Burana The
Carmina Burana contains numerous poetic descriptions of a raucous medieval paradise (CB 195–207, 211, 217, 219), for which the ancient Greek philosopher
Epicurus, known for his advocation of the blissful life, is even taken as an authority on the subject (CB 211). CB 219 describes, for example, an
ordo vagorum (vagrant order) to which people from every land and clerics of all rankings were invited—even
presbyter cum sua matrona, or "a priest with his lady wife" (humorous because
Catholic priests must swear an oath of
celibacy). CB 215 even provides an example of the religious rites of this order, the
Officium lusorum, the
"Service", or "Mass", "of the Gamblers". In this parody world, the rules of priesthood include sleeping in, eating heavy food and drinking rich wine, and regularly playing dice games. These rules were described in such detail that older research on the
Carmina Burana took these descriptions literally and assumed there actually existed such a lazy order of priests. In fact, though, this outspoken reverie of living delights and freedom from moral obligations shows "an attitude towards life and the world that stands in stark contrast to the firmly established expectations of life in the Middle Ages". The literary researcher Christine Kasper considers this description of a bawdy paradise as part of the early history of the European story of the land of
Cockaigne: in CB 222 the
abbas Cucaniensis, or
Abbot of Cockaigne, is said to have presided over a group of dice players.
Authors Almost nothing is known about the authors of the
Carmina Burana. Only a few songs can be ascribed to specific authors, such as those by
Hugh Primas of Orléans (died ), by the
Archpoet (died ), by Frenchman
Walter of Châtillon (died ), and by
Breton Petrus Blesensis (died ). Additionally, the attached folio contains German stanzas that mention specific authors, so they can be ascribed to German
Minnesinger Dietmar von Aist (died ), to
Heinrich von Morungen (died ), to
Walther von der Vogelweide (died ), and to
Neidhart (died ). The only signed poems are contained in the attached folio, and they are by the so-called
Marner, a wandering poet and singer from
Swabia. Many poems stem from works written in
Classical antiquity by
Ovid,
Horace,
Juvenal, and
Ausonius; however, about two-thirds of the poems appear not to be derivative works. The text is mostly an anonymous work, and it appears to have been written by
Goliards and vagrants who were either theology students travelling between universities or clerics who had not yet received a
prebendary. Presumably these individuals scrounged and begged for a living, which might explain why a good portion of the moral songs are dedicated to condemning those who are not generous alms givers (e.g., CB 3, 9, 11, and 19–21). The authors demonstrate a broad knowledge of ancient mythology, which they employ to rich effect through
metonymy and
allegorical references, and which they effortlessly weave into scenes from the Bible.
Lyaeus, for example, the mythical god of wine (
Dionysus), casually makes an appearance at the
Marriage at Cana in CB 194 where
Jesus performed the miracle of transforming water into wine (). ==Rediscovery and history of publication==