Saturday 20 July 2024

Virgil Under the Pillow

Hildebert of Lovardin (1056-1133)

Quadam autem nocte, dum fatigatis artubus modico sopore vir Dei consuleret, videre visus est decubantium sub capite suo serpentium multitudinem, caeteraque diversi generis reptilia, quibus ille perturbatus, somnum continuare non poterat. Dehinc amoto pulvinari, librum Maronis reperit, eoque projecto, somnum duxit tranquillum. Apta rei visio, cum nihil aliud quam quaedam venena sint fabulae poetarum.

What is more, one night, as the man of God attended to his wearied limbs by sleeping a little, he seemed to see a multitude of snakes lying under his head, as well as other reptiles of various sorts. Distressed by them, he was unable to continue sleeping. Then, after removing his pillow, he found a book of Virgil’s poetry. Upon tossing it aside, he slept peacefully. The vision is well suited to the matter, since the inventions of the poets are nothing if not venomous.
Vita Sancti Hugonis, 18 in Patrologia Latina, vol. 159, col. 872A-B. Cited in The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years, ed. by Jan M. Ziolkowski & Michael C.J. Putnam (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 897. Jan M. Ziolkowski’s translation.