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Prosimetrum
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<h2 id="usage-of-term">Usage of term</h2> <p>The term <i>prosimetrum</i> is first attested in the <i>Rationes dictandi</i> of Hugh of Bologna, in the early 12th century. Sources differ on the date, one suggesting around 1119,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> another about 1130.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Hugh divided metrical composition into three kinds: <a href="/facts/Quantitative_verse/uIzxuQHA">quantitative verse</a> (<i>carmina</i>), verse based on syllable count and assonance (<i>rithmi</i>), and "the mixed form ... when a part is expressed in verse and a part in prose" (<i>prosimetrum</i>).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> The derived adjective <i>prosimetrical</i> occurs in English as early as Thomas Blount’s <i>Glossographia</i> (1656) where it is defined as "consisting partly of Prose, partly of Meteer or Verse".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p><p>Works such as historical chronicles and annals, which quote poetry previously composed by other authors, are not generally regarded as "true" <i>prosimetra</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> In the Old Norse-Icelandic tradition, however, vernacular histories and family sagas that quote verses by other authors are commonly accepted as <i>prosimetra</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> Researchers of Old Norse <a href="/facts/Sagas_of_Icelanders/HUfGIWa7">Íslendingasögur</a> have recently made more extensive attempts at cataloging and systematically understanding the prosimetric aspects in that literary corpus.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> </p><p>Quoted or "inset" verses are a familiar feature of longer historical texts in the Old Irish and Middle Irish traditions as well.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> The role of such verse quotations within the prose narrative varies; they may be mined as historical source-material, cited as factual corroboration of an event or recited by a character as dialogue.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="examples">Examples</h2> <ul><li><i><a href="/facts/Satyricon/CDpXzuJm">Satyricon</a></i> (c. 1st century CE) by <a href="/facts/Petronius/VAFIbA2u">Petronius</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a></li> <li><i>The <a href="/facts/Mahabharata/EKbN9XwS">Mahabharata</a></i> (c. 4th century?)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Maqamat_Badi%2527_az-Zaman_al-Hamadhani/UjalUF8M">Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani</a></i> (4th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Consolation_of_Philosophy/aVXxTSQk">Consolation of Philosophy</a></i> (c. 524) by <a href="/facts/Boethius/9k2rqLps">Boethius</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights/BPM1XkaC">One Thousand and One Nights</a></i> (c. 8th century?)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a></li> <li><i>De rectoribus christianis</i>, by <a href="/facts/Sedulius_Scottus/KDGNExFe">Sedulius Scottus</a> (9th century)</li> <li><i><a href="/facts/The_Ring_of_the_Dove/7D8N9Xo5">The Ring of the Dove</a></i> (c. 1022) by <a href="/facts/Ibn_Hazm/h72LYD7E">Ibn Hazm</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Cosmographia_(Bernard_Silvestris)/PxPKqS9N">Cosmographia</a></i> (c. 1147) by <a href="/facts/Bernard_Silvestris/p49WEMMu">Bernard Silvestris</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a></li> <li><i>De planctu Naturæ</i> (c. 1168–72) by <a href="/facts/Alain_de_Lille/YTr8fu9Q">Alain de Lille</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Acallam_na_Sen%25C3%25B3rach/bcDBb9wJ">Acallam na Senórach</a></i> (c. 12th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Buile_Shuibhne/7jfLhRUQ">Buile Shuibhne</a></i> (c. 12th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Pantheon_(book)/ohXV0zK5">Pantheon</a></i> (1188) by <a href="/facts/Godfrey_of_Viterbo/uCQv1eYN">Godfrey of Viterbo</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Gesta_Danorum/zCHy0ERH">Gesta Danorum</a></i> (c. 1208) by <a href="/facts/Saxo_Grammaticus/Po9Y7UDF">Saxo Grammaticus</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Aucassin_et_Nicolette/8f35Qz2B">Aucassin et Nicolette</a></i> (c. 13th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/The_Secret_History_of_the_Mongols/cLlDcj4d">The Secret History of the Mongols</a></i> (c. 13th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25"><sup>25</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/La_Vita_Nuova/VnGjPKKp">La Vita Nuova</a></i> (c. 1295) by <a href="/facts/Dante_Alighieri/rXX7fIg0">Dante Alighieri</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26"><sup>26</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Eyrbyggja_saga/3T1vMpQK">Eyrbyggja saga</a></i> (c. 13th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27"><sup>27</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Grettis_saga/sCphtB6q">Grettis saga</a></i> (c. 14th century)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28"><sup>28</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Arcadia_(poem)/G3TBQyRA">Arcadia</a></i> (1504) by <a href="/facts/Sannazaro/VUGDoCkg">Sannazaro</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Diana_(pastoral_romance)/U4QWftLn">Diana</a></i> (1559), by <a href="/facts/Jorge_de_Montemor/Jc5vwdMn">Jorge de Montemayor</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/The_Countess_of_Pembroke%2527s_Arcadia/2HBB2Fcy">The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia</a></i> (1590), by <a href="/facts/Philip_Sidney/8KAp6nbv">Philip Sidney</a></li> <li><i>The Lover's Watch</i> (1686), by <a href="/facts/Aphra_Behn/sonpGGNp">Aphra Behn</a> (translation of <i>La Montre d'amour</i> [1666] by Balthazar de Bonnecorse)</li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Oku_no_Hosomichi/Gd50FFwW">Oku no Hosomichi</a></i> (1694) by <a href="/facts/Matsuo_Bash%25C5%258D/wqEabCKp">Matsuo Bashō</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29"><sup>29</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Spring_and_All/fBjXx8Er">Spring and All</a></i> (1923) by <a href="/facts/William_Carlos_Williams/qDnwS1or">William Carlos Williams</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/In_Parenthesis/Vsp3j9DL">In Parenthesis</a></i> (1937) by <a href="/facts/David_Jones_(poet)/zdaQw8MX">David Jones</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30"><sup>30</sup></a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/Pale_Fire/hxWW2CVG">Pale Fire</a></i> (1962) by <a href="/facts/Vladimir_Nabokov/6vhLN8Wl">Vladimir Nabokov</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:31" href="#fn:31"><sup>31</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Menippus/VHdDoLAv">Menippus</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Haibun/y59VhC0D">Haibun</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Maqama/n48ubFfF">Maqāma</a></li></ul> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Peter_Dronke/FK2Jfa8A">Dronke, Peter</a>. <i>Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante</i>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-674-93475-X</li> <li>Green, Roland, et al., ed. <i>The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics</i>. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-691-15491-6</li> <li>Harris, Joseph, and Karl Reichl, ed. <i>Prosimetrum: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Narrative in Prose and Verse</i>. Cambridge, Eng.: D. S. Brewer, 1997. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-85991-475-5</li> <li>Jones, Samuel, Aled Jones, and Jennifer Dukes Knight, ed. <i>Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 24/25, 2004 and 2005</i>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-674-03528-7</li> <li>O’Donoghue, Heather. <i>Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-19-926732-3</li> <li>Ross, Margaret Clunies. <i>A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics</i>. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1843842798</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Braund, Susanna. "Prosimetrum". In Cancil, Hubert, and Helmuth Schneider, eds. Brill's New Pauly. Brill Online, 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2015. <a href="http://www.paulyonline.brill.nl/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/prosimetrum-e1010870" target="_blank">http://www.paulyonline.brill.nl/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/prosimetrum-e1010870</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Harris & Reichl, p. 11. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Hanson, Kristin, and Paul Kiparsky. "The Nature of Verse and Its Consequences for the Mixed Form". In Harris & Reichl, p. 36. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Dronke, p. 2. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Ricklin, Thomas. "Femmes-philosophie et hommes-animaux: essai d'une lecture satirique de la Consolatio philosophiae de Boèce". In Boèce ou la chaîne des savoirs: actes du Colloque international de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, Paris, 8–12 juin 1999. Louvain: Peeters, 2003. p. 131. ISBN 90-429-1250-2 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Dronke, p. 2. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Ziolkowski, Jan. "The Prosimetrum in the Classical Tradition," in Harris & Reichl, p. 48. <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Ziolkowski, pp. 55–56. <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Ross, pp. 80–81. <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Þorgeirsdóttir, Brynja; Gropper, Stefanie; Quinn, Judy; Wills, Tarrin; Wilson, Alexander (2022). "Investigating the Íslendingasögur as Prosimetrum: A New Methodology". Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. 18: 51–82. doi:10.1484/J.VMS.5.132122. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Mac Cana, Proinsias. "Prosimetrum in Insular Celtic Literature." In Harris & Reichl, pp. 110–111. <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Mac Cana, Proinsias. "Prosimetrum in Insular Celtic Literature." In Harris & Reichl, pp. 110–111. <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>O’Donoghue, pp 11–12. <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>Qian, Ailin (2012). The Maqāmah as Prosimetrum: A Comparative Investigation of Its Origin, Form and Function (PhD). University of Pennsylvania. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.475.6202. <a href="/wiki/CiteSeerX_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/CiteSeerX_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:20"><p>Heinrichs, Wolfhart. "Prosimetrical Genres in Classical Arabic Literature". In Harris & Reichl, p. 249. <a href="/wiki/Wolfhart_Heinrichs" target="_blank">/wiki/Wolfhart_Heinrichs</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:21"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:22"><p>Jones, Jones, and Knight, p. 87. <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:23"><p>Mac Cana, p. 115. <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:24"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:25"><p>Heissig, Walther (1996). "The Present State of the Mongolian Epic and Some Topics for Future Research" (PDF). Oral Tradition. 11 (1): 89. <a href="https://journal.oraltradition.org/wp-content/uploads/files/articles/11i/9_heissig.pdf" target="_blank">https://journal.oraltradition.org/wp-content/uploads/files/articles/11i/9_heissig.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:26"><p>Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116. <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:27"><p>O’Donoghue p. 101. <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:28"><p>O’Donoghue, pp. 181–182. <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:29"><p>Green et al., p. 1510. <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:30"><p>Harris & Reichl, p. 14. <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:31"><p>Alexis, André. Beauty and Sadness. Toronto: House of Anansi, 2010. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-88784-750-9 <a href="/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Alexis" target="_blank">/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Alexis</a> <a href="#fnref:31" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>