Martianus Capella

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Martianus Capella

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Martianus Capella , fl. 5th cent.?, Latin writer, b. Carthage. His one famous work, The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, also called the Satyricon and Disciplinae, is a long allegory about the liberal arts. Its popularity in medieval schools was universal. The author is also known as Felix Capella and may have lived in the 4th cent.

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Martianus Capella

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Martianus Capella ( Marcian) (fl. 410–39), a North African writer, celebrated in the Middle Ages. He was the author of De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii in nine books of prose and verse. The first two deal with the wooing (in a wide, metaphorical sense) of Philology by Mercury, and the last seven are an allegorical encyclopaedia of the Seven Liberal Arts (see Quadrivium and Trivium). Marcian is referred to by Chaucer in ‘The Merchant's Tale’ (Canterbury Tales, 10) and in The House of Fame.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Martianus Capella." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Martianus Capella." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (December 8, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-MartianusCapella.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Martianus Capella." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved December 08, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-MartianusCapella.html

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Martianus Capella

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Martianus Capella see Capella, Martianus .

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"Martianus Capella." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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