Item talk:Q7488
Richler 1998: Colección de epigramas extraída de las obras de Séneca. A cada epigrama le procede el título de la obra de Séneca de donde proviene.
Novoa 2010: “The short text, which would seem to be a sort of introduction to or preparation
for the florilegium, stresses what were considered Senecan tropes throughout the
Middle Ages, such as the purity of nature, the non-dependence on riches and the
impartiality of the wise man in the face of fortune. The words serve as a means
to introduce the successive Senecan proverbs allegedly culled from his works.
Describing the life of the wise man, the text relies upon the words of a work
attributed to Seneca, the Tratado de la afectación: ‘Biben teniendo por testigo al
cielo y así los crió como dijo en el tratado de la afectación que los señores non
fallan quien les diga verdad’ …
Throughout the aljamiado florilegium the title of a work attributed to Seneca
appears, followed by a phrase or several phrases derived from it. A visual flag
thus signals to the reader of the manuscript that a new work is being cited. More
often than not the citations are designated by “en el” in larger Sephardic cursive
handwriting, followed by the title and sentences. In keeping with the spirit of the
structure of medieval florilegia, the author of the Parma aljamiado manuscript
obviously meant the collection to be just that, a gathering of excerpts and phrases
which could be either read randomly or from beginning to end.
Some of the works cited, such as the El tratado de los benefiçios (De beneficis),
El libro de la clemençia (De clementia), El libro de la consolaçión, one of the
several Consolatiae written by Seneca, El libro de las naturales cuestiones
(Naturales quaestiones), El tratado de la ira (De ira), El libro de la providençia
(De providentia) and El libro de las declamaciones (The book of Declamations),
were in fact written by the Cordoban sage. Other works which are cited, such
as El tratado de la afectación (The Treatise on the Affections), El tratado de la
fortaleza (The Treatise on Strength), El tratado de las senectudes (The Treatise on
Old Age), El tratado del fado (The Treatise on Fate), El tratado de la contienda
(The Treatise on Conflict), El tratado de la çiençia (The Treatise on Science), El
tratado de la seguridad (The treatise on security), El tratado de la injuria (The
Treatise on Injury) and El tratado de la gula (The Treatise on Gluttony), are from
that abundant medieval corpus, the pseudo-Seneca.”