Gripla - 20.12.2011, Qupperneq 87

87
“And it does not shine in vain of blue and red colours together,
because it gives us evidence of the blue colour of the waters which
went before, of the red colour of the flames which will come. The
rainbow, they call Iris, is properly placed as a sign of the divine
favour, and usually it shines in the clouds, because the wet darkness
is illuminated by the sun rays...”
Also in book 9, ch. 20 ‘De arcu coelesti’ of Rabanus Maurus’ (780–
856) De universo, a didactic compilation mostly derived from Isidore’s
Etymologiae, we read about the rainbow in the same two-colour pattern
terms as we have now been discussing, corresponding incidentally almost
word for word to no. 135 of Alcuin’s (ca. 730–804) Interrogationes et respon-
siones in Genesin (Inter. ‘Cur signum illud diversi coloris datur homini bus?
– Resp. Propter securitatem et timorem: unde et in arcu idem color aquae
et ignis [simul] ostenditur, quia ex parte est caeruleus et ex parte rubicun-
dus. Ergo utriusque judicii testis est...’)51, and also repeated verbatim by
Rabanus elsewhere:52
Nam quod in eodem arcu color aquae et ignis simul ostenditur,
quia ex parte caeruleus est et ex parte rubicundus, apparet, quod
utriusque judicii testis sit: unius videlicet faciendi, et alterius facti,
id est, quia mundus judicii igne cremabitur, non aqua diluvii ultra
delebitur. Iris, id est, arcus, duorum judiciorum Dei figuram habere
dicitur: hoc est, primi, quod per diluvium; secundi, quod per
ignem...53
“As a matter of fact, in this rainbow the colours of water and of fire
are shown together, since it appears blue at one side and red at the
other, because it is a witness of both judgements: one certainly to
come, and the other past, that is, because the world will be burnt by
the fire of judgement, and will not be destroyed by the water of the
flood any longer. Iris, that is the rainbow, is said to be the symbol of
God’s two judgements: the first, the one through flood; the second,
the one through fire...”
51 Cf. PL 100, cols. 531 D-532 A.
52 Cf. Rabanus Maurus, Comment. in Genesim, II, 9, in PL 107, col. 524 D: Unde et in arcu
eodem, color aquae et ignis simul ostenditur, quia ex parte est ceruleus, et ex parte rubicundus etc.
53 Cf. Rabanus Maurus, De universo, IX, 20, in PL 111, col. 278 B.
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