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tion circulated in various forms as a proverb.* * * * * 8 Considering the popular-
ity of the adage Multi multa sciunt... in medieval spiritual literature, it
does not seem unusual that Spec. Pen. should open with this aphorism;
and references to the quotation from Pseudo-Bernard in manuscript
catalogues may yet provide clues for locating a direct Latin source for
Spec. Pen.
The opening quotation from Pseudo-Bernard’s Meditationes intro-
duces a brief discussion of the importance of self-knowledge in under-
standing, acknowledging and repenting one’s transgressions, so that
one may find God and through His mercy be cleansed of sin. The pas-
sage culminates in a quotation from Ps. 50:9 (Spec. Pen. 6-7):
sem david konungr segir. lavabis me et
pu munt pvo mig drottin og super nivem dealbabor.
mun eg verda hvitari enn snior
In the commentary on this scriptural passage which follows (Spec. Pen.
7-10), it is explained that through the operation of God’s mercy, one
may cleanse oneself with tears of repentance, thereby rendering one’s
soul whiter than snow, just as it was when it emerged from the waters of
baptism. The association of tears of repentance with the waters of bap-
tism is reinforced by a remark which the homilist ascribes to Augustine,
that ‘a fountain of tears’ is, as it were, a form of ‘holy baptism’ (‘Segir
heilagur augustinus at tara brvnnr er heilug skirn’), and that if the soul
is cleansed in this fountain, it will pass unburdened through the gates of
paradise (Spec. Pen. 10-14). The figure tåra brunnr is quite common,
and is generally associated with the same metaphor, fons lacrimarum,
in ler 9:1.9 However, association of repentance with a ‘baptism of tears’
are taken from the text printed in Venice in 1492, reproduced in S.C.A. Borgnet, ed.,
Opera omnia Alberti Magni, vol. 34 (Paris, 1895). Book and chapters are indicated by
Roman numerals. Arabic numerals accompanied by letter ‘A’ or ‘B’ and a second set of
Arabic numerals mark the appropriate page, column and line in Borgnet’s edition. Refer
to Appendix I for full presentation of Latin source material.
8 See, e.g., H. Walther, Lateinische Sprichworter und Sentenz.en des Mittelalters, 5 vols.
(Gottingen, 1963-1967), II.2, p. 976, no. i 5457a: Multi multa sciunt sed se bene scire re-
linquunt, or Ibid., II.8, p. 491, no. 38, 431: Multi multa sciunt, se autem nemo.
9 Abbreviations for books of the Bible are taken from R. Weber, et al., edd., Biblia Sacra
iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Stuttgart, 1984), except where they are recorded within a
Latin text cited as a source. In such cases, scriptural passages and abbreviations of titles
follow the form given in the edition from which they are cited. On the figure tara brunnr,
see D.M. McDougall, Studies in the Prose Style of the Old Icelandic and Old Nor—>