Numerical structures

Curtius also has an excursus on numerical composition in the patristic and medieval period. 33 was a favorite structuring device – Augustine’s Contra Faustum has 33 sections, as does Cassiodorus’s Institutione . Verse in 33 stanzas was popular, and “Nicholas of Cusa provided in his will that 33 old men should be maintained in a hospital established by himself.” 33, of course was the age of Jesus at his death.

22 was another favorite, deriving from Jerome’s claim that the Old Testament had 22 books matching the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Raban Maur’s De rerum naturis has 22 books, and so does Augustine’s De civitate dei .

Sometimes the numerology is quite obscure. Walafrid Strabo wrote a poem of 84 lines, which, Curtius says, would be regarded as “a matter of chance – had not Walafrid explained at the end of the poem that he had devoted as many lines to its imperial recipient . . . as the prophetess Anna had lived at the time of Christ’s birth.”

Curtius’s book is a treasure house.