Proverbia Grecorum
There is one surviving copy of the complete work on folio 246r–v of the manuscript Kues 52 (now in St. Nikolaus-Hospital in Bernkastel-Kues), where it is part of the Collectaneum of Sedulius Scottus.
[1] Sedulius quotes proverb 68 in his In Donati artem minorem (again without citing the original collection) and several statements closing paralleling the Proverbia can be found in his De rectoribus Christianis.
Ten excerpts from the Proverbia along with some Old Irish glosses are found on page 61 of Milan, Ambrosianus F 60 sup, a manuscript from Bobbio Abbey.
[1] Ten proverbs attributed to the Proverbia are found on pages 195–199 of the so-called Norman Anonymous (shelfmark Cambridge, CCC 415) under the title De nomine regni.
[b] These three manuscripts—and the theme of the proverbs they contain—suggest a common source in the form of a collection of sententiae on kingship drawn from the Proverbia and from the chapter "De regno" of the Irish Collectio canonum Hibernensis.
[1] Evidence for the circulation of the Proverbia Grecorum in Ireland can be found in the tenth-century poem Saltair na Rann, which has text paralleling proverb 52.
[2] A possible lost manuscript of the Proverbia may be recorded in the twelfth-century catalogue of the library of Lincoln Cathedral, which mentions a Librum Prouerbium Graecorum inutilem, a useless book of Greek proverbs.
[1] The Bobbio manuscript provides the earliest evidence for the Proverbia and puts the terminus ante quem of the collection in the eighth century.
Sigmund Hellmann, the first editor of the collection, concluded that the Proverbia might have been a translation from a Greek original produced in Ireland in the seventh century.
In the prefatory letter, the author claims to have gotten his material "from the wisdom of the Greeks",[h] which may be little more than an idle boast intended to enhance the prestige of the collection.
Similis est piger foratorio quod nihil boni facere potest nisi malleo percussum fuerit.
[Three ... are terrible: the armed warrior eager for battle; the lion from the cave, when he devours his prey; the wild boar from the wood when he rages against somebody.
Rex pacificus leta facie bona diuidit et uniuscuiusque causam diligenter meditatur, etiam infirmos et pauperes populi non despiciens.
[The peaceful king distributes bounty with a cheerful countenance and diligently considers every petition, not scorning even the sick and poor among the people.
Hatton 1 and Cambridge 1 are the same—a proverb on the five periods of kingship also found in the Karlsruhe manuscript and in Sedulius' De rectoribus Christianis—while Munich 3 is an extract from the original prefatory letter.
Cambridge 2, on the eight columns of the just king's kingdom, is the proverb quoted by Cathwulf and is also found in Sedulius' De rectoribus Christianis.
Item in Prouerbiis Grecorum: Octo columpnae sunt quae fortiter regnum iusti regis sufferunt.
Prima columpna ueritas est in omnibus rebus regalibus, secunda columpna patientia in omni negotio, tertia largitas in muneribus, quarta persuadibilitas in uerbis, quinta malorum correctio atque contritio, sexta bonorum exaltatio atque eleuatio, septima leuitas tributi in populis, octaua aequitas iudicii inter diuitem et pauperem.
[4] Ut appis prudentissima, quae congregat de omnibus floribus totius terrae in vas suum, ut reges et sacerdotes comedant de fructu dulcissimo laboris illius, sicut scriptum est in Proverbiis Gregorum: non spernas hominem in visu neque despicias staturam eius; brevis est enim apis in volatilibus caeli et fructum illius primatus dulcidinis.
[Like the most clever bee which collects from all the flowers of the entire earth in her hive so that kings and priests may taste the sweet produce of her labours; as is written in the proverbs of the Greeks: ‘Do not spurn man in his aspect nor despise his stature; short is the bee among the birds of heaven and yet her produce holds the first place in sweetness’.
