Martin Opitz‘ poem Vesuvius: scientific discourse in the form of poetry

In 1631, a massive eruption of the Italian volcano Vesuvius took many lives and caused an intensive literary production on the subject over the next few years. Martin Opitz's poem Vesuvius, Poëma Germanicum of 1633 deals with the geological causes of the eruption and places them in the context of historical and divine providence. The didactic poem engages in a scientific discourse on volcanism, which is as relevant as the poem's eschatological significance.

In the very first lines, the poet addresses nature as the creation of God, as Des Höchsten meisterrecht/ undt erstgebornes kindt (‘The Supreme Master's right/ and first-born child’), asking her to support his poetic undertaking. The beginning of the poem emphasises his own position as a pioneer of German didactic poetry on natural phenomena, as well as his intention to treat these phenomena as the result of natural processes. Reflecting further on the necessity of natural science, the poem asserts that by penetrating the natural world with seiner sinnen krafft (‘the power of his senses’) and with augen der Vernunft (‘eyes of reason’), men confirm their position as the highest creature and master of the earth.

The middle section of the poem is devoted to a geological explanation of the eruption. The poem explicitly rejects astrological and mythological explanations in favour of a naturalistic account of volcanism. The fire of Vesuvius is not caused by the influence of the stars and planets, nor by the work of the Roman god Vulcanus, who is said to have had his forge in the mountain, nor by the movement of the imprisoned giant Typhon. The didactic poem explicitly distances itself from the kind of poetry that uses its poetic freedom to tell such implausible stories. It reaffirms its intention to adhere to scientific truth. The cause of the volcanic eruption is to be found in the structure of the earth itself. The Earth is described as a heterogeneous, changing, moving and creating, even living entity. Most importantly, it is imagined to be full of holes, especially in areas close to the sea. As the water enters the holes, it brings air with it until the holes are filled. The pressure causes the air to break through the earth's crust, causing the earth to shake. Meanwhile, the sulphur embedded in the earth is ignited by the moving air, causing the fire.

What is special about Opitz's poem is the integration of large sections of commentary into the literary text. This commentary, which often interrupts the flow of the poem and sometimes fills more than one page, contains explanations of places or mythological figures, as well as literary sources for the subjects treated. The main sources are the canonised authors of classical antiquity: Virgil, Seneca, Aristotle, Cicero, Ovid, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger. With his didactic poem, Opitz established a genre in the German-language literary landscape that originated in antiquity and is prominently represented by Lucretius De rerum natura and Virgil's Georgics. Opitz's poem is based on two literary texts about the Sicilian volcano Aetna, which are most probably the main models for his poem, as they share the same description of volcanism and a similar didactic-poetic attitude. These are the ancient Latin poem Aetna, which has survived in the Appendix Vergiliana, and the Latin dialogue De Aetna, which was written at the end of the 15th century by the Italian humanist poet Pietro Bembo. Opitz adapted the topic of these models to the historical situation in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. In the last section of his poem the eruption of the Vesuvius is extensively interpreted as a sign for divine wrath and as a warning of God in the light of human sin and wickedness showing itself in the war.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius constituted a significant media event in the years that followed its occurrence and has been the subject of artistic and historical analysis, notably in the form of etchings (Joachim von Sandrart), eyewitness accounts, and oral and written records. In contrast to other adaptations of the Vesuvius narrative, Opitz shifts its focus, at the end of his poem, from the eruption itself to the war raging in Europe, which is presented as the greater catastrophe. At the heart of the poem, however, is the natural and scientific explanation of volcanism, a natural phenomenon that takes its course without human intervention.

Excerpts

O Göttin/ gönne mir das mein gemüte dringe

In deiner wercke reich/ undt etwas sagen mag

Darvon kein Deutscher mundt noch biß auff diesen tag

Poetisch nie geredt: ich wil mitt warheit schreiben

Warumb Vesuvius kan steine von sich treiben/

Woher sein brennen rührt/ und was es etwan sey

Darvon der glut sich nährt. […]

(Vesuvius, p. 1)

O Goddess, grant that my mind may penetrate

Into the realm of your works and may say something

Of which no German mouth until this day

has ever spoken poetically: I aim to write with truth,

Why Vesuvius can drive stones from himself,

Where his burning comes from, and what it is

From which the embers feed.

Doch beßers weiß er nichts darmit er zeigen kan

Daß er/ die kleine welt/ zum Herren sey gesetzet

Der großen die ihn nährt/ als wann er sich ergetzet

Mitt seiner sinnen krafft/ beschawt diß weite hauß

Vom höchsten gibel an zu allen seiten auß

Mitt augen der vernunfft/ verschicket das gemüte

In seines Schöpffers werck/ da alles reich an güte

Undt voller weißheit ist/ und macht ihm auff den grundt

Die sitten der Natur sampt ihrem wesen kundt.

(Vesuvius, p. 2)

But he knows nothing better with which he can show

That he, the small world, is set as master

Of the great one that nourishes him than by enjoying himself

With the power of his senses, by observing this wide house

From the highest gable to the outsides

With eyes of reason, by sending the mind

Into his creator's work, where everything is rich in goodness

And full of wisdom, and by making himself familiar with

The customs of nature as well as with its essence.

So fange Musa nun die ursach an zue sagen

Woher des berges glut/ das schwere donnerschlagen/

Der quell des fewers sey. es glaube keiner nicht

Diß was der Tichter wahn von diesen orten spricht/

Vulcanus habe sie zu seiner werckstat innen/

Auß welcher solcher plitz undt flammen sich entspinnen/

[…]
Nun diese freyheit ist Poeten ja zu geben/

Als schüllern der Natur/ bey denen steine leben/

Undt Götter sterblich sind: ich habe mir erkiest

Sonst nichts hier an zue ziehn als was unlaugbar ist.

(Vesuvius, p. 15f.)

So, Muse, now begin to unfold the cause, now begin to tell the cause

Where the mountain's embers, the heavy thunder comes from

What is the source of the fire. No one may believe

That which the poets’ delusion speaks of these places,

That Vulcan had them as his workshop,

From which such lightning and flames arise

[…]

Now this freedom is to be given to the poets

As students of nature, who make stones live

And gods die: I have chosen

To put on nothing else here but what is undeniable.

Wir sindt die jenigen anietzt zue wiederlegen

Mitt vielem nicht gemeint/so für zue geben pflegen

Diß rhüre mehrentheils nur von den sternen her/

Undt sonderlich von Mars/Saturn undt Jupiter/

Den Vätern solcher macht; als wie sie dann auch lehren

Daß alles/ was sich hier kan regen undt empören/

An ursach undt begin auß ihrem himmel sey;

Doch kömpt was anders noch der warheit näher bey

(Vesuvius, p. 16f.)

We are not meant now to refute with many reasons

The ones who usually claim,

This is caused for the most part only from the stars

And especially from Mars, Saturn and Jupiter,

The fathers of such power; as they then also teach

That everything that can stir and revolt here

Has its cause and beginning from their heaven;

But something else comes still closer to the truth

Das erdtreich/ also weit sein großer umbschweiff reichet

Ist löcherig undt hol/ weil es ihm selbst nicht gleichet/

Undt wegen vieler art in welcher es besteht/

Sich von einander trennt/ undt nie zuesammen geht;

Auch gleichfalls weil es stets entweder was gebiehret

Undt zeuget/ oder was von seinem wesen führet/

Undt vorige gestalt zu etwas anders macht;

Undt dann/ wie ihrer viel ihm weißlich nachgedacht/

Dieweil es selber lebt/ in dem ihm pflegt zue geben

Die seele dieser welt ein theil von ihrem leben/

Ist in undt außer ihm/ durchdringt es umb undt an/

Daß dieses große thier den athem schöpffen kan/

Undt blut undt adern regt. Nun weiß man daß die erde

An keinem orte sonst mehr hol gefunden werde/

Als wo des meeres strandt nicht ferren von ihr pflegt

Zue stehen/ oder auch an ihre gründe schlägt

Mitt rauschender gewalt: so wirdt auch stets gespüret/

Wie Tethys alles diß was ihre krafft berühret

Verzehret undt durchfrißt/ besonders aber ihr

Daselbst macht platz undt raum/ undt einreißt für undt für/

Wo schwacher boden ist. Wohin sie nun sich dringet/

Undt welches Erden gliedt sie durch ihr saltz bezwinget/

Da führt sie auch mitt sich zuegleich hinein den windt.

Wann alle winckel nun gantz angefüllet sind/

Undt eine lufft nicht weiß der andern nach zue geben/

So brauchet sie gewalt/ fengt an empor zue streben/

Undt weil das waßer ihr den gang verstopffet hatt/

Durch den sie kommen ist/ als sucht sie andern rhat/

Reißt umb undt uber sich/ daß alles landt erzittert/

So weit die winde gehn/ daß thal undt hügel splittert/

Undt giebt der stärcke nach.

(Vesuvius, p. 17f.)

The earth, as far as its great circumference reaches,

Is full of holes and pocked, because it is not constant in itself,

And because of the many parts of which it consists,

It divides itself and never fits together;

Also because it always either gives birth to

And begets something, or drives something away from itself

And turns its former form into something else;

And then, as many have thought of it,

As it is alive itself, because the soul of this world

gives it a part of its own life,

Is inside and outside of it, penetrates it all around,

So that this great animal can draw breath,

And stirs blood and veins. Now we know that the earth

Is found in no other place more hollow,

Than where the sea-strand lies not far from it

Or beats upon its shores

With rushing force: so it is always felt,

How Tethys consumes and eats

Everything that her Might touches, but especially

Makes herself room and space, tearing through and through,

Where there is weak ground. Where she now penetrates

And which earthly limb she conquers with her salt,

There she brings the wind in with her.

When all the corners now are completely filled

And one air does not know how to yield to the other,

Then it uses violence and begins to rise,

And because the water has blocked its passage,

Through which it came, it seeks other advice,

Tears around and above, so that all the land trembles,

As far the winds reach so that valley and hill splinter,

And gives way to its strength.

Full text

Opitz, Martin: Vesuvius. Poëma Germanicum. Breßlaw: Müller; Brieg: Gründer 1633 (VD17 23:243684C) (urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10906892-7).

Martin Opitz‘ poem Vesuvius: scientific discourse in the form of poetry

Excerpts

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Further Reading

Friederike Altmann and Maja Rausch