The Juxtaposition of the Ridiculous and the Sublime in Martianus Capella

Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii is a difficult work, often misunderstood. One way of approaching it is by an analysis in terms of genre. From this point of view Martianus was faced with a unique problem: how to combine an educational ideal with a practical, systematic handbook of learning. Here his model may have been Varro's Disciplinae, an encyclopaedia of the seven liberal arts of which only fragments survive. It is far more likely, however, that his solution was a unique one, and that his "pondering of some original composition unimagined hitherto" (nescio quid inopinum intactumque moliens) may not be a mere topos.