That wrytest us that ilke wedding murie
Of hir, Philologye, and him, Mercurie.'
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a satirist of the fifth century, and wrote the Nuptials of Mercury and Philology, De Nuptiis inter Mercurium et Philologiam, above referred to. It consists of two books, followed by seven books on the Seven Sciences; see Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, ed. 1871, iii. 77. 'Book viii (l. 857) gives a hint of the true system of astronomy. It is quoted by Copernicus'; Gilman.
[986]. Anteclaudian. The Anticlaudianus is a Latin poem by Alanus de Insulis, who also wrote the De Planctu Naturæ, alluded to in the Parl. of Foules, 316 (see note). This poem is printed in Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, ed. Wright, pp. 268 428; see, in particular, Distinctio Quarta, capp. 5-8, and Distinctio Quinta, cap. 1; pp. 338-347. It is from this poem that Chaucer probably borrowed the curious word citizein (l. 930) as applied to the eyrish bestes (l. 932). Thus, at pp. 338, 360 of Wright's edition, we find—
'Vestigans, videt intuitu meliore vagantes
Aerios cives.'
'Hic cives habitant supremi regis in urbe;
Civibus his servanda datur respublica coeli.'
So again, ll. 966-969 above may well have been suggested by these lines (on p. 340), and other similar lines:—
'Aeris excurso spatio, quo nubila coeli