Hexameral literature

Hexameral literature is the medieval Christian literature based on the creation story from the "Book of Genesis". It was commentary or elaboration, sometimes taking on encyclopedic scope, regarding the cosmological and theological implications of the world or universe created in six days.

It was didactic in nature [ Christopher Kendrick, "Milton: A Study in Ideology and Form" (1986), p. 125.] . The approach continued in an important literary role until the seventeenth century.

Terminology

The "Oxford English Dictionary" recognizes a difference between ‘hexaemeric’, pertaining to a ‘hexaemeron’ or six-day creation (or commentary thereon); and ‘hexameral’, meaning simply in six parts. This distinction is often slurred.

Not every ‘Hexameron’ or ‘Hexaemeron’ is actually part of the genre, since Genesis commentaries can have various themes. Hexameral historical theories, of six or seven eras, date back at least to the "City of God" of Augustine of Hippo.

History

This literary genre was founded by the "Hexaemeron" of Basil of Caesarea; though it has been said that Philo started it [Clarence J. Glacken, "Traces on the Rhodian Shore" (1967), p. 163.] .

Examples include:

*Ambrose, "Hexaemeron", in Latin and the most influential [Glacken, p. 174.]
*Augustine of Hippo, "De Genesi ad litteram", 401-415 [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02089a.htm CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Works of St. Augustine of Hippo ] ] , influenced by Plato and Greek biology [Glacken, p. 196.]
*Anastasius Sinaita, "Hexaemeron"
*Henry of Langenstein (1385), "Lecturae super Genesim" [ Nicholas H. Steneck (1976), "Science and creation in the Middle Ages. Henry of Langenstein (d. 1397) on Genesis"]

It extended into early modern times with the "Sepmaines" of Du Bartas, and "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. According to Alban Forcione ["Cervantes’ Night-Errantry: The Deliverance of the Imaginatio"n, in Jeremy Robbins, Edwin Williamson, E. C. Riley (editors), "Cervantes: Essays in Memory of E. C. Riley", p. 43.] the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century saw ‘hexameral theatre’, and in particular the visionary holism represented by the "De la creación del mundo" (1615) of Alonso de Acevedo. There is a cusp between Du Bartas, very influential in his time, and Milton: Milton's different approach marks the effective literary end of the genre.

ee also

*Hexameron
*Creation according to Genesis
*Framework interpretation (Genesis)
*Allegorical interpretations of Genesis

References

*Frank Egleston Robbins (1912), "The Hexaemeral Literature"
*Mary Irma Corcoran (1945), "Milton's Paradise with Reference to the Hexameral Background"

Notes