Eschatologie Ovidienne et la poetique de Bernard le Clunisien : (antechrist et aetas aurea dans l'oeuvre [i.e. l'œuvre] De contemptu mundi)

The study is devoted to the satirical poem De contemptu mundi (ca. 1144) by Bernard of Cluny (de Morlas, de Morlaix, de Morval). It brings a general overview of Bernard's works and their accessibility and subsequently summarizes the opinions of historians, especially of literary scholars, who have discussed the quality of the verses of the De contemptu mundi. The poem belongs partly to the type "contemptus mundi", partly to eschatology. The whole poem (2 966 verses) is composed in the tripertiti dactylici caudati metre and the most frequent poetical figure here is the amplification, namely repetitio. The author of this study voices the opinion that majority of the motives that appear in the poem would be better suited to a lyrical piece and that the chosen artistic dimension limited its author to fewer options in choosing his formulations, hence overusing the repetition. The study furthermore analyses Bernard's usage of Ovid's verses about the aetas aurea (Met. I, 89–148) and the metaphor aurum. It concludes that the analysed satire skilfully combines the linear concept of history, typical of Judeo-Christian tradition, with the idea of cyclical repetition of historical processes, mediated through Ovid.