Cena Cypriani
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The Coena Cypriani (The Supper of Cyprianus), or De Coena Cypriani, is a tale generated in Europe during the early Middle Ages, perhaps during the 5th and 6th centuries, and later put into written forms in Latin by Rabanus Maurus (Hrabanus Maurus), by Johannes Hymmonides and, perhaps, by Asselin of Reims. The tradition ascribes the ancient and original authorship to Cyprian of Carthage (Saint Cyprianus). Johannes Hymmonides (or Hymonides, known as John, deacon of Rome) was a deacon in Rome, and was the author of the life of Pope Gregory I, contained in the famous Liber Pontificalis.
The Coena Cypriani is midway between a parody, an allegory and a satire of some passages of the Bible; this kind of literature is represented also by other later Latin texts, such as some among the huge collection of the Carmina Burana. The content itself of the Coena has been interpreted in many different ways in the past years, and a few of its most mysterious and ambiguous points still need a correct evaluation. It tells of Joel, the King of the Orient, who offers a huge wedding dinner, a banquet, hosted in the town of Cana as in the well-known episode of the New Testament, to many characters taken from the whole Bible. When almost all the guests have finished their meals, King Joel discovers a theft and orders to seek for the thief. This is soon identified in Acar, son of Carmi, who is condemned to death penalty for this theft. He is then killed and buried by the very same guests to the dinner; these then make return to their own homes.
On the question of the Biblical character of Acar and his crime, compare the translations of Bible, 1 Chronicles 2, 7; compare also what is written in the Canonic Letter, 2, 4, by Gregory the Thaumaturge, one of the Church Fathers, who lived between about 215 and 270 AD; compare the Unfinished Work Contra Julianum by Saint Augustine of Hippo, ยง12; compare also Bible, Joshua 7, 24-25.
Incipit of the Coena: Cupienti michi vestre dignitati aliquid scribere quod delectabile foret.
Explicit of the Coena: Bene factum Bene factum etc. Et sic est finis.
Several manuscripts contain transcriptions of the Coena. Among them it is possible to quote a manuscript of the Library of the S. John's College in Cambridge (UK) and MS Incun.1476.B55 of the John Work Garrett Library, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (USA); this second manuscript is made of 11 folios and the Coena is between folii 8 and 11. The provenance of this manuscript is the Conventus Constantiensis Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini in Freiburg. The Coena has made several appearances in contemporary literature, perhaps most famously in the novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose) by Umberto Eco.
