Christian and Literary Rhetorics of the Early Middle Ages

Chapter 2 considers the fortunes of stylistic teaching about emotion in late antique and early Christian literary rhetoric: Augustine’s De doctrina christiana, Macrobius’ Saturnalia, and Cassiodorus’ psalm commentary. Here the teaching can explicitly articulate an ethical dimension of style, where the teacher/speaker calls attention to his investment in the emotional charge of the text. But when that ethical value is merely assumed, not overtly stated, as in many monastic and clerical rhetorics over the following centuries, the force of the ethical defense of rhetoric diminishes. The chapter traces this “naturalization” of the ethical defense in the rhetorics of Isidore of Seville, Bede, Rupert of Deutz, and the twelfth-century cathedral master Onulf of Speyer.

Coins and Flowers: Some Images of the Textual Authority in the Works of Isidore of Seville

В статье обсуждается значение авторитета цитируемого текста в свете дихотомии авторитет текста / авторитет личности в культуре последних веков Поздней Античности на Латинском Западе на материале наследия Исидора Севильского. На основании анализа метафор, связанных с фигурой благоразумного читателя (prudens lector), а именно – собирания цветов и экспертизы монет, делаются следующие выводы: 1) авторитет цитируемых текстов позволяет произведению репрезентировать традицию, а его автору-епископу – «образ отцов церкви». Это определяет символический характер авторитета личности церковного учителя, требующий, в то же время, воспроизведения первообраза; 2) цитируемые тексты образуют поле возможных альтернатив, из которых «разумный компилятор» осмысленно выбирает необходимые для воздействия на читателя; 3) читатель при этом, применяя монашеское искусство памяти, на основании накопленных коннотации использовал авторитетные высказывания для созидания новых смыслов. Таким образом, авторитет текста на рубеже Поздней Античности – Раннего Средневековья скорее оказывается средством обоснования и производства новых смыслов, чем ограничивающей их рамкой. The article considers the function of the authority of the quoted text through the lens of the dichotomy of personal / textual authority. The study is focud on the last ages of Late Antiquity and particularly on the works of Isidore of Seville. By consideration of the images related to the prudent reader (prudens lector) the article comes to the following conclusions. The extensive use of the authoritative quotations allows the text to represent the tradition, while its author as religious leader represented the Apostles and fathers of the Church. Thus, the authority of this leader turns out to be essentially symbolical. Relatively wide range of texts were considered authoritative. Making his own text, a prudent compiler (prudens compilator) as a prudent reader (prudens lector) chose the quotations not randomly, but according to the presupposed effect of the compilation. The reader of this kind of text, according to the monastic craft of the thought, produced new ideas by mediation upon the quotations, i.e. remembering all the connotations and relating them to the situation of the reader. Thus, the main function of authority of the quotations was to give an impetus to the thought in terms of tradition and not to suppress it.

Isidorus Hispalensis. Etymologies sive origins. Liber V. De legibus et temporibus

Публикуется перевод первой части пятой книги «Этимологий» –энциклопедического сочинения Исидора Севильского (560–636), последнего из латинских отцов церкви, епископа Севильи. Труд Исидора покоится в зна-чительной мере на римской антикварно-грамматической и энциклопедической традиции и сам стал фундаментом средневекового энциклопедизма, однако эта часть пятой книги опирается, прежде всего, на римские правовые источни-ки. В полном объеме переводится на русский язык впервые. В предисловии даются краткие сведения о ее структуре и источниках. The publication is a translation of the fifth book (first part) of a well-known encyclopaedic work (“The Etymologies”) devoted to the laws and times written by Isidore of Seville (560–636), a bishop of Seville. Isidore’s work is based mostly upon the Roman antiquarian, grammatic and encyclopaedic tradition and the work itself became the basis of a medieval encyclopaedic tradition, but its first part based on the sources of the Roman law. The book has never been translated into Russian in full. The preface gives brief data on its structure and sources.

Plagues and their Function in Sources of Late Antique-Visigothic Hispania and Gregory of Tours

This study identifies where plagues are mentioned in the works of major chroniclers of Late Antique/Visigothic Hispania; they are Hydatius, John of Biclar, Isidore of Seville, the anonymous Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium, and select Visigothic councils of Toledo. Gregory of Tours’ De virtutibus sancti Martini (1.11) is the representative text of an event in Gallaecia. Two other texts in the Libri historiarum decem involve Hispania and Visigothic Narbonne. In addition a few select sermons of Caesarius of Arles have some relevance. The biblical background is explored as it relates to plagues since it shaped more than any other cultural source the Weltanschauung of our writers. The topic is timely in view of the current situation that the world is in with Covid19; even though it is hardly the first time we have been here and for sure will not be the last as the historical record shows.

Isidore of Seville on ius gentium: The View of a Theologian

In this article, my objective is to provide an understanding of Isidore of Seville’s enormously influential definition of ius gentium in its own right. Recent studies have primarily focused on the legal aspects of Isidore’s conception of ius gentium. However, while Isidore as a man of learning was familiar with the legal categories he used, it is by no means certain that his understanding of legal concepts would match that of a contemporary jurist. Isidore was a theologian, and there are strong indications that he was more than a mere transmitter of classical knowledge. In this article, I show that he was an original thinker whose conception of ius gentium contained several innovative features that could not be fully grasped without a deep understanding of his theological ideas based on Augustine and Gregory the Great.