The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

3.7 “Lectio tibi sit adsidua”: 200 The Role of Literature in Visigothic Monasteries
The association of monasticism with a community that is focussed highly on the
written word and literate culture is one found in the earliest sources. The early-fifth-century
Life of Martin, for example, in reference to a community near Tours, makes reference to
monks copying books (“ars ibi exceptis scriptoribus nulla habebatur”) and notes,
importantly: “ut plerisque monachis moris est”. 201 Even Egeria, the itinerant fourth-century
ascetic whose Latinity is often the subject of derision, was reported to be an avid reader of the
Bible. 202 Importantly, it is also a notion found frequently in the Visigothic sources. The
example of Bonellus, as retold by Valerius of Bierzo in his De Bonello monacho, is typical of
the idea of the literate monk. In this small work reminiscent of Boethius‟ De consolatione
philosophiae, the tale is told of how the monk was taken by an angel to an “amoenissimum
iucunditatis locum” where, amongst jewels and precious gems, there were books piled high in
small insets in the wall: “et in lateribus eius hinc indeque in uoluminibus zetulae
exstructae”. 203 The implicit parity of jewels and books implies that for Bonellus, the
presence of the books merited rejoicing just as much as any other treasure.
200 Leander of Seville De contemptu mundi 15.
201 Life of Martin 10.
202 Valerius of Bierzo Epistola beatissime Egerie laude conscripta 19-20, “quanto plus sancto
dogmate indepta, tanto amplius inexplicabilis estuabat in corde eius sancti desiderii flamma: cuncta
igitur Ueteris et Nouis Testamenti omni indagatione percurrens uolumina”.
203 De Bonello monacho 20.
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