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

(Williams 1999: 180-181). Jerome had sent a copy of his translation of the Old Testament to
a certain Lucinius Baeticus in the late-fourth century, who had converted recently his estate
into a monastery. Jerome, in addition, presumes that Lucinius already possessed a copy of
his Septuagint translation. 234 Isidore was also associated with a copy of the Bible (de Bruyne
1914). Elsewhere, bishop Iohannes of Zaragoza in the early-seventh century commissioned a
Bible. 235
A further activity where the use of the written word was important was the daily
office. Indeed, the Rule of Isidore, along with Book One of his De ecclesiasticis officiis, is
the most important primary source remaining for the Visigothic Office. By the seventh
century, the cursus of the office was already more or less uniform across the three monastic
rules, with services taking place throughout the day and night and at primarily universal
hours, such as at dawn and at set hours of the day. In chapter six of Isidore‟s Rule, the office
is structured on a framework of vespers, compline, vigils, matins, terce, sext and none. The
framework presented by the Rule of Fructuosus in chapter two makes reference to matins,
prime, terce, sext, none, duodecima, vespers, vigils and compline. 236 Chapter Ten of the
Common Rule, meanwhile, sets out a cursus of prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, midnight
and cockcrow.
It was seen above that Valerius of Bierzo took books with him to the monastery of
Rufiana that he considered to be useful for the monastic office. There is no evidence in the
monastic rules to suggest exactly which texts were used in the office. The most probable
234 Jerome Letter 71.
235 MGH 15, 238.
236 For the Rule of Fructuosus in particular, see Pinell (1968) and the monograph of Rocha (1980).
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