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

examples of this, a topic that will be discussed further in Chapter Five. The idea of technical
literature more generally is one that has been applied to a wide range of texts (Powell 2005),
and is a field that has in recent years witnessed something of resurgence, particularly relating
to Latin literature (for example, Adams 1995; Langlsow 2000; Formisano 2001; Santini
2002).
Technical texts are normally written in a low-register of language. This is not to say
that they were written in a language seen as „wrong‟ by their audience, but rather that the
language was generally lacking the manipulated and artificial nature of higher-register
literary prose, such as archaic or poetic vocabulary and heavily manipulated syntax for the
purposes of literary adornment (Allies 2009). This has meant they have rarely enjoyed the
attention lavished on other works that are generally seen as being more „literary‟. 280 It has
been noted that “el estudio de este campo [i.e. technical literature] de la literatura latina ha
gozado, tradicionalmente, de un escaso interés y ha vivido casi siempre bajo las
consideraciones más bien peyorativas de los principales estudiosos, que no tan solo le han
dedicado relativos pocos esfuerzos, sino que, cuando lo han hecho, han producido opiniones
no demasiado favorables” (Gómez Pallarès 2003: 127).
Added to this problem is the wider methodological issue of anachronism, since for
Roman audiences there existed “no sharp generic distinction between Kunstliteratur and
Fachliteratur” (Powell 2005: 234). This means that the modern divisions of literary
280 For example, it was only in 2004 that a new edition of Frontinus‟ De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae
was published, replacing the last edition of 1722 (Rodgers 2004). Similarly, an English-language
edition of the Isidore‟s Etymologies appeared only in 2006, despite being a work of major importance
and influence in the medieval period (Barney et al. 2006).
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