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

purposeful „manipulation‟ of the text put there by the author in a conscious attempt to achieve
an effect. The situation sums up neatly the fact that „style‟ is not confined to high-register
language.
It will be a useful exercise to compare the monastic rules with other technical texts, to
see if elements of commonality can help illuminate aspects of the text‟s stylistic nature;
Cato‟s De agricultura, an agricultural handbook written c. 160 BC, will be taken here as an
example. The is no specific reason for choosing this text above any others, apart from the
fact that, with the monastic rules, they represent some of the first and last examples of Latin
technical prose written by an author who had a language recognisable as Latin as their native
tongue. The fact that a comparison can emphasise similarity through such diachrony seems
fitting, and despite their differences in age, audience and author, the similarities between
them will prove insightful. As with most technical texts, it is for its language that the De
agricultura has been most purposefully studied (Till 1968). With the exception of the short
preface, which is generally accepted to be purposefully stylistic and possibly drawing upon
Greek rhetorical practice, Cato‟s text has been described as “plain in the extreme” (Astin
1978: 190), and one that “has no place for literary ornaments” (Gratwick 1983: 88).
There are certain traits of Cato‟s prose style that are of interest which highlight features
indicative of what might be called an oral style. An oral style is taken here to imply the fact
that if a work is written in a less-manipulated register of language then it may, consciously or
unconsciously, make use of elements that are more reflective of the spoken language rather
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