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

useful to note the literary abilities of their authors. It was suggested above that the ability of
the authors, especially Isidore, to write in different, specifically much more elevated styles,
should not be in question. Maltby (2006), for example, has demonstrated how Isidore was
able to adapt his writing style through his study of the frequency of the gerund in Isidore‟s
works and how it varies depending on the nature, secular or Christian, of the work. He was
clearly a flexible writer and the difference can be highlighted with a small example.
Like Cato‟s preface, the preface to Isidore‟s Historia Gothorum, entitled traditionally
the Laus Spaniae, is seen normally as being of a text of high-register (Merrils 2005:185-196).
The first two paragraphs are reproduced here:
“omnium terrarium, quaeque sunt ab occiduo usque ad indos, pulcherrima es, o sacra
semperque felix principium gentiumque mater Hispania. Iure tu nunc omnium regina
prouinciarum, a qua non Occasus tantum, sed etiam Oriens lumina mutuat. Tu decus atque
ornamentum orbis, illustrior portio terrae, in qua gaudet multum ac largiter floret Geticae
gentis gloriosa fecunditas.
Merito te omnium ubertate gignentium indulgentior natura ditauit. Tu baccis opima, uis
proflua, messibus laeta, segete uestiris, oleis inumbraris, uite praetexeris. Tu florulenta
campis, montibus frondua, piscosa littoribus. Tu sub mundi plaga gratissima sita, nec aestiuo
solis ardore torreris, nec glaciali rigore tabescis, sed temperata coeli zona praecincta,
zephyris felicibus enutriris. Quidquid enim arua fecundum, quidquid metalla pretiosum,
quidquid animantia pulchrum et utile ferunt parturis. Nec illis amnibus posthabenda, quos
clara speciosorum gregum fama nobilitat”.
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