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

4.6 The Oral Nature of the Language of the Monastic Rules
The use of stylistic techniques concomitant with such an oral style need not be
suggestive of a completely un-stylistic work, although this is a problem that spreads far
beyond the Latinists‟ domain. 290 Nevertheless, there are elements of the language, as would
be expected, that are in keeping with the spoken language in the sense that they often depart
from the complexities of a synthetic elevated language and are much more in line with what
would be expected in more natural syntax. Examples of anastrophe do not occur, and nouns
and adjectives, for example, are very rarely separated. In place of complex sentences, there is
a tendency towards parataxis in their language, with short cola of the type: “locus autem
aegrotantium remotus erit a basilica‖; 291 “monachi operantes meditari aut psallare
debent”; 292 “uestimenta non multa nec superflua sint”; 293 “hebdomaradarii per singulas sibi
succedant hebdomadas”; 294 “solent plerique nouitii senes uenire ad monasterium”; 295 “in
potestate habeant praepositi omnem regulam monasterii”. 296
Whilst this is in keeping with traits typical of the spoken language, short and to-the-
point sentences are also stylistically fitting for didactic works. Indeed, long clauses are
infrequent within the monastic rules, with many rarely exceeding two lines in length.
290 Miles Foley (1991), for example, with reference to Anglo-Saxon poetry has written: “the critical
tendency to overlook the role of oral tradition – even in manifestly written composition – has led to
faulty assessments of the poetry at virtually all levels, from the philological through the aesthetic”
(ibid.: 141).
291 Rule of Isidore 1.3.
292 Rule of Isidore 5.5.
293 Rule of Fructuosus 4.
294 Rule of Fructuosus 9.
295 Common Rule 8.
296 Common Rule 11.
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