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

Second, of particular relevance to this thesis is the common historiographical topos of
the union between monastic life and medieval literacy. This can be gleaned from two quotes:
“Because of the need to read the Bible and the Rule and to chant psalms, it was essential that
monks be literate, and therefore monasteries became centres of literacy and education. Even
as early as the fifth and sixth centuries, it was becoming clear that the Roman level of literacy
was disappearing. Monasteries became refuges for learning” (Butt 2002: 123); and, “one
must, in the monastery, possess books, know how to write them and read them, and,
therefore, if it be necessary, learn how to read” (Leclercq 1996: 17). The concept of the
„scholar-monk‟ has been linked often to the Celtic fringes in particular (Cahill 1995; Charles-
Edwards 1998), and has also tended to downplay the large role played by Arabic scholars in
the retention of classical literature and knowledge (Gutas 1998). 168
3.2 Understanding literacy
One of the biggest methodological problems in studying literacy is the presence of an
acceptable definition of the term itself. To take an example: in 1873, the Danish Ministry of
War undertook to gauge the literacy levels of its recruits. In doing so it recognised six
different levels: (1) ability to compose a text; (2) the ability to sign a name and to read both
print and handwriting; (3) the ability to sign a name and to read only print; (4) the ability to
read both print and handwriting but not to sign a name; (5) the ability to read print only and
not sign a name; (6) the ability to sign a name but read no text (Vincent 2000: 17). The point
here is that the ability to read and write operates on a scale, and working with a strict
dichotomy between „literacy‟ in opposition to „illiteracy‟ can be distinctly unhelpful.
Distinctions understood by modern Western concepts simply do not translate diachronically.
168 This was perhaps particularly the case in Iberia, where post-Reconquest society was sometimes
guilty of proactively rebuking Arabic learning. The case of some 80,000 Arabic volumes being burnt
in the squares of Cordoba by Cardinal Ximenez in 1499 is a case in point (Tāha 1989: 2).
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