HISTORICAL WRITING in VISIGOTHIC SPAIN Graduate

HISTORICAL WRITING IN VISIGOTHIC SPAIN FROM c. 468 TO THE ARAB INVASION OF 711 Elizabeth Alexandra Jordan A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Medieval Studies University of Toronto @ copyright by Elizabeth Alexandra Jordan 1996 National Library Bibliothhue nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L7auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, pr&er7 distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de rnicrofiche/~de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent 6tre imprimes reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Elizabeth Alexandra Jordan Centre for ~edievalStudies University of Toronto Doctor of Philosophy 1996 ABSTRACT Historical Writing in Visigothic Spain from c. 468 to the Arab invasion of 711 The purpose of the present dissertation is to investigate the nature of the historical works composed in Visigothic Spain from the Chronica of the ~allaecianbishop Hydatius written c. 468 to the Arab Invasion of Spain in 711. The limited amount of concrete evidence to have survived with regard to the Visigothic kingdom in Spain, has generally led scholars to treat these historical texts as sources for historical facts rather that to approach them from a historiographical perspective. Alternatively, they have been used, selectively, to support certain thematic arguments. The thesis examines the major extant historical works produced in Spain in this period in an attempt to derive from them the emerging perception throughout the period of the Visigothic presence in the peninsula and its role vis-a-vis external political entities, the Spanish Church and the indigenous population. An attempt is made to identify the ways in which the various kinds of historical works were used to direct and shape perceptions of the Goths and of Gothic history to certain ends, determined by the authors, all of whom held high ecclesiastical office, and to place these works within a larger context of Christian historical writing in its various genres. Chapter 1 contains a general discussion of the nature of ii historical writing in the medieval period, the selection of texts for the present study, and the historiographical background which preceded and influenced the Iberian authors. Chapter 2 considers how the Chronica of Hydatius reflected the Hispano-Roman reaction to the initial barbarian incursions. In Chapter 3 the focus shifts to the Visigothic period proper with the late-fifth-century chronicle of John of Biclar. Chapter 4 serves as an introduction to Isidore of ~eville and an examination of his political and historical theories as they appear in his non-historical writings. Chapter 5 focuses on the various genres of historical writing in which Isidore worked, and the manner in which he used them to direct the historical perceptions of his audience. Chapter 5 examines the narrowing of the focus of historical writing in the later Visigothic period and includes the two major historical works produced in spain from the death of Isidore to the Arab invasion, the De viris illustribus of Ildefonsus of Toledo and the Historia Wambae of Julian of Toledo. Chapter 6 summarizes the major changes of focus which took place in Spain throughout the Visigothic period. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I Introduction . 1 Chapter XI Ut extremus plagae: The Chronicle of Hydatius . 21 Chapter 111 Exemplum omnibus: The Chronicle of John of Biclar . 57 Chapter IV Isidore I: Politics, History and Theory . 91 Chapter V Isidore 11: From Theory to Practice . 113 CHAPTER VI Post Isidorurn: Ildefonsus and Julian of Toledo . 170 Chapter VII Conclusion . 210 Bibliography. 220 Chapter I Introduction When one considers the historical texts produced in the Middle Ages, those composed in the Iberian peninsula during the Visigothic period seldom spring to mind with the same readiness as do the histories of such authors as Gregory of Tours, Bede, or William of Malmesbury. Spain is not generally deemed to have produced historians of such high calibre in this period, and this assessment is not without some merit. Historians studying the early history of the region often lament both the small number of historical works produced and the sparsity of information contained within them. Certainly there are few extant historical works from Visigothic Spain, and it is probable that those that do survive represent the bulk of what was produced. There is no evidence of a significant number of lost historical texts from this period. The most popular historical genre employed by the Spanish authors was the chronicle, a format which does not lend itself to highly detailed accounts. Even those authors who attempted to write \proper1 histories rather than chronicles produced works which appear very limited when compared with the richly-textured compositions of historians such as Bede or Gregory of Tours. Isidore of Seville's ~istodaGothorum is comparatively sparse in its detail and the Historia Wambae of Julian of Toledo, while more detailed, is narrowly defined both by its temporal span and by the events narrated. There are two other forms of historical composition, represented in the Spanish corpus, which may be included in the definition of the historical genre. The first of these is biography, which in Spain took the form of works entitled De viris illustribus, a style which provided collections of brief biographical sketches of famous men in the manner initiated among Christian authors by Jerome and continued by Gennadius of Marseille. The Spanish authors who chose to write in this genre no doubt viewed their works as conscious continuations of their two predecessors. The second genre which falls loosely within the realm of historical writing is hagiography. What one might term contemporary hagiography seems never to have caught on in Visigothic Spain, and there are only four extant texts which fall into this category, the Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium by an unidentified author, the Vita S. Emiliani by Braulio of Saragossa, and the Vita Desiderii composed by King Sisebut, all dating from the early seventh century, and the late seventh-century Vita ~ancti Fructuosi, often attributed to Valerius of Bierzo. The reasons for this lack of interest in composing lives of contemporary saints are not readily apparent.' Having delineated the limitations of the historical output of Visigothic Spain, one must also consider the value of a study of lhdging from the collection of lives dating from the seventh to eleventh centuries edited by R, Dr. Angel F6brega Grau under the title Pasionario Hispsnico (Madrid-Barcelona, 1953), there does, however, appear to have been an interest in the paesions of martyrs- Dr. Fdbrega Grau suggests that the Pasionario was essentially a liturgical book (p.12). 3 this material. From a practical point of view, although these texts are often frustratingly spare of detail, they remain the chief source for the history of the Iberian peninsula in this period.2 However, they may also be very revealing of the perceptions held by their authors with regard to the political situation in which they found themselves, of their understanding of the nature of the unfolding of history and the meaning that might be found in it, and of the manner in which the writing of history might be used in order to shape perceptions of both past and present in an attempt to direct the future. Historical writing in the early Middle Ages was often an attempt to provide an identification for a clearly defined group, a sense of what one might term the \collective self1. One sees this in the early Christian histories, in which the group is identified by a common religious adherence, and in the early \national1 histories in which the group identification is based on ethnic association. The group can define itself, or be defined, either in terms of what it is, that is to say, what the members of the group have in common, or by what it is not, in other words, in contrast to some \other8,external to the group. his use of written history as a tool of definition could be aimed at two distinct, but not necessarily exclusive, forms of perceiving the group, depending on the audience intended by the author. On the one hand, it could. be art from the historical texts, the limited amount of information available on the Visigothic period of Spanish history is largely derived from the conciliar records, some surviving correspondence, archeological evidence and coins. 4 an attempt to direct the way in which the group perceives itself and its own past with a view to directing the course it took in the future, or, on the other hand, the intent could be to inf hence the perceptions of some external entity to enhance, or denigrate, the reputation or prestige of the group in the estimation of another. In the case of the Visigoths in Spain, the attempt to define the ethnically-demarcated group through the medium of written historical accounts was, in the majority of cases, made by individuals from outside of that group. Of the five authors included in the present study, only two, Ildefonsus and John of Biclar, were Gothic and, as will be discussed in a subsequent chapterr4 the chronicle of the latter may have been significantly influenced by a non-Gothic individual.

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