2024/11/17 by David Addison · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Archaeology #Art #Byzantine Studies and History #Desert (philosophy) #Epistemology #Geography #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies #History #Philosophy #Theology #Vision
paper · doi:10.1080/09503110.2024.2423536
published in Al-Masāq 37(1), 73-95 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2024/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
The apophthegmata patrum or “sayings of the desert fathers” were an essential resource for Late Antique monastics. Compiled in Greek, they quickly circulated in an array of languages, including Coptic, Syriac and Latin, connecting people across the Christian world to the imaginaire of the Egyptian desert. The sixth century saw the production of at least four Latin translations, in locations as diverse as Ostrogothic Rome and Suevic Gallaecia. This article examines one of these, the Liber geronticon produced by the monk Paschasius of Dumium in Gallaecia. Positioning this little-studied work as a window onto the vector of cultural transmission constituted by the Atlantic routes that linked the eastern Mediterranean to the Iberian Peninsula and northern Europe, it demonstrates that connectivity between the Mediterranean and Atlantic in the sixth century produced a distinctive cultural ferment, the products of which would decisively shape the desert tradition in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.