Intellectual Communication between Rome and Spain: Judge and Judgment in Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job and Taio of Zaragoza’s Sententiae

P. 191–205.

Marey E.

Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts of Taio of Zaragoza and his Sententiarum libri V. The aim of the present essay is to study the ways in which Gregory’s text was used by Taio to build his. As a case-study example, I focus specifically on the Taio’s engagement with Gregory’s concepts of judge and judgement because of their religious centrality. Taio, who dedicated to the judge a chapter of the fifth book, presents thee ideal judge not as one with the “technical” qualities of the knowledge of law, for example, but rather is one who must be a pious and God-fearing man. Isidore of Seville in his Sententiae described the ideal judge in sufficient detail, yet Taio did not use the treatise of Isidore. Instead, he preferred to follow fragments of the Moralia concerning the way of living of the righteous man. In fact, Taio used Gregory’s text like a collection of bricks for his own treatise, embedding them in his own structure. Sometimes he shortened or altered the words of the original text, thus changing the content – and, in doing so, for instance, the righteous man of Gregory became the ideal judge.

Keywords: Толедское королевство, Visigothic Spain, Gregory the Great, Григорий I Великий, Taio of Zaragoza, Тайон Сарагосский, Moralia in Job, Gregory the Great's reception, Моралии на книгу Иова, рецепция произведений Григория Великого

In book

Visigothic Symposium 4 (2020-2021)

Issue 4: Manuscripts and Editions. , [б.и.], 2020.