Orality in the Gesta concilii Aquileiensis (AD 381)

Authors

  • Paola Francesca Moretti Università degli Studi di Milano, via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122, Milano, Italia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.108

Abstract

In this paper, a methodological issue is considered concerning the corpus of texts bearing witness to “spoken Latin”. Within this corpus there are also some texts that have been neglected up until now, stemming from shorthand records of spoken utterances: all of them — either dialogal or monologal — share a conversational allure, that allows the singling out of both universal and historical features of spoken (late) Latin. One of these texts, the Gesta concilii Aquileiensis, is then examined: the shorthand report of a Church council summoned in AD 381, where a lively debate is recorded among bishops supporting opposite views — Catholic vs. Arian — of the divinity of Christ. The survey on the universal traits of orality surfacing in the Gesta focuses on the textual-pragmatic, the syntactic and the semantic levels. It leads to interesting results, concerning above all syntax (prominence of parataxis, and of descendent order of the phrasal constituents within the complex sentence, i.e. independent clause > dependent clause) and semantics (lack of lexical innovation; inclination for expressive words). Despite the undeniably formal — and sometimes even formulaic — character of the dialogue, I would argue that the Gesta allow us to listen as it were to the voices of a group of cultured bishops animatedly discussing subtle theological matters.

Keywords:

Latin language, spoken Latin, late Latin, Christian Latin, universal traits of orality, orality, Council of Aquileia (AD 381)

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
 

References

Adams J. N. Social Variation and the Latin Language. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2013.

Atzeri L. Gesta senatus Romani de Theodosiano publicando. Il Codice Teodosiano e la sua diffusione ufficiale in Occidente. Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 2008.

Banterle G. (ed.) Sant’Ambrogio, Lettere. Lettere fuori collezione. Avvenimenti del concilio di Aquileia. Milano — Roma, Biblioteca Ambrosiana — Città Nuova, 1988 (SAEMO 21).

Bauer, B. L. M. Word Order, in: Ph. Baldi, P. Cuzzolin (eds). New Perspectives on Historical Latin Syntax, I: Syntax of the Sentence. Berlin — New York, De Gruyter, 243–316.

Callebat L. (ed). Latin vulgaire — Latin tardif IV. Hildesheim — Zürich — New York, Olms, 1998.

De Ste. Croix G. E. M. A Worm’s-Eye View of the Greeks and Romans and how they Spoke. Martyr-Acts, Fables and Other Texts. Latin Teaching 1984, 36.4, 16–30.

Durante M. Dal latino all’italiano moderno. Saggio di storia linguistica e culturale. Bologna, Zanichelli, 1985.

Graumann T. Documents, Acts and Archival Habits in Early Christian Church Councils: a Case Study, in: A. Bausi, C. Brockmann, M. Friedrich, S. Kienitz (eds). Manuscripts and Archives. Comparative Views on Record-Keeping. Berlin — Boston, De Gruyter, 273–294.

Gryson R. (ed.) Scolies ariennes sur le Concile d’Aquilée. Paris, Cerf, 1980 (SCh 267).

Gundel J. K., Fretheim T. Topic and Focus, in: L. Horn, G. Ward (eds). The Handbook of Pragmatics. Malden MA — Oxford, Blackwell, 2006, 175–196.

Hagendahl H. Die Bedeutung der Stenographie für die spätlateinische christliche Literatur. JbAC 1971, 14, 24–38.

Heath M. Menander. A Rhetor in Context, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2004.

Hofmann J. B. La lingua d’uso latina. It. transl. by L. Ricottilli, Bologna, Pàtron, 32003.

Kaster R. Guardians of Language: the Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988.

Koch P. J. B., Österreicher W. Gesprochene Sprache und geschriebene Sprache — Langage parlé et langage écrit, in: Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik I. 2: Methodologie. Tübingen, Niemeyer, 22010, 584–627.

Koch P. Une langue comme toutes les autres: latin vulgaire et traites universels de l’oral, in: Callebat 1998, 76–85.

Kroon C. Discourse Particles in Latin: a Study of ‘nam’, ‘enim’, ‘autem’, ‘vero’ and ‘at’. Amsterdam, J. C. Gieben, 1995.

Lancel S. Actes de la conférence de Carthage en 411, I: Introduction général. Paris, Cerf, 1972 (SChr 194).

Mari T. Spoken Greek and the Work of Notaries in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon [forthcoming].

McLynn N. B. Ambrose of Milan. Church and Court in a Christian Capital. Berkeley — Los Angeles — Oxford, University of California Press, 1994.

Mohrmann C. Observations sur le De sacramentis et le De mysteriis de saint Ambroise, in: G. Lazzati (ed.) Ambrosius episcopus. Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi ambrosiani nel XVI centenario della elevazione di sant’Ambrogio alla cattedra episcopale. Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 1976, I: 103–123.

Moretti P. F. Is it Possible to Identify ‘Orality’? Verb-Phrases ‘Auxiliary+Infinitive’ in Spoken (Late) Latin. Mnemosyne 2018, 71 (forthcoming, advance article: DOI: 10.1163/1568525X-12342462).

Österreicher W. L’oral dans l’écrit. Essai d’une typologie a partir des sources du latin vulgaire, in: Callebat 1998, 145–157.

Pinkster H. Word Order in the Late Latin Gesta conlationis Carthaginiensis, in: Callebat 1998, 549–560.

Pontani P. Ut puta si dicam. Grammatici latini e oralità. Aevum 2007, 81, 203–212.

Ricottilli L. Introduzione: Hofmann e il concetto di lingua d’uso, in: Hofmann 2003, 9–69.

Teitler H. C. Notarii and Exceptores: an Inquiry into Role and Significance of Shorthand Writers in the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Bureaucracy of the Roman Empire (from the Early Principate to c. 450 A. D.). Amsterdam, Gieben, 1985.

Visonà G. Cronologia ambrosiana. Bibliografia ambrosiana (1900–2000). Milano — Roma, Biblioteca Ambrosiana — Città Nuova, 2004 (SAEMO 25–26).

Weidmann C. (ed.) Collatio Carthaginensis anni 411: Gesta collationis Carthaginensis; Augustinus, Breviculus collationis; Augustinus, Ad Donatistas post collationem. Berlin — Boston, De Gruyter, 2018 (CSEL 104).

Zago A. (ed.) Pompeii commentum in artis Donati partem tertiam. Hildesheim, Weidmann, 2017.

Zago A. La mise en scène come espediente didattico nel Commentum artis Donati di Pompeo grammatico. Latinitas 2018, 6, 133–150.

Zelzer M. (ed.) Ambrosius, Epistularum liber decimus, Epistulae extra collectionem, Gesta Concili Aquileiensis. Vindobonae, Hoelder — Pichler — Tempsky, 1982 (CSEL 82/3).

Downloads

Published

2019-06-25

How to Cite

Moretti, P. F. (2019). Orality in the Gesta concilii Aquileiensis (AD 381). Philologia Classica, 14(1), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.108

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Latinitas media et nova

License

Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.