Monaci, vescovi e scuola nella Gallia tardoantica (review)

In recent years the late-antique school, rightly considered a key factor to the survival and evolution of Greco-Roman civilization, has been attracting scholarly attention. The vivid interest in the Third Sophistic and the excitement raised by the discovery of schoolrooms at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria are just two examples. Roberto Alciati's book certainly is part of this development, although it does not focus on the school as institution, either monastic or secular. Alciati describes the subject of his interest as the relationship among teachers, pupils, and texts, or the creation of a textual and interpretative community in the monastic milieu of southern and central Gaul, from the beginning of its literary history early in the fifth century to the publication of Vitae Patrum Iurensium in c. 520. However, he does not clearly explain the criteria for his choice of monks, bishops, and writers who composed this community—and this choice is not self-evident.

The construction of the book seems to reflect the order of research. Alciati is interested in such topics as the teacher-student relationship, the formation of monastic literary canons, and the character of teaching, but he does not present them in thematic order. Consecutive chapters are devoted to major monastic milieus and authors—the circle of St. Martin of Tours and Sulpicius Severus, Lérins and associated personages (Eucher, bishop of Lyon; Salvian of Marseille; St. Vincent of Lérins; and St. Faustus, bishop of Riez), the community of Condatisco in the Jura, Julianus Pomerius, and Claudianus Mamertus. Such a construction has the obvious advantage of permitting Alciati to fix and carefully analyze every quotation from these authors in its context, but at a price—the reader sometimes is at a loss to understand the author's aim. His quite convincing textual interpretations are easy to follow, but his comprehensive vision of the problem less so.

The conclusions, if not groundbreaking, are definitely interesting. First, Alciati demonstrates that the most important element that several prominent Gallic monks and bishops adopted from their school (whatever form it took) was the method—the classical method of interpreting texts and constructing arguments as well as a method of teaching, manifest especially in quaestiones et responsiones and dialogues. Second, he shows that the teacher-student relationship, like the links of patronage, created an important network that connected monks, bishops, and other teachers. Third, he reveals how consciously the canon of monastic "school" texts was formed and how a library could have played a founding role for a community. Fourth, Alciati shows that education in a monastic environment was not based on Christian literature alone and that philosophical training was appreciated and evidently found useful.

A comparison of the Gallic model with other approaches to Christian education would have been welcome. There is a chapter on the Cappadocian Fathers, but not on Latin authors from outside Gaul who were involved in teaching. Therefore, it is up to the reader to decide whether Alciati's monastic Gaul is just a case study or a phenomenon apart.