Persistence or Reconfiguration of Knowledge? Divinatory practices, idolatry and legal production in the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo (589-711)
Abstract
Throughout this paper, I attempt to review two strongly embedded assumptions in the historiography about Visigoths: in the first place, the idea that in Iberia these divergent cultic practices are resultant of a long and tenacious ancestry; and secondly that they constitute vivid expressions of popular culture. The hypothesis that defends the continuity of the cults rests primarily on the set of information offered by pastoral treaties (especially Martin of Braga’s De Correctione rusticorum) and Hispanic councils, interpreting the repetition of the measures as an indubitable index of permanence. However, a diachronic analysis of the civil Law between the fourth and seventh centuries highlights significant changes and reconfigurations concerning cultic practices, in many cases driven by the legislator’s activity itself.Downloads
Article download
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal En la España Medieval is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
En la España Medieval is an open access journal that does not charge authors for article processing (submission, review or editing) or publication.
