Religious literature

Scholars have struggled to reconstruct the role of religious literature in the Sardinian Middle Ages. The absolute scarcity of sources made it difficult to scientifically document a production that must certainly have been very conspicuous. As in the rest of the writing activity, sacred works were also informed of the multilingualism that characterized the culture of the island.
The choice of language (Latin, Sardinian, Catalan or Tuscan) was linked to the possibilities of disseminating the texts.

Among the most popular genres in the Latin language, hagiography stands out, which was expressed in the highest forms thanks to the contribution of Benedictine monks. It was probably a priest named Paolo who wrote “The Life and Office of Saint George Bishop of Suelli” in the first half of the eleventh century. The author reworks previous traditions and models to construct the bishop's biography, enriched with miracles and wonders similar to those of other saints.

Always for religious reasons, the “laudari” were compiled, which contained paraliturgical texts suitable for preaching among the people. The “Laudario of the Disciplined Whites of Sassari” has come down to us, which reports compositions in Tuscan and Sardinian languages and which well represents the phenomenon of linguistic contact of those times. The Turritan city, in fact, after the Catalan conquest, had become an ethnic-linguistic melting pot in which the Sardinian Statutes slowly gave way to the new hegemonic languages.

Update

18/3/2025 - 14:43