From Rome to Ripoll, Rioja, and beyond: the Iberian transmission of the Latin Tiburtine Sibyl and Oliba of Ripoll and Vic’s Europe‐wide network of knowledge transfer and learning

Abstract

In memory of Ernst Sackur (1862–1901) The Catalan abbot-bishop Oliba of Ripoll and Vic (1008–46) was a remarkably learned man, with religious and cultural connections to many European regions beyond Catalonia. When he died, a letter commemorating his life and death circulated from Ripoll through many religious institutions of Catalonia, Septimania, and Western Francia, showing the wide-ranging network he had developed during his lifetime. However, Oliba also had another important religious and cultural orientation – towards Italy in general and Rome in particular. In the light of widely unknown or disregarded Catalan and northern Iberian copies of the so-called Tiburtine Sibyl from the early eleventh century onwards, this article highlights the historical and social circumstances of the early transfer of this new product of Greco-Latin translation activity. This one example stands for many further text transmission activities in Oliba’s life, spread through the networks he had established between Rome, Italy, his home region Catalonia, and the northern Iberian world.