The Seventh-Century Hiberno-Latin Treatise Liber de ordine creaturarum. A Translation

Abstract

This article consists of both an introduction to, and a translation of the Liber de ordine creaturarum, an anonymous treatise written in Ireland in the second half of the seventh century. After summarizing the theological and cosmological content of the treatise, the introduction examines the date, the early manuscripts, the linguistic features and other elements in the text pointing towards an Irish environment. The reception of the Liber de ordine creaturarum is also traced: its influence was particularly strong in Anglo-Saxon England, but early Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionary activity and the mistaken attribution to Isidore of Seville ensured that the treatise spread throughout most of medieval Europe.