La «inversión del orden» en el Tractatus in Sacram Scripturam nº 16 de Gregorio de Elvira

Abstract

The breaking of the rhetorical ordo is one of the characteristics that enables us to identify Christian Latin Literature within the Latin literary corpus from the fourth century onwards. Gregorius Illiberritanus, the fourth century Hispanic author, in Tractatus number 16 of their Tractatus in Sacram Scripturam, refers to the biblical origin of the device of breaking the logical-rhetorical ordo. In his text, however, he not only theorizes on this aspect, but also applies it stylistically to the very creation of his discourse. Moreover, this aspect enables us to identify a literary genre which is particularly Christian: the «grammatical tractatus» in a speech form. This is the predecessor of sermons and homilies, which do not have parallels in non-Christian Latin Literature.