The (social) polysemy of the desert: a history of histórical and historiographical topos of the monastic solitude in medieval latin context

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate that the traditional historiographical vision of the medieval solitudo is a consequence of the revaluation of some common places of the classical and biblical rhetoric during the period. This is an important observation as it leds us to a new analytical horizon not explored by the monastic studies yet: the social function of the medieval solitude. In methodological terms, this article proposes the exam of the dynamic lexical relations present in the semantic field of the medieval solitude. At the end of our exposition we will have demonstrated that the Latin desert must be understood in relation with the transfer process of the oriental notion to the west. A transfer that brings the solitude under control of some Christian specialists in isolation, such as hermits and monks. These characters claim for themselves the monopoly on the occupation of the space of solitude: the eremus. In the end, this essay argues that the Latinized solitude notion, as well as the polysemy of the biblical desertum, implicate a “territorialized” conception of the space, as the social agents involved intend to exercise their influence (in an exclusive form) on this space.