Eugenius of Toledo (EUGENIO DI TOLEDO) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 488

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

EUGENIO di TOLEDO. - Called the poet, to distinguish him from his namesake and immediate predecessor, E. the astronomer, Chindasvinto transferred E. from the see of Sa-

Article illustration — EUGENIO IV, POPE - Funerary monument, work of Isaia da Pisa (late 15th century). Transferred to the church of S. Salvatore in Lauro - Rome.

ragozza, where he was archdeacon, to the metropolitan see of Toledo. He attended the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Councils of Toledo.

Leaving aside his treatise De Trinitate, which is no longer extant, his literary activity was always developed in poetry. Invited by Chindasvinto, he revised and published the Hexaemeron of Dracontius. E. composed 100 epigrams on various subjects, which testify to his vast and versatile inspiration. He versifies with great skill and no little elegance. His artless muse inspired his entire production of simple themes. He makes use of rhyme and other minor artifices, and has the romantic audacity to change the meter within his compositions. His reminiscences are numerous and recall almost all the Christian poets who preceded him; of the pagan classics, there echoes the influence of Virgil, Horace, Martial, Ovid, etc. He died in 657.

BIBL.: Editions of the Hexaemeron and the Epigrammata, by F. Vollmer, in MGH, Auct. antiq., XIV, pp. 27-69, 115-29, 229-91; J. Pérez de Urbel, Los monjes españoles en la Edad Media, I, Madrid 1933, pp. 303-32; J. Madey, Une nouvelle source du Symbole de Tolède de 673, in Rev. d'hist. ecclés., 35 (1939), pp. 526-33. Giuseppe Madey