SEDULIO SCOTO (the YOUNGER). – Writer of the ninth century, man of letters and theologian, called Scotus or Scottus after his homeland, Ireland, and Junior, to distinguish him from the Christian poet of the fifth century. Some consider him a layman; others, more probably, a monk.
Ca. 848 he was in Liège, where he and his companions were warmly received by Bishop Artagarus (840–54), and there he established the school of S. Lambert, forming the « Circle of S. », a centre of culture that brought renown to the city. He became a friend of all the leading figures of the period and composed laudatory verses for various members of the royal family and nobility, presenting himself as « a good medieval type of educated courtier ». After 858 all trace of him is lost. According to G. Morin, he may have gone to Milan, under Bishop Tado (860–68), where he is supposed to have revised the Ambrosian Psalter from the Greek text; it is preserved in MS 343 at Munich.
Poet, grammarian, philosopher and exegete, S. engaged in a many-sided literary activity. He wrote In grammaticam Eutichii, a Commentum super Priscianum and perhaps an Expositio categororum; he left a substantial Collectaneum, or collection of excerpts from pagan and Christian authors, an anthology of moral maxims and literary models, among them a Liber proverborum graecorum (dedicatory letter, edited by E. Dümmler, in MGH, Epist., VI, p. 206). More important are his Carmina, critically edited by L. Traube (MGH, Poét. Lat. aevi Carol., III, pp. 151–240), which employ a great variety of classical metres and have led S. to be regarded as the « Virgil of Liège » (cf. ibid., p. 153). His treatise De rectoribus christianis et de convenientibus regulis quibus res publica rite gubernanda, in the tradition of the Specula principis, is famous. It is divided into 20 chapters, at the end of each of which there is a summarizing poem (PL 103, 291–332; ed. Hellmann, cit. in bibliography, pp. 1–91); the poems, brought together by Traube, give the entire treatise in verse (MGH, Poét. Lat. aevi Carol., III, pp. 154–66, in 21 short poems). According to Hellmann, it was dedicated to Lothair II, but more probably to Charles the Bald. S. considers the art of governing one of the most difficult things, but does not formulate a political technique. Theological works: Collectanea in omnes b. Pauli epistolas (PL 103, 9–270), S.’s major and best-known work; Collectaneum in Matthaeum (manuscript); Liber de artibus Prophetarum (manuscript); various introductory Explanations of the Gospels, following the letter of St. Jerome to Pope Damasus (PL 103, 271–90 and 321–52). The copy of the Greek Psalter written by S. himself in uncial characters, with an interlinear Latin version and signed Σχ. Βόλος σκόττος ἕγιο ἐγάρεσε, is preserved (Paris, Bibl. de l’Arsenal, MS 8407). As an exegete, S. makes use of ancient authors, especially St. Jerome and St. Augustine, as well as Pelagius; but he is distinguished by a philological and careful exegesis, giving importance to Greek and Hebrew and taking particular care in arranging the text (PL 103, 15 A) and the circumstances (ibid., 273 D). Hence his importance in the history of biblical exegesis, also because S. was one of the most learned men of his time.
Bim.: E. Dümmler, Aus Handschriften, in Neues Archiv, 3 (1878), pp. 187–89; id., S. S., ibid., 4 (1879), pp. 315–20; id., Epist. breves, quae ex Scotorum colonia Leachensi oriri videntur, in MGH, Epist., VI, pp. 195–97; G. Morin, Une révision du Pautier sur le texte grec par un anonyme du IXe siècle, in Rev. bénéd., 10 (1893), pp. 193–97; S. Hellmann, S. S., Munich 1906; G. M. Deves, An. Hymn., t. L. Lipsis 1907, pp. 229–36; Manitius, I, pp. 315–23; F. Raby, Hist. of christ. latin poetry, Oxford 1927, pp. 193–96; J. F. Kenney, The sources for the early hist. of Ireland, I, New York 1929, pp. 553–69; A. J. Carlyle, A hist. of mediaeval political theory, I, 3rd ed., Edinburgh and London 1930, V. index; L. K. Born, The Specula Principis of the Carolingian renaissance, in Rev. belge philol. hist., 12 (1933), pp. 538–612; G. Martini, Un codice iconoscol. del « De rectoribus christianis » di S. S., in Bull. dell'Ist. star. ital. per il m. e. Arch. murat., 50 (1935), pp. 49–62; C. Spicq, Esquisse d'une hist. de l'exégèse lat. au moyen âge, Paris 1944, p. 15. Igino Cecchetti