SEDULIUS SCOTUS (THE YOUNGER). - Writer of the 9th century, scholar and theologian, called Scotus or Scottus from his native land, Ireland, and Junior, to distinguish him from the Christian poet of the 5th century. Some consider him a layman, others, with greater probability, a monk.
Around 848 he is at Liège, well received together with his companions by Bishop Hartgar (840-54), and there he creates the school of St. Lambert, forming in it the "Circle of St. [Lambert]", a hearth of culture, which gave renown to the city. He became a friend of all the personalities of the time and composed verses of praise to various members of the royal family and of the nobility, showing himself "a good medieval type of the educated courtier". After 858 his traces are lost. According to G. Morin he would have gone to Milan, under Bishop Tado (860-68), where he would have made, on the Greek text, the revision of the Ambrosian Psalter that is preserved in ms. 343 of Munich.
Poet, grammarian, philosopher and exegete, S. carried out a multiform literary activity. He wrote: In grammaticam Eutichii, a Commentum super Priscianum and perhaps an Expositio categororum; he left a vast Collectaneum or collection of extracts from pagan and Christian authors, an anthology of moral maxims and literary models, among which 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 meters, and lead one to consider S. as the "Virgil of Liège" (cf. ibid., p. 153). Famous is his treatise De rectoribus christianis et de convenientibus regulis quibus res publica rite gubernanda, in the manner of the traditional Specula principis, divided into 20 chapters, at the end of each of which there is a summarizing poem (PL 103, 291-332; ed. Hellmann, cit. in bibl., pp. 1-91); the poems, gathered 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 would have been dedicated to Lothair II, but more probably to Charles the Bald. S. regards the art of governing as one of the most difficult things, but he does not formulate a political technique. Theological works: Collectanea in omnes b. Pauli epistolas (PL 103, 9-270), the major and best-known work of S.; Collectaneum in Matthaeum (manuscript); Liber de artibus Prophetarum (manuscript); several Explanations introductory to the Gospels, according to the letter of St. Jerome to Pope Damasus (PL 103, 271-90 and 321-52). There is preserved of S. the copy of the Greek Psalter, written in uncial characters by himself with an interlinear Latin version and signed Σχ. Βόλος σκόττος ἕγιο ἐγάρεσε (Paris, Bibl. de l'Arsenal, ms. 8407). As an exegete, S. makes use of ancient authors, especially St. Jerome and St. Augustine, and also Pelagius, but he is distinguished by a philological and accurate exegesis, giving importance to Greek and Hebrew, and taking particular care in ordering 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.
Bibliography13 works
Igino Cecchetti