Situs orbis terre vel regionum

Situs orbis terre vel regionum is an anonymous Latin geographical treatise written sometime between the late 7th and early 9th centuries.^[1] It was composed either in Septimania or the Iberian Peninsula, both part of the Visigothic Kingdom down to 711.^[2] It is known from a single manuscript, now in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4841, where it occupies the first thirteen folios.^[3] Certain features of the manuscript indicate that it was copied in Septimania in the Carolingian Empire around 842.^[4]

The Situs was probably a schoolroom text, intended for an elementary level of instruction.^[5][6] Several corrections and glosses in the margins of the manuscript indicate that the text did see use as intended, although only one copy survives.^[7] Structurally, the work follows the outline of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, books XIII–XIV. It borrows his etymologies of names, but fills out its account with material taken from Orosius' History Against the Pagans.^[8] It has a prologue (Praefatio) and ten chapters:^[9][10]

Notes

Bibliography