BOOK REVIEWS 407

There are a useful guide to technical terms used in the text and also a
bibliography.

Robinson College JOAN GREATREX

Cambridge, U.K.

ANCIENT

The Christianisation of Western Baetica. Architecture, Power and Religion in a Late

Antique Landscape. By Jerónimo Sánchez Velasco (Amsterdam, The Nether-
lands: Amsterdam University Press. 2018. €149,00. ISBN: 978 90 8964 932 4).

The lack of written sources for the early spread and institutional development
of Christianity in any part of the Iberian Peninsula makes evidence of other kinds
all the more valuable. In this respect, the contribution of archaeology is crucial,
often providing, along with inscriptions, the only contemporary testimony to both
local details and an overview of the processes involved. However, it needs careful
interpretation. This book confines itself to the western half of the Roman and then
Visigothic province of Baetica, in the south of Spain. This is a region for which its
author enjoys long-established expertise as both an excavator of archaeological sites
and a cataloguer of museum collections. His choice of region is thus dictated by his
own experience, but the level of detail into which he must enter in the discussion
of the sites he describes shows that a broader, more generalized geographical cov-
erage would be far less satisfying. His approach calls out to be replicated at a similar
level across all of the Late Antique provinces of the Peninsula.

Western Baetica contained, by the late sixth century at the latest, six episcopal
dioceses, including the metropolitan see of Seville. The existence of all six is
attested to in the documentary record, in the form of episcopal subscriptions to the
acts of a series of ecclesiastical councils of the late sixth and seventh centuries.
While this proves the presence of these dioceses, it does little to indicate their
mutual borders and geographical extension, except where, in a small number of
cases, disputes over individual churches between rival episcopal claimants feature
on the conciliar agendas. With such additional information and equipped with a
knowledge of the terrain and the main routes of communication of the period, Pro-
fessor Sánchez Velasco starts his study with a proposed reconstruction of the dioce-
san limits of the each of the six sees, while allowing for much inevitable uncertainty
on the detail.

The central part of the book consists of six chapters, one per diocese, intended
to identify and discuss the archaeological and other evidence for sites and artefacts
that can be identified or plausibly described as Christian. These include churches,
monasteries, mausolea, as well as individual survivals such as reused Roman altars
that may serve as the only trace of a long vanished ecclesiastical structure. Each
chapter is divided into sections, the first of which is devoted to the diocesan urban
center, and the rest to its territory, subdivided geographically. The very different
408 BOOK REVIEWS

rates of survival of Christian archaeological remains from each see means that these
chapters are very different in length and in the quantity and significance of the mate-
rial to be described. Thus, Seville, although the seat of the metropolitan bishop of
Baetica, provides little material evidence of its important early Christian past, while
the city of Córdoba is extremely well represented. Similarly, hardly any evidence
comes from the city of Itálica, while its territory is more substantially represented.

The book concludes with two analytical chapters, covering all six dioceses; the
first of which classifies the different types of monument, structure or complex pre-
viously discussed in the descriptive chapters according to their clear or presumed
nature and purpose. Allowance is made for continuing uncertainty about the char-
acter of several of them, and for the need for future excavations or the completion
of current ones that might produce more definite conclusions. The final chapter
offers a more general analysis of the archaeological evidence previously surveyed to
try to present a broader view of the nature and consequences of the Christianization
of the region. For this the author also depends on interpretative theories derived
from other than strictly archaeological study. Here he is at the mercy of the histo-
rians and theorists in whom he decides to place his trust, not all of whom would
command general approval. This interpretative chapter also suffers, as do some of
the interpretations of individual sites, from ignored or unresolved chronological
problems. Too many statements are based on assertion rather than proof, as in the
suggestion that a large basilica in Córdoba must have belonged to the age of Con-
stantine I (307-336) and be the product of imperial benefaction.

Influenced by theory rather than evidence, the author is too quick to see eccle-
siastical institutions as primarily being expressions of power. Thus monasteries are
described as “controlling” certain key roads, or even the port of Seville, as if they
were customs’ posts or fortresses. Similarly, the emphasis on expressions of power
leads to too ready identifications of ambiguous sites as possible “episcopia” or epis-
copal complexes, which are then presented in political rather than pastoral terms.
Alternative sources of local status and influence are largely ignored.

In his description of several sites, of both greater and lesser significance, the
author challenges the interpretations of the original excavators and suggests alterna-
tives of his own. While this may be quite legitimate, the lack of plans and the limits
on scale imposed by the broad nature of the enquiry makes it impossible for the
reader to judge the merits of the cases. A book of this kind that offers an overview
of numerous sites is not well suited to launching revisions of current views on indi-
vidual ones. Among such candidates for revision is the complex of El Cercadilla on
the northern edge of Córdoba. First seen as a possible imperial palace of the Tetrar-
chic period, with an extension of use by local Christians after the Arab conquest, this
is argued here to be the city’s earliest episcopal complex. No mention is made of the
destruction of most of the site, following necessarily hasty excavation, to make way
for the new high speed rail station. To be fair, Professor Sánchez Velasco is clear
about other problems that beset archaeological research in the region, such as an
over-emphasis on anachronistic reconstruction for the promotion of tourism.
 BOOK REVIEWS 409

There is much to applaud in this book, but its author is let down by his pub-
lishers’ not putting in the effort required to eliminate error and ensure linguistic
accuracy. Here is but one of many examples: “The baptismal font, to be analysed
later, appeared contained in several tombs and some columns, of which at least six
were stolen” (p. 185). This is incomprehensible unless ‘appeared contained’ is
understood as meaning “is surrounded by.” This is far from the only example in a
book marred by other copy-editing errors, and avoidable mistakes, such as referring
to the archaeologist Cristina Godoy as ‘he’ throughout or describing Isidore and his
siblings as “brothers,” even when one of them was the nun, Florentina. Written in
English by a Spanish author for a Dutch publisher, the book should have been sub-
jected to either final revision or full copy-editing by a native English speaker.

University of Edinburgh ROGER COLLINS

MEDIEVAL

From the Depths of the Heart: Annotated Translation of the Prayers of St. Gregory of
Narek. By Abraham Terian. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press Academic,
2021. Pp. 568. $49.95 hard cover. ISBN: 9780814684641.)

Gregory of Narek was little-known outside the community of Armenians and

scholars of Armenian Christianity until April 24, 2015, when this great Armenian
saint, theologian, mystic, and poet of the tenth-eleventh century was recognized by
Pope Francis as the thirty-sixth Doctor of the Catholic Church.  His popularity has
since grown in the West, and more people have become familiar with this great
author of the medieval Church. He is considered the best representative of Armen-
ian spirituality of the Middle Ages and has been named the great poet in Armenian
literature. His literary heritage is diverse and multi-faceted. 

The most famous and familiar of his works is his book of penitential prayers,
traditionally titled The Book of Lamentation but commonly known as Narek, after
the monastery in which he spent most of his life. It consists of ninety-five chapters,
and each chapter begins with the epigraph “Speaking with God from the depths of
the heart.” This epigraph Professor Terian used, then, as a title for his translation. 

The book covers a wide variety of topics that have to do with the fallen human
soul, self-discipline, fasting, and prayer. It incorporates contemplation on scripture,
which is unceasing and causes the flow of tears in the author. With his prayers,
Gregory speaks with God directly, bringing the issues tormenting the human soul
and presenting them in the heavenly court before the supreme Judge. Although
most of the prayers are private, penitential prayers, at the same time, Gregory does
not exclude them from being also a communal prayer that the members of the
monastic community can offer. He describes his prayer book as a fragrant sacrifice
of words to God, which is composed to aid ailing humanity. The book is provided
as a remedy, a help for spiritual turmoil, that Gregory attests that he himself has
experienced by suffering the effects of sin. Therefore, he has composed this book
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