Gothic Literature

Abstract This essay involves a review of Gothic literature through the presentation of the documents that have reached us today; the most important is the translation of the Bible completed by the Arian Visigoth bishop Ulfila in Moesia in the second half of the fourth century. To better understand the cultural background behind the composition of the Gothic documents, this essay also gives an overview of the cultural history of the Goths, in particular the process of their conversion to the Arian doctrine of Christianity, which came about in the multicultural, multiethnic environment in the Roman provinces of Dacia and Moesia. Particular attention is paid to the manuscript tradition that directs us to Ostrogothic Italy (in the fifth to sixth centuries), where the Bible enjoyed wide diffusion: it was copied several times, studied in Gothic and Latin exegetical schools, and used in the liturgy and catecheses.