Le régime des boissons dans l’œuvre de Jonas de Bobbio
Résumé
Written in the 7th century between Italy and Gaul, the works of Jonas of Bobbio include the Vita Columbani and Vita Iohannis, and probably also the Vita Vedastis and Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines. Those four works contain many allusions to drink and episodes in which ale, wine and other beverages are consumed. The analysis of that whole corpus, compared when neces- sary with aspects of the works of Columbanus, shows that Jonas did not merely reproduce the classical discourse, derived from both Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian literature, which condemned ale and condoned a moderate consumption of wine. Conversely, he replaced it with a “new regime of drinks” – an already medieval one which, instead of highlighting one beverage above others, insisted on the conditions of consumption and tried to detect the presence of the devil in wine as well as in ale.