The ''ioca ''(or ''joca'')'' monachorum'', meaning "monks' pastimes"

Walter Goffart Walter André Goffart (February 22, 1934 – February 14, 2025) was a German-born American historian who specialized in Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages. He taught for many years in the history department and Centre for Medieval Studie ...

, "The Supposedly 'Frankish' Table of Nations: An Edition and Study", ''Frühmittelalterliche Studien'' 17 (1983): 98–130, esp. at 128–130. or "monks' jokes",Charles D. Wright, "From Monks' Jokes to Sages' Wisdom: The ''Joca Monachorum'' Tradition and the Irish ''Immacallam in dá Thúarad''", in Mary Garrison, Arpad P. Orbán and Marco Mostert (eds.) ''Spoken and Written Language: Relations between Latin and the Vernacular Languages in the Earlier Middle Ages'' (Brepols, 2013), pp. 199–225. was a genre of short questions and answers for use by

Christian monk Christian monasticism is a religious way of life of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural e ...

s. These were often on biblical subjects, but could also deal with literary, philosophical or historical matters. Although they could be straightforward, they were often riddles or jokes. They were probably used to stimulate thought and aid memory.George Ferzoco
"Joca (Ioca) monachorum"
in Robert E. Bjork (ed.), ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' (Oxford University Press, 2010). Retrieved 17 March 2020.Jacques Dubois, "Comment lest moines du moyen âge chantaient et goutâient les Sainte Écritures", in

Pierre Riché Pierre Riché (October 4, 1921 – May 6, 2019) was a French historian specializing in the early Middle Ages and the year 1000 (French: ''An mil'' or ''An mille''). Biography After studying at the Faculté des lettres de Paris, he passed the a ...

and Guy Lobrichon (eds.), ''Le Moyen Âge et la Bible'' (Beauchesne, 1984), pp. 264–270. The genre originated in the

Greek East Greek East and Latin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the ''lingua franca'' (Greece, Anatolia, the southern Balkans, t ...

but spread throughout Christendom. By the sixth century it had reached

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

and the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. Examples are known in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

, Catalan and Castilian.Erik Wahlgren, "A Swedish-Latin Parallel to the ''Joca Monachorum''", ''Modern Philology'' 36 (1939): 239–245. It survived down to the end of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. It has modern a parallel in

trivia game Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. Modern usage of the term ''trivia'' dates to the 1960s, when college students introduced question-and-answer contests to their universities. A board game, ''Trivial Purs ...

s. Charles Wright gives as a modern American example of the same sort of riddle "Who first played tennis in the Bible? Moses served in Pharaoh's court". A single ''iocus'' may appear in several manuscript collections. Although the answers were usually short, generally a single name, long answers were not unknown. The

Frankish Table of Nations Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

, a brief genealogy of the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

, was the incorporated as the answer to a question in one collection of eight ''ioca''. The

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

was an especially favoured topic. Questions about who in the Bible was first to do something were popular. The questioner and responder may or may not be identified in the text. The lines are usually prefaced with ''dic mihi'' (tell me), ''dico tibi'' (I tell you), ''interrogatio'' (question) or ''responsio'' (answer) and only in later dialogues ''discipulus'' (student) and ''magister'' (teacher). In one group of ''ioca'', the names of the emperor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

and the philosopher

Epictetus Epictetus (, ; , ''Epíktētos''; 50 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present-day Pamukkale, in western Turkey) and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in ...

are used for the interlocutors.

Examples

*"Who died but was not born?

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

. Who was born but did not die?

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

and

Enoch Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible. The text of t ...

". *"Who killed Holofernes, leader of the army of King Nebuchadnezzar?

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

". *"Who robbed his grandmother of her virginity?

Cain Cain is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. How ...

the earth".

References

{{reflist Medieval literature Christian literary genres Christian monasticism