The Vocabulary of Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages

The Vocabulary of Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages
Author: Mariken Teeuwen
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2003
Genre: Education
ISBN:

The Latin vocabulary of intellectual life in the Middle Ages has been the focus of the CIVICIMA-series: nine volumes of conference-proceedings, monographs and collective works. The series has proved convincingly that analyses of the verbal expressions of medieval intellectual life and their precise meanings is a worthwhile and rewarding task, which sharpens and deepens our understanding of education and learning in the medieval world. With this tenth volume the series has been brought to a conclusion. It serves as a handbook, a practical tool for finding information and material about a considerable number of key terms, which have been classified in four categories of technical vocabulary--terms that developed specialized meanings in the context of medieval education and learning. The first category consists of the vocabulary of schools and universities (for instance, schola, magister, universitas, etc.); the second the vocabulary of the book and book production (for instance, armarium, pecia, scriptorium, etc.); the third treats the vocabulary of teaching-methods, instruments and products of intellectual life (for instance, concordantia, disputatio, glossa, etc.); the fourth the names of the disciplines, their teachers and students (for instance, artes liberales, canonista, decretista, theologia, etc.). Terms from these four categories are treated, either individually or in groups coherent with respect to content, in short and uniform articles. Their medieval meanings are described, together with their origins, their classical meanings, their semantic development, and the historical or regional differences in meaning.

Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century

Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century
Author: Chris Schabel
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047404149

This is the first of two volumes on theological quodlibeta, records of special disputations held before Christmas and Easter ca. 1230-1330, mostly at the University of Paris, in which audience members asked the great masters of theology the questions for debate, questions de quolibet, "about anything." The variety of the material and the authors’ stature make the genre uniquely fascinating. In Volume I, chapters by acknowledged experts introduce the genre, cover the quodlibeta of Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Giles of Rome, Godfrey of Fontaines, and 13th-century Franciscans, and demonstrate how the masters used quodlibeta to construct and express their authority on issues from politics and economics to two-headed monsters. For all those interested in medieval studies, especially intellectual history.

The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages

The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages
Author: Dales
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004450920

This work presents a connected account of western European thought from the Patristic age to the mid-fourteenth century. Dales aims to keep his reader close to the sense of the texts, which he translates, frequently at some length, or summarizes in his exposition. He attempts to include important matters which are generally omitted in broad treatments — the chapter on the tenth century is the longest in the book — but the author's choice of topics is fully justified by his special intimacy with what he elects to discuss, particularly the hexameral tradition (ancient and medieval), the scientific tradition, twelfth-century treatises on nature and cosmology, discussions of the eternity of the world, and the thought of Robert Grosseteste. This adds a personal and distinctive character to the word. Dales stresses throughout the diversity and vigor of medieval thought, qualities which he illustrates widely from Latin and vernacular poetry and literature of various kinds as well as from philosophical and theological texts.

Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages

Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages
Author: Brian FitzGerald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 019253582X

Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages rethinks the role of prophecy in the Middle Ages by examining how professional theologians responded to new assertions of divine inspiration. Drawing on fresh archival research and detailed study of unpublished manuscript sources from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, this volume argues that the task of defining prophetic authority became a crucial intellectual and cultural enterprise as university-trained theologians confronted prophetic claims from lay mystics, radical Franciscans, and other unprecedented visionaries. In the process, these theologians redescribed their own activities as prophetic by locating inspiration not in special predictions or ecstatic visions but in natural forms of understanding and in the daily work of ecclesiastical teaching and ministry. Instead of containing the spread of prophetic privilege, however, scholastic assessments of prophecy from Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas to Peter John Olivi and Nicholas Trevet opened space for claims of divine insight to proliferate beyond the control of theologians. By the turn of the fourteenth century, secular Italian humanists could lay claim to prophetic authority on the basis of their intellectual powers and literary practices. From Hugh of St Victor to Albertino Mussato, reflections on and debates over prophecy reveal medieval clerics, scholars, and reformers reshaping the contours of religious authority, the boundaries of sanctity and sacred texts, and the relationship of tradition to the new voices of the Late Middle Ages.

The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages

The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages
Author: Richard C. Dales
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1992
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004096226

A connected account of European thought from the Patristic age through the mid-fourteenth century, and emphasizing educational systems, the interaction between the popular and elite cultures, and medieval humanism; with excellent interpretive chapters on science and philosophy.

Rethinking Abelard

Rethinking Abelard
Author: Babette S. Hellemans
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2014-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004262717

Peter Abelard (1079-1142) is one of the most diversely gifted people of the Middle Ages. His letter writing, poetry, theology, logic, and ethics deal with almost every aspect of the trivium. This volume surveys his career to show how his extraordinary versatility enchanted and distressed his public. A selection of international specialists addresses the various aspects of Abelard's literary persona. The topics range from Abelard's personal history to his monastic thinking. There are essays on the letter collection, his views on love, ethical problems such as intention and suicide, his poetry and treatises written for Heloise and her nuns of the Paraclete. With its strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research, Rethinking Abelard opens up new avenues for future scholarship. Contributors are: Michael T. Clanchy, Peter Cramer, Lesley-Anne Dyer, Juanita Feros Ruys, William Flynn, Babette Hellemans, Taina M. Holopainen, Eileen F. Kearney, Constant J. Mews, Eileen C. Sweeney, Ineke Van ‘t Spijker, Wim Verbaal, and Julian Yolles.

“A Pearl of Powerful Learning”: The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century

“A Pearl of Powerful Learning”: The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century
Author: Paul Knoll
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 807
Release: 2016-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004326014

Winner of The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America's 2018 Oskar Halecki Award and Winner of the Early Slavic Studies Association 2016 Book Prize The first fully developed history of the University of Cracow in this period in over a century, “A Pearl of Powerful Learning.” The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century places the school in the context of late medieval universities, traces the process of its foundation, analyzes its institutional growth, its setting in the Polish royal capital, its role in national life, and provides a social and geographical profile of students and faculty. The book includes extended treatment of the content of intellectual life and accomplishments of the school with reference to the works of its most important scholars in the medieval arts curriculum, medicine, law, and theology. The emergence of early Renaissance humanist interests at the university is also discussed. Winner of the Early Slavic Studies Association 2016 Book Prize for most outstanding recent scholarly monograph on pre-modern Slavdom. The work was described by the prize committee as: "A thoughtful, highly-informed, and nuanced history of the University of Cracow, an important institution in a pivotal period of Poland’s history. Knoll's treatment of such important issues as the role of the University in national life and the controversial and highly technical matter of the impact of Humanism are dealt with tactfully and thoughtfully. The book will become the definitive work on this topic, and will ensure that the material will rapidly be absorbed into general histories of education and of universities in the Renaissance." Winner of The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America's 2018 Oskar Halecki Award. This award recognizes a book of particular value and significance dealing with the Polish experience and is named after the distinguished 20th century Polish medieval historian, Oskar Halecki, who was one of the founders of PIASA. Professor Knoll will be recognized for this award during the 77th Annual Meeting of PIASA in Gdansk, Poland in June 2019.

Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England

Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England
Author: Daniel Wakelin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2022-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009100580

Daniel Wakelin introduces and reinterprets the misunderstood and overlooked craft practices, cultural conventions and literary attitudes involved in making some of the most important manuscripts in late medieval English literature. In doing so he overturns how we view the role of scribes, showing how they ignored or concealed irregular and damaged parchment; ruled pages from habit and convention more than necessity; decorated the division of the text into pages or worried that it would harm reading; abandoned annotations to poetry, focusing on the poem itself; and copied English poems meticulously, in reverence for an abstract idea of the text. Scribes' interest in immaterial ideas and texts suggests their subtle thinking as craftspeople, in ways that contrast and extend current interpretations of late medieval literary culture, 'material texts' and the power of materials. For students, researchers and librarians, this book offers revelatory perspectives on the activities of late medieval scribes.

Supersapientia: Berthold of Moosburg and the Divine Science of the Platonists

Supersapientia: Berthold of Moosburg and the Divine Science of the Platonists
Author: Evan King
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2021-08-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004465480

This study examines the motivations and doctrinal coherence of the Commentary on the Elements of Theology of Proclus written by Berthold of Moosburg, O.P. († c. 1361/1363). It provides an overview of Berthold’s biography and intellectual contexts, his manuscript remains, and a partial edition of his annotations on Macrobius and Proclus. Through a close analysis of the three prefaces to the Commentary, giving special attention to Berthold’s sources, it traces the Dominican's elaboration of Platonism as a soteriological science. The content of this science is then presented in a systematic reconstruction of Berthold’s cosmology and anthropology. The volume includes an English translation of the three fundamental prefaces of the Commentary. The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu). "This is, indeed, a precious insight into the spirit of Berthold’s philosophical thinking. Overall, the monograph’s ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached." -Giuseppe Thomas Vitale, Thomas-Institut der Universität zu Köln, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 89.2