Intellectual Life In The Middle Ages

The variety of experience available to medieval scholars and the vitality of medieval thought are both reflected in this collection of original essays by distinguished historians. Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages is presented to Margaret Gibson, whose own work has ranged from Boethius to Lanfranc and to the study of the Bible in the middle ages.

The variety of experience available to medieval scholars and the vitality of medieval thought are both reflected in this collection of original essays by distinguished historians. Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages is presented to Margaret Gibson, whose own work has ranged from Boethius to Lanfranc and to the study of the Bible in the middle ages.

The variety of experience available to medieval scholars and the vitality of medieval thought are both reflected in this collection of original essays by distinguished historians. Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages is presented to Margaret Gibson, whose own work has ranged from Boethius to Lanfranc and to the study of the Bible in the middle ages.

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.

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.

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.