"Peter Abelard." 2007. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly no. 81:162–338.

Special Issue edited by Jeffrey E. Brower.

Contents: Jeffrey E. Brower: Editor's Introduction 162; Peter King: Abelard on Mental Language 169; Ian Wilks: Abelard on Context and Signification 189; Andrew Arlig: Abelard's Assault on Everyday Objects 209; John Marenbon: Abelard's Changing Thoughts on Sameness and Difference in Logic and Theology 229; Jeffrey Hause: Abelard on Degrees of Sinfulness 251; Sean Eisen Murphy: "The Law was Given for the Sake of Life": Peter Abelard on the Law of Moses 271; A. L. Griffioen: "In Accordance with the Law": Reconciling Divine and Civil Law in Abelard 307; Margaret Cameron: Abelard (and Heloise?) on Intention 323-338.
Allen, Julie A. 1998. "On the Dating of Abailarďs Dialogus: A Reply to Mews." Vivarium no. 36:135–151.

"More recently, Constant Mews has argued that both the Dialectica and the Dialogus should be dated much earlier in Abailard's life than has hitherto been thought.(21) Mews maintains that Abailard composed the Dialogus around 1125 while he was teaching at the Paraclete. In this paper I chal lenge the validity of this claim." (p. 138)

(...)

"Only one conclusion clearly emerges from our survey of conflicting evidence. A definitive case has not been made for either side of the traditional debate. There are considerations which corroborate Robert and Thomas' arguments in favour of a date following the council of Sens, just prior to Abailard's death in 1142. On the other hand, the many and varied parallels between the later portions of the Dialogus and Abailard's moral positions in the Ethica support Buytaert and Luscombe's suggestions that the two works were produced in close proximity." (p. 151)
Arlig, Andrew W. 2022. "Abelard and Other Twelfth-Century Thinkers on Social Constructions." Philosophies no. 7:1–12.

Abstract: "This article aims to supplement our understanding of later developments within European universities, that is, Scholastic thought, by attending to how certain pre-Scholastics, namely, Peter Abelard and other twelfth-century philosophers, thought about artifacts and social constructions more generally. It focuses on the treatment of artifacts that can be cobbled together out of Abelard’s Dialectica. The article argues that Abelard attempts to sharply distinguish the world of things from the world of human-made objects. This is most apparent in his treatment of creation and human acts of making. Yet there are places in his thought where we see some hesitancy. Many of Abelard’s peers seem to have drawn on the reasons why Abelard hesitates, and they blur the line between human-made objects such as houses and substances such as rocks and humans. Others seem to go further than Abelard—perhaps inspired by some of the thoughts that Abelard also entertains about social constructions such as days and speeches—and assert that even houses are merely convenient fictions."
Benton, John F. 1975. "Philology's Search for Abelard in the Metamorphosis Goliae." Speculum no. 50:199–217.

"The investigation which lies behind this article began as a search for twelfth-century material which would show whether the image of Heloise presented in the correspondence and the Carmen ad Astralabium accords with other contemporary evidence. Pope Adrian IV, Peter the Venerable, and that curious correspondent, Hugh Mete!, were prepared to write in glowing terms about her character. If the famous love-letters of Heloise to Abelard and the Carmen are genuine, we know something about her innermost thoughts which was hidden from the world of her day. The Metamorphosis Goliae tells us something of Abelard's reputation in the schools of Paris, but it provides us with no information at all about Heloise. Whatever we con clude about Heloise and her longing for Abelard will have to be based on other evidence." (p. 217, two notes omitted)
———. 1975. "Fraud, Fiction and Borrowing in the correspondence of Abelard and Heloise." In Pierre Abélard - Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en Occident au milieu du XII siècle, edited by Jolivet, Jean and Louis, René, 471–506. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

Résumé . "Cette communication tente de contester l’authenticité de la correspondance d’Abélard et d’Héloïse et de proposer une hypothèse en vue de déterminer l'objet et les moyens de cette fabrication.

Des documents émanant du Paraclet indiquent que c’était un monastère double où l’abbesse exerçait son autorité sur un petit groupe de moines, avec des institutions assez semblables à celles de Fontevrault. La Règle attribuée à Abélard (Ep. VIII) ne semble pas avoir été suivie au Paraclet aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles; elle diffère des institutions établies, notamment quand elle prescrit que les moniales soient sous l’administration du prepositus monachorum d’une abbaye avoisinante et que la communauté puisse manger de la viande trois fois par semaine. ^L'Historia Calamitatum elle-même contient de nombreux passages qui semblent inexacts ou anachroniques.

Comme explication des passages authentiques dans la correspondance, cette hypothèse suggère qu’un faussaire ait emprunté à l'Exhortatio ad fratres et commonachos perdue et peut-être aussi à une Exhortatio ad sorores, autrement inconnue. Elle suggère aussi qu’on ait écrit l'Historia Calamitatum au XXe siècle ; comme une fiction littéraire ; il se peut qu’on y ait ajouté quelques passages .au XIIIe siècle. Le principal bénéficiaire de la correspondance fabriquée aurait èté le supérieur des moines du Paraclet. L’énumération des qualités requises - pour une abbesse laissent supposer qu’une Règle frauduleuse aurait été façonnée à. l’occasion d’une élection contestée, peut-être celle qui eut lieu vers 1288. Selon cette hypothèse, la correspondance renferme des parties véritablement écrites par Abélard (principalement Ep. VI-VIII), une section inauthentique du XIIe siècle (la majeure partie de l'Historia Calamitatum), et certaines parties probablement remaniées au XIIIe siècle."
Bloch, R. Howard. 1983. "Etymologies and Genealogies: A Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages." In. Chicago: The University of Chicago Pree.

Chapter Four: Poetry, Philosophy, and Desire.

Philosophy and the Family: Abelard, pp. 141-149.

"If I have insisted upon Abelard’s denial of the reality of universals and his redirection of metaphysics toward problems of signification, it is because this aspect of his thought is of a piece with the legend of his castration; and it points, once again, to the monumental role of the philosopher whose genealogy is supposedly disrupted in the disruption of an intellectual genealogy itself predicated on such linguistic and ontological continuities. He to whom paternity is denied, and who becomes the central symbol of such a denial, is, ironically, the one whose ruptured heritage—heritage of rupture—will prevail. For Abelard’s theory of signs points in the direction of, and in fact sets the tone for, the radical reorientation of linguistics of the High Middle Ages." (p. 149)
Brower, Jeffrey E., and Guilfoy, Kevin, eds. 2004. The Cambridge Companion to Abelard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Contents: List of contributors XI; Method of citation and abbreviations XIV; Acknowledgments XVII; Chronology XVIII; Jeffrey E. Brower and Kevin Guilfoy: Introduction 1; 1. John Marenbon: Life. milieu, and intellectual contexts 13; 2. Winthrop Wetherbee: Literary works 45; 3. Peter King: Metaphysics 65; 4. Klaus Jacobi: Philosophy of language 126; 5. Christopher J. Martin: Logic 158; 6. Kevin Guilfoy: Mind and cognition 200; 7. Jeffrey E. Brower: Trinity 223; 8. Thomas Williams: Sin, grace and redemption 258; 9. William E. Mann: Ethics 279; 10. Yukio Iwakuma: Influence 305; List of Abelard's writings 336; Bibliography 341; Index 357-362.
Buckley, Ann. 2005. "Abelard's Planctus virginum Israel super filia Iepte Galadite and Li Lais des puceles." In Études de langue et de littérature médiévales: offertes à Peter T. Ricketts à l'occasion de son 70ème anniversaire, edited by Buckley, Ann and Billy, Dominique, 544–569. Turnhout: Brepols.

"It has been noted by several scholars, among whom the first appears to havebeen Hans Spanke (1938, 25ff), that the metrical and melodic schemes of Li Lais des Puceles and Planctus virginum Israel super fihe Iepte Galadzte, are similar in form and structure. Furthermore, Planctus virginum Israel, along with the five other surviving planctus presumed to be the work of Peter Abelard, provides a vital link between Latin and vernacular song repertories, connecting also with older Latin songs such as the lays which are found in the Cambridge Songbook (CUL MS Gg.v.35, mid 11th century).' The issue of common ground keys therefore into a much larger area, namely, that of the relation between Latin and vernacular lais and other sequence-type

songs - a topic which has been alluded to, in addition to Spanke, by Wolf (1841/1965), Gennrich (1932), Handschin (1929-31; 1949-51), Maillard (1963), and Stevens (1986). The purpose of this article is to compare the lai and the planctus by analysing the form and structure of their texts, and the musical material at our disposal. As we shall see, the similarity identified by Spanke exists in part only, the planctus being more elaborate than the lai, thus containing additional elements not found in the latter." (p. 544)

References

Gennrich, F. 1932. Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelalterlichen Liedes als Grundlage einer musikalischen Formenlehre des Liedes. Halle (Saale).

Handschin J. 1929-31. « Uber Estampie und Sequenz », Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 12 (1929), pp. 1-20; 13 (1930--1931), pp. 113-32.

Maillard, J. 1963. Evolution et esthetique du lai lyrique des origines à la.fin du XIV siecle. Diss. Universite de Paris: Faculté des Lettres, Seminaire de Musicologie.

Spanke, H. 1938. « Uber das Fortleben der Sequenzenform in den romanischen Sprachen », ZfrPh 51, pp. 309-34 ; repr. Aarburg 1977, pp. 36-61.

Stevens, J. 1986. Word and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050-1350. Cambridge.

Wolf, F. J. 1965. Über die Lais, Sequenzen und Leiche. Heidelberg 1841 ; repr. Zeller.
Burnett, C. S. F. 1984. "Notes on the tradition of the text of the Hymnarius Paraclitensis of Peter Abelard." Scriptorium no. 38:295–302.

"This brief article unites two items. In the first part a detailed analysis is given of the readings of one of the two manuscripts which are our principal witnesses to the text of Abelard's Hymnarius Paraclitensis. In the second part the evidence of a hitherto unused manuscript for the text of three of the hymns is assessed." (p. 295, a note omitted)
Burnett, Charles S. F. 1988. "A new text for the "School of Peter Abelard" Dossier?" Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Âge no. 55:7–21.

"This article seeks lo introduce an unstudied Summa of theology which will be shown lo be heavily indebted lo the leaching of Abelard and may be based on lectures by the Parisian

Master himself.

Written in a hand of the late thirteenth century on fols. 59r-64v of ms. Florence, Biblioleca Medicea Laurenziana, cod. XXXVII bibl. Aedilium, in an ink which is flaking off the page, is a work entitled Summa senlenliarum ab Alberico magislro Vangadiliensi collectarum. (2) The lack of another manuscript of this work or a comparable work prevents one from telling whether this Summa is a resume of a larger collection of sentences made by a certain 'Albericus', or is Alberic's own compendium of sentences. Provisionally, the author will be assumed to be Alberic. But the question of which of the many recorded Alberics, if any, this author is, awaits investigation. The epithet 'Vangaditiensis' suggests that he was a monk at the Benedictine abbey of Polesine in the Veneto, (3) and a topical reference within the work contrasting 'here' with 'in Rome' would seem to confirm the North Italian origin of the work, as does the provenance of the manuscript." (pp. 7-8)

(2) The description by A. M. Bandinus in Biblioltheca eopoldina Laurenliana ... (Florence, 1791), I, pp. 51-5 has been corrected and amplified by P. Ilarino da Milano in "Fr. Gregorio O.P., Vescovo di Fano, e la 'Disputatio inter catholicum et paterinum hereticum' ", Aevum, 14 (1940), pp. 85-140, see pp. 103-4. The manuscript is composite, but the portion with which we are concerned also includes two works relating to the Paterine heresy which were not written before the late thirteenth century.

(3) L. H. Cottinau, Répertoire lopo-bibliographique des Abbayes et Prieurès, Macon, 1937, II, col. 3294, s.v. Vangadizza.
Buytaert, Eligius M., ed. 1974. Peter Abelard: Proceedings of the International Conference: Louvain, May 10-12, 1971. Leuven: University Press.

Contents: Preface VII Programme VIII; List of members XI-XIV; G. Verbeke: Introductory Conference: Peter Abelard and the Concept of Subjectivity 1; L. Engels: Abélard ecrivain 12; T. Gregory: Abélard et Platon 38; D. E. Luscombe: The Ethics of Abelard: Some Further Considerations 65; M. Kurdzialek: Beurteilung der Philosophie im "Dialogus inter Philosophum, Iudaeum et Christianum" 85; R. Thomas: Die meditative Dialektik im "Dialogus inter Philosophum, Iudaeum et Christianum" 99; R. Peppermüller: Exegetische Traditionen and theologische Neuansätze in Abaelards Kommentar zum Römerbrief 116; E. M. Buytaert: Abelard's Trinitarian Doctrine 127; M. T. Beonio-Brocchieri Fumagalli: La relation entre logique, physique et théologie 153; J. Jolivet: Comparaison des théories du langage chez Abélard et chez les Nominalistes du XIVe siècle 163; Index Auctorum 179-181.
Clanchy, Michael T. 1990. "Abelard's mockery of St Anselm." The Journal of Ecclesiatical History no. 41:1–23.

Abstract: "Every reader of Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, the ‘story of his misfortunes’, knows how he mocked his master, Anselm of Laon. What has not been made clear is that he mocked in a comparable way a master of even greater standing, St Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. The reason why this latter attack has not been emphasised is that it appears in one version only of Abelar's Theologia, and its interpretation as mockery depends on detailed scrutiny. Abelard delighted in jokes, particularly when they were dangerous. ‘He cannot restrain his laughter,’ St Bernard warned, ‘listen to his guffaws.’ Jokes depend so much for their effect upon tone and context that it is difficult for an historian to keep an ear out for them when he only has formal texts as evidence; furthermore, a joke loses its cutting edge once it has been laboriously explained. Nevertheless, Abelar's mockery of St Anselm does have to be explained step by step if it is to be appreciated at all. The circumstances are as follows."
———. 2003. "Documenting the self: Abelard and the individual in history." Historical Research no. 76:293–309.

Abstract: "Were medieval people aware of themselves as individuals? The history of self-consciousness begins with the Italian Renaissance, Burckhardt argued. Against this, medievalists have often cited Abelard’s Historia calamitatum (his ‘story of calamities’). This article argues that Historia calamitatum is a history of Abelard’s feelings, especially of his need for fame, and in this way it documents the self.

But Historia calamitatum presents two Abelards: he is the ‘Palatine’ – courtly, jesting and formidable – and he is equally a humble monk and Christian apologist.

How did a medieval individual propagate such persistent and contradictory public images of himself?"
———. 2008. Abelard: A Medieval Life. Malden: Blackwell.

Contents: Preface XI; Map of France in Abelard's time XIV; Map of Paris in Abelard's time XVI; 1. The Story of Abelard 1; Part I. Scientia - 'Knowledge'. Chronological table 1079-1117 24; 2. Scientia - 'Knowledge' 25; 3. Literate 41; 4 Master 65; 5. Logician 95; Part II. Experimentum - 'Experience'. Chronological table 1117-1118 120; 6. Experimentum - 'Experience' 121; 7. Knight 130; 8. Lover 149; 9. Man 173; Part III. Religio - 'Religion'. Chronological table 1118-1142 204; 10. Religio - 'Religion' 207; 11. Monk 220; 12. Theologian 264; 13. Heretic 288; 14. Himself 326; Who's Who 336; Abbreviations Used in the Notes 336; Notes 345; Suggestions for Further Reading 396; Index 399-416.

On the logic see in particular Part I: Scientia - 'Knowledge' pp. 24-118.

"The Structure of This Book.

This book discusses Abelard's roles one by one in successive chapters (Literate', 'Master', 'Logician', and so on) in order to build up a composite portrait of him. The sequence of chapters accords very roughly with the chronology of Abelard's life: from his precocious success in the schools (chapters 3-5), through his affair with Heloise (chapters 8-9), to his controversial career as a monk and theologian (chapters 11-13). Two chapters are devoted to his affair with Heloise because this was the turning point of his life, even though the events it comprised were concentrated in not much more than a single year (1117 or 1118). The concluding chapter (14), entitled 'Himself', centres on the Delphic subtitle he chose for his book on ethics: 'Know Thyself'. Overarching the fourteen chapters are the three parts, with their Latin titles, into which the book is divided: Scientia (`knowledge' or `science'), Experimentum (`experience' or 'experiment') and Religio (`religion' or `monasticism'). These three parts characterize Abelard's successive approaches to life and they function at the same time as an introduction to medieval culture in the period of the twelfth-century Renaissance. In Part I, Abelard expounds the 'science' which the Middle Ages had inherited from classical antiquity. In his native Loire valley he had begun his road to knowledge as a 'Literate' (chapter 3), that is, as a literatus and Latinist; then in Paris he had been acknowledged as a `Master' (chapter 4) of students. He 'who alone knew whatever was known' was a 'master' also in the sense of magus. His wisdom and magic comprehended all the knowledge of the ancient Greeks in philosophy and logic (chapter 5), the queen of the sciences.

Contrasting with this theoretical and scholastic knowledge is Experimentum (Part II): learning not from books, but from experiencing life in the raw. Theory and fact, reflection and action, contrast - and often conflict - in Abelard's life, as they do in medieval culture as a whole. In his book on ethics, he had argued that actions in themselves are indifferent; only the intention of the actor makes them right or wrong. Abelard 'experimented' with sex and violence. He compared himself to a knight (chapter 7), conducting feuds and mock battles in the schools, and then suddenly he found himself up against Fulbert and Heloise's other kinsmen in a real feud. In castrating Abelard, they took no account of his good intentions, but only of his action in putting Heloise into a convent. Because the Church put such value on celibacy, Abelard's castration had the peculiar effect of converting him to 'religion' (Part III), in the sense that it made him become a monk. Such was the attraction of monasticism in the twelfth century that the adjective religiosus (chapter 10) was synonymous with 'monastic', as if there was no religion outside the cloister. Abelard made repeated efforts to be a good monk (chapter 1), but he never could reconcile the exclusiveness of monasticism with his broad vision of theology (chapter 12), in which good pagans worshipped the true God and acknowledged the Trinity. He was not only a failed 'religious', St Bernard taunted, he was .1 blasphemer and a heretic (chapter 13).

(...)

Abelard's writings fill a whole volume (no. 178) of Migne's Patrologiae:Series Latina comprising about 800,000 words. His Theologia in its various versions (Abelard kept revising it over the decades 1120-40) contains more than 200,000 words; Sic et Non has 130,000, his sermons 115,000, the commentary on St Paul's Epistle to the Romans 90,000; for Heloise he wrote another 70,000 words. Migne's volume does not include Abelard's writings on logic: one big book, Dialectica, survives (though it is not complete) in addition to other commentaries and lectures. It is certain that some works have been lost, like the commentary on the Prophet Ezechiel which Abelard says he wrote in Paris and the love songs which he reminded Heloise were still being sung in the 1130s. As his surviving writings amount to about 1 million words, his total output must have considerably exceeding that." (pp. 19-22).
———. 2012. "Abelard: Celebrity and Charisma—A Response to Dickson." Religions no. 3:1140–1143.

Reply to G. Dickson, Charisma, Medieval and Modern, same journal.

Abstract: "One might think that Peter Abelard (1079?–1144?) would be the best example of a medieval charismatic teacher. But his rival and prosecutor St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090?–1153) fits the criteria rather better. Unlike Bernard, Abelard denied that he had sought out disciples. Nevertheless, he can be shown to have had student followers, even though some of them repudiated him. Abelard is most important as a public intellectual who depended on public institutions (the incipient university of Paris) rather than on private or monastic patronage."
———. 2014. "Was Abelard Right to Deny that He Had Written a Book of ‘Sentences’?" In Rethinking Abelard: A Collection of Criticai Essays, edited by Hellemans, Babette, 105–118. Leiden: Brill.

"Is it likely that Abelard would have put on hold his fundamental thinking about logic, ethics and Christian doctrine in order to make a summary of his theological teaching for students in the form of the Epitome? Perhaps he might have done so.

(...)

Perhaps therefore Abelard might have written something as simplistic in appearance as the Epitome with its lucid propositions which succinctly bring together Abelard’s teaching on the Trinity, the nature of God and Redemption in Christ, and the Sacraments. Alternatively, it is possible that the Epitome was assembled by students who combined some texts of Abelard’s with what they had heard of his oral teaching.(63()These students might well have described the little book which they put together as The sentences of Master Peter Abelard, where ‘sentences’ meant the master’s essential teachings.

The production and copying of this book of Abelard’s ‘sentences’ did not mean that he had personally written it or dictated it. He may never even have seen it or known of its existence. This would explain why he was astonished by Bernard’s attribution of it to him and why—in good faith—he could deny that any such book had ever been ‘written by me’. The book could indeed contain ‘sentences’ of Abelard’s without him ever having written it or approved it." (p. 118)
Clanchy, Michael T., and Smith, Lesley. 2010. "Abelard’s Description of the School of Laon: What Might it Tell us About Early Scholastic Teaching?" Nottingham Medieval Studies no. 54:1–34.

Abstract: "Peter Abelard, in criticizing his master, Anselm of Laon, c. 1114, describes how theology was taught at Anselm’s school, which was the most influential teaching institution in Latin Europe. Abelard provides information in particular about the commentaries or glosses — both oral and written — on the books of the Bible, which were Anselm’s speciality. These established themselves as the Ordinary Gloss, comprising a commentary on the whole Bible, which remained a standard work until the seventeenth century. Through biblical commentaries like Anselm’s, theological questioning was developed and students began to depend on the textbooks of their masters rather than on hearing them lecture and remembering their traditional wisdom. The conflict of Anselm and Abelard marks the beginnings of universities in France."
Colish, Marcia L. 1992. "Peter Lombard and Abelard: The opinio nominalium and divine transcendence." Vivarium no. 30 (1):139–156.

"This paper has a double inspiration. One is my own investigation of Peter Lombard's doctrine of God, as part of a larger study of his theology. The second is the discovery, on the part of William J. Courtenay, following Artur Michael Landgraf, Marie-Dominique Chenu, and Johannes Schneider, of the fact that the Lombard appeals to an argument derived from the Nominales of the early twelfth cen- tury. Citing this argument, whose earliest expression he traces to Peter Abelard, Courtenay describes it as "the principal opinio Nominalium , namely, that whatever God at one time knew, willed, or was able to do, He always knows, wills, or is able to do. By the third quarter of the twelfth century, this theory had been reduced to the axiom: once it is true, it is always true {semel est verum , semper est verum)."1 As Courtenay points out, this principle, stated in Abelardo Theologia "scholarium", rests on the idea that nouns have a unitary signification, although they also have other consignifications when they are used in propositions that include verbs in different tenses, voices, or moods. In the Theologia "scholarium", Abelard uses this notion to support one of his most notorious ideas, the claim that God cannot do better, or other, than He does." (p. 139)

(1) Courtenay 1990, 46. I have capitalized "He" in referring to the deity in this quotation for the sake of consistency.

(2) Ibid., 46-50.

References

Courtenay, W.J., 1990, Capacity and Volition. A History of the Distinction of Absolute and Ordained Power. Bergamo.
Compayré, Gabriel. 1893. Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities. New York: Charles Scribner.

"Abelard was born in 1079; he died in 1142. The University of Paris was not formally constituted until sixty years later, in the first years of the thirteenth century. And yet Abelard has been, and should be, considered as the real founder of this university, which served as model and prototype of most of the other universities of the Middle Ages. There is here an apparent paradox which must first be resolved and explained, if the title given to this treatise is to be justified.

Let me begin by establishing the fact that I am in accord with all serious authorities in attributing to Abelard a pre-eminent part in the foundation of the great Parisian University. "The man," Victor Cousin has said, "who, by his qualities and his defects, by the audacity of his opinions, the éclat of his life, his inbom passion for controversy, and his rare talent for instruction, contributed most to increase and expand the taste for study and that intellectual movement from which the University of Paris issued in the thirteenth century, was Peter Abelard.(1) In England the same opinion is held. "The name of Abelard is closely associated with the commencement of the University of Paris," says Cardinal Newman in his interesting essay on the Strength and 'Weakness of Universities.(2)" (pp-3-4)

(1) Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard, publiés par V. Cousin, 1836. Introduction.

(2) Cardinal Newman, Historical Sketches, vol. III, p. 189, London 1889.
Dickson, Gary. 2012. "Charisma, Medieval and Modern." Religions no. 3:763–789.

Abstract: "Popularized by the mass media, Max Weber‘s sociological concept of charisma now has a demotic meaning far from what Weber had in mind. Weberian charismatic leaders have followers, not fans, although, exceptionally, fans mutate into followers. This essay aims to trace some of the dimensions of Weberian charismatic religious leadership in comparative perspective, medieval and modern. Examples include: preachers, ―"double charisma," professors, ―"collective charisma," religious radicals, the economy of charisma, transgressive sexuality, demagogues, living saints."
Dronke, Peter. 1968. The Medieval Lyric. New York: Harper & Row.

Chapter 2: The Rise of Religious Lyric; § 4: Twelfth-century France, pp. 51-57.

"Paris in the early twelfth century was dominated by the personality of Abelard, its most spectacular poet as well as philosopher and theologian—and its most romantic legend. The love-songs that he composed for Héloise have not survived, songs that, in her own words, ‘were so lovely in words and tune, and so often sung, that the name of Abelard was on everybody’s lips, and even the unlearned could not forget him, being charmed by his melodies’. However, we still have two sacred song-cycles that he wrote in the 1130s, after the tragic separation from his beloved. The larger is a complete Liber Hymnorum, adapted to the hours of the divine office and the major feasts of the church year, composed at Héloise’s wish for the use of her convent of the Paraclete.

Abelard’s covering letter shows his fine critical understanding of the older hymnic tradition, and many of his songs are deliberately cast in a traditional mould." (pp. 51-52)
———. 1970. Poetic Individuality in the Middle Ages: New Departures in Poetry 1100-1150. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Peter Abelard - Planctus and Satire, pp. 114-149.

"For Abelard the poet there was a fertile challenge in choosing themes to which he had a unique relation, and where the possibilities of a truly personal thematic development were latent.

At the same time, as the opening of the last planctus suggests, his songs are dolorum solatium: even if they cannot ‘give his laments and tears rest’, they can subsume them in a creation that gives them objective dignity—no longer the private, helpless laceration of one or two human beings, but the meaningful sorrow of the artist’s persona, the dramatic creation that can enfold the private thoughts and yet as artefact can take its place in the outer world in its own right." (pp. 118-119)
———. 1980. "Heloise's Problemata and Letters: Some Questions of Form and Content." In Petrus Abaelardus (1079-1142). Person, Werk und Wirkung, edited by Thomas, Rudolf, 53–73. Trier: Paulinus-Verlag.

Summary; "The author emphasizes the individuality of the literary style of Heloise's letters, in contrast to Abelard's epistolary style. An analysis of the rhythmic cadences shows that Heloise primarily prefers the "cursus tardus" to the "cursus velox" and even surpasses Abelard in this respect. Adalbertus Samaritanus, in particular, taught this style, and his Praecepta dictaminum came to France after 1115. Both Abelard and Heloise were influenced by this style. The questions that Heloise poses, especially in the second letter and in the Problemata about sin, repentance, and marriage, are not abstract discussions, but arise from her personal distress. The author paints a picture of Heloise that, in contrast to other assessments, presents her as a personality of high intelligence and moral maturity."
Erismann, Christophe. 2012. "Latin philosophy to 1200." In The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy, edited by Marenbon, John, 166–191. New York Oxford University Press.

"Peter Abelard combines particularist theses with a semantic account of universality. Abelard’s solution is interesting in that it avoids attributing the being of a thing ( res ) to universals (he only ascribes universality to words). He does this by introducing two notions into his ontology: that of ‘condition’, ‘state’ ( status ), and that of ‘what a statement says’ ( dictum propositionis ). None of these notions refer to a thing, but they are not nothing ( nihil ) either; they have being in thought (which is not the being of things—Abelard denies the existence of propositions—nor that of names); they are non-thing items. These two notions allow Abelard to provide an answer to the two main questions of his ontological particularism: (1) What underlies the resemblance between two individuals of the same species or possessing the same property? And (2) what grounds the predication of the common name ‘man’ as to its subjects? The answer holds in the following position. Socrates and Plato are alike in being men. Abelard holds that Socrates and Plato come together in this, that they are men ( in esse hominem ); they agree in the status of man. This ‘ esse hominem ’ expresses the status, the fact that Socrates and Plato are both men (its closest contemporary philosophical equivalent is the notion of a state of affairs). This status grounds both resemblance and predication. The common causes of the imposition of universal words are status." (pp. 175-176, a note omitted)
Evans, Gillian Rosemary. 1980. Anselm and a New Generation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

"Anselm’s writing is pervaded by an overwhelming sense that the glory of God is inaccessible to human understanding, and a concomitant belief that it is that very inaccessibility which ought to cause us to stretch our minds upwards in search of him. In Anselm himself, this view of things imposes a philosophical direction upon his thinking as well as a direction of spiritual aspiration. Anselm felt equally strongly the double imperatives of obligation and inability which he expresses so fervently in the first chapter of the Proslogion; ‘[Your exile] longs to reach you, and your dwelling-place is beyond reach.'(3) comparison, Abelard perhaps resembles the fallen angel of St. Bernard’s sermon in having his wings as a thinker unbalanced.(4)

In him the sense of obligation to learn about God sometimes has an air of sheer intellectual curiosity. His feelings of inadequacy are less often in evidence than a solid confidence in his own powers of mind. He flies, by choice, a less uniformly upward course than Anselm attempted to fly on his own ‘spiritual wings’.(5) If few of Abelard’s contemporaries matched him in intellectual self-confidence, many of them shared with him a readiness to consider intellectual curiosity valuable which is perhaps the most significant new attitude of twelfth-century scholars. It sometimes seems that Abelard is inclined to look God in the eye more boldly than Anselm does. He is, as we have seen, ready to question points of doctrine which Anselm thought were settled for ever. Twelfth-century scholars like him were beginning to think about God with curiosity as well as awe." (p. 194)

(3) S, 1.98.10-11,

(4) Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. J. Leclercq and H. Rochais (Rome, 1968), V, 311-14, Sermon for the first Sunday in November.

(5) S, 2.7.9-10.

References

S = Anselmi Opera Omnia, ed. F. S. Schmitt (Rome/Edinburgh, 1938-68), 6 vols.
Ferguson, Chris B. 1983. "Autobiography as Therapy: Guibert de Nogent, Peter Abelard and the Making of Medieval Autobiography." Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies no. 13:187–212.
Gasper, Giles, and Kohlenberger, Helmut, eds. 2006. Anselm and Abelard: Investigations and Juxtapositions. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

Contents: Foreword VII; Note on the Edition of Anselms' Works IX; Anselm. Intellectual context. 1. Toivo J. Holopainen: Logic and theology in the Eleventh century: Anselm and Lanfranc's heritage 1; Structures of thought. 2. Klaus Kienzler: Anselm von Canterbury (1033-1109): Theologie wird Wissenschaft 17; 3. Christian Brouwer: Ratio et intellectus: l'unité de l'oeuvre d'Anselme de Canterbury 31; 4. M. B. Pranger: Anselm, Marion and the refusal of Gift 48; Individual works. 5. Thomas H. Bestul: Uncertainty in the Meditation on Human Redemption 56; 6. Ian Logan: Anselm and Thidricus: revisiting MS Bodley 271 67; Subsequent interpretations; 7. Rega Wood: Richard Rufus's response to Saint Anselm 87; 8. Giles E. M. Gasper: An Anglican Anselm 103; Anselm and Abelard. Comparisons and contrasts. 9. Coloman Viola: Saint Anselme et Abélard: auteurs de deux théologies? 118; 10. Helmut Kohlenberger: Die Wahrheit des Dialogs: Anmerkungen bei Anselm und Abälard 133; 11. Matthia Perkams: Rationes necessariae - rationes verisimiles et honestissimae: Methoden philosophischer Theologie bei Anselm und Abälard 143; 12. Stephan Ernst: Grundlegung der Ethik bei Anselm von Canterbury und Peter Abälard 155; 13. Hiroko Yamazaki: Anselm and Abelard on original sin 172; 14. Tetsuro Shimitzu: Word and Esse in Anselm and Abelard 179; Context. 15. Constant J. Mews: Saint Anselm and the development of philosophical theology in Twelfth-century Paris 196; 16.Markus Enders: Die Entwicklung der christlichen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Judentum und dem Islam von Anselm v. Canterbury bis Peter Abäilard 223; List of Contributors 249; Index 251-256.

"At the end of June 2004, the conference, of which this collection is a part-product, took place to celebrate and explore the thought and careers of both Anselm and Abelard, as well as wider aspects of intellectual change from the early eleventh century onwards. The papers we have collected from the conference concentrate on the figures of Anselm and Abelard in contrast to the broader and more diffuse nature of the conference. The papers here fall into two sections. The first deals with Anselm, and from a variety of perspectives: the intellectual context for his achievements, the structures underpinning his thought, particular works, including his letter collection, and later interpretations of his thought. The second section takes on the question of the relationship between Anselm and Abelard. Networks of connection between early scholastic figures are explored, before comparisons and contracts between Anselm and Abelard are addressed. Finally some of the wider implications of the changes occurring in the period between Anselm and Abelard are examined." (From the Foreword)
Gill, Harjeet Singh. 1991. Mental Images and Pure Forms: Study in Abelardian Theory. New Delhi: Bahri Publcations.
———. 2023. Abelardian Theory of Mental Images and Pure Forms. Delhi: Askar Books.

Contents: Pierre Abelard 7, Abelardian Linguistics 13; Abelard on Language 39; Abelardian Theory of Mental Images and Pure Forms 48; Abelardian Discourse 67; Abelardian Tradition 89-128.

"We can summarise Abelardian reflections on the nature and function of language as a human institution where the words are imposed on things by human will, by human convention. At this stage they may be considered arbitrary but in the evolutionary process, the words not only refer to things, but also, and at times primarily, to their concepts, hence, they are not so arbitrary. Their semantic ranges are extended on the basis of analysis and analogy. These analogies are based on our perception of similarities as “soft” in soft wood, soft iron, soft cotton, soft drink, soft colour etc. We always begin from a physical sensuous experience which is then reorganised, rearranged in the domain of imagination. It is this imaginatively reconstituted concept of the thing (experience) that is the object of our intellection. Our expressions have three levels of articulation: the physical, the grammatical and the conceptual. We first proceed from the physical to the conceptual as we call “mother” Ganges on the basis of a certain perception of our own mother, then reciprocally, our mother acquires the characteristics of mother Ganges. Furthermore, all conceptual relations are reciprocal as father and son derive their “fatherhood” and “son-hood” from each other, or metonymic and metaphoric relations where chronological, syntagmatic, sequential and non-sequential, metaphorical concepts play a major role. Finally, language is a vehicle of communication between thinking beings where the interlocutors exchange words or expressions which are the resultants of their mental activity. They represent conceptual realities which are different from both Platonic universal realism and Aristotelian individual nominalism." (pp. 37-38)
Grane, Leif. 1970. Peter Abelard: Philosophy and Christianity in the Middle Ages London: George Allen & Unwin.

Translated by Frederick and Christine Crowley; bibliography and notes by Derek Baker.

"While Abelard was waiting at Cluny with sharpened pen, preparing what he certainly hoped would be the literary destruction of Bernard, his opponent's express messenger was hastening towards Rome with the letters, which this time had the intended effect. As early as July 16th, not quite a month and a half after the synod, Pope Innocent II despatched two letters: to the Archbishops of Rheims and Sens and to the Abbot of Clairvaux. In one of these he confirmed the verdict of the synod on the nineteen capitula and himself condemned Abelard as a heretic, forbidding him to continue writing; all his followers, including expressly Arnold of Brescia, were excommunicated. In the other letter, the pope gave orders for Abelard to be placed in the custody of a monastery and for his books to be burnt wherever they were to be found. It was left to Bernard and the archbishops to decide upon Abelard's place of confinement.(1) Geoffrey of Auxerre writes that the pope himself set up a stake in St Peter's

for the burning of the books.(2) However, not all Abelard's books within the area of Rome were burnt, for Pope Celestine II was able a few years later to present his native town with copies of them! He knew what he was about, since he was none other than Abelard's old benefactor, Guy of Castello.(3)" (p. 150)

(...)

"Abelard submitted without argument as a dutiful son of the Church. In this difficult situation he did not forget Heloise. It is in a letter to her that he writes the often-quoted words: 'I do not wish to be a philosopher by dissociating myself from Paul; I do not wish to be an Aristotle by separating myself from Christ, since there is no other name under heaven by which I can be saved'." (p. 151)

(1) Migne CLXXIX, cols 515-517.

(2) In a letter to a cardinal, see Abaelardi Opera, I, p. 70.

(3) See Borst, p. 523.

References

[A.] Borst, ['Abalard and Bernhard], Historische Zeitschrift, CLXXXVI (Munich 1958), pp. 497-526.
Häring, Nikolaus M. 1975. "Abelard yesterday and today." In Pierre Abélard - Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en Occident au milieu du XII siècle, edited by Jolivet, Jean and Louis, René, 341–403. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

Abstract: "This presentation, entitled "Abelard Yesterday and Today," provides a brief overview of the manuscripts containing works composed by Abelard, as well as an inventory of the printed editions, the first of which dates from 1616. The history of the transmission of the manuscripts of his writings would tend to cast serious doubt on Abelard's popularity among twelfth-century scholars. The fact that, with one exception, only a single manuscript of his philosophical commentaries has survived testifies that his contemporaries had no desire to obtain copies. To a somewhat lesser extent, the same is true of the transmission of the manuscripts of his theological works. In the latter case, we discover a singular phenomenon. For example, there are three manuscripts of the Theologia Christiana, but all three contain such significant variations that historians speak of three redactions made by Abelard. The scarcity of manuscripts is attributable partly to Abelard's inability to complete his works, and partly to the appearance of more systematic and better organized theological works. This scarcity should not be attributed to suspicions about Abelard's orthodoxy; indeed, his philosophical writings were not subject to such suspicions. Abelard remained almost entirely forgotten during the Middle Ages. His star began to shine with the arrival of the printing press, which allowed historians to study the ideology of an innovator who, by no means a rationalist, combined an intensive examination of the available works of all Christian and non-Christian authors with a deep and sincere love of God and the Church."
Hellemans, Babette, ed. 2014. Rethinking Abelard: A Collection of Critical Essays. Leiden: Brill.

Contents: Preface VII, Note on Contributors VIII; Babette S. Hellemans: Introduction 1;

Part 1 Abelard in Context 9;

Constant J. Mews: Abelard, Heloise, and Discussion of Love in the Twelfth-Century Schools 11; Eileen C. Sweeney: Abelard and the Jews 37: Julian Yolles: Divine Omnipotence and the Liberal Arts in Peter Damian and Peter Abelard 60; Ineke van ’t Spijker: Conflict and Correspondence. Inner and Outer in Abelard and Hugh of Saint Victor 84;

Part 2 Controversy and Exchange 103;

Michael T. Clanchy: Was Abelard Right to Deny That He Had Written a Book of ‘Sentences’? 105; Lesley-Anne Dyer: Veiled Platonic Triads in Abelard’s Theologia ‘Summi Boni’ 119;

Part 3 Shaping Life 153;

William Flynn: Abelard and Rhetoric: Widows and Virgins at the Paraclete 155; Wim Verbaal: Trapping the Future: Abelard’s Multi-Layered Image-Building 187; Taina M. Holopainen: Intentions and Conscious Moral Choices in Peter Abelard’s Know Yourself 213; Juanita Feros Ruys: ‘He who kills himself liberates a wretch’: Abelard on Suicide 230;

Part 4 Poetics and Poetry 251

Eileen F. Kearney: Peter Abelard’s Planctus ‘Dolorum solatium’: A New Song for David 253; Peter Cramer: Abelard on the First Six Days 282; Babette S. Hellemans: Abelard and the Poetics of Ingenium 298

Bibliography 322; Index 350-356.
———. 2023. Varieties of the Self: Peter Abelard and the Mental Architecture of the Paraclete. Leiden: Brill.

"One of the points made in this book, however, is that we cannot really speak of the ‘invention of the individual’ in this period, nor of the ‘discovery of the self’, because this may suggest that authors in Antiquity, or early Christian thinkers like Saint Augustine, did not understand their own subjective worlds, which would be a foolish statement."

(...)

"The approach of this book is not philosophical or theological, in the sense of addressing philosophical and theological questions about individuality in relation to intentionality that are prompted by faith, logic, or language in the work of Peter Abelard. Instead, a historical-anthropological view is adopted, with its attention to the way cultural and religious beliefs and values were organized according to a generally coherent world view in the past. This implies a monastic view on the world, more specifically of the community of the Paraclete, which was founded around the year 1129. Out of necessity to find a new place to shelter a group of nuns, this place called ‘our’ or ‘my’ oratory by Abelard (oratorium nostrum), was created by Abelard for Heloise, his former student, lover, and the mother of his son.(10) As we shall see more in detail, the name of the Paraclete, given later by Abelard, expresses the manifestation of the Holy Spirit." (pp. 2-3)

(10) Throughout this study I use the most recent letter collection edited by David Luscombe, The Letter Collection of Peter Abelard and Heloise (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2013). This is a revised translation of the version published in 1974 and revised in 2003 by Michael Clanchy and Betty Radice, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (London and New York: Penguin Classics, 2003, rev. ed.). The reference to Abelard’s oratorium nostrum can be found in Luscombe, Letter Collection, 84–85.
Howlett, David. 1992. "Some criteria for editing Abaelard." Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi no. 51:195–202.

"Despite the gap between the date of composition and the dates of the earliest manuscripts the text of Abaelard's Historia Calamitatum is fairly secure. By attending to some previously unnoticed structural features we may enhance that security, at once ascertaining the textual integrity of the work, acquiring new insights into the author's thought and art, and improving presentation of the text for future readers.

The following text of title, exordium or chapter I, and chapter II may be compared with the recent editions by Muckle and Monfrin(1) .

The title is my reconstruction." (p. 195, a note omitted)

(1) J .T . Muckle (ed.), `Abelard's Letter of Consolation to a Friend (Historia Calamitatum)', Mediaeval Studies XII (1950) 163-213. S. Monfrin (ed.), Abélard : Historia Calamitatum, 3d ed. (Paris, 1967) .
Kaldramova, Elitza. 2019. "Peter Abelard’s Conceptualism and Its Influence." Archive for Medieval Philosophy and Cultur no. 25:71–81.

Abstract: "The problem of the universals is associated with the universals’ existence and reasons for classifying objects as one species or genus. It inquires what notions and their features are. The problem’s importance is related to the detailed study of dialectics and the notion. The latter is the link between sensible objects and the mind and is essential for building sentences and propositions. Abelard’s conceptualism is moderate position considering universals as notions and focusing on the linguistic and logical aspects of the problem. The ontological aspect is not excluded which is evident due to the notion of status. The influence of Abelard’s conceptualism in modern times is associated with the theory of direct reference for nouns, the account of formal validity and the theory of propositional content. Common features between Abelard’s conceptualism and Rand’s objectivism are also discussed such as the abstraction, the important role of reason, the individual and the subjective element."
King, Peter. 1992. "Peter Abelard." In The Dictionary of Literary Biography, edited by King, Peter, 3–14.

"Peter Abelard was the teacher of his generation: preeminent as a philosopher, theologian, poet, and musician, he captured the imagination of almost all with whom he came into contact. His fame as a teacher was unequalled; students travelled from all over Europe to hear him speak, crowds of ordinary people attended his public lectures wherever he went, and it has been said that he was indirectly responsible for the founding of the University of Paris by creating a permanent ‘deposit’ of students in the city. As a philosopher, he brought the investigation of the “old logic” (logica vetus) to its heights; as a theologian, he championed the use of reason and intellect in matters of faith, putting the word theology into use with the meaning it still has today. In philosophy and theology, Abelard’s constant and unremitting use of the tools of logic or ‘dialectic’—argument, objection, example, counterexample, and the like—helped define the Scholastic method, of which an early example is his Sic et non [“Pro and Con” ca. 1117–1128]. As a poet and musician, Abelard was renowned for his verses, both secular and sacred, composed in the vernacular and in Latin. He is responsible for some of the earliest extant pieces of “authored” music. Abelard’s natural talents alone were formidable. Combined with his quick tongue, undeniable brilliance, sharp wit, dialectical acumen, encyclopædic memory, and flavoured with a large dose of arrogance, the force of his personality impressed itself vividly on all his contemporaries. Even his critics and detractors (whom Abelard always referred to as his “enemies”) admitted that he never lost an argument, and only those who avoided debating him could ever gain the upper hand over him. And, apart from his intellectual achievements, his luckless affair with Héloïse made him a tragic figure of romance. Abelard seemed larger than life to his contemporaries, and he is all the more so in retrospect." (p. 3)
Little, Edward F. 1969. "The Status of Current Research on Abelard; Its Implications for the Liberal Arts and Philosophy of the XIth and XIIth Centuries." In Arts libéraux et philosophie au Moyen Age, 1119–1124. Paris: Vrin.

"In the last decade of the eleventh and in the first half of the twelfth century questions were asked and argued about the unity and trinity of God, which attracted great attention and led to an independent, autonomous study of theology in the due course of time. Leaders in this movement were Anselm, Roscelin and Abelard. Abelard re-introduced the term "theology" to popular use. Roscelin and Abelard also debated questions which are still considered philosophical, but at the early date even their questions of divinity, or of theology, were not differentiated, other than potentially. The written arguments remaining in our hands today are firmly based in dialectical and logical and linguistic operations. In short they are trivial, in a sense of the word which has gone out of use. In Abelard's case, which concerns us here, it seems for this reason that all his work should be taken into account in a treatment of the liberal arts and philosophy in this period, -- even the "theologies."

What seems needed most of all at the present time is a review of the state of our knowledge of Abelard's work. The present paper is directed to this question. After a quick review of modern scholarship, it will note the work being done at the present time and some appealing lines for future activity. It should become clear that, while research of the twentieth century has emphasized Abelard's theology, it has rediscovered the logical, dialectical, and linguistic foundation of that theology. A tendency is to examine it no longer strictly upon its own doctrinal merits, but upon its experimental, logical and philosophical character. This seems appropriate chronologically, in that it evaluates these works within the loose and formative context of their own time and aims. While this article is addressed specifically to this conference, it is also intended to be of use to the general student of Abelard." (p. 1119)
Luscombe, David Edward. 1966. "Nature in the Thought of Peter Abelard." In La Filosofia della Natura nel Medioevo. Atti del Terzo Congresso Internazionale di Filosofia Medioevale, 314–319. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

"In his Commentary on the Hexameron Abelard tells us that at the time of the creation a certain force, vis quaedam, was granted to what was then created. This was the force of nature, vis naturae, which was bestowed upon creation once and for all time. This force is also a capacity, facultas, by which the things created during the six days were made capable of development and especially of multiplication (1). The writer of the Book of Genesis tells us that the earth germinated even before the creation of the sun (2). Abelard attributes this germination to the workings of the vis naturae in its original freshness and strength (3). There is a natural process at work in the world, a pattern of causes and effects, as, for example, in the influence of the stars upon the climate of the earth. By the study of the stars we can predict the course of natural events (4), for astronomy is a species of the philosophy of the nature of things. This is not to say that we can also predict events contingent upon the human free will (5). But there is a determinism in the work of nature; if God interfered with this He would be acting contra naturam, because the force of nature has now been substituted for the divine will in the sense that nature preserves and continues the original work of the Creator (6)." (pp. 314-315)

(...)

"In Abelard’s Dialogus the imagined philosopher who appears before Abelard in a dream, describes himself as content with the possession of the natural law alone. He professes no written law and investigates the truth and the high questions of moral philosophy by using his reason (28). He deprecates those Christians and Jews who rely only upon Scripture. But the philosopher says that Abelard’s own Theologia is representative from the Christian point of view of the two approaches, the philosophical and the theological, the natural and the revealed, of utraque doctrina (29). This claim, or boast, is highly significant. It has always been understood that Abelard applied reason in the study of theology. It is perhaps less realized that Abelard held a kind of double source theory of revelation. Not only the written law but the law of nature and reason as well were the utraque doctrina which the best men accepted and studied. The significance of Abelard’s doctrine of nature is that it leads us to consider Abelard as a thinker who found God revealed not only in the Word, but also in the world, with its perfection and rationality, and in the divinely given reason of man.

(1) « Nihil nunc naturam aliud dicimus, nisi vim et facultatem illis operibus tunc collatam, unde illa sufficerent ad efficiendum haec quae postmodum inde contigerunt ». Expositio in Hexameron, J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (= P.L.) tom. 178, 749 C.

(2) Genesis, I, 11-12.

(3) In Hexaemeron, P.L., 178, 749 BC.

(4) I.e. « naturalia futura » - « quae causam aliquam naturalem sui eventus habent, ut ex his quae praecedunt tamquam quibusdam naturalibus sui causis contingerr habeant», In Hexaemeron, P.L., 178, 754 A.

(5) In Hexaemeron, P.L., 178, 753 D - 4 D. Cf. Abelard, Dialectica, ed. L. M. De Rijk (Wijsgerige Teksten en Studies, I. Assen 1956), pp. 216-7.

(6) In Hexaemeron, P.L., 178, 746 C - 7 A.

(28) Dialogus (1619 C et seq.)

(29) Op. cit. (1613 C)
———. 1969. The School of Peter Abelard. The Influence of Abelard's Thought in the Early Scholastic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Contents: Preface IX-XI; List of Abbreviations XII-XIII; I. The Literary Evidence 1; II. Abelard's Followers 14; III: The Diffusion of Abelardian Writings 60; IV. The Condemnation of 1140 103; V. The Theological Writings of Abelard's Closest Disciples 143; VI. The School of Laon 173; VII. Hugh of St Victor 183; VIII. The Summa Sententiarum 198; IX: Abelard and the Decretum of Gratian 214; X. Abelard's Disciples and the School of St Victor 224; XI. Peter Lombard 261; XII. Robert of Melun 281; XIII. Richard of St Victor 299; XIV. Conclusion 308; Appendices 311; Bibliography 316; Index of Manuscripts 347; General Index 350-360.

"This book represents an historian's attempt to discern the ways in which Abelard's thought reached and influenced his contemporaries and successors. The subject has attracted historical study for nearly a century if we take as a starting point the classic article by Heinrich Denifle entitled 'Die Sentenzen Abaelards und die Bearbeitungen seiner Theologia vor Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts' which appeared in the Archiv fur Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters in 1885. Since that time much further knowledge of Abelard's school and of his disciples has accumulated and in addition a vast amount of scholarly energy has been devoted to the task of understanding and of bringing to life twelfth-century thought and learning in its many aspects and moods. With respect to Abelard's following it is perhaps a fitting time to draw together some threads and to offer an interpretation of its place in the evolution of the early scholastic movement.

The principal sources of this study are literary, biographical, palaeographical and doctrinal. The occasional surviving literary references to Abelard which were made in the twelfth century and later are numerous enough to convey the intensity and the scale of the disagreements which existed concerning his personality and achievement. The names of several of his disciples and hearers are also known and an examination is here attempted of heir relationships to Abelard as well as of their reactions to his work and thought. However, information concerning twelfth century personalities is seldom abundant and much can also be gained from studying the codicology of Abelard and his school.

The surviving or known manuscripts of writings by Abelard and by his disciples offer further knowledge of Abelard's readership and following and therefore also of the general history of formative period in medieval thought Abelard's public career was closed in 1140 by an ecclesiastical condemnation. As a condemned heretic whose errors had been vigorously denounced by, among others, Bernard of Clairvaux, Abelard's influence upon his age was limited and tainted. That he was survived by disciples is an established fact, but what was done by these disciples to develop or to qualify his teaching still requires examination. It seems that the condemnation of 1140 raised as many questions as it solved and that the conflicts between Abelard's critics and his defenders in the schools entailed serious disagreements not only over outlook and method but also over specific teachings which continued to be debated in the years that followed. The stimulus which Abelard gave to the study of particular ideas and themes outlived the condemnation of 1140 and some of the criticisms which were levelled against Abelard at this time were an insufficient guide to his contemporaries. Already within the school of Hugh of St Victor a more sophisticated and refined study of Abelard's thought was in progress, and it was this which provided the springboard for many future doctrinal developments. Throughout the 1130s, 40s and sos the interaction of the rival traditions of the schools of Abelard and of Hugh is a striking feature of theological discussion. If the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which enjoyed such a prolonged influence throughout the medieval period, may be regarded as the climax of continuous activity by schoolmen during the first half of the twelfth century, then it is clear that Abelard, for all his exaggerations and errors, was a major and continuing stimulus to debate and thought.

I have tried in the following pages to illustrate primarily the development of theological thought in approximately the first half of the twelfth century by reference not only to Abelard's disciples but also to major teachers of the various schools of the period such as Gratian of Bologna, Hugh and Richard of St Victor, Peter Lombard and Robert of Melun. I have not tried to be exhaustive and much could be said about the relationship between Abelard and other writers; the Porretans in particular are little mentioned. So much is added yearly to knowledge of the literature and thought of this period that much of what appears below will soon be subject to modification and revision." (from the Preface, IX-X).
———. 1972. "Peter Abelard: Some Recent Interpretations." Journal of Religious History no. 7:69–75.

"A quiet revolution in the study of Peter Abelard has taken place in the past forty years. Its roots are numerous editions and studies by Cottiaux, Grabmann, Landgraf, Leclercq, Minio-Paluello, Monfrin, Muckle, Ostlender, D. Van den Eynde and others. Its main monument is being erected and is the elaborate edition of Abelard’s theological writings by E. M. Buytaert.(1) This ferment has reached its highest level of intensity and of brilliance in the last three years, and it is desirable that this climactic activity should be well known. To survey it comprehensively would be premature, although a bibliography containing 150 items up to 1967 has been issued by Buytaert in the first volume of his editions and a further bibliography is promised for the fifth and final volume. My purpose here is to draw attention to three recent discussions, each of a different kind, by offering just a glimpse of a very busy scene; others will, I hope, be encouraged to take a longer look." (p 69)

(1) Petri Abaelardi Opera Theologica, Corpus Christianom, Continuatio mediaevalis, vols xi ff., Turnhout, 1969 ff. Two volumes have appeared to date.
———. 1979. Peter Abelard. London: Historical Association.

Contents: Introduction 5; The Rise to Fame 7; From Marriage to the Monastery 12; The Foundation of the Paraclete 18; The Final Years of Teaching 29; Abelard’s Achievement 34; Bibliographical 38-40.

"Abelard stands out in the twelfth century as a great philosophical thinker in a roughly similar way to that of John the Scot in the ninth century or René Descartes in the seventeenth. His strength of mind contemporaries of all shades of opinion were ready to acknowledge; his achievements are given major attention in histories both of European thought and of European society in general. Abelard’s career as a monk has been judged somewhat less interesting. He was an unusual monk for he was married and a eunuch and he also remained keen to teach. But he was an abbot and he founded a new religious order that deserves a place in any history of medieval religious orders that tries to indicate the variety of new approaches to the monastic life that appeared in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

For over a hundred and fifty years scholars have raised, and still raise, doubts regarding the genuineness of his writings, particularly the letters. If the letters are an outright forgery, then much of our direct knowledge of Abelard, and to a greater extent of Heloise, is gravely shaken. But even if they are not, questions remain regarding the circumstances and motives of their composition. It is not enough to try to survey Abelard’s career and thought in the light of the different interpretations to which his teachings have given rise; questions regarding the origins and reliability of the evidence we have interact repeatedly with the opinions one forms regarding Abelard’s aims and achievements." (p. 6)
———. 1988. "Peter Abelard." In A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy, edited by Dronke, Peter, 279–307. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 10.

"Abelard's logical writings are concerned with seven basic texts: the Isagoge of Porphyry; the Categories and De interpretatione of Aristotle; and the De syllogismo categorico, De syllogismo hypothetico, De differentiis topicis and De divisione of Boethius. Only to a limited degree did Abelard use the Prior Analytics and Sophistici elenchi of Aristotle. Not without reason was he called the Peripatetic from Le Pallet, his birthplace (Peripateticus Paiatinus)." (p. 280)

(...)

"Abelard also wrote a major, independent, and unified treatise of logic which was free of the gloss form, although it nonetheless uses fully the seven ancient textbooks of Aristotle, Porphyry, and Boethius. The only known manuscript of this work, the Dialectica, is in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale lat. 14614, but it lacks both the beginning and the end of the text. The editor, L. M. de Rijk, dates the composition of the final revision of the Dialectica to Abelard's last years.(10)

Abelard may have written a work called Rhetorika and one called Grammatica, but neither has been identified in any manuscript.(11) Sentences containing an analysis of a paralogism and of the use of totum have been tentatively ascribed to him and printed under his name.(12) Claims have been put forward for Abelard as author of other works of logic which betray many similarities with his known writings and teachings. These include a short treatise De intellectibus(13) and another gloss on the Isagoge known as Secundum uocales.(14)" (pp.281-282)

(10) De Rijk 1970, pp. xxi-xxiii. The dating of the supposed versions of the Dialectica is muchdebated. Sec further E. M. Buytaert in his general introduction to Abelard's Opera theologica 1, CC, CM xi (Turnhout 1969}, p. xxv n. 45. C. Mews now suggests ca. 1117: 'On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard', AHDLMA LII (1985) 73-134, at pp. 95-104.

(11) Buytaert 1969, p. xxi; Mews 1985, pp. 92-3.

(12) Secundum Magistrum Petrum Sententie, ed. Minio-Paluello 1958. These Sentences may have been a part of a lost work on fallacies to which Abelard refers in his Dialectica, ed. de Rijk 1970, p. 448.3—4 {primus Fantasiarum nostrarum liber). See L. M. de Rijk, Logica Modernorum I (Assen 1962), 109-12.

(13) Ed. L. U. Ulivi, La psicologia di Abelardo e il 'Tractalus de Intellectibus' (Rome 1976); also Petri Abaelardi Opera, ed. V. Cousin, 11 (Paris 1859) 733-53. Both these editors favour the attribution of the treatise to Abelard; Ulivi examines the possibility very thoroughly.

(14) Glossae super librum Porphyrii secundum vocales, ed. C. Ottaviano, Un opuscolo di Abelardo, Testi medioevali inediti, Fontes Ambrosiani in (Florence 1933), pp. 106-207. Extracts were edited by Geyer 1973, pp 581-8. Geyer (pp. 610-12) notes the close similarities between these Glosses and those found in Abelard's Logica, but concludes that they are a compilation by a follower of Abelard. C. J. Mews presents new arguments in favour of Abelard's authorship in 'A Neglected Gloss on the "Isagoge" by Peter Abelard', Frreiburger Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und Theologie xxxi (1984) 35—55. The gloss 'Secundum vocales' is found in the same Milan MS which contains the 'Ingredientibus' glosses (on fols. 72v-8iv).
———. 1992. "The School of Peter Abelard Revisited." Vivarium no. 30:127–138.

"My concern in this paper is not with works of logic associated with Peter Abelard but with writings of a theological kind containing material which is similar to that also found in Abelard' s own writings.(1) To these works of theology, largely collections of sentences but also including some works of biblical commentary, I gave attention in a book which I published in 1969 under the title The School of Peter Abelard and with the sub-title The Influence of Abelard's Theology in the Early Scholastic Period.(2) After the passage of more than twenty years I welcome Professor Courtenay's mandatum to me to revisit what I called, following a well-established convention, the school. Whether or not this school looks any different now than it did two decades ago is one legitimate concern of this colloquium which seeks to raise new questions and to explore different possibilities than I have previously done." (p. 127)

(1) See Julia Barrow, Charles Burnett, David Luscombe 1984-5, 183-302. Part 3 of this Checklist (259-261) gives information about a few works which put forward doctrine identifiable as Abelard's; Part 2 gives information about Abelard's own writings (240- 258). See also Luscombe 1969: chapter 3 ('The Diffusion of Abelardian Writings', 60-102) includes some details of writings on logic and theology inspired by Abelard as well as of those written by him; chapters 5 and 10 (143-172, 224-260) examine works of theology from Abelard's school.

(2) See n. 1 above.

References

Barrow, J., Burnett, C. & Luscombe, D., 1984-85, A checklist of the manuscripts containing the writings of Peter Abelard and Heloise and other works closely associated with Abelard and his school , in: Revue d'histoire des textes, 14/15, 183-302.

Luscombe, D., 1969, The School of Peter Abelard. The Influence of Abelard's Thought in the Early Scholastic Period. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, ed. D. Knowles, new series 14. Cambridge; repr. 1970.
———. 1996. "Peter Abelard and the Arts of Language." In Media Latinitas: A Collection of Essays to Mark the Occasion of the Retirement of L. J. Engels, edited by Nip, R. I. A., 101–116. Turnhout: Brepols.
———. 1997. "Peter Abelard's Carnal Thoughts." In Medieval Theology and the Natural Body, edited by Biller, Peter and Minnis, A. J., 31–37. Rochester: York Medieval Press.

"Abelard, for whatever reason, was not interested in the idea of the two cities, but he was intensely interested in Augustine's De civitate Dei and especially in the investigations made by Socrates and the Platonists into the summum bonum. Book II of his Theologia christiana manifests this interest,(14) but nowhere is it more in evidence than in the Dialogus that he wrote in which a Philosopher and a Christian debate between themselves the nature of supreme goodness and of supreme evil. It is the Philosopher who turns to the De civitate Dei where in Book VIII Augustine records that some pagan philosophers call the supreme goodness virtue and others pleasure or voluptas.(15)

(...)

"As the debate between the Philosopher and the Christian reaches its climax, the Philosopher states his agreement with the Christian that, properly and absolutely speaking, the supreme good is God and the supreme good for man is the vision of God which makes man truly happy. But the Philosopher asks why, if this vision of God is enjoyed through the eyes of the mind and is not a physical sight, Christians proclaim the doctrine of the resurrection of the bodies of the saints in heaven? What is the point of the souls of the just in paradise having their bodies restored to them when the lack of bodies does nothing to lessen the happiness of the angels? To this the Christian replies that everything God does is done not to increase our happiness but his glory. The resurrection of our bodies does not increase the happiness of thesaints but it is not without purpose since God is glorified when what were once weak instruments beset by passion become indissoluble and immune to passion.(18)

However, after the resurrection, bodies are, in a certain way—quodammodo subtle, spiritual things, just as Christ's body became an immortal and impassible body after his resurrection.(19) There is no activity left for the senses since all desires are satisfied by the vision of God.(20)" (pp. 36-37)

(14) Theologia christiana ii.329.(...) Petri Abaelardi Opera theologica, II, ed. E. M. Buytaert, CCCM 12 (Turnhout, 1969), pp. 145-6.

(15) Petrus Abaelardus. Dialogus inter Philosophum, Judaeum et Christianum, ed. R. Thomas (Stuttgart and Bad Cannstatt, 1970), 1. 1525. There exists an English translation by P. J. Payer, Peter Abelard. A Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian, Medieval Sources in Translation 20 (Toronto, 1979).

(18) Dialogus, ed. Thomas, 11. 2584-621.

(19) Dialogus, ed. Thomas, 11. 2667-76.

(20) Dialogus, ed. Thomas, 11. 290-647
———. 2001. "Peter Abelard and the Poets." In Poetry and Philosophy in the Middle Ages: A Festschrift for Peter Dronke, edited by Marenbon, John, 155–171. Leiden: Brill.

"Over twenty years ago Jean Jolivet discussed the presentation by Peter Abelard of the philosophers of antiquity, their personalities and their teachings(1). Jolivet explored the relationships which Abelard

forged with these figures in the light of his Christian faith. By their reason and by the uprightness of the lives which they led, the philosophers of antiquity had come to a knowledge of God. Unlike the prophets of the Old Testament they did not know the written law, but they had knowledge of the natural law. Albeit obscurely and unwittingly, their writings bore witness and provided premonitions of the divine Trinity. They also promoted virtue and the particular qualities which Christians associate with the requirements of the monastic life: poverty, solitude, study and continence. Ranged alongside them were Biblical figures such as Solomon, a sage, and Job, a pagan. Moreover, the philosophers included poets." (p, 155)

(1) 'Doctrines et figures de philosophies chez Abelard' in Petrus Abaelardus (1079—1142). Person, Werk und Wirkung, ed. R. Thomas (Trier 1980), Trierer theologische Studien 38, pp. 103-20.
———. 2002. "Scientia and disciplina in the correspondence of Peter Abelard and Heloise." In "Scientia" und "Disciplina". Wissenstheorie und Wissenschaftspraxis im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, edited by Berndt, Rainer, Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias, Stammberger, Ralf M. W. and Niederberger, Andreas, 79–89. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

"In his letters Abelard uses the word "disciplina" in a number of different ways.

Learning or studying a branch of organised knowledge is one such use: "ingenio exstiti AD LITTERATORIAM DISCIPLINAM facilis."(2) Abelard claims to have a natural facility for the study of letters which was realised during his early education, which took place either in a school or through private tuition.(3) He mentions education in boyhood again in his Dialectica in the course of discussing the different kinds of comparison." (P. 79)

(...)

"One of Abelard's persistent appeals is for the promotion of a knowledge of letters. He admired the "litteratoria scientia" possessed by Heloise and so rarely found among women:

quo bonum hoc LITTERATORIE scilicet SCIENTIE in mulieribus est rarius, eo amplius puellam commendabat, et in toto regno nominatissimam fecerat.(29)

)

In Epistola IX he appeals to the nuns of the Paraclete to study languages and literatures for the neglect of either has, since Jerome's day, brought about the decline of both:

Defecit iam dudum hoc peregrinarum linguarum in uiris Studium et cum negligencia litterarum, SCIENCIA periit earum.(30) (p. 84)

(2) Abaelardus Historia calamitatum, 12-13.

(3) Abaelardus Historia calamitatum, 13-17:(...)

(29) Abaelardus Historia calamitatum, 286-288.

(30) Abaelardus Epistolae (Smits), IX (p. 236 = PL 178, c. 335A-336A).
———. 2014. "Peter Abelard and "lingua nostra"." In Philosophie et langage ordinaire : de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, edited by Counet, Jean-Michel. Louvain: Peeters.
———. 2019. Peter Abelard and Heloise: Collected Studies. New York: Routledge.

Contents: Preface; Abbreviations; Bibliography

1. From Paris to the Paraclete: The correspondence of Abelard and Heloise (1989);

Peter Abelard: Philosopher

2. Peter Abelard (1988); 3. Nature in the thought of Peter Abelard (1966); 4. Peter Abelard and the arts of language (1996); 5. Scientia and disciplina in the correspondence of Peter Abelard and Heloise (2002), 6. 'The sense of innovation in the writings of Peter Abelard (2005); 7. Peter Abelard and the poets (2001); 8. The school of Peter Abelard revisited (1992); 9. The Bible in the work of Peter Abelard and his "school' (1996); 10. Peter Abelard and the creation of the world (2000); 11. Peter Abelard's carnal thoughts (1997); 12. St Anselm and Abelard: A restatement (2002); 13. A new student for Peter Abelard: The marginalia in British Library MS Cotton Faustina A.X (with Charles Burnett; 2005); 14. Berengar, defender of Peter Abelard (1966);

Peter Abelard and Heloise

15. The Letters of Heloise and Abelard since "Cluny, 1972" (1980); 16. Peter Abelard and the abbey of the Paraclete (2003); 17. Excerpts from the letter collection of Heloise and Abelard in Notre Dame (Indiana) MS 30 (1983);

Peter Abelard Monk

18. Peter Abelard and monasticism (1975); 19. Monasticism in the lives and writings of Heloise and Abelard (1991);

20. Supplementary notes;

Index; Index of Manuscripts.

"I have from time to time been asked to make a collection of some of studies of Peter Abelard and Heloise which were published in widely scattered and not always easily accessible volumes. The present book brings to and reprints nineteen of these essays with very few and only very small amendments but with a common format and new pagination. Some of these essays were published before the arrival of new editions of the writings of Abelard and Heloise." (from the Preface)

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