It is impossible within the limits of a short review to do justice to this volume, which makes a substantial contribution to the history of thought and education in the twelfth century. It begins with an introduction by the editor, Cédric Giraud, on ‘Schools and the “Renaissance of the twelfth century”’, of which the optimistic image found in many works is modified here by a stress on the tensions and oppositions between different social groups.
This volume intends to present a clear and nuanced introduction to the schools of the 12th century, insisting on the fertile confluence between ancient knowledge and new techniques, on the interaction between masters and pupils, on the sometimes deferred reception in the Latin world of Greek and Arab knowledge, on the contribution of the Bible in the constitution of theology as a rationally based discipline. (pp. 8–9)
The introduction is followed by twelve chapters (six translated from French) on the schools and intellectual renewal (Constant Mews), the institutional organisation of the schools (Thierry Kouamé), cloisters and schools (Jacques Verger), the authority of the masters (Sita Steckel), methods and tools of learning (Olga Weijers), reading and educating oneself (Dominique Poirel), the Trivium (Frédéric Goubier and Irène Rosier-Catach), the Quadrivium (Irene Caiazzo), medicine (Danielle Jacquart), law (Ken Pennington), theology (Cédric Giraud) and the Bible (Alexander Andrée).These topics give an idea of the scope of the book, which studies among other things the culture of debate and criticism and the relation, defined here as a discipleship, between students and masters, who were seen as the guardians of ordered knowledge and were identified with particular intellectual schools in the sense of sects ‘initiated by a master and characterized by the defense of theses’ (pp. 90, 92, 98, 147, 278). The twelfth century was a ‘linguist’ century, according to Goubier and Rosier-Catach, when the language arts developed in a symbolic manner and new concepts and distinctions in the philosophy of language emerged (pp. 154, 179). It was marked by the spread of mathematical, medical and legal texts and by new ways of reading, understanding and living the Bible, ‘the sacra pagina … as it was lived and commented, in both monastic and urban schools’ (p. 251). Theological teaching was basically oral and traditional and consisted of ‘an interpretation of the Bible based on texts (the so-called ordinary gloss), pedagogical forms (the oral lesson) and results (the written commentary)’ (pp. 253, 311–12). It is regrettable that a book as learned and original as this is marred by so many small errors, misprints, omissions and inconsistencies. Every note on p. 66 contains at least one mistake. Some passages are almost incomprehensible owing to errors in translation and the use of technical and unusual words. Abelard is spelled Abaelard, Aberlard and Abélard. ‘As I will show see’ appears on p. 302; Eugene iv on p. 63 (and index) should be Eugene iii etc. In view of its scholarly value this volume deserves to be brought out in a corrected reprint.
