Bibliography of English Studies on Peter Abelard: General Studies, Philosophy of Language and Mind

Bibliography

"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.
Bagge, Sverre. 1993. "The Autobiography of Abelard and Medieval Individualism." Journal of Medieval History no. 19:327-350.

Abstract: "This article discusses Abelard's Historia Calamitatum in connection with the debate on 'the individuar or 'individualism' in the Middle Ages, which has been going on between adherents of 'the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century' and scholars placing the emergence of the modem individual in more recent periods. The conclusion largely supports the latter point of view. Abelard does not tell a continuous story of his life, he does not describe a conversion or a newunderstanding of his own self as the result of his tragic experience and, as an intellectual, he does not emphasize his own independent thinking in opposition to his surroundings. By contrast, he understands his own life through models derived from sacred history, according to the contemporary idea of typology. However, his

vivid description of the tragic events of his life and of his own reactions to them contains a strong element of subjectivity and his emphasis on merit rather than status when competing with other intellectuals is in a certain sense individualistic.

In this respect Abelard may also be regarded as representative of more widespread attitudes in contemporary scholarly milieux. Finally, it must be noted that similar objections can be raised against renaissance or early modem individualism as the ones adduced here against regarding Historia Calamitatum as an expression of medieval individualism."
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.
Burnett, C. 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.
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.
Cameron, Margaret. 2019. "Peter Abelard on mental perception." In Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middlle Ages, edited by Cameron, Margaret, 18-34. London - New York: Routledge.

The History of the Philosophy of Mind, Volume 2.
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."
———. 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).
Compayré, Gabriel. 1893. Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities. New York: Charles Scribner.
Dronke, Peter. 1976. Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press.
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.
Fredborg, Karin Margareta. 2003. "Abelard on Rhetoric." In Rhetoric and Renewal in the Latin West 1100-1540. Essays in Honour of John O. Ward, edited by Mews, Constant J., Nederman, Cary J. and Thomson, Rodney M., 55-80. Turnhout: Brepols.
Grane, Leif. 1970. Peter Abelard: Philosophy and Christianity in the Middle Ages London: George Allen and Unwin.

Translated by Frederick and Christine Crowley; bibliography and notes by Derek Baker.
Guilfoy, Kevin. 2004. "Mind and cognition." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 200-304. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2006. "Imagination and Cognition of Insensibles in Peter Abelard." In Intellect et imagination dans la philosophie médiévale / Intellect and imagination in medieval philosophy / Intelecto e imaginação na filosofia medieval / Actes du XIe Congrès international de philosophie médiévale de la Société internationale pour l'Étude de la philosophie médiévale (S.I.E.P.M.): Porto, du 26 au 31 août 2002, edited by Pacheco, Maria Cândida and Meirinhos, José F., 895-902. Turnhout: Brepols.
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.
Hellemans, Babette, ed. 2014. Rethinking Abelard: A collection of critical essays. Leiden: Brill.
Iwakuma, Yukio. 2004. "Influence." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 305-340. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jacobi, Klaus. 2004. "Philosophy of Language." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 126-157. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

"Abelard's investigations into the philosophy of language are of great interest not only with respect to the history of philosophy, but also with respect to systematic considerations. These investigations, however, are not readily accessible. They offer nothing to a reader who wants to glean information quickly from them. A thorough study is required, and this itself requires extraordinary patience. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the project of making Abelard's investigations into the philosophy of language accessible to the general philosophical community."
Jaeger, C. Stephen. 1980. "The Prologue to the Historia Calamitatum." Euphorion. Zeitschrift für Literaturgeschichte:1-15.
Jussila, Paivi H. 1995. Peter Abelard on Imagery. Theory and practice, with special reference to his Hymns. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
King, Peter. 2004. "Metaphysics." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 65-125. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

"Abelard's philosophy is the first example in the Western tradition of the cast of mind that is now called nominalism. Although his view that universals are mere words (nomina) is typically thought to justify the label, Abelard's nominalism - or better, his irrealism - is in fact the hallmark of his metaphysics. He is an irrealist not only about universals, but also about propositions, events, times other than the present, natural kinds, relations, wholes, absolute space, hylomorphic composites, and the like. Instead, Abelard holds that the concrete individual, in all its richness and variety, is more than enough to populate the world. He preferred reductive, atomist, and material explanations when he could get them; he devoted a great deal of effort to pouring cold water on the metaphysical excesses of his predecessors and contemporaries. Yet unlike modern philosophers, Abelard did not conceive of metaphysics as a distinct branch of philosophy. Following Boethius, he distinguishes philosophy into three branches: logic, concerned with devising and assessing argumentation, an activity also known as dialectic; physics, concerned with speculation on the natures of things and their causes; and ethics, concerned with the upright way of life."
Kunitz-Dick, Alisa. 2014. "Peter Abelard's Various Conceptions of Place (locus): from Attributes of Substances to Collections." Medioevo. Rivista di Storia della Filosofia Medievale no. 39:31-36.
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.
———. 1983. "St. Anselm and Abelard." Anselm Studies.An Occasional Journal no. 1:207-229.
———. 1988. "Peter Abelard." In A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy, edited by Dronke, Peter, 279-307. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 10.
———. 1992. "The School of Peter Abelard Revisited." Vivarium no. 30:127-138.
———. 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.
———. 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 ofHeloise and Abe.lard 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.
Marenbon, John. 1992. "Abelard’s Concept of Natural Law." In Mensch und Natur im Mittelalter, edited by Zimmermann, Albert and Speer, Andreas, 609-621. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
———. 1997. "The Platonisms of Peter Abelard." In Néoplatonisme et philosophie médiévale, edited by Benakis, Linos G., 109-129. Turnhout: Brepols.

Reprinted as Essay XII in: John Marenbon, Aristotelian Logic, Platonism, and the Context of Early Medieval Philosophy in the West.

"When, in 1966, Father Chenu published Les platonismes au XII siècle, twelfth-century Platonism had already been a topic of scholarly interest for nearly a century. (1) Chenu's novelty lay in his plural: not «Platonism» but «Platonisms». He distinguished a strand going back to Augustine, another deriving from the Timaeus and Boethius, one linked to pseudo-Dionysius and another to Arab writers. Chenu's is a useful analytical method which allows the scholar to avoid broad, oversimplifying labels whilst continuing to see the history of medieval philosophy in the neat terms of interrelated and interacting traditions. No doubt it could be fruitfully applied to Abelard -- but that is not my intention here. The Platonisms I shall be discussing are not those of the historian, but Abelard' s own: some of the diverse ways in which he used a notion of Plato and Platonic teaching to formulate, structure and convey his own thought (2). At the end of this paper, I shall return to the question of method, and ask what my procedure has to offer by contrast with other ways of discussing Platon- or any other -ism."

(1) In M.-D. Chenu, La théologie au douzième siècle (Études de philosophie médiévale, 45). Paris, 1966, pp. 108-141. For a sketch of the historiography of twelfth-century Platonism, see J. Marenbon, "Platonismus im zwólften Jahrhundert: alte und neue Zugangsweisen" (translation by A. Snell & O. Summerell), in T. Kobusch and B. Moisisch (eds.), Platon in der abendländischen Geistesgeschichte, neue Forschungen zum Plaumismus, Darmstadt, forthcoming. [Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997 pp. 101-119]

(2) In my general presentation of Abelard's use of Plato and attitude to him, I summarize arguments put forward in various places and different contexts in my The Philosophy of Peter Abelard. Cambridge, 1997. But in my longer and more detailed discussions here -- of Plato universals, the Timaeus and optimism, and «the Platonism of the Republic» -- I develop and extend what I have written in the book.
———. 1997. The Philosophy of Peter Abelard. Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press.

Paperback edition, with corrections and bibliographical note, 1999.
———. 1998. "The Twelfth Century." In Routledge History of Philosophy. Volume III: Medieval Philosophy, edited by Marenbon, John, 150-187. New York: Routledge.

On Abelard see pp. 155-166.
———. 2004. "Life, milieu, and intellectual contexts." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 13-44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2006. "The Rediscovery of Peter Abelard's Philosophy." Journal of the History of Philosophy no. 44:331-351.

"My article surveys philosophical discussions of Abelard over the last twenty years. Although Abelard has been a well-known figure for centuries, his most important logical works were published only in the twentieth century and, so I argue, the rediscovery of him as an important philosopher is recent and continuing. I concentrate especially on work that shows Abelard as the re-discoverer of propositional logic (Chris Martin); as a subtle explorer of problems about modality (Simo Knuuttila, Herbert Weidemann) and semantics (Klaus Jacobi); as a metaphysician before the reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics (Peter King); and as an ethical thinker who echoes the Stoics (Calvin Normore) and anticipates Kant (Peter King)."
———. 2007. "Peter Abelard and Peter the Lombard." In Pietro Lombardo. Atti del XLIII Convegno Storico Internazionale, 225-239. Spoleto: Fondazione Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo.
———. 2007. "Peter Abelard and Platonic Politics." In The Political Identity of the West. Platonism in the Dialogue of Cultures, edited by van Ackeren, Marcel and Seummrell, Orrin Finn, 133-150. Bern: Peter Lang.
———. 2013. Abelard in Four Dimensions. A Twelfth-Century Philosopher in His Context and Ours. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
McCabe, Joseph. 1901. Peter Abélard. London: Duckworth.
McLaughlin, Mary Martin. 1969. "Abelard's Conceptions of the Liberal Arts and Philosophy." In Arts libéraux et philosophie au Moyen Age, 523-530. Paris: Vrin.
Mews, Constant J. 1986. "On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard." Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age no. 60:73-134.

Reprinted as Essay VII in: Constant J. Mews, Abelard and his Legacy.
———. 1990. "Orality, Literacy and Authority in the 12th-century Schools." Exemplaria no. 2:475-500.

Reprinted as Essay I in: C. J. Mews, Reason and Belief in the Age of Roscelin and Abelard.
———. 1994. "Philosophy and Theology 1100-1150: The Search for Harmony." In Le XIIe siècle: Mutations et renoveau en France dans la première moité du XIIe siècle, edited by Gasparri, Françoise, 159-203. Paris: Léopard d'Or.

Reprinted as Essay II in: C. J. Mews, Reason and Belief in the Age of Roscelin and Abelard.

See in particular: William of Champeaux and Peter Abelard pp. 168-173.
———. 1995. Peter Abelard. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Authors of the Middle Ages. Vol. II n° 5-6.

Contents: The life of Peter Abelard; The writings of Peter Abelard; The influence of Peter Abelard; Appendices.

>Reprint: New York: Routledge 2016.
———. 2001. Abelard and His Legacy. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Collection of essays previously published.

Contents: I. The development of the Theologia of Peter Abelard; II. A neglected gloss on the Isagoge by Peter Abelard; III. Man's knowledge of God according to Peter Abelard; IV. The lists of heresies imputed to Peter Abelard; V. Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana and Theologia 'Scholarium' re-examined; VI. The Sententie of Peter Abelard; VII. On dating the works of Peter Abelard; VIII. Aspects of the evolution of Peter Abaelard's thought on signification and predication; IX. Un lecteur de Jérôme au XIIe siècle: Pierre Abélard; X. Peter Abelard and the Enigma of Dialogue; Addenda; Indexes.
———. 2002. Reason and Belief in the Age of Roscelin and Abelard. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Collection of essays previously published.

Contents: Introduction; I. Orality, Literacy and Authority in the Twelfth-Century Schools (1990) ; II. Philosophy and Theology 1100–1150: The Search for Harmony (1994); III. Guibert of Nogent’s Monodiae (III, 17) in an Appendage to the De haeresibus of Augustine (1987); IV. In Search of a Name and its Significance: A Twelfth-Century Anecdote about Thierry and Peter Abaelard (1988); V. La Bibliothèque du Paraclet du XIIIe siècle à la Révolution (1985); VI. St. Anselm and Roscelin: Some New Texts and their Implications, I. The De incarnatione verbi and the Disputatio inter Christianum et Gentilem (1991); VII. Nominalism and Theology before Abaelard: New Light on Roscelin of Compiègne (1992); VIII. St. Anselm, Roscelin and the See of Beauvais (1996); IX. The Trinitarian Doctrine of Roscelin of Compiègne and its Influence: Twelfth-Century Nominalism and Theology Re-considered; X: St. Anselm and Roscelin of Compiègne: Some New Texts and their Implications, II. A Vocalist Essay on the Trinity and Intellectual Debate, c. 1080–1120 (1998); Addenda and Corrigenda 1-7; Index 1-4; Index of Manuscripts 1-3..
———. 2005. Abelard and Heloise. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

See the following Chapters:

2. The early years: Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux, pp-21-42.

"This chapter examines Abelard's intellectual debt to both the vocalist theories of Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux's teaching about dialectic in shaping his philosophical nominalism. By looking at the earliest records of Abelard's teaching of dialectic and glosses on Aristotle, Porphyry and Boethius, it observes how students identified him as an iconoclast teacher, who quickly provoked laughter by the examples that he chose. It traces how Abelard's early conflict with his teachers laid the foundation for the subsequent difficulties he would experience in his career."

3. Challenging tje Tradition: the Dialectica, pp. 43-57.

"This chapter examines Abelard's Dialectica, his first major treatise on dialectic. The treatise is structured around an analysis both of the major parts of speech, categories and of different kinds of argument, categorical and hypothetical. It argues that a driving theme is Abelard's desire to counter the philosophically realist arguments presented by William of Champeaux."

5. Returning to Logica, pp. 81-100.

"This chapter examines the Logica 'Ingredientibus', a series of commentaries on Porphyry, Aristotle, and Boethius more profound than any of his earlier glosses. I argue that in these commentaries Abelard adopts a much more profound theory of universals and of other parts of speech than in the Dialectica. Rather than emphasizing differences of opinion with William of Champeaux, they demonstrate how far Abelard had come to distance himself from the arguments of Boethius. Instead of speaking uniquely about dialectic, he is now interested in logica, the arts of language in general."
———. 2009. "William of Champeaux, Abelard and Hugh of Saint-Victor: platonism, theology and scripture in early 12th century France." In Bible und Exegese in der Abtei Saint-Victor zu Paris: Form und Funktion Eines Grundtextes im Europaischen Raum. Band 3, edited by Berndt, Rainer, 131-163. Münster: Aschendorff.
———. 2011. "William of Champeaux, the Foundation of Saint-Victor (Easter, 1111), and the Evolution of Abelard's Early Career." In Arts du langage et théologie aux confins des XIe et XIIe siècles, edited by Rosier-Catach, Irène, 83-104. Turnhout: Brepols.

"The common understanding of Parisian intellectual life in the twelfth century as dominated by an on-going conflict between the traditionally minded William of Champeaux and a philosophically radical Peter Abelard, has long been dependent on how we interpret Abelard account of their interaction in the Historia calamitatum." (p. 83)

(...)

Bautier's proposed dating of Abelard’s early career needs revision [*]. Rather than assuming that Abelard studied under William for just two years, it is more likely that he remained at the cathedral school for at least four years (1100-1104 ?), before deciding to establish his own school at the royal palace of Melun (c. 1104-1106 ?) and then at Corbeil (c. 1106-1107 ?). His decision to return home, ostensibly to recover from a period of overwork (c. 1107-1111 ?), thus occurred when William of Champeaux was becoming active as an archdeacon in Paris, and possibly was was helped by some assistant, who could communicate and expand upon his master’s teaching on these subjects.

(...)

This revised chronology has implications for understanding the evolution of Abelard's writings on dialectic. Having spent at least four years studying under William, Abelard may have started to compose his Dialectica even before he returned to Paris in 1111. While Abelard did not accept William's original understanding of a universal as a substance or material essence independent of differentiae, this did not stop him from using the phrase res universalis on three separate occasions within the Dialectica. After the unfolding of his affair with Heloise in 1117, Abelard started to adopt a more radical perspective. He now argued that a universal was not any kind of thing. He also had to counter the views of a much wider range of teachers than just William of Champeaux. (pp. 103-104, notes omitted)

[*] Bautier, Robert-Henri. 1981. "Paris au temps d'Abélard." In Abélard en son temps. Actes du Colloque international organisé à l'occasion du IXe centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard (14-19 mai 1979), edited by Jolivet, Jean, 21-77. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

According to Bautier "Abelard studied under William for only two years (1100-1102), before starting to teach at Melun c. 1102 and at Corbeil c. 1104, but returned to Paris in 1108, after perhaps three years recovering from overwork. We shall present evidence for considering that William moved to Saint-Victor at Easter 1111." (p. 83)
Mews, Constant J., and Jolivet, Jean. 1990. "Peter Abelard and His Influence." In Contemporary Philosophy. Vol. 6.1: Philosophy and Science in the Middle Ages, edited by Guttorm, Floistad, 105-140. Amsterdam: Kluwer.

"This chronicle is based on one prepared by Jean Jolivet, reviewing literature on Abelard up to 1972; I have updated it to take into account publications which have appeared 1972-1985" (p. 105).
Moonan, Lawrence. 1989. "Abelard's Use the "Timaeus"." Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age no. 56:7-90.
Normore, Calvin G. 2004. "Abelard’s Stoicism and Its Consequences." In Stoicism. Traditions and Transformations, edited by Strange, Steven K. and Zupko, Jack, 132-147. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Otten, Willemien. 1997. "The Bible and the Self in Medieval Autobiography: Otloh of St. Emmeram (1010-1070) and Peter Abelard (1079-1142)." In The Whole and Divided Self: The Bible and Theological Anthropology, edited by McCarthy, John and Aune, David, 130-157. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.
Pacheco, Maria Cândida, and Meirinhos, José Francesco, eds. 2006. Intellect et imagination dans la philosophie médiévale / Intellect and Imagination in Medieval Philosophy / Intelecto e imaginação na filosofia medieval. Vol. II. Turnhout: Brepols.

Actes du XIe Congrès international de philosophie médiévale de la Société internationale pour l'Étude de la philosophie médiévale (S.I.E.P.M.), Porto, du 26 au 31 août 2002.

Petrus Abaelardus: Guy Hamelin: La psychologie de la connaissance chez Pierre Abélard arrive t-elle à une impasse? 883; Kevin Guilfoy: Imagination and Cognition of Insensibles in Peter Abelard 895; Mathias Perkams: The Trinity and the Human Mind. Analogies in Augustine and Peter Abelard 903; Constant Mews: Faith as «existimatio rerum non apparentium»: Intellect, Imagination and Faith in the Philosophy of Peter Abelard 915; Tetsuro Shimizu: The Place of Intellectus in the Theory of Signification by Abelard and «Ars Meliduna» 927-939.
Sikes, J. G. 1965. Peter Abailard. New York: Russell and Russell.
Sweeney, Eileen C. 2006. Logic, Theology, and Poetry in Boethius, Abelard, and Alan of Lille. Words in the Absence of Things. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter 2: Abelard: a Twelth-Century Hermeneutics of Suspicion pp. 63-126.

"If Boethius's goal in his logical commentaries is to distinguish in order to unite, Abelard's goal seems simply to distinguish. Boethius's construction of a narrative from Aristotle's cryptic remarks in the Peri hermeneias is one Abelard follows carefully and also criticizes, finding Boethius's connections more a confusion than a synthesis of the elements in Aristotle's text. He argues that Boethius constructs a unity that is inauthentic, which asserts a happy ending, a union between language, understanding, and the world that is not quite achievable. His own corpus of commentaries breaks down this narrative to consider its parts much more carefully.

Abelard's perception of gaps in Boethius's narrative and his desire to take it apart is signaled in many ways. It comes across at a general and formal level in his account of the relationship between the Categories and Peri hermeneias in his later glosses on Porphyry (known as the Logica nostrorum petitioni sociorum). In these later glosses, he argues that Aristotle's two works are not two pieces of a single narrative, an account of words leading to one of sentences, as Boethius claims (and as was a tradition Abelard himself Follows in his earlier glosses), but the separate consideration of words insofar as they signify things (the Categories) and words insofar as they signify intellectus (the Peri hermeneias) (LNPS 508. 32-37). Beginning with this division, then, I would like to consider Abelard's account of the distinction between words and things in the earlier Glosses on Porphyry and the later gloss on Porphyry, and between words and understanding in the Commentary on the Peri hermeneias. (10) I will attempt to examine the kind of a narrative Abelard constructs, insofar as he constructs any, of the processes of abstraction and sentence construction." (pp. 66-67)

(10) See Constant Mews, "On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard," ADHLMA 52 (1985): 73-134; Marenbon, Peter Abelard, pp. 40-53; and L. M. de Rijk, "Peter Abelard's Semantics and His Doctrine of Being," Vivarium 24, 2 (1986): 103-108. It is widely agreed that the Glosses on Porphyry and Commentary on the Peri hermeneias, both part of the Logica ingredientibus, are earlier (1118-20) than the later glosses on Porphyry (here: LNPS) and De intellectibus (from the mid-1120s).
Taylor, Andrew. 1998. "A Second Ajax: Peter Abelard and the Violence of Dialectic." In The Tongue of the Fathers, edited by Townsend, David R. and Taylor, Andrew, 14-34. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tomasic, Thomas M. . 1972. "William of St. Thierry against Peter Abelard. A dispute on the meaning of being a person." Analecta Cistercensia no. 28:3-76.
Verbeke, Gerard. 1974. "Peter Abelard and the Concept of Subjectivity." In Peter Abelard. Proceedings of the International Conference: Louvain, May 10-12, 1971, edited by Buytaert, Éloi Marie, 1-11. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Wade, Francis C. 1963. "Abelard and Individuality." In Die Metaphysik im Mittelalter: ihr Ursprung und ihre Bedeutung. Vorträge des 2. Internationalen Kongresses für mittelalterliche Philosophie, Köln, 31. August-6. September 1961, edited by Wilpert, Paul, 165-171. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. 2004. "Literary works." In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, edited by Brower, Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy, Kevin, 45-125. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.