Authority and imitation : a study of the Cosmographia of Bernard Silvestris / by Mark Kauntze.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kauntze, Mark, author.

Series:

Mittellateinische Studien und Texte ; Bd. 47.

Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, 0076-9754 ; volume 47

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bernard Silvestris, active 1136. Cosmographia.

Bernard Silvestris.

Bernard Silvestris, active 1136--Criticism and interpretation.

Bernard Silvestris, active 1136.

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Didactic poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern)--History and criticism.

Didactic poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern).

Cosmology, Medieval--Poetry.

Cosmology, Medieval.

Criticism and interpretation.

Tours (France)--Intellectual life.

Tours (France).

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

223 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2014.

Summary:

The Cosmographia is one of the most inventive and enigmatic works of medieval literature. Mark Kauntze argues that this allegory of creation is best understood as a product of the vibrant intellectual culture of twelfth-century France. Bernard Silvestris established the authority of his treaties by imitating those ancient philosophers and poets who were assiduously studied in the contemporary schools. But he also revised and updated them, to develop a compelling intervention into twelfth-century debates about man's place in nature and the relationship between theology and natural science. Using wealth of manuscript evidence Kauntze reconstructs the school context in which Bernard worked, and shows how the Cosmographia itself became an object of scholarly annotation and imitation in the later Middle Ages. Book jacket.

Contents:

A note on texts and translations

Introduction

1. Bernard and the Schools of Tours

The city and its schools

Ars dictaminis

Poetry and imitation

2. The science of the Cosmographia

The mixed form

Platonic themes and variations

Medicine and astrology

The purpose of natural science

3. The theology of the Cosmographia

Platonism and Christianity

The Trinity

The Fall

The Incarnation

The function of "Integumentum"

4. Bernard's readers

The standard gloss

The Laudian gloss

Quotation and imitation

Alan of Lille and Peter Lombard

Conclusion 172

Appendix I: Synopsis of the Cosmographia

Appendix II: Census of Cosmographia manuscripts

Index of manuscripts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004256910

9004256911

OCLC:

872222312