Authorship and publicity before print : Jean Gerson and the transformation of late medieval learning / Daniel Hobbins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hobbins, Daniel, 1966-

Series:

Middle Ages series.

The Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gerson, Jean, 1363-1429--Books and reading.

Gerson, Jean.

Gerson, Jean, 1363-1429.

Authorship--History--To 1500.

Authorship.

Books and reading--Europe--History--To 1500.

Books and reading.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pa. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as it searches for a compelling narrative to tell the story of his era.Daniel Hobbins argues for a new understanding of Gerson as a man of letters actively managing the publication of his works in a period of rapid expansion in written culture. More broadly, Hobbins casts Gerson as a mirror of the complex cultural and intellectual shifts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In contrast to earlier theologians, Gerson took a more humanist approach to reading and to authorship. He distributed his works, both Latin and French, to a more diverse medieval public. And he succeeded in reaching a truly international audience of readers within his lifetime. Through such efforts, Gerson effectively embodies the aspirations of a generation of writers and intellectuals. Removed from the narrow confines of late scholastic theology and placed into a broad interdisciplinary context, his writings open a window onto the fascinating landscape of fifteenth-century Europe.The picture of late medieval culture that emerges from this study offers neither a specter of decaying scholasticism nor a triumphalist narrative of budding humanism and reform. Instead, Hobbins describes a period of creative and dynamic growth, when new attitudes toward writing and debate demanded and eventually produced new technologies of the written word.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps

Preface

Introduction

1. Gerson as Bookman: Prescribing ''the Common School of Theological Truth''

2. Justifying Authorship: New Diseases and New Cures

3. A Tour of Medieval Authorship: Late Works and Poetry

4. Literary Expression: Logic, Rhetoric, and Scholarly Vice

5. The Schoolman as Public Intellectual: Implications of the Late Medieval Tract

6. Publishing Before Print (1): A Series of Publishing Moments

7. Publishing Before Print (2): From Coterie Readership to Massive Market

Conclusion

List of Abbreviations

Appendix: Gerson Manuscripts in Carthusian and Celestine Monasteries

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index of Manuscripts

Index of Works by Gerson

General Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-311) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781283890571

1283890577

9780812202298

0812202295

OCLC:

794702347