Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age / Mary Franklin-Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Franklin-Brown, Mary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vincent, of Beauvais, -1264. Speculum majus.

Vincent.

Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316. Arbre de ciencia.

Llull, Ramon.

Jean, de Meun, d. 1305? Roman de la Rose.

Jean.

Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316. Libre de meravelles.

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries--History and criticism.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (474 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The thirteenth century saw such a proliferation of new encyclopedic texts that more than one scholar has called it the "century of the encyclopedias." Variously referred to as a speculum, thesaurus, or imago mundi-the term encyclopedia was not commonly applied to such books until the eighteenth century-these texts were organized in such a way that a reader could easily locate a collection of authoritative statements on any given topic. Because they reproduced, rather than simply summarized, parts of prior texts, these compilations became libraries in miniature. In this groundbreaking study, Mary Franklin-Brown examines writings in Latin, Catalan, and French that are connected to the encyclopedic movement: Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum maius; Ramon Llull's Libre de meravelles, Arbor scientiae, and Arbre de filosofia d'amor; and Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose. Franklin-Brown analyzes the order of knowledge in these challenging texts, describing the wide-ranging interests, the textual practices-including commentary, compilation, and organization-and the diverse discourses that they absorb from preexisting classical, patristic, and medieval writing. She also demonstrates how these encyclopedias, like libraries, became "heterotopias" of knowledge-spaces where many possible ways of knowing are juxtaposed. But Franklin-Brown's study will not appeal only to historians: she argues that a revised understanding of late medievalism makes it possible to discern a close connection between scholasticism and contemporary imaginative literature. She shows how encyclopedists employed the same practices of figuration, narrative, and citation as poets and romanciers, while much of the difficulty of the imaginative writing of this period derives from a juxtaposition of heterogeneous discourses inspired by encyclopedias. With rich and innovative readings of texts both familiar and neglected, Reading the World reveals how the study of encyclopedism can illuminate both the intellectual work and the imaginative writing of the scholastic age.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Explanatory Notes

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Book of the World: Encyclopedism and Scholastic Ways of Knowing

Chapter 2. Narrative and Natural History: Vincent of Beauvais's Ordo juxta Scripturam

Chapter 3. The Obscure Figures of the Encyclopedia: Tree Paradigms in the Arbor scientiae

Chapter 4. The Order of Nature: Encyclopedic Arrangement and Poetic Recombination in Jean de Meun's Continuation of the Roman de la Rose

Chapter 5. A Fissured Mirror: The Speculum maius as Heterotopia

Chapter 6. The Phoenix in the Mirror: The Encyclopedic Subject

Afterword

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index of Names and Titles

Index of Manuscripts

General Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613862693

9781283550246

1283550245

9780226260709

0226260704

OCLC:

806335297