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In Search of a Name and Its Significance: A Twelfth-Century Anecdote about Thierry and Peter Abaelard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Constant J. Mews
Constant J. Mews*
Affiliation:
Monash University Victoria, Australia
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Extract

‘Abaelard,’ ‘Abelard,’ ‘Baiolard’ …? Twelfth-century scribes were as uncertain of the exact spelling and pronunciation of the famous philosopher's cognomen as scholars have been in more recent centuries. Trivial as it might seem, correct pronunciation provides the key to understanding a short anecdote copied onto the opening folio of a twelfth-century manuscript (MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm. 14160 = M), formerly belonging to the Benedictine abbey of St. Emmeran, Regensburg. It tells the reader that the peripatetic philosopher wanted to supplement his studies of the trivium by following the lectures of master Thierry on mathematics, but then found the subject too difficult. Thierry gave Peter the name ‘Baiolard’ because he was like a greedy dog who had eaten his fill yet still wanted to lick (given as the meaning of baiare) lard, here used as an image of the quadrivium. The word lardum may itself be a pun on artium. The story-teller goes on to claim that Peter changed ‘Baiolard’ (‘lick-lard’) to ‘Abelard’ (‘have-lard’) because he came to master geometry and arithmetic. The patent absurdity of a number of details in this anecdote — such as, that Abelard was an Englishman or that he wrote on geometry and arithmetic — has led most scholars to dismiss the story as a spurious invention. In this study I shall examine whether there are any historical insights to be gained from the anecdote, the text of which is given here with an attempt at a translation.

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Traditio , Volume 44 , 1988 , pp. 171 - 200
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Copyright © 1988 Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Luscombe, D. E. lists thirty-seven medieval forms of the name in The School of Peter Abelard (Cambridge 1969) 315. More recent spellings are commented on in an epilogue to this study. The following supplementary abbreviations will be used: AHDLMA—Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge BGPTMA—Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophic und der Theologie des Mittelalters Commentaries—Commentaries on Boethius by Thierry of Chartres and his School (ed. Häring, N.; Toronto 1971) Commentum—Commentum super Boethii librum de trinitate , ed. Häring, N., Commentaries 57–116 MABK—Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz , ed. Lehmann, P. (Munich 1918—) RTAM—Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale Tchr—Theologia Christiana (ed. Buytaert, E. M., CCL cm 12; Turnhout 1969) TSch—Theologia ‘Scholarium’ (edd. Buytaert, E. M. and Mews, C. J., CCL cm 13; Turnhout 1987). I would like to thank J. S. Barrow, C. S. F. Burnett, and D. E. Luscombe for being able to draw on the extensive microfilm collection built up at the University of Sheffield under the aegis of the Leverhulme Trust. They summarise the fruits of their research in ‘A Checklist of the Manuscripts Containing Writings of Peter Abelard and Heloise and of Other Works Closely Associated with Abelard and his School,’ Revue d'histoire des textes 14–15 (1984–85) 183–302. Further information on all the manuscripts mentioned in this article can be found in this checklist. I am also grateful to C. S. F. Burnett for his comments on many parts of this paper and for information concerning Adelard of Bath.Google Scholar

2 An incomplete form of the text was first published by Pez, B., Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus III.1 (Paris 1721) xxii, in turn copied by Fabricius, J.-A., Bibliotheca mediae et infimae Latinitatis (Hamburg 1734) 232, by Migne, J.-P. in PL 178.57–58, and with discussion by Poole, R. L., Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought and Learning (London 1884) 363–66; (2nd ed. London 1920) 313–15. Hödl, L. published a complete text without any commentary in Die Geschichte der scholastischen Literatur und der Theologie der Schlüsselgewalt, pt. 1 (BGPTMA 38.4; Münster 1960) 78.Google Scholar

3 The episode has been alluded to by Southern, R. W. in ‘Humanism and the School of Chartres,’ in Medieval Humanism and Other Essays (Oxford 1971) 61–85 at 81–82, and Klibansky, R., ‘The School of Chartres,’ in Twelfth-Century Europe and the Foundations of Modern Society, edd. Clagett, M., Post, G., and Reynolds, R. (Madison 1961) 3–14 at 12. Scepticism regarding its value was expressed by A. Vernet in ‘Une épitaphe inédite de Thierry de Chartres,’ in Recueil de travaux offerts à Clovis Brunei 2 (Paris 1955) 660–70 at n. 2, repr. in his Études médiévales (Paris 1981) 160–70, and by David Luscombe in Peter Abelard's Ethics (Oxford 1971) xliv n. 4.Google Scholar

4 Literally ‘renunciation’ or ‘abandonment.’ Google Scholar

5 This is the only use of baiare cited by Du Cange 1.522. The nearest term given by Niermeyer, J. F. is bajulare, meaning ‘to care for’ or ‘to watch over,’ in Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden 1976) 77; baiula is defined as a nurse in Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch I (Munich 1967) 1313.Google Scholar

6 The de seems redundant here. A dative rather than an ablative lardo makes more sense. The additional de might have been copied mistakenly by misreading the preceding adeo or have been taken down from faulty dictation; alternatively it may hide another pun on Adelardus. Google Scholar

7 Petrus Abaelardus. Dialectica (ed. de Rijk, L. M.; 2nd ed. Assen 1970) 114: ‘Eas [sc. voces] igitur solas oportet exequi que ad placitum significant, hoc est secundum voluntatem imponentis, que uidelicet prout libuit ab hominibus formate ad humanas locutiones constituendas sunt reperte et ad eas res designandas imposite, ut hoc vocabulum Abaelardus michi ideo collocatum est ut per ipsum de substantia mea agatur.’ Google Scholar

8 Ibid. 566: ‘Quod autem “commune” supposuit [Boetius] voces unius tantum singularis substantie designativas separavit, ut Abaelardus, quod michi uni adhuc convenire arbitror.’ Google Scholar

9 The signature is reproduced on the front cover of Abélard en son temps. Actes du colloque international organisé à l'occasion du 9 e centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard (14–18 mai 1979) (ed. Jolivet, Jean; Paris 1981) from Loire-Atlantique, Archives départementales H 351, pièce 1. The charter is edited by Marchegay, P., Archives d'Anjou III (Angers 1854) 289 no. 453.Google Scholar

10 Duchesne, A., Notæ ad Historiam Calamitatum , in Petri Abaelardi … et Heloissæ coniugis eius … Opera (Paris 1616) 1141–42, repr. in PL 178.113ab. The printers of PL 178 changed Duchesne's ‘Abaelardus’ into ‘Abælardus’ by mistake. B. Geyer comments on the correct spelling in Peter Abaelards philosophische Schriften 1. Die Logica ‘Ingredientibus’ (BGPTMA 21.1; Minister 1919) v n. 1.Google Scholar

11 ms Milan, , Biblioteca ambrosiana M 63 sup., fols. 1, 15v, 16, 43v, 44; see also the briefer glosses in ms Paris, BN lat. 13368, fols. 128, 146, 156. All manuscripts cited are of the twelfth century unless otherwise stated.Google Scholar

12 ms Avranches, Bibl. mun. 135, fol. 64, from Mont-St-Michel. The authenticity of this work has been reaffirmed and its text re-edited by Ulivi, Lucia Urbani, La psicologia di Abelardo e il ‘Tractatus de intellectibus’ (Rome 1976) 103–27.Google Scholar

13 mss Brescia, Civica Biblioteca Queriniana A. V. 21, fol. 17; Cambridge University Library Kk 3.24, fol. 67v, from Christ Church, Canterbury; Montecassino, Archivia della Badia 174, p. 277 (saec. xiii); London, British Library, Royal 11 A.V, fol. 73, from Merton, Surrey.Google Scholar

14 ms Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, theol. lat. oct. 95, fol. 64, from Hautmont, diocese of Cambrai (Theologia ‘Summi boni’).Google Scholar

15 ms Angers, Bibl. mun. 68, fol. 36.Google Scholar

16 ms Avranches, Bibl. mun. 135, fol. 75, from Mont-St-Michel. Mary Romig argues that one of the three hands which copied the Expositio in Hexameron is that of Abaelard, : ‘A Critical Edition of Peter Abelard's Expositio in Hexameron’ (diss. University of Southern California 1981) lxxxv–cxviii.Google Scholar

17 ms Paris, BN lat. 14511, fol. 44v (saec. xv).Google Scholar

18 mss Troyes, Bibl. mun. 802, fol. 1 (saec. xiii/xiv); Paris, BN lat. 2923, fol. 1 (saec. xiii); Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C 271, fol. 76 (saec. xiv). See Monfrin, J., Pierre Abélard, Historia calamitatum (Paris 1959) 1–24.Google Scholar

19 E.g., Confessio fidei ‘Universis’ in ms Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Pat. lat. 171, fol. 222v; letter 11 (on the identity of St. Denis) in mss Paris, BN lat. 2445a, fol. 35; BN lat. 1447, fol. 17; BN nouv. acq. lat. 1509, fol. 16; Planctus Jephta in ms Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, Reg. lat. 288, fol. 63v; Carmen ad Astralabium in ms London, British Library, Burney 216, p. 199.Google Scholar

20 Fols. 61, 80, 161 (saec. xiv). The opening page of the ms, which might have carried an attribution for the Theologia ‘Scholarium,’ is missing.Google Scholar

21 ms Charleville-Mezières, Bibl. mun. 67, fols. 72v–132, from William's abbey of Signy.Google Scholar

22 ‘Metamorphosis Goliae episcopi, Mitteilungen aus Handschriften,’ ed. Huygens, R. B. C., Studi Medievali 3e ser. 3 (1962) 764–72 at 771. The two mss of the poem differ in their spellings: ab ab aelardum O [sic]; abaielardum H. See Poole, , Illustrations 313–15 and Geyer, , Philosophische Schriften v n. 1.Google Scholar

23 On the Turin fragment, see Barrow, J. S., ‘Tractatus Magistri Petri Abaielardi de Sacramento altaris,’ Traditio 40 (1984) 328–36. Abaielardus introduces a comment made after q. 141 of the Sic et Non, Quod opera misericordie non prosunt infidelibus, found only in a Montecassino ms (Archivio della Badia 174) of the Sic et Non (edd. Boyer, B. and McKeon, R.; Chicago 1976–77) 609–10. The Turin fragment is related textually to this ms, as well as to those from Tours, Brescia (to which it is the closest), and Einsiedeln. The common exemplar of these mss seems to have been Abaelard's personal workbook, containing heavily annotated copies of the Sic et Non and Theologia christiana, a copy of which was brought to Italy by Cardinal Guy of Castello, friend of Abaelard and later Pope Celestine II. See Mews, , ‘Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana and Theologia “Scholarium” Re-examined,’ RTAM 52 (1985) 111–59 at 148–49.Google Scholar

24 mss Tours, Bibl. mun. 85, fol. 106, introducing the Sic et Non; Paris, BN lat. 7493, fol. 168, introducing glosses on the De differentiis topicis; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek 71, fol. 145v (a letter against Bernard); Bloomington, Indiana University Library, Poole ms fragment 99 (two lines from the Carmen ad Astralabium); London, British Library, Add. 22287, fol. 128 (‘versus magistri Petri Abailardi de sancta maria vergine’). The oldest manuscripts (group B) of Otto of Freising's Gesta Frederici I Imperatoris 1.48 (edd. Waitz, G. and de Simson, B.; Hannover 1912) 68 read ‘Abaiolardus,’ but the editors adopted ‘Abailardus’ from a later recension.Google Scholar

25 The poem was edited by Cousin, V. from this 13th-century ms and ms Paris, BN lat. 16565, fol. 59 in Petri Abaelardi Opera I (Paris 1849) 330. Both are from the region of Cambrai. The same poem has the attribution ‘abellardi’ in ms Douai, Bibl. mun. 825, fol. 140 (from Anchin) and ‘abailardi’ in ms London, British Library Add. 22287, fol. 128 (from the Celestine priory of Sainte-Croix, Offemont, diocese of Soissons). The entry ‘a.d. mcxlii obiit Petrus Abahelardi perypateticus’ occurs at the end of a late 13th- or early 14th-century copy of Abaelard's correspondence (ms Paris, BN lat. 2544) belonging in the mid-fourteenth century to master Jacobus de Gantis; see Monfrin, , Historia calamitatum, 20.Google Scholar

26 On the Herrevad ms, see Romig, , Expositio lviii–lxv. The reading Apulegius occurs twice on fol. 14 (PL 178.752c).Google Scholar

27 On the Cotton ms, see Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford 1957) 194–96, who dates the hand to the first quarter of the twelfth century. I am grateful to David Luscombe and Charles Burnett for a transcription of this gloss. For philological commentary on these changes, see Clark, Cecily, ‘L'Angleterre anglo-normande et ses ambivalences socio-culturelles: Un coup d'œuil de philologue,’ Les mutations socio-culturelles au tournant des xi e –xii e siècles. Actes du colloque international du CNRS. Études Anselmiennes (ive session) (Spicilegium Beccense 2; Paris 1984) 99–110, where further references are given.Google Scholar

28 Fischer, H., Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen. Neubearbeitung I. Die lateinischen Pergamenthandschriften (Erlangen 1928) I 202–203.Google Scholar

29 Becker, G., Catalogi bibliothecarum antiqui (Bonn 1885) 209 and MABK 4 (ed. Ineichen-Eder, C. E.; Munich 1977) 422. These entries are re-edited and discussed in detail by Schmitz, H.-G., Kloster Prüfening im 12. Jahrhundert (Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia; Munich 1975) 74, 91–92.Google Scholar

30 Both mss are listed in a catalogue of 1347 (MABK 4.1.431 and 4.1.157). M, mentioned again in catalogues of 1449/52 (MABK 4.1.172) and 1500 (MABK 4.1.193), is described in detail by Luscombe, , in Peter Abelard's Ethics xli–xliv. Uncertainty over the spelling of the cognomen crept into the opening rubric of a 15th-century copy from Tegernsee (ms Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm. 28363, fol. 4): ‘Incipit liber magistri petri abelardi uel baiolardi.’ Google Scholar

31 Under the heading ‘Sententie magistri Hugonis’ M groups together on fols. 68–157 the Summa Sententiarum, extracts from works of Hugh of St-Victor, Ivo of Chartres, and the De claustro animae of Hugh of Fouilloy († 1172/73), here entitled ‘Liber domini Hugonis de claustralibus.’ The latter text, not mentioned by Wolfger as found within the ms containing works of Baiolard and Hugo, occurs in another manuscript cited in the catalogue: Schmitz, , Kloster Prüfening 91–92. H. Weisweiler reported the opinion of L. Ott that Wolfger could not be referring to M in Das Schrifttum der Schule Anselms von Laon und Wilhelm von Champeaux in deutschen Bibliotheken (BGPTMPA 33.1–2; Münster 1936) 27.Google Scholar

32 A. Boeckler observed the similarities between M and other manuscripts of Prüfening in Die Regensburger–Prüfeninger Buchmalerei des xii.–xiii . Jahrhunderts (Munich 1924) 81, 120, although he was mistaken in identifying M with Wolfger's ms (and hence datable to before 1165). He compared the decoration of initials in M to that in two other Prüfening mss, now Munich, Clm. 14042 and Clm. 14051. The latter was copied by one Ysingrinus, under the abbacy of Adalbert (1149–77). The script of M is not unlike that of an important scientific ms of Prüfening (Munich, Clm. 13021; see n. 72 below), which because of its contents (the Toledan Tables in particular) was probably copied not before 1170.Google Scholar

33 Its script is similar to that of another Admont ms, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lyell 49 (L), descended from the same exemplar as E. The Sententie in M and A were attributed to a supposed disciple of Abaelard called Hermann by Ostlender, H., ‘Die Sentenzenbücher der Schule Abaelards,’ Theologische Quartalschrift 117 (1936) 208–52, on the grounds that ‘Hermannus’ is cited as a name within examples of future propositions (where ‘Petrus’ occurs in another recension, in better mss). I argue that the Sententie report the lectures of Abaelard, not of any Hermann, in ‘The Sententie of Peter Abaelard,’ RTAM 53 (1986) 131–84. The work has been re-edited by Buzzetti, Sandro, Sententie magistri Petri Abelardi (Sententie Hermanni) (Florence 1983).Google Scholar

34 Becker, , Catalogi 237 n. 211.Google Scholar

35 See too an ‘Epitaphium Petri Baiolardi a semet compositum,’ ms Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C 58, fol. 5v, discussed by Dronke, Peter, Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies (Glasgow 1976) 37, 47–50.Google Scholar

36 ‘Versus magistri Petri Baiolardi valde boni’ are listed at Walderbach in MABK 4.1.561. On the diffusion of Abaelard's writings in this part of the Empire, see Classen, Peter, ‘Zur Geschichte der Frühscholastik in Österreich und Bayern,’ Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 67 (1959) 249–77, repr. in Ausgewählte Aufsätze von Peter Classen (Sigmaringen 1983) 279–306.Google Scholar

37 MABK 1.32. An early list ‘He sunt hereses petri baylardi pauce de multis’ occurs in ms Vienna, ÖNB cvp 998, fol. 173 from Göttweig; a 14th-century attribution ‘Theologia Petri Baylardi’ to 12th-century extracts of the Sententie is almost totally erased in ms Cologne, Historisches Archiv W 4° 137, fol. 1.Google Scholar

38 Epistola ad Abaelardum , ed. Reiners, J., Die Nominalismus in der Frühscholastik (BGPTMA 8; Münster 1910) 63: ‘Si christianae religionis dulcedinem, quam habitu ipso praeferebas, vel tenuiter degustasses, nequaquam tui ordinis tuaeque professionis immemor et beneficiorum, quae tibi tot et tanta a puero usque ad iuvenem sub magistri nomine et actu exhibui, oblitus …’; (p. 65:) ‘Neque vero Turonensis ecclesia vel Locensis, ubi ad pedes meos magistri tui discipulorum minimus tam diu resedisti, aut Bizuntina ecclesia, in quibus canonicus sum, extra mundum sunt, quae me omnes et venerantur et fovent et, quae dico, discendi studio libenter accipiunt.’ Google Scholar

39 Historia calamitatum, ed. Monfrin, 64; see n. 43 below.Google Scholar

40 Gesta Frederici I Imperatoris 1.48 (edd. Waitz, and de Simson, 69).Google Scholar

41 Dialectica, ed. de Rijk 554–55. A similar criticism of Roscelin's logic is made in letter 14 to the bishop of Paris, , Peter Abelard, Letters IX–XIV (ed. Smits, Edmé; Groningen 1983) 279–80. The best study on Roscelin is still Picavet, F., Roscelin philosophe et théologien, d'après la lègende et d'après l'histoire (2nd ed. Paris 1911). I argue that ‘magister noster’ (often identified as V. and once as W.) is the same person, namely William of Champeaux, in ‘On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard,’ AHDLMA 53 (1985) 73–134 at 85. In the gloss on Porphyry ‘Ingredientibus,’ Abaelard weighs up two major possible interpretations of universals, concluding firmly that they were voces (ed. Geyer, 22). In a later gloss ‘Nostrorum petitioni sociorum’ he changes his terminology to sermones so as to criticise definition of universals as voces and so distance himself from Roscelin's approach (ed. Geyer 522).Google Scholar

42 The sequence of events must be reconstructed from Roscelin's description of Abaelard's letter, itself a reaction to comments of Roscelin in his Epistola ad Abaelardum , ed. Reiner, 63–68. Once Roscelin had seen Abaelard's treatise, he tried to have it condemned for heresy. This led Abaelard to write letter 14 to the bishop of Paris. Smits devotes a long discussion to establishing the authenticity and the circumstances behind the redaction of this letter and the Theologia ‘Summi boni’ in Letters IX–XIV 189–202.Google Scholar

43 Hubert Silvestre argues that the absence of any mention of Roscelin in the Historia calamitatum is proof of its inauthenticity, in ‘Pourquoi Roscelin n'est-il pas mentionné dans 1' “Historia calamitatum”?,’ in RTAM 48 (1981) 218–24 and with other arguments in ‘L'idylle d'Abélard et Héloïse: la part du roman,’ Académie royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques 5th ser. 71 (1895) 157–200. His argument depends on the assumption that Abaelard can only be expected to give a completely full and accurate account of his past and that any inconsistencies must be mistakes of a forger rather than the result of colouring by Abaelard himself.Google Scholar

44 In version CT of Tchr 3.132 (ed. Buytaert 244), Abaelard has revised the text as it stood in the recension R. The manuscripts CT include Tchr 3.131, although from TSch 2.89 (edd. Buytaert, and Mews, 262) it is evident that Abaelard intended to omit this paragraph with its direct appeal to Roscelin: ‘Responde tu mihi, acute dialectice seu [not aut as Buytaert] uersipellis sophista….’ Google Scholar

45 TSch Prol. 2 (ed. Buytaert; CCL cm 12.401): ‘Quo enim fides nostra, id est Christiana, inquiunt, difficilioribus implicita questionibus uidetur et ab humana ratione longius absistere, ualidioribus utique munienda est rationum presidiis, maxime uero contra impugnationes eorum qui se philosophos profitentur.’ Google Scholar

46 Dialectica, ed. de Rijk 59: ‘Cuius quidem obiectionis, etsi multas ab arithmeticis solutiones audierim, nullam tamen a me proferendam iudico, quem eius artis ignarum omnino recognosco.’ Good comments on Abaelard's attitude to the quadrivium are made by Jolivet, Jean, Arts du langage et théologie chez Abélard (Paris 1969) 13–19.Google Scholar

47 Tchr 4.80 (ed. Buytaert 302): ‘Nouimus et duos fratres qui se inter summos connumerant magistros, quorum alter tantam uim diuinis uerbis in conficiendis sacramentis tribuit, ut a quibuscumque ipsa proferantur aeque suam habeant efficaciam, ut etiam mulier … sacramentum altaris conficere queat. Alter uero adeo philosophicis innitatur sectis, ut profiteatur deum priorem per existentiam mundo nullatenus esse. Est et quidam eorum patriota, inter diuinos celeberrimos magistros, qui in tantam prorumpit insaniam, ut corpus dominicum eiusdem longitudinis seu grossitudinis in utero Virginis fuisse adstruat cuius et in prouecta aetate exstitit.’ Google Scholar

48 Otto, , Gesta Frederici 1.48 (edd. Waitz, and de Simson, 68). Whether the Bernard mentioned by Otto and alluded to by Abaelard is Bernard of Chartres is a separate matter. Chenu, M.-D. suggested that the belief in the intrinsic efficacy of the sacramental formula imputed by Abaelard to one of the brothers reflects a Platonist approach to language such as Bernard espoused: ‘Un cas de platonisme grammatical du xiie siècle,’ Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 51 (1967) 666–68. The writer of letter 18 in a letter book of Chartres asks for news ‘de gente nostra’ (other Bretons?) from a brother of master Bernard, ed. Merlet, L., ‘Lettres d'Ives de Chartres et d'autres personnages de son temps 1087–1130,’ Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes 4th ser. 1 (1855) 443–71 at 460. The main argument that Thierry and Bernard of Chartres are not brothers is that John of Salisbury mentions them both in one sentence without indicating that they were related, Metalogicon 1.5 (ed. Webb, C. C. J. [Oxford 1929] 16); see nn. 63 and 66 below.Google Scholar

49 The criticism of Thierry's teaching may have been based on misinterpretation of statements such as ‘Est enim rerum uniuersitas in deo,’ Commentum 4.7 (ed. Häring 97).Google Scholar

50 Stimulating studies of Thierry's thought published by Edouard Jeauneau between 1954 and 1964 are collected in his Lectio philosophorum: Recherches sur l'école de Chartres (Amsterdam 1973) 5–23, 75–99. Klibansky claimed to have found a commentary of Thierry on the De arithmetica of Boethius, but has not published any more about this; cf. ‘The School of Chartres’ 5 (see n. 3 above).Google Scholar

51 Minio-Paluello, L., ‘I Primi Analitici: la redazione carnutense usata da Abelardo e la “Vulgata” con scolii tradotti dal greco,’ Rivista di filosofia neo-scolastica 46 (1954) 211–23, repr. in Opuscula: The Latin Aristotle (Amsterdam 1972) 229–41.Google Scholar

52 Logica ‘Ingredientibus,’ ed. Geyer, 400: ‘Memini tamen quendam libellum vidisse et diligenter relegisse, qui sub nomine Aristotelis de sophisticis elenchis intitulatus erat, et cum inter cetera sophismatum genera de univocatione requirerem; nil de ea scriptum inveni.’ Google Scholar

53 Minio-Paluello, , Twelfth-Century Logic II. Abaelardiana inedita (Rome 1958) xxxii–xxxiv.Google Scholar

54 The Boethian De trinitate is mentioned in Tchr 3.74, 85–86 and 4.10, 33 (ed. Buytaert 225, 270, 280) but is cited much more fully in the Sic et Non qq. 8.7–16 and 9.1–2 (edd. Boyer, and McKeon, ; Chicago 1976–77) 130–31, 136. There is one significant crux where the ms tradition of the De trinitate divides: Abaelard agrees with Thierry in reading ‘praeter id quod est’ (Sic et Non 8.7; Commentum 2.59, ed. Häring 86), against Gilbert, who reads ‘praeter id quo est’ in his own Commentary , ed. Häring, , The Commentaries on Boethius by Gilbert of Poitiers (Toronto 1966) 372.Google Scholar

55 Tchr 1.80–82 (ed. Buytaert 104–106). In Tchr 1.79 Abaelard comments that number was the most perfect exemplar of all things: ‘Omnis quippe ordo naturae et concinna dispositio numerorum proportionibus uestigatur atque assignatur, et omnium perfectissimum exemplar occurrit qui rebus congruit uniuersis. Quod quidem eos [eos omitted by Buytaert] non latet qui philosophiae rimantur arcana.’ Thierry developed arithmetical imagery much further along not dissimilar lines, but stressed that number was created by unity, in which all things participated; cf. Tractatus de sex dierum operibus 34–36 (ed. Häring, , Commentaries on Boethius by Thierry of Chartres 69–70).Google Scholar

56 Dialectica, ed. de Rijk, 558–59; Tchr 1.123 (ed. Buytaert 124). For further references, see Mews, , ‘On Dating’ 98–102.Google Scholar

57 Thierry's discussion in Tractatus de sex dierum operibus (ed. Häring, , Commentaries 558–60) can be compared with that of Abaelard, , Expositio in Hexameron (ed. Romig, 28–34, with discussion on xxxv–xl; PL 178.742a–45d).Google Scholar

58 On astronomia and its dangers, see Abaelard's, Expositio in Hexameron (ed. Romig, 55–60; PL 178.753d–56a). M.-T. d'Alverny compares his reserved attitude to that of Raymond of Marseilles (author of the Liber cursuum planetarum, composed in 1141) in ‘Abélard et l'astrologie,’ Pierre Abélard — Pierre le Vénérable: Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en Occident au milieu du xii e siècle. Abbaye de Cluny, 2 au 9 juillet 1972 (Paris 1975) 611–28.Google Scholar

59 I have argued that the single surviving copy of the Dialectica was probably completed after he had become a monk at Saint-Denis (ca. 1117), but before he wrote the Theologia ‘Summi boni’: see Mews, , ‘On Dating’ 74–104.Google Scholar

60 Historia calamitatum, ed. Monfrin, 88: ‘Quo audito Terricus quidam, scolaris magister, irridendo subintulit illud Athanasii “Et tamen non tres omnipotentes, sed unus omnipotens”.’ Google Scholar

61 William of Tyre, who studied in Paris between 1144 and 1163, described Thierry as an old man in his History : Huygens, R. B. C., ‘Guillaume de Tyr étudiant: Un chapitre (XIX, 12) de son “Histoire” retrouvé,’ Latomus 21 (1964) 822. Thierry is last heard of in 1149, when he made a journey to Frankfurt as a guest of Albero, archbishop of Trier (1131–52); see Balderich, , Gesta Alberonis 26, MGH SS 8.257. He subsequently took the Cistercian habit. Otto of Freising, writing in 1157, speaks of Thierry in the past tense in Gesta Frederici 1.48 (edd. Waitz, and de Simson, 68). Ward does not justify the late dates which he gives in his title ‘The Date of the Commentary on Cicero's De inventione by Thierry of Chartres (ca. 1095–1160?) and the Cornifician Attack on the Liberal Arts,’ Viator 3 (1972) 263–66. Vernet's estimation (‘Une épitaphe inédite’ 662) that Thierry would have been about sixty in 1149 is only a guess. Thierry could have been up to ten years or so older than this.Google Scholar

62 Adalbert studied with Thierry in Paris 1132–37, according to the Vita Adalberti 684–788, ed. Jaffé, Ph., Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum 3 (Berlin 1866) 589–92.Google Scholar

63 Much has been written about the vexed issue of ‘the school of Chartres’ since Southern, R. W. questioned its importance in ‘Humanism and the School of Chartres,’ published in Medieval Humanism and Other Essays (Oxford 1970) 61–85. He reviewed the debate in ‘The Schools of Paris and the School of Chartres,’ in Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century (edd. Benson, R. L. and Constable, G.; Oxford 1982) 113–37. Southern reported in his 1970 essay (70) that he could not find any text to substantiate the claim of A. Clerval in Les écoles de Chartres (Paris 1897) 160, that Thierry's name was mentioned in a charter from Chartres 1119–24, based on the authority of Hauréau, B., ‘Mémoire sur quelques chancelliers de l'église de Chartres,’ Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 31.2 (1884) 80. Haring followed Clerval's claim without verification, in Life and Works of Clarenbald of Arras (Toronto 1965) 23. In a thoroughly documented reply to Southern, Häring was unable to identify Thierry positively in any such charter: see ‘Chartres and Paris Revisited,’ in Essays in Honour of Anton Charles Pegis , ed. O'Donnell, J. R. (Toronto 1974) 268–329.Google Scholar

64 Thierry's Expositio in Hexameron occurs with works attributed to Hugh of Saint-Victor and his school in ms Tours, Bibl. mun. 85, fols. 181–83v, a ms which also contains Abaelard's Theologia Christiana. A fragment of Thierry's Expositio occurs in the Heiligenkreuz ms Stiftsbibliothek 153, fol. 110v; see Häring, , Commentaries 52, and Southern, , Platonism, Scholastic Method and the School of Chartres (Stenton Lecture; Reading 1979) 33–34. While this fragment is more likely to have been copied from the Expositio than to be an oral report, as thought by Southern, the context in which it occurs suggests that it may have come from a student's notebook compiled in Paris in the 1130s. Besides works of the school of Hugh of Saint-Victor, the Heiligenkreuz ms also contains a copy of an early draft of the Theologia ‘Scholarium’ and a commentary on the Apocalypse by an unknown master who taught in Paris ca. 1125–50. This latter commentary also occurs in ms Paris, BN lat. 17251 after Abaelard's own Expositio in Hexameron; see Mews, , ‘Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana and Theologia “Scholarium” Re-examined,’ RTAM 52 (1985) 140 n. 70.Google Scholar

65 Metamorphosis Goliae, ed. Huygens, 771: ‘Ibi doctor cernitur ille Carnotensis / Cuius lingua vehemens truncat velut ensis.’ Google Scholar

66 Metalogicon 4.24 (ed. Webb, 191): ‘Satis ergo mirari non possum quid mentis habeant (si quid tamen habent) qui hec Aristotilis opera carpunt, que utique non exonere propositum fuerat sed laudare. Magister Theodericus, ut memini, Topica non Aristotilis sed Trecassini Drogonis irridebat; eadem tamen quandoque docuit. Quidam auditores magistri Rodberti de Meliduno librum hunc fere inutilem esse calumniantur.’ D. McGarry follows Clerval's translation of this passage, deliberately favourable to Thierry (‘… derided the Topics of Drogo of Troyes rather than of Aristotle …’) in The Metalogicon of John of Salisbury (Gloucester, Mass. 1971) 240; see Clerval, , Les écoles 170 and 245. The context of John's statement leaves no doubt that Webb was quite correct in believing it to mean that Thierry was deriding the Topics as worthy only of Drogo rather than of Aristotle. John's comment in Metalogicon 2.10 (ed. Webb 80) is similarly unfavourable: ‘Relegi quoque rethoricam, quam prius cum quibusdam aliis a magistro Theoderico tenuiter auditis paululum intelligebam.’ Compare his praise for Abaelard, , ibid. 2.10 and 3.1 (ed. Webb 78 and 120).Google Scholar

67 In his commentary on the De inventione , ed. Thomas, P., ‘Un commentaire du moyen âge sur la rhétorique de Cicéron,’ Mélanges Graux: Recueil de travaux d'érudition classique (Paris 1884) 41–45, Thierry says of himself: ‘Ut ait Petronius, nos magistri in scolis soli relinquemur nisi multos palpemus et insidiis auribus fecerimus. Ego uero non ita…. Ecce Theodericus Brito, homo barbaricae nationis, verbis insulsus, corpore ac mente incompositus, mendacem de se te vocat…. Sic tamen consilium meum contraxi ut vulgum profanum et farraginem scolae petulcam excluderam…. Talibus Invidiae verbis Fama permota alas concutit, sonos multiplicat, urbes et nationes duce Invidia peragat, rumoribus implet, Theodoricum ubique accusat, ignominiosis nominibus appellat.’ These passages are discussed by Häring in ‘Thierry of Chartres and Dominicus Gundissalinus,’ Mediaeval Studies 26 (1964) 271–86.Google Scholar

68 Metalogicon 1.5 (ed. Webb 16): ‘Sed et alii uiri, amatores litterarum, utpote magister Theodericus, artium studiosissimus inuestigator; itidem Willelmus de Conchis, gramaticus post Bernardum Carnotensem opulentissimus; et Peripateticus Palatinus, qui logice opinionem pretulit omnibus coetaneis suis, adeo ut solus Aristotilis crederetur usus colloquio, se omnes opposuerunt errori.’ Google Scholar

69 Burnett, C. S. F., ‘The Introduction of Arabic Science into Northern France and Norman Britain: A Catalogue of the Writings of Adelard of Bath and Petrus Alfonsi and Closely Associated Works, Together with the Manuscripts in which They Occur,’ Adelard of Bath: An English Scientist and Arabist of the Early Twelfth Century, ed. Burnett, C. S. F. (London 1987). I am indebted to the author for showing me proofs of this catalogue prior to publication.Google Scholar

70 The Salzburg ms (Sa) is no. 114 of the Catalogue (n. 69 above). The text of the Theologia is identical to that in Tchr 5.29–30 (ed. Buytaert, 358) and TSch 2.27, 29 in the manuscripts BMAP (edd. Buytaert, and Mews, 321–22): ‘Querendum arbitror utrum plura facere possit deus uel meliora quam faciat aut ab his etiam que facit ullo modo cessare ne ea umquam uidelicet faceret. Quod siue concedamus siue negemus multa fortassis inconuenientie [-tium Tchr TSch] anxietates incurremus. Si enim ponamus ut plura uel pauciora facere possit uel ab his que facit cessare [cessare facit Tchr TSch] profecto [Sa adds multa] multum summe eius bonitate derogabimus [derostrabimus Sa]. Constat eum quippe [quippe eum Tchr TSch] nonnisi bona facere posse. < space where Tchr TSch BMAP read: Si autem bona cum possit non faciat, et ab aliquibus que facienda essent se retrahat, quis eum tamquam emulum > uel iniquum non arguat (?) presertim cum nullus labor eum in faciendo aliquid grauet cuius eque omnia uoluntate subiecta sunt.’ The Salzburg ms contains a copy of Bernard's letter 190 on the errors of Abaelard (without the final list of 19 articles) on fols. 72–80. An unidentified text on the soul's journey through the zodiac found on fols. 64–67 concludes ‘Explicit liber Alardi.’ The names of Abaelard and Adelard could easily be confused by someone who did not know them personally.+uel+iniquum+non+arguat+(?)+presertim+cum+nullus+labor+eum+in+faciendo+aliquid+grauet+cuius+eque+omnia+uoluntate+subiecta+sunt.’+The+Salzburg+ms+contains+a+copy+of+Bernard's+letter+190+on+the+errors+of+Abaelard+(without+the+final+list+of+19+articles)+on+fols.+72–80.+An+unidentified+text+on+the+soul's+journey+through+the+zodiac+found+on+fols.+64–67+concludes+‘Explicit+liber+Alardi.’+The+names+of+Abaelard+and+Adelard+could+easily+be+confused+by+someone+who+did+not+know+them+personally.>Google Scholar

71 The disparate notes on fols. 67–71v of Sa about the body and life of the soul, the classification of numbers (based on the De arithmetica of Boethius), the elements, virtues and vices, and scriptural exegesis include comments on creation similar to ideas of Thierry of Chartres: (fol. 70) ‘Dicunt etiam quidam quod inpotens uidetur deus si successiue et per interualla opus suum distinxisset. Tercio loco opponunt de auctoritate qui manet in eternum omnia creauit simul. Ad oppositionem de inperfectione primum eis respondemus eos ignorare quomodo perfectum siue inperfectum accipiatur’; (fol. 70v) ‘Vnde illi probantur errare qui supernam igneam esse dicunt. Nota etiam quod non oportuit elementa equa esse in pondere, quia illa in quibus est uis consumptiua ut ignis, alia omnino superaret, sed in potentiis tantum liberata sunt’; see n. 57 above. The author adopts a critical approach to patristic testimony: (fols. 70v–71) ‘Non est inconueniens si sancti dicant contraria in exponendo secundum licitam estimationem, in qua non credere est superbum, sicut in uera assertione hereticum. Non enim semper habent spiritum sanctum in exponendo, sed ubi de eis agunt que pertinent ad fidem catholicam.’ The authorship of these notes will be examined in a future study.Google Scholar

72 Burnett, , ‘Catalogue’ no. 74. ms Vienna ÖNB cvp 275 was copied sometime after 1143, not in that year, according to Fichtenau, H., ‘Wolfger von Prüfening,’ Mitteillungen des Institute für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 51 (1937) 313–57 at 320. On the liber ysagogarum, see Allard, A., Les plus anciennes versions latines du xii e siècle de l'arithmétique d'Al-Khwarizmi: Histoire des textes suivis de l'édition critique des traités attribués à Adélard de Bath et Jean de Seville (Louvain 1975). The only attribution of this work is to a ‘master A.’ in ms Paris, BN lat. 16208, fols. 76–83v, of the late twelfth century.Google Scholar

73 Among other examples of confusion of the names of Abaelard and Adelard may be noted in the catalogue of Richard of Fournival, ‘Petri Abadelardi liber de pugna numerorum qui dicitur Rychmimachya’; see Delisle, L., Le cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale II (Paris 1874) 526. Master John Erghome gave to the Augustinian friars of York, ca. 1373, a ‘liber sacratus petri abellardi’ and a ‘philosophia petri abelardi’: see James, M. R., The Catalogue of the Library of the Augustinan Friars at York, in Fasciculus Ioanni Willis Clark dicatus (Cambridge 1909) 55 and 64.Google Scholar

74 On Wolfger's early career, see Fichtenau, , ‘Wolfger von Prüfening’ 341–50 and Schmitz, , Kloster Prüfening 234ff.Google Scholar

75 Fischer, , Katalog 541, 547–51.Google Scholar

76 See n. 28 above. Marginal and interlinear glosses on the Opuscula sacra (I, II, III, V) close to those edited by Rand, E. K., Johannes Scotus ihm zugeschriebenen Glossae zu Boethius' ‘Opuscula Sacra’ (Quellen und Untersuchungen 1.2; Munich 1906) 30–80, are found on fols. 1–25v. These were attributed to Remigius of Auxerre by Cappuyns, M., ‘Le plus ancien commentaire des “Opuscula Sacra” et son origine,’ RTAM 3 (1931) 243. The Commentum of Thierry (ed. Häring, , Commentaries 57–116) occurs on fols. 66–103v. It includes the so-called ‘Stavelot’ commentary on the Athanasian Creed on fols. 103–106. Abaelard's treatise (fols. 27–65v) was originally copied separately but by the same person who copied the Boethian glosses. This scribe also copied another Heilsbronn ms (Erlangen 216), containing works of nselm of Canterbury.Google Scholar

77 L is described in detail by de la Mare, A. C., Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford 1971) 131–33. As well as the marginal and interlinear gloss on the Opuscula sacra found in E, L contains on fols. 59–79v these glosses written out in continuous form with the Boethian text. The third part of L (fols. 81–99v) contains the Commentum introduced as Commentum Helye cuiusdam magistri gallicani super Boetium de trinitate and, by the same author, the beginning of a commentary on the De hebdomadibus, edited by Häring as the Fragmentum Admuntense (Commentaries 119–21). Häring discusses L's text of Abaelard's treatise (the best surviving witness) in ‘A Third Manuscript of Peter Abelard's Theologia “Summi boni” (MS. Oxford, Bodleian Lyell 49, ff. 101–28v),’ Mediaeval Studies 18 (1956) 215–24. On the authenticity and date of the Commentum see n. 80 below.Google Scholar

78 Edd. Lehmann, P. and Ruf, P., MABK 3.1 (Munich 1939) 358 and again by Dengle-Schreiber, K., Scriptorium und Bibliothek des Kloster Michelsberg in Bamberg (Studien zur Bibliotheksgeschichte 2; Graz 1979) 15 ‘L 41’. The librarian Burckhardus († 14 Sept. 1149) records of abbot Wolfram I: ‘… ita fuit in augmentandis libris promptus et alacer. Nam cum ipse liberali polleret sciencia, in discipulis suis liberalium studiorum maxime diligebat exercicia.’ Berenger's gift of the Glose super Boecium along with scriptural glosses, Commentum Ammonii super Analetica, Albricus de radiis dictaminum, Epistole Ivonis, and Derivationes are listed separately, MABK 3.1.365 and Dengle-Schreiber, , Scriptorium 204. L 41 is mentioned after patristic texts, but before a number of glosses on Porphyry and Aristotle (L 44–47).Google Scholar

79 Dengle-Schreiber does not identify L 41 and doubts that Michelsberg owned any mss of Abaelard, because of the ‘conservative’ nature of its collection, as compared to that of Prüfening, , Scriptorium 86 and 92. This presumes that a library catalogue would always document the most ‘modern’ authors. Yet E is mentioned in a thirteenth-century Heilsbronn catalogue only as Boetius de trinitate in duobus , ed. Fischer, , Katalog 566 n. 92; L was described in 1376 as ‘Boecius glosatus de S. Trinitate, commentum super Boecium et magister Helyas super Boecium,’ ed. Möser-Mersky, G., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs. 3 Steiermark (Graz 1961) 30. On the abbots of Admont, see Möser-Mersky, , MABK Österreichs 3.2.Google Scholar

80 The attribution Commentum Helye cuiusdam magistri gallicani super Boetium de trinitate in L has led some scholars to suggest that the gloss was written not by Thierry, as had hitherto been believed, but by his pupil Peter Helyas, who taught grammar and rhetoric between the late 1130s and the early 1150s — notably, Bataillon, L.-J., ‘Bulletin d'histoire des doctrines médiévales,’ Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 43 (1959) 692 and under the same rubric ibid. 46 (1962) 508 and 51 (1967) 69–72; d'Alverny, M.-T., Alain de Lille. Textes inédites (Paris 1965) 176 n. 62; Fredborg, K. M., ‘The Dependence of Petrus Helias’ Summa super Priscianum on William of Conches‘ Glose super Priscianum,’ Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen Age grec et latin 11 (1973) 1–57 at 51–54. Fredborg argues that the close affinity between the Commentum and Thierry's known thought could be explained by Thierry's influence on Helias without excluding that Thierry was its author. The views of Batallion are discussed by Häring in Commentaries 20–23. The authenticity of the Commentum was reaffirmed in a detailed study by Maccagnolo, E., Rerum Universitas (Saggio sulla filosofia di Teoderico di Chartres) (Florence 1976) 4–7. No critic has noted any doctrinal inconsistencies with other works attributed to Thierry or indeed any close connection of the Commentum to Helias' glosses on Priscian. Clarenbald of Arras, who quotes from the Commentum, says in a prefatory letter that he was imitating the lectures of Thierry (as well as of Hugh of Saint-Victor): Life and Works of Clarenbald of Arras (Toronto 1965) 64. Häring never modified his opinion that the Commentum was earlier than the Lectiones and Glosa on Boethius, but was less clear regarding the date. In ‘Two Commentaries on Boethius (De Trin. and De Hebd.) by Thierry of Chartres,’ AHDLMA 27 (1960) 75, he held that it had been written ‘ca. 1135 or even earlier,’ but changed this to a date of ca. 1148 in Commentaries (1971) 24. He was influenced in part by an argument of d'Alverny (Alain de Lille 176 n. 62) that the Sibylline prophecy quoted in the Commentum 2.34 (ed. Häring 79) ‘only became known around 1148 but did not remain current for long because it was disproved by the failure of the second Crusade.’ Otto of Freising, Gesta Frederici Proemium (edd. Waitz, and de Simson, 10–11) says that this prophecy was widely respected in France, not that it suddenly appeared at this time. There is no evidence that the prophecy was invented in 1146 for political ends. Häring's second argument for dating the Commentum after 1148 was based on its criticism of a doctrine imputed to Gilbert of Poitiers at the Council of Reims, Commentum 4.2 (ed. Häring, 95): ‘Et peccat et desipit qui quemadmodum homo dicitur ab humanitate sic deum dici estimat a deitate.’ Writing ca. 1122–25, Abaelard made a similar accusation about another teacher (Ulger of Angers?) in Tchr 3.167 and 4.77 (ed. Buytaert 257 and 301). Arguments for a late date for the Commentum are not based on any firm evidence.Google Scholar

81 Renan, E., ‘Sur l'etymologie du nom d'Abélard,’ Revue celtique 1 (1870) 265–68. He was led to this idea by his discovery of an allusion to Abaelard's Carmen ad Astralabium in Guibert of Tournai's De modo addiscendi (ms Paris, BN lat. 15451, p. 227; saec. xiii): ‘Habetis enim et habere potestis ad manum Boecium … Quintilianum … Petrum filium Alardi quem Abaelart vocant Ad filium.’ Renan also remembered seeing a reference ‘Abaelardus, id est filius Alardi’ on the first page of a 13th-century glossary, but could not recall the shelfmark of this ms.Google Scholar

82 Historia calamitatum, ed. Monfrin 74: ‘… apud sororem meam tam diu conversata est donec pareret masculum quam Astralabium nominavit’; cf. Recueil des historiens de la France: Obituaires de la province de Sens IV (Meaux–Troyes) (edd. Boutillier du Retail, A. and Piétrisson de Saint-Aubin, P.; Paris 1923) 425. D'Alverny, , ‘Abélard et l'astrologie’ 611, notes that the scientific instrument is sometimes called astrolapsus and suggests that the child might thus have ‘fallen from the stars.’ Google Scholar

83 Heloise addresses Peter simply as ‘Abaelardus’ in her first letter (ed. Monfrin, 111) in the same way that Abaelard refers to his child simply as ‘Astralabius’ in the Historia calamitatum and the Carmen ad Astralabium. By contrast, scribes almost always include ‘Petrus’ when attributing a work to him.Google Scholar

84 ‘Abagelardus, filius Unfredi principis Normannorum,’ is mentioned by William of Apulia, writing ca. 1111, in Gesta Roberti Wiscardi 2.451, 536–656 and 3.289, MGH SS 9.263, 276–78, 289. Amatus, whose Historia Normannorum is known only through a late translation, Y Istoire de li Normant 5.4 (ed. Delarc, O.; Rouen 1892), implies that it was a cognomen: ‘Rogier-Toute-Bone liquel se clamait autres, Balarde…. Et Balalarde pour ce qu'il avoit este filz de lo frere.’ ‘Abaielardus’ is the form used by Robert de Monte in his chronicle for 1129, MGH SS 6.489.Google Scholar

85 Le Patourel, J. comments on this process in The Norman Empire (Oxford 1976) 7. Our major source for the invasion is the Chronicon Namnetense , ed. Merlet, R., La chronique de Nantes (Paris 1896) 80–96, 110–12. Tonnerre, N.-Y. describes the political tensions in the region in ‘Le comté nantais à la fin du xie siècle,’ Abélard en son temps (ed. Jolivet, J.; Paris 1981) 11–20.Google Scholar

86 Lobineau, G. A., Histoire de Bretagne (Paris 1707) 2.119; cf. Tonnerre, , ‘Le comté nantais’ 13.Google Scholar

87 Merlet, , La chronique de Nantes xxxix–xl.Google Scholar

88 Historia calamitatum (ed. Monfrin, 98): ‘Terra quippe barbara et terre lingua mihi incognita erat, et turpis atque indomabilis illorum monachorum vita omnibus fere notissima, et gens terre illius inhumana atque incomposita.’ Abaelard mentions that he once stayed with his brother when visiting the count and that he then narrowly avoided being poisoned: Historia calamitatum 106. This brother could have been Porcarius, a canon of Nantes, who, according to a cartulary of Buzé (ed. Morice, H., Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Bretagne [Paris 1742] 1.587), had a nephew called Astralabius, also a canon of the cathedral. The assassination attempt was probably provoked by friction between Breton and Nantais factions in the city. Otto of Freising, Gesta Frederici 1.48 (edd. Waitz, and de Simson, 68) identified Abaelard as a native of Brittany like the brothers Bernard and Thierry. The assumption that Abaelard was a Breton is widespread in scholarly literature: see, e.g., Lasserre, P., ‘Deux hommes: Deux races,’ in his Un conflit religieux au xii e siècle (Paris 1930) 69–96. Lasserre places Abaelard in the same noble Breton tradition as Chateaubriand, Lamennais, and Renan.Google Scholar

89 For Thierry's mocking description of himself as ‘a Breton, a man of a barbaric nation,’ see n. 67 above. Clarembald identifies Thierry as ‘Theodericus brito’ in his commentary on the De trinitate 10 (ed. Häring, , Life and Works of Clarembald of Arras 69). The epithet ‘Peripateticus Palatinus,’ used frequently by John of Salisbury, occurs within rubrics to Abaelard's logical glosses, the Dialectica, and the Berlin copy of the Theologia ‘Summi boni,’ cited in nn. 11 and 14 above.Google Scholar

90 Dialectica, ed. de Rijk, 128: ‘quales quidem cause sepe in ethimologiis redduntur, ut “Brito” dictus est “quasi-brutus.” Licet enim non omnes vel soli sint stolidi, hic tamen qui nomen “Britonis” composuit secundum affinitatem nominis “bruti,” in intentione habuit quod maxima pars Britonum fatua esset, atque hinc hoc nomen illi affine in sono protulit.’ Google Scholar

91 Dialectica, ed. de Rijk, 583: ‘Sed has quidem non inveni interpretationes appellari, sed forte ethimologie vocis ipsius sonum maxime consequuntur, sive sint orationes, ut supraposita, sive dictiones, ut Britones quasi-brutones dicti sunt, eo quod bruti et irrationabiles ex insipientia videantur.’ Google Scholar

92 See n. 10 above.Google Scholar

93 Histoire de Melun (Paris 1628) 331–51. This is one of the first accounts of Abaelard's life in French to appear after the 1616 edition. Rouillard notes (348): ‘Et ayant sceu qu'il y en avoit de manuscripts en la Bibliothèque de S. Victor, je les ay curieusement demandé par communication; ce qu'ayant obtenu, je me mis a les lire et les relire, avec un ardeur non pareille.’ Rouillard says (334) that he first read the ms before 1616: ‘elle me fut baillée manuscripte, de la Bibliothèque de S. Victor, du depuis elle ha esté imprimé avec les aultres œuvres.’ This may have been the lost ms of Saint-Victor GGG 17, mentioned in Claude de Grandru's Catalogue as containing on fols. 1–57 Epistole Petri Abaelardi. These folios had been cut from the ms when Jean Picard annotated the Catalogue (probably in 1604). The remainder of the ms, containing texts of Gerson and Petrarch inter alia, disppeared after 1706. Monfrin gives these details without mentioning Rouillard, in Historia calamitatum 42–43.Google Scholar

94 Dupin, L. E., Histoire des controverses, des matières ecclésiastiques traités dans le xii e siècle (Paris 1696) 360–409; Thesaurus novus anecdotorum 5 (edd. Martène, E. and Durand, U.; Paris 1717) 1155–1416.Google Scholar

95 PETRI ABÆLARDI, Abbatis Ruyensis et HELOISSÆ Paraclitensis EPISTOLÆ a prioribus Editionis Erroribus purgatæ et cum Cod. MS. Collatæ cura Ricardi Rawlinson, A.M. (London 1718). Monfrin exposes the fraud involved, in Historia calamitatum 46–50. The claim of Gervaise that his translation was based not only on the 1616 edition ‘mais de plus anciens Manuscrits que j'aye pû trouver dans les Bibliothèques les plus curieuses’ is as false as that of Rawlinson; see Gervaise, , Les veritables lettres d'Abeillard et d'Heloise, tirées d'un ancien Manuscrit Latin trouvé dans la Bibliothèque de François d'Amboise Conseiller d'Etat (Paris 1723) xiii.Google Scholar

96 Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard pour servir à l'histoire de la philosophie scolastique (ed. Cousin, V.; Paris 1836). Charles de Rémusat argued that ‘Abœlardus’ was the correct spelling in a long note on the problem, Abélard (Paris 1845) 1.14 n. 1.Google Scholar

97 L'illustre orbandale ou l'histoire ecclésiastiqie de la ville et cité de Chalon-sur-Saône (Paris 1662) 2.2–3. Bertaud adds here: ‘J'ay trouvé ce dernier nom dans la chronique du sçavant Historien Jean Crespin,’ but I have been unable to locate this reference. In his L'Estat de l'église (Bergues sur le Zoom 1605) 333, Crespin only mentions ‘Pierre de Balard.’ Google Scholar

98 Allard, , La Bibliothèque du Dauphiné (Paris 1680) 9, identifies Alluis († 1688) as the author, but there are no surviving editions in the major Parisian libraries from earlier than 1693. The complex bibliographical history of the free translations of Rémond des Cours (and of other translators) has been documented by Charrier, Charlotte, Héloïse dans l'histoire et dans la légende (Paris 1933) 406–32. The Hague and Amsterdam translations, both of which are anonymous, are conveniently bound into a single volume in the British Library copy, 1085.a.12.Google Scholar

99 On Pope's source and the reception of his poem, see Pope: The Critical Heritage (ed. Barnard, J.; London 1973) 140–42.Google Scholar

100 Les Lettres de Messire Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy (Paris 1697) II 116.51.Google Scholar

101 Le philosophe amoureux, histoire gallante, contenant une Dissertation curieuse sur la vie de Pierre Abaillard et telle d'Héloise, ed. Du Bois, F.-N. (Au Paraclet 1696).Google Scholar

102 Gervaise, Dom F.-A., La vie de Pierre Abeillard, abbé de Saint-Gildas-de Ruis, de l'ordre de Saint-Benoist, et celle d'Héloïse, son épouse, première abbesse du Paraclet (Paris 1720) 3. His acknowledged source may have been Bertaud (see n. 92 above). His claim that Bernard relied on this tradition in letter 189 (ed. Leclercq, J., S. Bernardi Opera VIII [Rome 1977] 14) is not made by Bertaud.Google Scholar

103 Monnoye, La, in his notes to Baillet, A., Jugements des savants sur les principaux ouvrages des auteurs (Amsterdam 1725) I 326: ‘Plusieurs ont écrit Abaillard, mais on prononce et l'on devait toujours écrire Abailard.’ Google Scholar

104 Nicéron, , Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres dans la république des lettres IV 1 (Paris 1728) 1. The reference to Vincent of Beauvais is based on a remark of Duchesne in his notes (see n. 10 above). In the 1624 Douai edition of the Speculum naturale (col. 2468de) the spelling ‘Abailardus’ is given.Google Scholar

105 Bayle, P., Dictionnaire historique et critique (Rotterdam 1697) I 23–31; (2nd ed.; Rotterdam 1702) 17–23.Google Scholar

106 Thomasius, C., Vita Abelardi , in Historia sapientiae et stultitiae (Halle 1693) I 75–112.Google Scholar

107 See n. 2 above.Google Scholar

108 Sikes, J. G., Peter Abailard (London 1932) I 108.Google Scholar