History of Science 5970 Seminar: The Commentary Tradition of the Middle Ages

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1 Spring 2005 S. Livesey History of Science 5970 Seminar: The Commentary Tradition of the Middle Ages Although the commentary tradition has its roots in antiquity, there is perhaps no other genre of literature that reflects the nature of intellectual culture of the middle ages than the commentary. It typifies scholastic culture because it suggests that knowledge derives from books and authorities and because it frequently asserts that one must analyze the text in a conventional and uniform way. Together with various ancillary devices that were used by scholastics in their creation and use, the commentary functioned in a wide variety of areas theology, philosophy, medicine, law all of which contained significant scientific content. From its zenith in the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, the commentary tradition declined beyond the middle ages, to the point that in subsequent periods (and today) the commentary is suggestive of an antiquated, uninspired, and repetitious intellectual perspective. This course will focus on the rise of the commentary tradition, the material elements of the commentary, the extensive reach of commentaries, and the subsequent decline of the genre. This course is not intended for specialists in the middle ages or medieval science. Nor will it by itself turn you into a specialist, if you even had the intention of becoming one. Rather, its goal Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg M III 36, fol. 243v is to expose you to some of the literature that surrounds this defining medieval form of literature, hopefully with the goal of inspiring some comparisons with the preferred techniques of investigation, analysis, publication and pedagogy in the period of your interest. I hope that this comparative thread will be pursued in each class meeting, but certainly in the final meeting, when we read Francesco del Punta s essay on originality in the commentary tradition. January 19 January 26 Introduction Richard Sharpe, Titulus: Identifying Medieval Latin Texts. An Evidence-Based Approach. Turnhout: Brepols Introduction (pp ), ch. 15: Some Principles (pp ), Appendix: A Shelf of Reference Books (pp ). (To be handed out in class) The Ancient Commentary Tradition Pierre Hadot, La préhistoire des genres littéraires philosophiques médiévaux dans l'antiquité, in Les genres littéraires dans les sources théologiques et philosophiques médiévales. Louvain-la-Neuve: Publications de l Institut d Etudes Médiévales pp. 1-9; Richard Sorabji, The ancient commentators on Aristotle (pp. 1-30), Sorabji, Infinite power impressed: the transformation of Aristotle's physics and theology (pp ), Robert Browning, An Unpublished funeral oration on Anna Comnena (pp ), Sten Ebbesen, Boethius as an Aristotelian commentator (pp ), in

2 Aristotle Transformed. The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence, ed. Richard Sorabji. Ithaca, NY: 1990; Frans A. J. de Haas, Modification of the Method of Inquiry in Aristotle's Physics I.1: An Essay on the Dynamics of the Ancient Commentary Tradition, in The Dynamics of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century, ed. Cees Leijenhorst, Christoph Lüthy, Johannes M. M. H. Thijssen. Leiden: E. J. Brill pp Supplement: Ilsetraut Hadot, Le commentaire philosophique continu dans l'antiquité, Antiquité tardive: revue internationale d'histoire et d'archéologie (IVe - VIIIe s.) 5(1997) February 2 February 9 February 16 February 23 No class Livesey in D.C. Please use this week to meet with me Monday Tuesday to discuss ideas for a semester project. Theological science, or Scientific theology? Philipp W. Rosemann, Peter Lombard. New York: Oxford University Press 2004 [Read selectively through the book: chapter 1 carefully for background; chapter 2 more quickly for information about Peter; chapter 3 for an overview of the structure and content of the Sentences; chapters 4, 5 and 7 (pp on the Eucharist); and the Conclusion.] Ignatius C. Brady, The Distinctions of Lombard s Book of Sentences and Alexander of Hales, Franciscan Studies 25(1965) ; Brady, The Rubrics of Peter Lombard s Sentences, Pier Lombardo 6(1962) M. D. Chenu, The Masters of the Theological Science, in Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century, trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little. Chicago: University of Chicago Press pp ; Nikolaus Häring, Commentary and hermeneutics, in Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press pp Biblical Commentaries Jacques Verger, L exégèse de l'université, in Le Moyen Age et la Bible, ed. Pierre Riché and Guy Lobrichon. Paris: Beauchesne 1984, pp ; Beryl Smalley, The Bible in the Medieval Schools, in Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation. v. 2. ed. G. W. H. Lampe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP pp Margaret T. Gibson, The Bible in the Latin West. [The Medieval Book 1] Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press Introduction, pp. 1-15; Robert Grosseteste: On the Six Days of Creation. A Translation of the Hexaëmeron, by C. F. J. Martin. Oxford: Clarendon Press Part I, ch. 1-5 (pp ), Part V (pp ); Nicholas H. Steneck, Science and Creation in the Middle Ages: Henry of Langenstein (d. 1397) on Genesis. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press pp , Aristotle Comes to the Wild West B. G. Dod, Aristoteles latinus, and C. H. Lohr, The Medieval Interpretations of Aristotle, in The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, ed. N. Kretzmann, A. Kenny, J. Pinborg. Cambridge: Cambridge UP pp ; C. H. Lohr, The New Aristotle and Science in the Paris Arts Faculty, in L'enseignement des disciplines à la Faculté des arts (Paris et Oxford, XIII e - XIV e siècles). Actes du colloque international, ed. Olga Weijers and L. Holtz. Turnhout: Brepols pp ; Christoph Lüthy, Cees Leijenhorst, Johannes M. M. H. Thijssen, The Tradition of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy: Two Theses and Seventeen Answers, in The Dynamics of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy pp. 1-30; Rega Wood, Richard Rufus Speculum Animae : Epistemology and the Introduction of Aristotle in the West, in Die Bibliotheca Amploniana. Ihre Bedeutung im Spannungsfeld von Aristotelismus, Nominalismus und Humanismus, ed. Andreas Speer. [Miscellanea Mediaevalia 23] Berlin: Walter de Gruyter pp

3 March 2 March 9 March 16 March 23 Forms of Commentary Literature Olga Weijers, La Structure des commentaires philosophiques à la Faculté des Arts: Quelques observations, in Il commento filosofico nell'occidente latino (secoli XIII-XV). The Philosophical Commentary in the Latin West (13th-15th centuries). Actes du colloque international de Florence-Pise, octobre ed. G. Fioravanti, C. Leonardi, S. Perfetti. Turnhout: Brepols pp ; J. Hamesse, Les florilèges philosophiques du XIII e au XV e siècle, in Les Genres littéraires pp ; O. Lewry, Thirteenth-Century Examination Compendia from the Faculty of Arts, in Les Genres littéraires pp ; John Marenbon, Medieval Latin Commentaries and Glosses on Aristotelian Logical Texts, Before c AD, Glosses and Commentaries on Aristotelian Logical Texts. The Syriac, Arabic and Medieval Latin Traditions, ed. Charles Burnett. London: The Warburg Institute pp , at 77-97; Sten Ebbesen, Medieval Latin Glosses and Commentaries on Aristotelian Logical Texts of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Glosses and Commentaries. pp at ; William J. Courtenay, Programs of Study and Genres of Scholastic Theological Production in the Fourteenth Century, in Manuels, programmes de cours et techniques d enseignement dans les universités médiévales, ed. Jacqueline Hamesse. Louvain-la- Neuve: Institut d Etudes Médiévales de l Université Catholique de Louvain pp Asking Questions: Scholastic disputationes Brian Lawn, Rise and decline of the scholastic Quaestio disputata: with special emphasis on its use in the teaching of medicine and science. Leiden-New York: E.J. Brill, 1993; Edward Grant, Aristotelianism and the Longevity of the Medieval World View, History of Science 16(1978) ; J. F. Wippel, Quodlibetal Questions, Chiefly in Theology Faculties, in Les Questions disputées et les questions quodlibétiques dans les facultés de théologie, de droit et de médecine, ed. B. C. Bazàn, J. W. Wippel, G. Fransen, D. Jacquart. Turnhout: Brepols pp ; B. C. Bazan, La quaestio disputata, in Les Genres littéraires pp ; J. F. Wippel, The Quodlibetal Question as a Distinctive Literary Genre, in Les Genres littéraires pp Spring Break Commentaries on the Sentences: Recent work Stephen F. Brown, The reception and use of Aristotle's works in the Commentaries on Book I of the Sentences by the friar preachers in the early years of Oxford University, in Aristotle in Britain during the Middle Ages, ed. J. Marenbon. Turnhout: Brepols pp ; R.L. Friedman, The Sentences Commentary, General Trends, The Impact of the Religious Orders, and the Test Case of Predestination and P.J.J.M. Bakker & Chr. Schabel, Sentence Commentaries of the Later Fourteenth Century, in Mediaeval Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Volume I: Current Research. Edited by G.R. Evans. Leiden-Boston-Köln: E J Brill 2002; W.J. Courtenay, Philosophy in the Context of Sentences Commentaries, in Il commento filosofico nell'occidente latino (secoli XIII-XV). pp

4 March 30 Travel to St. Louis Thursday, March 31 9:00 11:00 Introduction to the Vatican Film Library, Dr. Gregory A. Pass, Librarian, Vatican Film Library 1:00 5:00 Individual work on projects Friday, April 1 9:00 11:00 The Material Configuration of Commentaries Christopher F. R. de Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Booktrade. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer ch. 1-3 (pp. 1-37); Jacqueline Hamesse, The scholastic model of reading, in A history of reading in the West, ed. Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press pp ; Malcolm B. Parkes, Tachygraphy in the Middle Ages: Writing Techniques Employed for Reportationes of Lectures and Sermons, in Scribes, Scripts and Readers: Studies in the Communication, Presentation and Dissemination of Medieval Texts. London: The Hambledon Press, pp ; Parkes, The Influence of the Concepts of Ordinatio and Compilatio on the Development of the Book, in Scribes, Scripts and Readers: Studies in the Communication, Presentation and Dissemination of Medieval Texts. London: The Hambledon Press, pp ; Mary A. Rouse and Richard H. Rouse, Statim invenire: Schools, Preachers, and New Attitudes to the Page, in Authentic Witnesses: Approaches to Medieval Texts and Manuscripts. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, pp ; Charles Burnett, Give him the White Cow: Notes and Note-Taking in the Universities in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, History of Universities 14( ) :00 5:00 Individual work on projects April 2 April 6 April 13 April 20 April 27 May 4 Return to Norman Commentaries on Aristotle: Recent work Johannes M. M. Hans Thijssen, The commentary tradition on Aristotle's De generatione et corruptione. An introductory survey, in Thijssen and Henk A. G. Braakhuis, eds. The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De generatione et corruptione: Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern. Turnhout: Brepols 1999; Elzbieta Jung-Palczewska, Wylton's solution of the Aristotelian problem of God's infinite power, and Francesco Del Punta, Silvia Donati and Cecilia Trifogli, Commentaries on Aristotle's Physics in Britain, ca , in Aristotle in Britain. pp and ; Rega Wood, Richard Rufus of Cornwall and Aristotle s Physics, Franciscan Studies 52(1992) ; Trifogli, Giles of Rome on natural motion in the void, Mediaeval Studies 54(1992) No class meeting Consultations on Papers No class meeting Consultations on Papers Tradition and Originality in Commentary Literature Del Punta, Francesco, The Genre of Commentaries in the Middle Ages and its Relation to the Nature and Originality of Medieval Thought, in Jan A. Aertsen, Andreas Speer, eds., Was ist Philosophie im Mittelalter? Berlin: W. de Gruyter pp ; Neil Hathaway, Compilatio: From plagiarism to compiling, Viator 20(1989) 19-44; Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Ordinatio and Compilatio Revisited, in Ad litteram: authoritative texts and their medieval readers, ed. Mark D. Jordan. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press pp ; S. Perfetti, How and when the Medieval Commentary died out: the Case of Aristotle s Zoological Writings, in Il commento filosofico nell'occidente latino (secoli XIII-XV). pp Presentation of Papers 4

5 Course Requirements 1. The most important requirement of the course is completion of the reading by the assigned date. Because of the nature of the course, its success depends on the participation of all members. Throughout the semester, I will assign particular dates on which seminar members will be responsible for leading discussion. I may also divide especially heavy reading assignments among participants and ask those assigned an article to prepare a one- or two-page précis to be distributed and discussed by members of the seminar. 2. The only other requirement for the course is the preparation of an analytical essay on a topic agreed upon mutually. It is not my intention that these essays be traditional research papers, for in order to require that, I would have to assume that each of you has the requisite language skills and methods necessary to work with original sources in often inaccessible forms. Nor would the research paper contribute to your goals in other areas of the history of science. So, instead I propose that you choose a topic that draws upon the central issue of the seminar the commentary tradition and prepare an essay that draws heavily on the secondary literature that surrounds it. For example, you might be interested in historiography, and select as a topic some aspect of historical investigations of the commentary tradition. You may be interested in iconography or visual representations of nature; an essay on the interface of art history and the history of science might be appropriate. The middle ages has enjoyed several resurgences of popularity since the Renaissance, so your essay might reflect the view of things medieval in the more modern period of your interest. 5