L'incontro tra due "invenzioni" medievali: Universita e Ordini Mendicanti (review)

This book had its beginning in classroom lectures on the origins and interaction of universities and the mendicant orders. These two medieval institutions interacted with each other from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, sometimes in conflict and sometimes to their mutual benefit. Moreover, each institution had its origin in the twelfth century in response to changes brought about by an expanding commercial economy and the growth of towns. Universities were the final stage of a reorganization of education in the twelfth century, just as the mendicant orders grew out of the evangelical awakening in that century and the perceived spiritual needs of urban populations.

The first chapter of the book surveys the cultural and scholastic developments of the twelfth century. Pellegrini discusses the decline of monastic schools and the growth of teaching at cathedrals and among the canonical orders in urban centers. This chapter covers the triumph of dialectic, the transformation of teaching from lectioto the quaestio, and the role of students. The second chapter concerns the development from independent schools to the incorporation of scholars and masters. The culmination of that development, covered in the third chapter, is the emergence of the University of Bologna and, later, the University of Paris. In the fourth chapter Pellegrini turns to the origins of the mendicant orders, taking a sociological as well as religious approach. The establishment of mendicant houses of study at Paris before the crisis of 1229 is the subject of chapter five. The sixth and final chapter is devoted to the conflict of secular and mendicant masters in the second half of the thirteenth century.

The work is well written, with an evident passion for the subject. The approach is sociological, employing a taxonomy of forms of organization, both religious and social, to understand the structure of universities and the mendicant orders. For a work apparently composed initially for an Italian student audience, it is also written on a remarkably high level, informed and informative. Both the footnotes and the bibliographical essay at the end of the book reflect a wide knowledge of the relevant secondary literature in English, French, and German, as well as in Italian. The author sees the development of universities and the mendicant orders as radically new phenomena, without precedent in the ancient or early medieval world, and without parallels in Byzantium or Islamic culture.

The main theme of the book is the conflict between these two medieval institutions, especially the crisis that emerged in 1252–1254 and continued throughout the second half of the thirteenth century. There is, however, a certain imbalance between sections of the work inasmuch as most of the discussion of university development is devoted to Bologna, while the secular/mendicant crisis is centered on Paris. Moreover, the conflict of 1252–1254 was not just between secular theologians and their mendicant counterparts, although that may have been its most vocal and visible manifestation, but concerned the entry of other religious orders into the faculty of theology, specifically monks and the canonical orders.

The book presents a fresh and readable account of the organizational structure, the importance, and the interaction of these two medieval "inventions": the universities and the mendicant orders.