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218 Reviews Parergon 20.1 (2003) The book has no footnotes or endnotes, presumably so as to appeal to a general audience. At the end there is a section of ‘Further Reading’ which presents an annotated bibliography for each chapter. The references provided are all of top quality. However, a reader wishing to follow up a certain anecdote in the text will not necessarily know from which of the many references this anecdote has been taken. Some brief pointers in the body of the text would have helped here. Like all books on medieval Britain, most examples come from England, although useful sections on Scotland in particular point out where customs in one country differed from those in another. Elizabeth Freeman School of History and Classics University of Tasmania Evans, Gillian R., Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers, London/New York, Routledge, 2002; paper; pp. xxxiv, 183; RRP US$18.95; ISBN 041523663. This slim and attractively produced volume is part of the Routledge ‘Key’ series, which includes titles such as Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers, Fifty Key Thinkers on History and Fifty Major Philosophers. Dr. Evans’ work surveys the fifty ‘key’ figures who shaped medieval intellectual life in the period 354-1495 CE. For such a task, the author self-consciously adopts the medieval pedagogic technique known as the accessus, an informal introductory technique by which a medieval teacher introduced students to a new book, providing the name of the work, its author, its subject matter (materia), its purpose (intentio) and the manner in which it would treat its subject (modus tractandi). Evans’ format, likewise, for each of the fifty ‘key’ figures, presents a summary of that thinker’s life, main theories and influence, followed by a short select bibliography and list of further reading. Each entry varies in length from three or four pages to about ten pages, and the work proceeds in a roughly chronological order. Evans introduces the collection with an essay which outlines the literary genres, the notion of authorities, interpretative techniques and the development of the disciplines of language, which were peculiar to the Middle Ages. Such an accessus not only provides essential reading for the undergraduate student new to medieval sources, but also for the more experienced researcher and teacher. Evans calls upon her nearly thirty years of scholarship on medieval theology, philosophy and the liberal arts, and concludes: ‘The great achievement Reviews 219 Parergon 20.1 (2003) of the Middle Ages was the development of technical precision in the use of logic and language to conduct this weighing exercise [reasoning]’ (p. xxxii). The choice of fifty entries, Evans acknowledges, is an arbitrary one and the medieval thinkers included were those ‘important in their time’ or who ‘had things to say which are still being taken seriously’ (p. viii). Anselm of Canterbury would be a representative of the latter category for the ‘sheer durability of his ideas’ and ‘their intrinsic value and importance’ (p. 71). The emphasis is on theologians and philosophers. Many omitted figures Evans characterizes as important ‘supporting players’. The geographical coverage is limited to Western Europe. As Evans explains, the East did not undergo the Latins’ ‘Aristotelian grapple’ (p. vii). The list of the ‘top fifty’ is as interesting for its inclusions as its omissions. Along with Augustine, Ambrose and Jerome represent the late classical patristic tradition. The inclusion of Cassiodorus is justifiable, but Pseudo-Dionysius is rather more surprising. Boethius and Pope Gregory the Great are natural inclusions from the later Church Fathers, along with Isidore of Seville and Bede. Evans includes several theologians and writers from the Carolingian and postCarolingian cultural milieu, such as Paschasius Radbertus, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Hincmar of Rheims and Remigius of Auxerre, but omits Alcuin. Also present are Gerbert of Aurillac and Berengar of Tours, but not Lanfranc of Bec, who was Berengar’s arch contagonist. Among the eleventh-century figures is the canonist Ivo of Chartres, but Gratian’s Decretum is not deemed worthy of this pantheon of greats. The twelfth century, which alone could no doubt have its own list of fifty key thinkers, provides such significant figures as Hugh of St. Victor, Adelard of Bath, Rupert of Deutz, Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux...

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