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  • Nature, Virtue, and the Boundaries of Encyclopaedic Knowledge. The Tropological Universe of Alexander Neckam (1157–1217) by Zahora, Tomas
  • Chantelle Saville
Zahora, Tomas, Nature, Virtue, and the Boundaries of Encyclopaedic Knowledge. The Tropological Universe of Alexander Neckam (1157–1217) (Europa Sacra, 13), Turnhout, Brepols, 2014; hardback; pp. xi, 285; 2 b/w illustrations, 11 b/w tables; R.R.P. €80.00; ISBN 9782503549583.

Alexander Neckam (1157–1217) occupies a unique position in the history of encyclopaedism, writing at the turn of the thirteenth century when the Aristotelian natural philosophy was still becoming integrated into the Western academic corpus. Despite his importance as a figure in medieval intellectual culture whose influences lasted well into the late fourteenth century, Neckam has not received the full scholarly attention that he deserves. Nature, Virtue and the Boundaries of Encyclopaedic Knowledge: The Tropological Universe of Alexander Neckam is a step towards redressing this lack and stimulating future research in Neckam studies.

Tomas Zahora’s book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to Neckam’s works in a way that is relevant to scholars from a wide range of disciplinary areas. He begins by differentiating Neckam’s attitudes and expectations from those of modern encyclopaedists such as Denis Diderot (Introduction), and later contrasts Neckam’s style to thirteenth-century encyclopaedists Vincent of Beauvais and Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Chapter 6). In Chapter 1 Zahora argues that conclusions drawn in historiography to date have been limited in perspective, either focusing predominantly on the prose encyclopaedia De naturis rerum, or judging Neckam’s achievements in light of the ‘scientific’ approach of the physici and Salernitan Questions. Studies limited in these respects risk overlooking the importance of Neckam’s Augustinian outlook, as well as his training in the trivium and twelfth-century exegetical methods. Zahora suggests that we can appreciate Neckam’s legacy better if we pay attention to his sophisticated tropological technique, and acknowledge that his primary interest lies in aedificatio morum and wisdom through self-knowledge. Emphasis on the tropological method is carried through Chapters 2 to 5, in which Zahora discusses the content of Neckam’s works, providing valuable transcriptions and translations of unedited materials. The majority of the discussion concentrates on De naturis rerum, Laus sapientie divinie, and the Suppletio [End Page 196] defectuum, but sections on his Solatium fidelis anime, Commentary on Martianus Cappella, and Sermon 37 of his unedited sermon collection are included. Discussion extends to Neckam’s theological commitments: his stance against Cathar heresies, the Pelagian position on the origin of good works (Neckam holds that dependence on grace is compatible with human freedom), and the Albigensian heresy.

Of particular interest to the present reviewer was the material on Neckam’s utilization of classical sources in his little-studied metrical encyclopaedia Laus sapientie divinie (Chapter 5), which I believe to be the same work referred to by the fourteenth-century biblical commentator Robert Holcot (rather charmingly) as Scintillario poetarum. Note also that Zahora treats some topics with remarkable brevity. For example, on p. 157 Zahora begins to explain the repetition of virtues in Laus sapientie divinie as ‘an exercise in mores’ which works to activate a network of mental images by bringing a concept to mind. Every mention of a virtue ‘stimulates the reader’s innate mechanism of virtue so that when one internalizes a tropological text one is in fact engaging in a spiritual workout that literally “makes him a better man”’. No further discussion of the psychological structures supporting Neckam’s mental gymnasium is offered, raising more questions than are answered. The upside of this is that Zahora’s book points the reader towards areas for further research; a fertile field for future possibilities. [End Page 197]

Chantelle Saville
University of Auckland
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