The Evolution of Medieval Thought (review)

160 Reviews Knowles, D., 77ie Evolution of Medieval Thought, 2nd ed., ed. D.E. Luscombe and C.N.L. Brooke, London, Longman, 1988; pp.xxvi, 337; paperback, R.RP. A U S $29.95. David Knowles was Professor of Medievd History at the University of Cambridge from 1947 to 1954 and Regius Professor of M o d e m History there from 1954 to 1963. This volume is a serviceable reissue and update of an introduction to the evolution of medievd thought which, when I first read it (the origind edition was pubtished in 1962), I felt was not particularly origind or incisive. It contains a new preface, a new introduction, a new 'suggestions for furtherreading'by the editors, and conection of 'errors ... or minor infelicities' in the text proper. The new introduction and suggestions for further reading, which serve their purpose well, if prosdcdly, and without removing any shortcomings or virtues of the origind edition, should have been combined. Summaries of what Knowles says, and excursus on recherchi points such as the authenticity of the letters of Abelard and Heloise or of the School of Chartres, perhaps occupy too much space in the new introduction. The limitations of Knowles' Evolution appear rather strikingly from the new material. The 'suggestions for further reading' are, in m y opinion, presented a little uncriticdly in places. G P . Evans' excellent Old Arts and New Theology: the beginnings of theology as an academic discipline (Oxford, 1980) is a startling omission. Ferruolo (p. 139) is more than a work 'on Paris'. G. Leffs Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: the relation of heterodoxy to dissent c. 1250-1450 (Manchester, 1967) should be listed for the later chapters, as dso W.J. Courtenay's Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth Century England (Princeton, 1987) and, perhaps, A. Pilz's The World of Medieval Learning (Oxford, 1981). The new 'suggestions' retain the prefatory remarks of the origind but omit some items in the body of the latter which should have been retdned (pp.341-343 of the 1962 edition). The new edition contdns dl of the old edition except the 'suggestions for further reading'. The pagination is different throughout. The new index is fuller. The new edition has a cover picture (the 'apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas', c. 1365, Church of St Catherine, Pisa) which was not in the origind edition. John O. Ward Department of History University of Sydney ...