Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400 (review)

Reviews 133 human knowledge and so they cause us to re-appraise our normal assumptions about race, gender, all types of difference about the cultural body itself. As both the several clusters of notes and index make abundantly clear, the subject is one with the widest manifestation, moving effortlessly across periods, genres and disciplines. The monstrous body—in any of these fields of investigation—is really a symbol of unease in areas sexual, spiritual (fiends), anatomic, racial, geographical and so on. While psychology has much to say about the abnormal, this collection is firmly placed in the kingdom of story, of prohibition of heroes and of cleansings. That it is often the case that 'monster' connotes intolerance, fear, superstition and fantasy does not invalidate the narrative need to destroy it. This collection involves its readers in a fresh and comprehensive appreciation of pervasive, mainly intolerant folkloric motifs. Yet in all its myriad of tales analysed or referred to there remains this substratum of acknowledgment of so many all too human lusts, phobias, and insights into the Self which is not Other. J. S. Ryan School of English, Communication and Theatre University of N e w England CoHsh, Marcia L., Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 1400 (The Yale Intellectual History of the West), N e w Haven, Yale University Press, 1997; cloth; pp. xii, 388; 22 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. US$40.00. The intellectual history of the medieval West has been the subject of a number of introductory surveys by English-speaking historians, among them David Knowles (The Evolution of Medieval Thought, 1962) a n d — m o s t recently—David Luscombe (Medieval Thought, 1997). Marcia Colish approaches this well-worked field with a m u c h wider definition of its boundaries than her predecessors. For her, the 'intellectual tradition' of the medieval West covers Latin and vernacular literatures, as well as religious and speculative thought. She examines these in two distinct sections, the first of which provides a generally chronological coverage of the period from the Latin church fathers to the eleventh century. Some comparisons are also made with Islamic, Jewish and Byzantine intellectual life. In the second section of the book, Colish takes a thematic approach to the whole period from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, looking at such areas as Latin and vernacular literatures, mysticism, and speculative thought, together with a brief account of natural science, and economic and political theories. With only a few exceptions, each chapter consists of a summary of the work of a small number of major figures. The Cistercians, for example, are 134 Reviews represented only by Bernard of Clairvaux, while twelfth-century logic and theology are epitomised by Peter Abelard, H u g h of St Victor and Peter Lombard. Of the Latin church fathers, only Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Gregory are mentioned. For most of these figures, only their work is covered; biographical details are not normally given. The treatment of Dante, Boccaccio and Chaucer, for example, assumes a knowledge of their lives, careers and works. The text itself contains no references to any secondary literature. The five-page 'bibliographical note', which appears as an appendix, is a brief guide to the standard secondary literature in English. It mentions hardly any primary sources. There are very few quotations from medieval writers in the book, the only significant exception being some examples of vernacular poetry, given in English translation. A more extensive use of primary sources, at least to illustrate a point, might have given the book a more varied and lively tone. This is a thorough and careful survey of the main features of the intellectual life of medieval Europe, occupying a kind of middle ground between histories of literature, histories of philosophy and theology, and histories of social theory. Its breadth of coverage is particularly impressive, although the depth of treatment of any given area suffers as a result. But the threads linking these different areas are never really drawn together. For the most part, each remains a separate entity, rather like a series of self-contained lectures for an undergraduate course. Whether the book is actually aimed at undergraduate students, however...