Medieval worlds: barbarian, heretics and artists (review)

Reviews 137 at how little help Bernard actually gives his readers. For example, at p. 147.5963 (on Waszink 8:7-14, Timaeus 17d, trans. R. G. Bury, Loeb Classical Library VII (1952), p. 19), Bernard provides little more than an offhand and (from the point of view of meaning) useless reference to a famous line from Vergil which he must simply have been fond of (Aeneid 6:853)! Alternative M S . readings and source references are given fully and economically at the foot of the page and Appendix I gathers together the 'notae platonicae' placed in some of the M S S after the Glosae and deriving in some part, perhaps, from Bernard's own researches. Four of the extracts are direct quotations from Chalcidius. Altogether afine,definitive volume to be placed alongside Jeaneau's edition of WUliam of Conches' glosses, as a reservoir of information on early twelfthcentury Platonism and a worthy addition to the growing collection of masterly P M S editions of important twelfth-century Latin didactic texts. John. O. Ward Department of History University of Sydney Borst, Arno, Medieval worlds: barbarian, heretics and artists, trans. Eric Hansen, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xiii, 273; R.R.P. AUS$95.00 [distributed in Australia by Allen & Unwin]. Arno Borst takes the thinking of medieval people seriously. In the fourteen essays in this volume, translated by Eric Hansen with ease and fluency from Barbaren, Ketzen und Artisten (Munich, 1988), Borst examines medieval attitudes to a wider range of issues than the book'stitlemight suggest: the concept of 'barbarian', the history of languages in European thought, the notion of 'public persona', universal histories, the origins of the witch-craze in the alps, medieval game theory, patron saints, chivalry, late medieval universities, and death. Underlying remarkably diverse reflections runs a persistent curiosity in medieval classificatory systems as authentic responses to enduring needs: to impose order on the world, to live in harmony with our neighbours and yet retain personal freedom, to come to terms with death. Borst's earlier publications on the history of languages, the Cathars, and the medieval Rithmimachia (Battle-of-Numbers) are little known to English-speaking audiences. But in this volume he distils erudition about these other subjects in a form accessible to a general reader willing to share in his curiosity about medieval culture as a manifestation of ongoing concerns in the Europeans intellectual tradition. Each reader will single out particular essays of interest. The essay on the invention andfissionof the public persona, which examines the semantic shift in the twelfth century away from the Carolingian identification of royal persona 138 Reviews and throne towards more abstract reflection on persona, is of great originality. The reflection on historical time in the writings of Abelard is idiosyncratic and not informed by profound specialist knowledge. Yet it succeeds in identifying Abelard's sense of the historicity of theological reflection. The lecture on patron saints is not as rigourously thought through as the writing of Peter Brown on the subject in the late antique period but raises questions about their multiple roles. The tendency to anecdotal reflection in Borst's lectures can lead to triviality in some cases. The lecture on women and art in the Middle Ages runs such a risk by its use of a few isolated examples. Yet his insights can be quite original, hi 'Science and Games' Borst relates medieval fascination with number games to the rediscovery of game theory in a post-modern period without falling into the trap of false identifications. He reminds us that long before Wittgenstein, Aquinas and Albert the Great reflected on games as an image of hfe, intertwining chance and order. The absence of scholarly apparatus to these essays is frustrating for those who wish to follow up the detail of his argument. Undoubtedly, specialists in each of the many areas Borst touches on will take issue with particular interpretations. Nonetheless, the volume stands as a testament to a profound humane vision of medieval society, which succeeds in raising enduring questions. Constant M e w s Department of History Monash University Boyle, Marjorie O'Rourke, Petrarch's genius: pentimento and prophecy, Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford, University of...