John of Salisbury and William of Malmesbury: currents in twelfth-century humanism

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
William Of Malmesbury

In their excellent little book Scribes and Scholars Reynolds and Wilson comparejohn of Salisbury and William of Malmesbury as classicists. The fact that the two men have never before been so compared, and the fact that even Reynolds’s and Wilson’s account contains a good many errors, shows how much is yet to be learned about the humanistic scholarship of the twelfth century. William and John are comparable in a number of ways, but most particularly in their interest in Greco-Latin antiquity: it is central to their scholarship, it is a major preoccupation in their works, it provides a key (and if we add biblical and patristic antiquity as well, the key) to their thinking about their contemporary world.

Two pre-Conquest manuscripts from Glastonbury Abbey

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Carley
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fine Collection ◽  
Irish School ◽  
William Of Malmesbury

The earliest identified surviving manuscripts from Glastonbury Abbey date from the ninth and tenth centuries, but there are reliable post-Conquest traditions claiming that valuable books were found at the monastery as early as the reign of Ine, king of the West Saxons (688–726). By the tenth century at the latest there are reports of an ‘Irish school’ at Glastonbury, famous for its learning and books, and St Dunstan's earliest biographer, the anonymous. B., relates that Dunstan himself studied with the Irish at Glastonbury. During Dunstan's abbacy (940–56) – that is, at the period when most historians would place the beginnings of the English tenth-century reform movement – there was a general revival at Glastonbury which included a concerted policy of book acquisition and the establishment of a productive scriptorium. Not surprisingly, Dunstan's abbacy was viewed by the community ever afterwards as one of the most glorious periods in the early history of the monastery, especially since the later Anglo-Saxon abbots showed a marked falling off in devotion and loyalty to the intellectual inheritance of their monastery. Æthelweard and Æthelnoth, the last two Anglo-Saxon abbots, were especially reprehensible, and confiscated lands and ornaments for the benefit of their own kin. Nor did the situation improve immediately after the Conquest: the first Norman abbot, Thurstan, actually had to call in soldiers to quell his unruly monks. In spite of these disruptions, a fine collection of pre-Conquest books seems to have survived more or less intact into the twelfth century; when the seasoned traveller and connoisseur of books, William of Malmesbury, saw the collection in the late 1120s he was greatly impressed: ‘tanta librorum pulchritudo et antiquitas exuberat’.

Some Latin poems as evidence for the reign of Athelstan

1980 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 61-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Successful Career ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Latin Verse ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
William Of Malmesbury

Like his illustrious grandfather, Alfred, King Athelstan (924–39) combined a distinguished and successful career as soldier and statesman with more overtly intellectual pursuits. He restored monasteries, established new bishoprics and was an extremely generous benefactor of churches throughout England. William of Malmesbury reports a view allegedly shared by his twelfth-century contemporaries, that ‘no one more just or more learned ever governed the kingdom’. William's assessment has been endorsed by modern historians. Stenton, for example, wrote of Athelstan that ‘in character and cast of mind he is the one West Saxon king who will bear comparison with Alfred’. As in the case of Alfred, we are moderately well informed concerning Athelstan's military exploits and political achievements from early chronicles. But whereas we also have sound evidence for the literary enterprise of Alfred's reign both in the pages of Asser and in the surviving Old English translations which were executed under Alfred's sponsorship, we have no comparable evidence for the reign of Athelstan. Here the contemporary evidence is limited to a couple of Latin letters addressed to the king, a series of royal diplomas issued in his name and a miscellany of (largely incomprehensible) Latin verse. In face of this pitiful collection of contemporary evidence scholars have seized upon a poem quoted at some length by William of Malmesbury, have declared it a near-contemporary document and have used it to fill the void in the historical record – without ever having examined the poem's credentials to authenticity and antiquity with care. I propose to examine the miscellaneous Latin verse contemporary with Athelstan's reign presently; but since the poem quoted by William of Malmesbury has loomed so large in previous discussions of the reign, it may serve as an appropriate point of departure.

The ‘Entheticus’ of John of Salisbury: A Critical Text

Traditio ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 127-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Pepin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
University Library ◽  
Critical Text ◽  
Standard Edition ◽  
The University ◽  
Editio Princeps

The Entheticus de dogmate philosophorum of John of Salisbury has come down to us in three manuscripts: a twelfth-century codex in the British Museum (Royal 13. D. IV); a fourteenth-century manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge (Ii. II. 31); a seventeenth-century codex now located in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Hamburg Cod. Phil. 350). The editio princeps was published by Christian Petersen (Hamburg 1843), and it has remained the standard edition. However, important deficiencies in that work have made a complete re-examination of the text necessary.

John of Salisbury and His Brothers

1995 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
The Church

The church of Exeter, although geographically remote from the centres of royal and ecclesiastical power in England, was in the twelfth century in no way isolated. The rule of the important royal clerk and ambassador, William de Warelwast (1107–37), destroyed its provincialism and much of its archaism; and in the second half of the century a connection with the church of Salisbury led to the influx of some interesting men. It may be that the intimate relationship with Canterbury, inaugurated by the election of Bartholomew, Archbishop Theobald'sformer clerk, to Exeter in 1161, and repaid by the final location of the Exeter clerk Baldwin on the primatial throne in 1184, was the more rewarding for both. But the seemingly largely one-way contribution of Salisbury to Exeter is just as interesting.

The contents and affiliation of the scientific manuscripts written at, or brought to, Chartres in the time of John of Salisbury

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 127-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
New Science ◽  
Scientific Learning

In the debate over the state of cathedral schools and their displacement as centres of learning by the rising universities, the case of Chartres has, for nearly a century, excited the most attention. Much has been written on, first, whether the activity of several prominent intellectuals of the twelfth century such as Thierry, William of Conches and Gilbert of Poitiers was primarily at Chartres or at Paris; and, secondly, whether the thought of ‘Chartrian’ masters is old-fashioned or open to the profound changes which effected twelfth-century scientific learning. These changes resulted largely from the introduction of works translated from Greek and Arabic during that century. In this paper I try to clarify the situation at Chartres itself by summing up the evidence from the manuscripts known to have been in the cathedral library in the twelfth century of the degree to which this ‘new science’ was received there, and how it was assimilated.

The Printing of Twelfth-Century English Historiography, and the Integration of Law with History

2020 ◽  
pp. 360-386
Author(s):  
George Garnett
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Domesday Book ◽  
Medieval Law ◽  
Henry Of Huntingdon ◽  
William Of Malmesbury

Chapter 10 opens with the first printing in the 1590s of several of the great works of twelfth-century English historical writing: Lord William Howard’s edition of John of Worcester (1592); and Henry Savile’s of William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Howden, and (purporting to be twelfth-century) Pseudo-Ingulf’s Historia Croylandensis (1596). It then proceeds to the editing and publication of works of Norman historiography which encompassed the Conquest: William of Jumièges, William of Poitiers, and Orderic Vitalis. It pays a great deal of attention to William Camden and Robert Cotton. The chapter culminates with a discussion of John Selden’s edition of Eadmer’s Historia novorum. This is shown to combine the two strands of antiquarian interest examined in preceding chapters: medieval historical writing, and medieval law. In terms both of choice of text and focus of editorial attention, it reveals that by the reign of James VI and I, the Conquest had again become the key issue in English medieval history. The chapter also discusses chorographical history as espoused by William Lambarde and William Camden, and the beginnings of scholarly investigation of Domesday Book. It ends by looking forward to the central role which controversy about the Conquest would play in political arguments of the seventeenth century.

Nations and Loyalties: the Outlook of a Twelfth-century Schoolman (John of Salisbury,c. 1120–1180)

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 39-46
Author(s):  
John McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
Gerald Of Wales

By the twelfth century literate Europeans—and probably a far wider range of the population—were well aware of the differences between nations. The word most commonly used by twelfth-century writers to indicate nations or ethnic groups wasgens. R. Bartlett in his workGerald of Waleshas observed that gens was a fluid concept: Gerald of Wales regarded the Welsh and Bretons as belonging to a singlegensbecause of their ethnic relationship; the Irish and English weregentes; and the inhabitants of the Welsh Marches were also agens—‘agensraised in the Marches’.

The Reputation of Royal Judges Under the Angevin Kings

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph V. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
Royal Patronage ◽  
Magna Carta ◽  
English Law

In twelfth and thirteenth-century England complaints that justice was being sold were common, culminating with King John's tacit admission in Magna Carta. Coupled with these complaints were charges of corruption against royal judges, or against royal aulici, curiales, or familiares, since until the middle of Richard I's reign no professional judiciary existed. Even in King John's time, familiares regis still served as judges. Yet a core of royal servants specializing in justice, “professionals” in a certain sense, had been created. Historians since Maitland have generally held a high opinion of these judges. According to Maitland, under Henry II and Richard I, “English law was administered by the ablest, the best educated men in the realm.…” F.M. Powicke wrote that the judiciary of Henry III was “probably the most stable and helpful, as it was the most intelligent, element in the State at this time.” How are we to reconcile historians' high opinion of the royal justices with their contemporaries' low opinion? Were the chroniclers simply drawing stock figures in their depictions of corrupt judges, or was their picture drawn from life?Royal officials, including judges, proved popular targets for the pens of twelfth century moralists and satirists, some of whom wrote out of personal bitterness, having failed in the contest for royal patronage and high office.2 Capable of condemning curiales in classical Latin style was John of Salisbury. He knew many of Henry II's courtiers, and he came to despise them, especially those in clerical orders.

John of Salisbury (1115/20–1180)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rhetorical Education ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
Traditional Arts

John of Salisbury is one of the most learned and penetrating of twelfth-century Latin writers on moral and political matters. In his style as in his teaching, John represents a style of medieval philosophy heavily indebted to Roman models of rhetorical education. His interests in grammar, dialectic, politics and ethics are subordinated to an over-arching concern for moral formation. Three of John’s works stand out. The Entheticus de dogmate philosophorum (Entheticus of the Teaching of the Philosophers) is a satire on the pretensions and immoralities of those who divorce eloquence from philosophy in order to pursue power. The Metalogicon defends the traditional arts of the trivium and asserts the unity of eloquence and the other verbal arts with philosophy. By far the most important is the Policraticus, a sustained argument for philosophic wisdom against the vanities of worldly success, especially in politics.

Putting on the Girls: Cross-Dressing as a Performative Strategy in the Twelfth-Century Latin Comedy Alda

1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-71
Author(s):  
James Cain
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
One Year ◽  
Historical Transition ◽  
Political Character

In the autumn of 1159, scarcely five years after the twenty-one-year-old Henry Plantagenet ascended to the English throne, John of Salisbury was already describing what he clearly regarded as a moment of historical transition. Midway through the Policraticus, the treatise on statecraft he was compiling for his friend and colleague Thomas Becket, then Chancellor of England, John remarked how the entire political character of the nation had been changing in recent years, the result of a new infusion of educated clerics into the workings of government.

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