medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you to all who responded to my query about letter-collections. The
comments and suggestions have all been very useful. And let me echo
previous comments on the high interest of this topic. I too would very
much like to participate in, or at least attend, conference sessions on
these matters.
I'd also like to pick up on a question already posed by Donald
Uitvlugt. What about Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and other
"ancients"? Were MSS of their letters ever ordered in any particular
way? Or is organization by theme or recipient confined to "moderns"?
Tom
At 09:54 PM 11/10/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>To add to the discussion of the arrangement of letters in medieval letter
>collections, I have been studying 12th century letter collections for some
>time and the 3 principles I have come across have been:
>
>a) by recipient. I imagine this would rise out of the studying of the ars
>dictandi, where a lot of emphasis is laid on the status of the recipient. I
>seem to remember once seeing a MS of an ars dictandi followed by a
>collection of model letters arranged according to this principle (can't
>remember any details though). Once the prinicple had become common its
>influence could easily transfer to other types of collection
>Would be ideal if letters were intended as models for other writers, also if
>you were collecting somebody else's letters and/or letters from different
>sources as you wouldn't have to keep track of chronology or think about
>literary effect. I think the letters of William of Aebelholt are arranged in
>this way.
>
>b) in chronological order. Popular with 19th century editors, less so with
>medieval scribes. Would be most likely to happen if letters were immediately
>copied into registrum by author or his scribe. The letters of Nicholas of
>Clairvaux are arranged according to this principle, though he did publish
>them himself.
>
>c) thematic order. The letters of Peter of Blois and Arnulf of Lisieux are
>arranged so that letters contrast with one another. E.g. in Peter a letter
>trying to protect a young girl from being forced into a convent is followed
>by a letter praising the same girl for wanting to take the vow! In Arnulf a
>letter describing a virtuous young man is followed by a letter describing
>his opposite. This, as far as I know, only happens when authors arrange
>their own letters.
>
>Hope this is helpful,
>
>Lena Wahlgren- Smith
>
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F. Thomas Luongo
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
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(504) 862-8620
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