medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, at 11:18 am, Cecilia Gaposchkin wrote:
> ... I looked at The "lost letters" a number of years ago
> and
> frankly don't really buy that they are in fact Abelard and Heloise (though
> I'll be giving some to students on Thursday to see what they think).
> I see
> in old notes of mine that the letters were preserved at the Paraclete,
> likely by H herself.
Which letters? The ones in the collection headed by the _Historia Calamitatum_ or the _Epistolae duorum amantium_?
In either case, it's only a reasonable guess that the letters were preserved were preserved at the Paraclete. I don't think there's external testimony or evidence in their mss. that proves that they were preserved there. (Of course, if you don't think that that the _Epistolae duorum amantium_ are by Heloise and Abelard, then any guess that these were preserved there is not likely to seem reasonable).
> That would be one substantial argument - assuming
> she
> edited them in any way - that they are so coherent. I just find the opening
> of her first letter, upon receipt of the Historia, to be to literarily
> "perfect" - the whole seems to be constructed as internally consistent
> in a
> way that doesn't make sense for multiple authors and the dynamic of actual
> correspondence. But I am no expert, and am very interested to see
> that the
> general modern consensus is that they are all authentic.
Opinions vary on whether the collection now called "the letters of Abelard and Heloise" (i.e. the _Historia Calamitatum_, which itself is formally a letter, plus the seven letters that follow) was in whole or in part formed artistically as a letter collection. But if it was and if H. and A. were the original authors and if their editor were H., her letters at least, however modified for the collection as such, would still be entirely authentic. And A.'s would be authentic to the degree that they had not been modified.
> I will take
> another look at B. Newman, whose arguments for authenticity seems to have
> been the final and convincing word (in the correspondence that John pointed
> me to).
Those are arguments for the authenticity of the _Epistolae duorum amantium_.
Best,
John Dillon
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