medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Try some earlier, foundational work
Platonism and poetry in the twelfth century; the literary influence of the
school of Chartres.
Wetherbee, Winthrop, 1938-
Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1972.
* Latin poetry, Medieval and modern -- History and criticism
* Civilization, Medieval -- 12th century
* Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
* Twelfth century
* Platonists
* Chartres (France) -- Intellectual life
A companion to philosophy in the Middle Ages
Jorge J.E. Gracia and Timothy B. Noone. Eds.
* Blackwell companions to philosophy ; 24
Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2003.
Chpt 4: School of Chartres, by W. Wetherbee
BUT also extremely useful for re-modeling and re-presenting social
constructs in the forms of courtly institutions as well as personal imagery
(speech, manners, carriage, habits, interalia)
C. Stephen Jaeger, The Envy of Angels, Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals
in Medieval Europe, 950-1200, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.
-- don't miss this "corrective" review of the cathedral schools milieu and
courtly society in 12th C. (viz, courtly manners and the charismatic model
of culture):
See esp: Appendix A. Moral Discipline and Gothic Sculpture: The Wise and
Foolish Virgins of the Strassburg Cathedral, 331pp
This section aptly begins: "The move from hieratic stiffness to realism and
plasticity that occurs in sculpture [as well as some MS ptg] in the course
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries poses a problem for the historian of
art and ideas."
Subject: [M-R] High M.A. [neo-]Platonism
>John M. Dillon, ed., _The Afterlife of the Platonic Soul: Reflections of
Platonic Psychology in the Monotheistic Religions_ (Leiden: Brill, 2009),
jarred me into thinking that perhaps i could float a Query which has been on
my mind for some time.
lately, i've been working on the various styles of manuscript illumination
to
be seen in 11th c. productions from the scriptorium of the Benedictine house
of St. Peter's of Chartres, including works such as this
http://ariadne.org/cc/mss/chartresmss/bm120/ms120-f57v-mark.jpg
designs like this are sometimes described, in the literature, as "primitif"
or, in somewhat less invidious terms, “archaïque."
however, upon closer examination, i find them to be quite deliberately and
"perfectly" conceived and executed, and i've come to the conclusion (or the
Mare's Nest, whichever) that a large part of the explanation for the overall
appearance of images like this one is dueto the utter disinterest in (and/or
disdain for) replicating what we normally refer to as the "real" (i.e., the
phenomenal) world.
in favor of a Real world --something very close (as i imagine it to be) to
the world of Platonic Forms.
the passage in John of Salisbury's Metalogicon to the effect that "Bernard
of
Chartres [scholasticus of the cathedral school, fl. c. 1130] was the
greatest
Platonist of his time" is often cited --among other evidences-- for the
prevalence of Platonic ideas in Chartres in the 12th c., but it is clear to
me
that (and this is hardly an original thought) it is quite likely that such
ideas --or, more pervasively, a general "mind set"-- was the fundamental
world
view of, not just Chartrainers, but of the whole of the High M.A. (at
least),
and it was this autogenetic world view which, ultimately, accounts for the
style(s) we see.
never having been at all up on the literature on this question, i have, in
recent decades, backslid into a state of near-perfect ignorance of it.
could someone (John? Grover?) point me to a "Platonism for the Complete
Idiot"
introduction to the subject?
many thanks.
c
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