medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

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Received: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:51:13 AM EDT
From: The Medieval Review <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: TMR 08.10.24 Ziolkowski, Letters of Peter Abelard (Mews)

Ziolkowski, Jan M., trans. <i>Letters of Peter Abelard. Beyond the
Personal</i>. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America
Press, 2008. Pp. lii, 232. ISBN: 9780813215051.

   Reviewed by Constant J. Mews
        Monash University, Australia
        [log in to unmask]


There has been so much controversy associated with the letters
exchanged between  Abelard and Heloise, that Abelard's other
letters have never attracted the attention they deserve. Jan
Ziolkowski has provided a useful service to students of medieval
culture in making available translations that are both readable and
reliable of some of these letters, under the rubric "Beyond the
Personal". In fact, a number of these letters are highly personal,
and of significance for understanding the contested personalities
of both Abelard and Heloise. Ziolkowski does a solid job in
summarizing existing scholarship relating to each of the letters
that he has chosen to translate. While no major new hypotheses or
lines of research are opened up in the commentary that is provided,
the volume provides a serviceable introduction to specialist
literature that is often difficult to access.

In a preface, Ziolkowski briefly acknowledges his debt to an
outstanding scholar, Edmé Smits, "for his impeccable edition of the
Latin." What is not fully explained here is that "the Latin" refers
to the text of Abelard's Letters 9-14, outside the celebrated
corpus of letters exchanged with Heloise. Edmé Smits (d. 1992) was
an outstanding medievalist, whose academic career--tragically cut
short--was first established by his meticulous edition of Abelard’s
Letters 9-14, published in 1983.  There has been a long held desire
for this publication, widely used and appreciated by Abelardian
specialists, to be more widely known. The appearance of Edmé
Smits's edition in the Corpus Christianorum Continuatio
Mediaeualis, long promised by his literary executor, Prof. L. C.
Engels, is still eagerly awaited. Ziolkowski acknowledges that it
has been fifteen years since the project of the translation was
proposed to him.

Ziolkowski opens the volume with a useful summary of the Life and
Works of Peter Abelard. He then gives translations with
introductions of all of the letters that Smits edited (Letters 9-14
in the traditional numbering, as established by Duchesne and
d'Amboise in 1616, and re-issued by Migne in volume 178 of the
Patrologia Latina). As well, there are additional texts that
Ziolkowski has chosen to translate: the three prefaces to Abelard's
Hymnal for the Paraclete, the dedication letter to his commentary
on the Hexaemeron, the letter to his students against Abelard, and
the <i>Apologia</i> against Bernard. All these letters are
enormously rich in theological perspective, through their shared
emphasis on the role of reason in reflecting on the authority of
Scripture. While a student can find many detailed notes relating to
specific philological and historical issues touched on in these
letters, the commentary does not focus on their theological
dimension.

Nonetheless, simply by making the letters available in English,
Ziolkowski has performed a valuable service. He is a gifted
translator. His notes on translation style do offer perhaps the
most personal part of the volume.  He observes his own experience
that although he initially opted to omit a small word that seemed
superfluous, he moved towards greater fidelity as he came to
appreciate the careful structure of Abelard's prose.  Ziolkowski
does not devote himself to a stylistic reading of Abelard's
preference for clarity of expression, so different from the highly
mannered style of monastic letter writers like Bernard of
Clairvaux. Nonetheless, Abelard's style is pungent and deliberate.

The initial texts in the volume relate to Heloise and the
Paraclete, beginning with Letter 9, on the study of letters--a text
that he claims has been "until recently" roundly ignored. He does
not mention the pioneering research of Smits in 1983 that showed
how Abelard's summary of Jerome's letters in this letter as printed
in 1616 (and reprinted by Migne) had been seriously "improved" by
reference to the printed edition of Jerome's letters. There is no
mention either of an existing translation of this letter by Vera
Morton--alongside other letters of a similar genre--in a volume
that is cited in the bibliography, <i>Guidance for Women in
Twelfth-Century Convents</i> (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003). Letter
9 documents Abelard's close sense of affinity with Jerome in
stressing the role of Scripture at the Paraclete, and reporting his
claim that Heloise was expert in Greek and Hebrew--an issue that
has never been fully resolved. The three prefaces to Abelard's
hymnal for the Paraclete are also of great value for their
reporting of Heloise's criticisms of the liturgy with which she was
familiar. Ziolkowski patiently summarizes some of the crucial
research into the hymnal undertaken by Chrysogonus Waddell.  These
prefaces, which have also been translated by myself in a volume
edited by Marc Stewart and David Wulstan, <i>The Poetic and Musical
Legacy of Heloise and Abelard</i> (Ottowa: Institute of Mediaeval
Music, 2003), give rich testimony to how Abelard endeavoured to
respond to Heloise's zeal for authenticity in liturgical
celebration. A key question that still remains to be resolved
relates to the precise liturgical texts that Heloise used at the
Paraclete before she asked for Abelard to make a contribution.
Waddell's discovery that Heloise integrated the entire pre-1147
Cistercian hymnal  into the Paraclete liturgy, while only using
elements from Abelard's hymnal, is not given strong attention.  It
is left to the reader to appreciate what these prefaces reveal
about Heloise's emphasis on authenticity in liturgy--a theme that
also comes out in her other writings. Ziolkowski's translations of
Abelard's prologue to the book of sermons and to his commentary on
the Hexaemeron similarly whet the appetite for complete
translations of these significant works.  Both in their way
demonstrate the crucial role Heloise played in developing Abelard's
thinking about the centrality of Scripture during the 1130s. By
translating the beginnings but not the substance of so many
important works, the reader is deprived of the full weight of
Abelard's argument.

Letter 10, Abelard's only letter to Bernard--taking him to task for
having raised a question to Heloise about the Matthaean version of
the Lord's Prayer used at the Paraclete--is also a rich mine of
insight into the emphasis on liturgical authenticity at that abbey.
They opted for the Matthaean version, as given by Jerome, on
assumption that it was based on a Hebrew original and thus closer
to the words of Christ. Abelard also takes the opportunity to
criticise the Cistercians for their own attempt to achieve
authenticity in religious life. Ziolkowski  provides a useful
summary of the rich analysis undertaken by Waddell into this
letter, which suggests that the relationship between Bernard,
Abelard, and Heloise was of enormous complexity. Both Bernard and
Abelard were competing for influence over Heloise. Far from being
"beyond the personal" the letter shows how closely integrated
liturgical reform and personal insight were for both Abelard and
Heloise.

Abelard's letter to his friends, summoning them to the Council of
Sens (1141) and criticizing Bernard of Clairvaux,  would make more
sense when related to other crucial letters, like Bernard's Letter
190 (which for some strange reason was never included in the
translation of Bernard's letters by Bruno Scott James).  Ziolkowski
summarizes recent assessments of the controversy without actually
introducing readers to the theological issues at the heart of the
debate. This omission is most noticeable in his translation of
Abelard's <i>Apologia</i>, a work of theological depth, that
certainly needs explanation. Readers need help to understand
Abelard's arguments about how he understands the relationship
between Father and Son to be like that between power and wisdom.
There are other comparable documents, like the <i>Confessio fidei
'Universis'</i> and Abelard's confession of faith to Heloise, that
provide more accessible explanations by Abelard of his theological
position, but they are not included in this volume. Berengar's
<i>Apologia</i> against Abelard, which includes the confession of
faith to Heloise, would be particularly valuable for conveying the
heated passions evoked by the Council of Sens.

Ziolkowski also translates three important polemical letters of
Abelard:  11, to abbot Adam about the identity of St Denis; 12 (to
a regular canon); 13 (to an ignoramus in the field of dialectic);
and 14 (to bishop G.--identified by Ziolkowski as Gilbert, although
most charters identify him as Guibert), written just prior to the
council of Soissons c. 1120. Ziolkowski retains the random sequence
for these letters given by Amboise and Duchesne in 1616, reprinted
by Migne. He simply alludes very briefly to the fascinating
research of Smits into the textual transmission of these letters.
In his introductions, he summarizes most of the relevant literature
without attempting any major new interpretation of these documents.
Significant detail about the textual relationship between Letter 13
and the particular version of the <i>Theologia Christiana</i> found
in two manuscripts (Montecassino MS 174 and Tours Bibl. Mun. 85) is
not mentioned, so we do not understand why Letter 13 is dated to
the early 1130s, or its particular significance in relation to the
shifting debate about Abelard's theology at that time. The letter
is highly revealing, however, of the controversy engendered by
Abelard's return to the schools in the early 1130s.

Even if Ziolkowski skirts around their theological dimension, we
have to be grateful for his providing careful annotated
translations of these letters, that have tended not to attract the
attention of readers as much as the more personal correspondence
with Heloise. Yet these letters are, in their way, all intensely
personal. They attest to Abelard's particular passion for
authenticity of interpretation of whatever text he was handling,
whether it was Aristotle, a saint's life, or Scripture. There are
many more texts of Abelard--and his contemporaries--that cry out
for translation and further commentary.  If these letters prompt
new readers to think further about the issues that they raise,
Ziolkowski's volume will have been worthwhile.

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