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FROM PARADISE TO PARADIGM
BRILL’S STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY General Editor
A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen Editorial Board
M. Colish, Oberlin College J.I. Israel, Princeton University J.D. North, University of Groningen R.H. Popkin, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA VOLUME 127
FROM PARADISE TO PARADIGM A Study of Twelfth-Century Humanism BY
WILLEMIEN OTTEN
BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2004
Cover illustration: The Temptation of Eve. © Ville d’Autun, Musée Rolin, cliché S. Prost. This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 90 04 14061 1 © Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands
For Maud and Fu Cheng
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements .................................................................... Preface ........................................................................................
xi xiii
Understanding Medieval Humanism ........................................
1
Chapter One From Paradise to Paradigm. An Introduction to the Problem of Twelfth-Century Humanism ................ I The Quest for Universal Nature .................................. II The Return to Paradise .................................................. II Paradise as a Human Abode ........................................ IV Imagining the Return .................................................... V History as Mimesis .......................................................... VI The Chartrian Controversy ............................................ VII The End of Twelfth-Century Humanism ......................
9 9 15 20 25 26 32 39
Chapter Two Nature and Scripture: Tale of a Medieval Analogy and Its Demise ...................................................... Preamble .................................................................................... I The Medieval Synthesis of Nature and Scripture ........ A. The Referentiality of Scripture ................................ B. The Balance of Nature and Scripture .................... II The Modern Disjunction of Nature and Scripture ...... III Losing the Balance: Nature and Scripture in the Twelfth Century .............................................................. A. Rhetoric and Cosmology in the School of Chartres ...................................................................... B. The Sliding Connection of Nature and Scripture ...... B. 1. Physical Exegesis in Thierry of Chartres (d. after 1156) .................................................... B. 2. Exegetical Nature-poetry in Alan of Lille (ca. 1120–1203) ................................................ IV Conclusion ........................................................................ Appendix: Alan of Lille’s Poem De Miseria Mundi ..................
45 45 47 47 51 55 59 59 65 65 71 78 80
viii
contents
Chapter Three Opening the Universe: William of Conches and the Art of Science ........................................................ I William of Conches: Philosopher or Heretic? ................ II The Importance of Plato’s Timaeus for William’s Cosmology ...