PETER ABELARD* Principal Works Carmen Ad Astralabium. Edited By
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c Peter King, in The Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 115 (1992): 3–14. PETER ABELARD* Principal Works Carmen ad Astralabium. Edited by J. M. A. Rubingh-Bosscher in Peter Abelard: Carmen ad Astralabium, a Critical Edition. Groningen: phil. diss. Rijksuniversiteit 1987. Collationes a. k. a. Dialogus inter Philosophum, Iudaeum, et Christianum. Edited by Giovanni Orlandi, with introduction, translation, and notes by John Marenbon, in Peter Abelard: Collationes, Oxford University Press 2001. Commentaria in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos. Edited by Eligius M. Buy- taert in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. Corpus christianorum (con- tinuatio mediaevalis) Vol. 11. Brepols: Turnholt 1969, 389–340. Dialectica. Edited by L. M. De Rijk in Petrus Abaelardus: Dialectica, Assen: Van Gorcum 1970 (second edition). Epistolae: Ep. 1 edited by Monfrin (see the entry below for the Historia calamitatum); Epp. 2–5 edited by J. T. Muckle, Mediaeval Studies 15 (1953) 68–94; Epp. 6–7, edited by J. T. Muckle, Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955) 241-281; Ep. 8, edited by T. P. McLaughlin, Mediaeval Studies 18 (1956) 242–297; Epp. 9–14 edited by E. R. Smits in Peter Abelard: Letters IX–XIV, Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit 1983; Ep. 15 edited by Josef Reiners, BGPTM 8 (1910) 63–80; Ep. 16, edited by Victor Cousin and Charles Jourdain, Petri Abaelardi opera Vol. 1 (Paris 1849) 703– 707, corrected against Van Den Eynde, Antonianum 38 (1963) 219; Ep. 17, edited by Charles Burnett, Mittellateinisch Jahrbuch 21 (1986), 152–155; Apologia contra Bernardum (Ne iuxta Boethianum), edited by Eligius M. Buytaert in CCCM 12 359–368; Epistola contra Bernar- dum edited by Raymond Klibansky, Medieval and Renaissance Studies 5 (1961), 1–27; Confessio fidei “Uniuersis” edited by Charles Burnett, Mediaeval Studies 48 (1986), 182–189. Ethica seu Scito teipsum. Edited by R. M. Ilgner in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. Corpus christianorum (continuatio mediaevalis) Vol. 190. Brepols: Turnholt 2001. Expositio orationis dominicae. Edited by Charles Burnett, “Expositio ora- tionis dominicae ‘Multorum legimus orationes”’ in R´evue Benedictine 95 (1985) 60–72. Expositio symboli Apostolorum. Edited by Victor Cousin and Charles Jour- dain, Petri Abaelardi opera Vol. 1 (Paris 1849) 603–615. * The list of Abelard’s works and English translations has been updated (July 2004); the rest of the article remains the same as it was when it was published in 1992. A more philosophical overview can be found online in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abelard/. –1– 2 PETER ABELARD Expositio fidei in symbolum Athanasii. Edited by Victor Cousin and Charles Jourdain, Petri Abaelardi opera Vol. 1 (Paris 1849) 615–617. Hexa¨emeron. Edited by Mary F. Romig in A Critical Edition of Peter Abelard’s “Expositio in Hexa¨emeron”, Doctoral dissertation in His- tory, University of Southern California, January 1981. Historia calamitatum. Edited by Jacques Monfrin in Ab´elard, Historia cala- mitatum: texte et commentaires, J. Vrin: Paris 1974 (fourth edition), 62–109. Hymnarius Paraclitensis. Edited by Chrysogonus Waddell in Hymn Collec- tions from the Paraclete, Vol. 2. Trappist Monastery, Ky.: Gethsemani Abbey (Cistercian Liturgy series) 1987. Introductiones parvulorum. Edited by Mario Dal Pra in Pietro Abelardo: Scritti di logica, Firenze 1969 (second edition). Logica ‘ingredientibus’. LI 1: Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge. Edited by Bernhard Geyer in Beitr¨age zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters 21 (1). Aschendorff: Munster 1919. LI 2: Commentary on Aristotle’s Categories. Edited by Bernhard Geyer in Beitr¨age zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelal- ters 21 (2). Aschendorff: Munster 1921. LI 3: Commentary on Aristo- tle’s De interpretatione. Edited by Klaus Jacobi and Christian Strub, forthcoming in the Corpus christianorum continuatio medievalis. LI 7: Commentary on Boethius’s De topicis differentiis. Edited by Mario Dal Pra in Pietro Abelardo: Scritti di logica, Firenze 1969 (second edition). Logica ‘nostrorum petitioni sociorum’. Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge. Edited by Bernhard Geyer in Beitr¨age zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters 21 (4). Aschendorff: Munster 1933. Planctus. Planctus 1, 4, 6: edited by Peter Dronke, Poetic Individality in the Middle Ages (London 1986). Planctus 2, 5: edited by Giuseppe Vecchi, Pietro Abelardo, I “Planctus” (Modena 1951). Planctus 3: edited by Wolfram von den Steinen, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 4 (1967), 122– 144. There are several modern recordings. Problemata Helo¨ıssae cum Petri Abaelardi solutionibus. Edited by Vic- tor Cousin and Charles Jourdain, Petri Abaelardi opera, Vol. 1 (Paris 1849): 237–294. Sententiae secundum Magistrum Petrum. Edited by Lorenzo Minio-Paluello in Twelfth-Century Logic: Texts and Studies, Vol. 2 (Abaelardiana inedita), Roma 1958. Sermones. Edited by Paola De Santis in I sermoni di Abelardo per le monache del Paracleto, Leuven University Press 2002. (Mediaevalia Lovaniensa ser. 1, studia 31.) Sic et non. Edited by Blanche Boyer and Richard McKeon in Peter Abailard: Sic et Non. A Critical Edition. University of Chicago Press 1977. Soliloquium. Edited by Charles Burnett in “Peter Abelard’s ‘Soliloquium’: A Critical Edition” in Studi Medievali 25 (1984), 857–894. c Peter King, in The Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 115 (1992): 3–14. LIFE 3 Theologia ‘summi boni’. Edited by Eligius M. Buytaert and Constant Mews in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. Corpus christianorum (continuatio mediaevalis). Vol. 13. Brepols: Turnholt 1987. Theologia christiana. Edited by Eligius M. Buytaert in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. Corpus christianorum (continuatio mediaevalis). Vol. 12. Brepols: Turnholt 1969. Theologia ‘scholarium’. Edited by Eligius M. Buytaert and Constant Mews in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica. Corpus christianorum (continuatio mediaevalis). Vol. 13. Brepols: Turnholt 1987. Tractatus de intellectibus. Edited by Patrick Morin in Ab´elard: Des intel- lections. Paris: J. Vrin 1994. Works in English Translation Fairweather, E. R. (1995) A Scholastic Miscellany. Westminster: John Knox Press. Excerpt from Abelard ’s commentary on Romans. King, Peter. (1982) Peter Abailard and the Problem of Universals in the Twelfth Century. Doctoral dissertation in Philosophy, Princeton Uni- versity. Vol. 2 contains a complete translation of Abelard’s Tractatus de intellectibus. Luscombe, David. (1971) Ethics. Oxford University Press. Complete trans- lation of Abelard’s Ethica. Marenbon, John. (2001) Peter Abelard: Collationes. Complete translation of Abelard’s Dialogus. McCallum, James Ramsay. (1948) Abelard ’s Christian Theology. Oxford: Blackwell 1948. Includes substantial selections from Abelard ’s The- ologia christiana. Minnis, A. and Scott, A. B. eds. (1988) Medieval Literary Theory and Crit- icism 1100–1375. Oxford University Press. Includes Abelard ’s preface to the Sic et non. Payer, Pierre. (1979) Peter Abelard: A Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian. Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Publications. Radice, Elizabeth. (1974) The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. New York: Penguin Books. Spade, Paul. (1994). Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. Abelard’s discussion of the problem of universals from his Logica ‘ingredientibus’. Spade, Paul. (1995) Peter Abelard: Ethical Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. Complete translations of Abelard ’s Ethics and Dialogue. Tweedale, Martin and Bosley, Richard. (1997) Issues in Medieval Philoso- phy. Broadview Press. Includes selections from Abelard on foreknowl- edge, universals, and ethics. c Peter King, in The Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 115 (1992): 3–14. 4 PETER ABELARD Life Peter Abelard was the teacher of his generation: preeminent as a philoso- pher, theologian, poet, and musician, he captured the imagination of almost all with whom he came into contact. His fame as a teacher was unequalled; students travelled from all over Europe to hear him speak, crowds of ordi- nary people attended his public lectures wherever he went, and it has been said that he was indirectly responsible for the founding of the University of Paris by creating a permanent ‘deposit’ of students in the city. As a philosopher, he brought the investigation of the “old logic”(logica vetus) to its heights; as a theologian, he championed the use of reason and intellect in matters of faith, putting the word theology into use with the meaning it still has today. In philosophy and theology, Abelard’s constant and unremitting use of the tools of logic or ‘dialectic’—argument, objection, example, coun- terexample, and the like—helped define the Scholastic method, of which an early example is his Sic et non [“Pro and Con” ca. 1117–1128]. As a poet and musician, Abelard was renowned for his verses, both secular and sacred, composed in the vernacular and in Latin. He is responsible for some of the earliest extant pieces of “authored” music. Abelard’s natural talents alone were formidable. Combined with his quick tongue, undeniable brilliance, sharp wit, dialectical acumen, encyclopædic memory, and flavoured with a large dose of arrogance, the force of his personality impressed itself vividly on all his contemporaries. Even his critics and detractors (whom Abelard always referred to as his “enemies”) admitted that he never lost an argu- ment, and only those who avoided debating him could ever gain the upper hand over him.