Authorship and Publicity Before Print : : Jean Gerson and the Transformation of Late Medieval Learning / / Daniel Hobbins.

Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package Complete Collection
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Place / Publishing House:Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2012]
©2009
Year of Publication:2012
Language:English
Series:The Middle Ages Series
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (352 p.) :; 21 illus.
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Description
Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
List of Illustrations and Maps --
Preface --
Introduction --
1. Gerson as Bookman: Prescribing ''the Common School of Theological Truth'' --
2. Justifying Authorship: New Diseases and New Cures --
3. A Tour of Medieval Authorship: Late Works and Poetry --
4. Literary Expression: Logic, Rhetoric, and Scholarly Vice --
5. The Schoolman as Public Intellectual: Implications of the Late Medieval Tract --
6. Publishing Before Print (1): A Series of Publishing Moments --
7. Publishing Before Print (2): From Coterie Readership to Massive Market --
Conclusion --
List of Abbreviations --
Appendix: Gerson Manuscripts in Carthusian and Celestine Monasteries --
Notes --
Selected Bibliography --
Index of Manuscripts --
Index of Works by Gerson --
General Index --
Acknowledgments
Summary:Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as it searches for a compelling narrative to tell the story of his era.Daniel Hobbins argues for a new understanding of Gerson as a man of letters actively managing the publication of his works in a period of rapid expansion in written culture. More broadly, Hobbins casts Gerson as a mirror of the complex cultural and intellectual shifts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In contrast to earlier theologians, Gerson took a more humanist approach to reading and to authorship. He distributed his works, both Latin and French, to a more diverse medieval public. And he succeeded in reaching a truly international audience of readers within his lifetime. Through such efforts, Gerson effectively embodies the aspirations of a generation of writers and intellectuals. Removed from the narrow confines of late scholastic theology and placed into a broad interdisciplinary context, his writings open a window onto the fascinating landscape of fifteenth-century Europe.The picture of late medieval culture that emerges from this study offers neither a specter of decaying scholasticism nor a triumphalist narrative of budding humanism and reform. Instead, Hobbins describes a period of creative and dynamic growth, when new attitudes toward writing and debate demanded and eventually produced new technologies of the written word.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780812202298
9783110413458
9783110413472
9783110459548
DOI:10.9783/9780812202298
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Daniel Hobbins.