Authority and imitation : : a study of the Cosmographia of Bernard Silvestris / / by Mark Kauntze.

• Superior document: Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, Volume 47
• VerfasserIn: Kauntze, Mark,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Mittellateinische Studien und Texte ; Volume 47.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (233 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The Cosmographia is one of the most inventive and enigmatic works of medieval literature. Mark Kauntze argues that this allegory of creation is best understood as a product of the vibrant intellectual culture of twelfth-century France. Bernard Silvestris established the authority of his treatise by imitating those ancient philosophers and poets who were assiduously studied in the contemporary schools. But he also revised and updated them, to develop a compelling intervention into twelfth-century debates about man's place in nature and the relationship between theology and natural science. Using a wealth of manuscript evidence, Kauntze reconstructs the school context in which Bernard worked, and shows how the Cosmographia itself became an object of scholarly annotation and imitation in the later Middle Ages.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 Bernard and the Schools of Tours -- 2 The Science of the Cosmographia -- 3 The Theology of the Cosmographia -- 4 Bernard’s Readers -- Conclusion -- Appendix I: Synopsis of the Cosmographia -- Appendix II: Census of Cosmographia Manuscripts -- Bibliography -- Index of Manuscripts -- General Index.