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ICS Calendar Title: Matter, Body and Gender in the Thought of Hildegard of Bingen, Bernardus Sylvestris, Alan of Lille and Thomas Aquinas

ICS Course Code: ICS 220403 F11

Instructor: Dr. Robert Sweetman

Term and Year: Tuesdays, 9:30 am-12:30 pm, Fall 2011

Last Updated: August 31, 2011

Course Description

This seminar explores the themes of matter, body and gender in selected works of Hildegard of Bingen, Bernardus Sylvestris, Alan of Lille and Thomas Aquinas.  It uses the way thinkers interlink the themes of structure, genesis and religious dynamic to examine the intersection of Christian understanding, ontology and gender.

Course Requirement

  1.  Per week in-class reading (+/-50 pages).
  2. Weekly formulation of two questions with reading context (passages in text that together give rise to the question in context of the reading as whole) = 25% of grade.
  3. Leadership of one seminar in the course of the term (primed by 4-6 page analysis of text as well as the requisite two questions) = 15% of grade.
  4. 15-25 page (20-30 pages for PhD candidates) research paper on a topic mutually agreed to by senior and junior member (or other student member) alike = 60% of grade.

Required Readings

Thomas Aquinas, Compendium theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles = (selections—78 pages)

Hildegard of Bingen, Liber divinorum operum = The Book of Divine Works (selections—265 pages)

Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae = The Complaint of Nature (160 pages) (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: PA8240 .A5 A6813 1980)

Bernardus Syvestris, Cosmographia = The Marking of Creation (150 pages) (ICS Library Reserve Shelf:PA8275 .B25 C613 1990)

Recommended Readings:

Allen, Prudence.  The Concept of Woman: The Aristotelian Revolution 750 BC-AD 1250.  Montreal: Eden Press, 1985. (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BD450 .A472 1997 v.1)

Allen, Prudence.  The Concept of Woman: Volume II: The Early Humanist Reformation 1250-1500.  Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 2002. (BD450 .A472 1997 v.2)

Chenu, Marie-Dominique.  Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968. (Robarts Library: BT26 .C513)

Dronke, Peter.  Fabula: Explorations into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism.  Leiden: Brill, 1974. (Robarts Library: B732 .D76)

Dronke, Peter.  A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. (Robarts Library: B721 .H58 1988)

Ellard, Peter.  The Sacred Cosmos: theological, Philosophical, and Scientific Conversations in the Early Twelfth-Century School of Chartres.  Scranton PA: University of Scranton Press, 2007. (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BX4629 .C47 E45 2007)

Evans, G.R.  Alan of Lille: The Frontiers of Theology in the Later Twelfth Century.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. (Robarts Library: BX4705 .A435 E9 1983)

Gregory, Tulio.  Anima mundi: La filosopfia di Guglielmo di Conches e la scuola di Chartres.  Florence: G.C. Sansoni, 1955. (St. Michael's College Library: B765 .G954 G7 1955)

Klibansky, Raymond.  The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages.  Munich:  , 1981. (Robarts Library: B395 .K5 1981)

Jeauneau, Édouard.  Rethinking the School of Chartres.  Trans. Claude Paul Desmarais.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. (Robarts Library: B722 .F7 J4313 2009)

Lemoine, Michel and C. Picard-Perra.  Théologie et cosmologie au XIIe siècle. L’École de Chartres: Bernard de Chartres, Guillaume de Conches, Thoerry de Chartres, Clarembaud d’Arras.  Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2004. (Robarts Library: B721 .E26 2004)

Lewis, C.S.  The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. (Robarts Library: PN671 .L4)

Newman, Barbara.  God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry and Belief in the Middle Ages.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. (Robarts Library: PN688 .G65 N49 2003X)

Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. (St. Michael's College Library: BX4700 .H5 V65 1998 ; also available in e-book format through the UTL system)

Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Robarts Library: BX4700 .H5 N48 1987)

Otten, Willemien, “Plato and the Fabulous Cosmology of William of Conches.”  The Winged Chariot: Collected Essays on Plato and Platonism in Honour of L.M. De Rijk.  Eds. Maria Dardaun and Joke Spruyt.  Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.  185-2003. (Robarts Library: B395 .W72 2000)

“Opening the Universe: William of Conches and the Art of Science.”  From Paradise to Paradigm: A Study of Twelfth-Century Humanism.  Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004.  83-128. (Robarts Library: CB354.6 .O88 2004)

Southern, Richard William.  Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe  2 Volumes.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1995, 2001. (Victoria University, Pratt Library: B738 .H8 S68 1995 v.1-2)

Speer, Andreas.  Die entdeckte Natur.  Untersuchungen zu Begründungsversuchen einer ‘scientia naturalis’ im 12. Jahrhundert.  Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995. (Gerstein Library: Q125.2 .S64 1995)

Stock, Brian.  Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century: A Study of Bernard Silvestre.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. (Robarts Library: B765 .B554 S86)

Wetherbee, Winthrop.  Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. (Robarts Library: PA8051 .W45)

Learning Outcomes

  1. Critical understanding of central topics and texts in twelfth and thirteenth century philosophy.
  2. Ability to work with the apparatus of a “problem-historical” approach to the history of philosophy. generally, especially medieval texts as instructive examples.
  3. Ability to think creatively and constructively across the intersection between traditions of thought and a particular philosophical conception.

Matter, Body, and Gender in the Thought of Hildegard of Bingen, Bernardus Sylvestris, Alan of Lille and Thomas Aquinas (Syllabus)

  1. Lecture:  Мυθος and Фιλοσοφια in Plato and the Platonic Tradition as Background to the Themes and Texts of this Seminar

  1. Seminar: Fabula and Integumenta in Twelfth-Century Philosophy

Texts (The English text is required; the French highly recommended):

  1. “Fabula: Critical Theories” in Peter Dronke, Fabula: Explorations into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974) 13-67.
  2. “L’usage de la notion d’integumentum à travers les gloses de Guillaume de Conches” in Édouard Jeauneau, “Lectio Philosophorum” Recherches sur l’École de Chartres (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1973) 127-192.

  1. Bernardus Sylvestris, Cosmographia, bk 1 (Megacosmos)

Text:

  1. Winthrop Wetherbee, ed., The Cosmographia of Bernardus Sylvestris (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990)  65-90.
  2. Bernardus Sylvestris, Cosmographia ed. Peter Dronke (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978) 1.1-4 = 95-120.

  1. Bernardus Sylvestris, Cosmographia, bk 2 (Microcosmos)

Text:

  1. Winthrop Wetherbee, ed., The Cosmographia of Bernardus Sylvestris (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990) 91-127.
  2. Bernardus Sylvestris, Cosmographia, ed. Peter Dronke (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978) 2.1-14 = 121-155.

  1. Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae, I-III

Text:

  1. Alan of Lille, Plaint of Nature, trans. James J. Sheridan (Toronto: PIMS Publications), 1980, I-III = 67-127.
  2. Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae, ed. Nikolaus M. Häring in Studi Medievali 3rd Series 19 (1978): 797-879; I-III = 806-831.

  1. Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae, IV-VI

Text:

  1. Alan of Lille, Plaint of Nature, trans. James J. Sheridan (Toronto: PIMS Publications, 1980), IV-VI = 128-180.
  2. Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae, ed. Nikolaus M. Häring in Studi Medievali 3rd Series 19 (1978): 797-879; IV-VI = 831-857.

  1. Alan of Lille, De planctu nature, VII-IX

Text:

  1. Alan of Lille, Plaint of Nature, trans. James J. Sheridan (Toronto: PIMS Publications, 1980), VII-IX = 181-221.
  2. Alan of Lille, De planctu naturae, ed. Nikolaus M. Häring in Studi Medievali 3rd Series 19 (1978): 797-879; VII-IX = 857-879.

  1. Hildegard of Bingen, Liber divinorum operum, Visions 1-2.

Text:

  1. Matthew Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Co., 1987) 5-55 (abridgement).
  2. Albert Derolez and Peter Dronke, ed., Hildegardis Bingensis Liber divinorum operum, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996) Visions 1-2 = 45-113 (unabridged).

  1. Hildegard of Bingen, Liber divinorum operum, Visions 3-4.

Text:

  1. Matthew Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Co., 1987) 56-148 (abridgement).
  2. Albert Derolez and Peter Dronke, ed., Hildegardis Bingensis Liber divinorum operum, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996) Visions 3-4 = 114-264 (unabridged)

  1. Hildegard of Bingen, Liber divinorum operum, Visions 5-8.

Text:

  1. Matthew Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Co., 1987) 152-209 (abridgement).
  2. Albert Derolez and Peter Dronke, ed., Hildegardis Bingensis Liber divinorum operum, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996) Visions 5-8 = 265-385 (unabridged)

  1. Hildegard of Bingen, Liber divinorum operum, Visions 9-10.

Text:

  1. Matthew Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Co., 1987) 210-266 (abridgement).
  2. Albert Derolez and Peter Dronke, ed., Hildegardis Bingensis Liber divinorum operum, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996) Visions 9-10 = 385-405 (unabridged)

        Closing Contrast: the Aristotelianizing Treatment of Thomas Aquinas

  1. Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology, 68-103.

  1. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 4.79-88.