Mews - in Search of A Name. Thierry-Abaelard

IN SEARCH OF A NAME AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE: A TWELFTH-CENTURY ANECDOTE ABOUT
THIERRY AND PETER ABAELARD

Author(s): CONSTANT J. MEWS
Source: Traditio, Vol. 44 (1988), pp. 171-200
Published by: Fordham University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27831222
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IN SEARCH OF A NAME AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE:

A TWELFTH-CENTURY
ANECDOTE
ABOUT THIERRY
PETER ABAELARD
AND
By CONSTANT J. MEWS
'Abaelard,'
'Abelard,'
'Baiolard'...
were
scribes
Twelfth-century
uncertain
as
of the exact spelling and pronunciation of the famous philosopher's

cognomen as scholars have been inmore recent centuries.1 Trivial as itmight
seem, correct pronunciation provides the key to understanding a short anec
dote copied onto the opening folio of a twelfth-century manuscript
(ms
Clm. 14160 = M),
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
formerly belonging to
the Benedictine
of
St.
It
tells the reader that
Emmeran,
abbey
Regensburg.2
the peripatetic philosopher wanted to supplement his studies of the trivium by
1 D.
E.
lists thirty-seven medieval

Luscombe
forms of the name
in The School
of Peter
on in an epilogue
to this
(Cambridge
1969) 315. More recent spellings are commented
The
abbreviations
will be used:
following
supplementary
Abelard
study.
AHDLMA
Archives
BGPTMA?Beitr?ge
?
Commentaries
d'histoire
et litt?raire du moyen
?ge
der Philosophie
und der Theologie
des Mittelalters
on Boethius
and his School
by Thierry
of Chartres
(ed.
doctrinale
zur Geschichte
Commentaries
Toronto
H?ring;
1971)
?
Commentum
Commentum
super Boethii
57-116
?
MABK
Mittelalterliche
Bibliothekskataloge
?
(Munich 1918
?
RT AM
Recherches
librum
de
trinitate,
Deutschlands
ed.
H?ring,
und der Schweiz,
TSch?Theologia
ed. P.
Lehmann
)
de
et m?di?vale
th?ologie ancienne
cm 12; Turnhout
Christiana
CCL
(ed. E. M. Buytaert,
'Scholarium'
and C. J. Mews,
CCL
(edd. E. M. Buytaert
Tchr?Theologia
Commentaries
1969)
cm 13; Turnhout
1987).
I would
draw
like to thank
on the extensive
J. S. Barrow,
microfilm
C. S. F. Burnett,
collection
built
and D. E. Luscombe
for being able to
of Sheffield under the
up at the University
the fruits of their research
in
of
Checklist
Trust.
aegis of the Leverhulme
They summarise
the Manuscripts
of Peter Abelard
and Heloise
and of Other Works
Writings
Containing
and his School,' Revue d'histoire des textes 14-15
with Abelard
Closely Associated
(1984-85)
on all the manuscripts
183-302.
Further
information
mentioned
in this article can be found
in this checklist.
I am also grateful to C. S. F. Burnett
on many parts of this
for his comments
and for information
Adelard
of Bath.
paper
concerning
2 An
form of the text was
first published
anecdotorum
incomplete
by B. Pez, Thesaurus
novissimus
III.l
in
turn
J.-A.
et
Bibliotheca
mediae
xxii,
Fabricius,
(Paris
1721)
copied by
in PL
and with discussion
178.57-58,
infimae Latinitatis
1734) 232, by J.-P. Migne
(Hamburg
by R. L. Poole, Ulustrations
of theHistory
ofMedieval
Thought and Learning
(London
1884)
a complete
L. H?dl
text without
363-66;
(2nd ed. London
1920) 313-15.
any
published
inDie Geschichte der scholastischen Literatur und der Theologie der
commentary
Schl?sselgewalt,
pt.
1 (BGPTMA
38.4;
M?nster
1960)
78.
172
TRADITIO
but then found the

following the lectures of master Thierry on mathematics,
name
'Baiolard'
because he was
the
Peter
too
difficult.
Thierry gave
subject
like a greedy dog who had eaten his fill yet still wanted to lick (given as the
The word
meaning of baiare) lard, here used as an image of the quadrivium.
lardum may itself be a pun on artium. The story-teller goes on to claim that
to 'Abelard' ('have-lard')
because he
'Baiolard'
('lick-lard')
changed
came to master geometry and arithmetic. The patent absurdity of a number of
?
such as, that Abelard was an Englishman or that he
details in this anecdote
?
has led most scholars to dismiss the story
wrote on geometry and arithmetic
Peter
as a spurious invention.3 In this study I shall examine whether there are any
historical insights to be gained from the anecdote, the text of which is given
here with an attempt at a translation. The full flavour of the Latin is best
if the story is read aloud:
appreciated
Petrus
qui
abelardus.
plerisque
mum grammatice et dialetice.
memorie,
inaudite
subtilitatis.
inestimande
dicitur.
baiolardus
sensuum
quadam
illius
audire,
anglicus.
attamen
pri
Sed cum esset

hum?num
supra
capacitatis
cepit eum cum exfestucatione4
auditor aliquando magistri Roscii.
modum.
natione
hinc diuinitati operam dedit.
sibi
imperauit
ut per
annum
lectioni
ipsius interesset. Mox ergo socios habere, et parisiis palam dialetice

atque diuinitatis lectiones dare cepit. et facile omnes franci? magistros in
breui superuenit. Qui cum de quadriuio nichil audisset. clam magistro Tirrico
bus
in quasdam
aures
lectiones
mathematicas
dabat.
in quibus
supra
existi
quam
maret optentu difficultatis intellectus resiliebat audientis. Cui semel afflicto et

indignanti per iocum magister tirricus ait. Quid canis plenus nisi lardum
baiare consueuit. Baiare autem lingere est.5 Exinde baiolardus appellari cepit.
ex defectu
nomen
Quod
tanquam
non dissimili
literatura
tium
3 The
Chartres,'
apud
se summam
has
episode
inMedieval
been
in Recueil
et adipem.
cum abdicaret.
sibi impositum
quodam
se nominari
fecit,
quasi
qui haberet
se usque
Nam
adeo
processu
temporis
in 'Humanism
to by R. W.
Southern
and the School
of
at 81-82,
and Other Essays
and R.
(Oxford
1971) 61-85
in Twelfth-Century
of Chartres,'
and
the Foundations
Europe
of
G. Post,
and R. Reynolds
at 12.
Clagett,
(Madison
1961) 3-14
was
in 'Une ?pitaphe
in?dite de Thierry
expressed
by A. Vernet
. 2,
?
Brunei
2
at
Clovis
660-70
repr. in
(Paris 1955)
offerts
Luscombe
in Peter Abelard's
Ethics
1981) 160-70, and by David
is bajulare, meaning
Niermeyer
minus
1976) 77; baiula
(Leiden
'to care
is defined
1.522. The
Cange
for' or 'to watch
over,'
as a nurse
nearest
inMediae
inMittellateinisches
term given
Latinitatis
have
redundant
here.
A dative
rather
than
an ablative
lardo makes
more
additional
been
by J. F.
lexicon
I (Munich
W?rterbuch
1967) 1313.
de seems
[de]6
alluded
m?di?vales
(Paris
1971) xliv n. 4.
(Oxford
4
or 'abandonment.'
'renunciation'
Literally
5 This
is the only use of baiare cited by Du
The
ar
de travaux
his ?tudes
6 The
sub
Humanism
'The School
Klibansky,
Modern
edd. M.
Society,
its value
regarding
Scepticism
de Chartres,'
habelardum
de might have been copied mistakenly

the preceding
by misreading
taken down from faulty dictation;
it may hide another pun
alternatively
lardus.
sense.
adeo
on Ade
or
173
ABAELARD
lardo quadriuio potenter intromisit. ut nos opera illius de geometricis et arith
meticis
subtilitatibus
usque
hodie
plura
uideamus.
Peter, who is called 'Abelard' and by many 'Baiolard' and is English by birth,
first applied himself to grammar and to dialectic, and then to divinity. But
he was
since
someone
of an unbelievable
intelligence,
an
unsurpassed
memory,
lectures
of master
and superhuman capacity, being at one time a pupil ofmaster Roscius [Rosce
lin of Compi?gne], he began to listen to him with a certain lack of concentra
tion. Nevertheless, he [Roscelin] ordered him to attend his lectures for a whole
year. As a result, he [Peter] soon began to have pupils of his own and to give
lectures on dialectic and divinity openly inParis, and in a short time he easily
outstripped all the teachers of France. Since he had heard nothing about the
quadrivium,
he
secretly
followed
certain
mathematical
Thierry, fromwhich the intellect of the listener recoiled, under the guise that
itwas more difficult than imagined. Master Thierry once said as a joke to him
when he [Peter] was disheartened and put out: 'What has a full dog been used
to other than to lick [baiare] lard ?' For baiare is to lick. From then on he
[Peter] began to be known as 'Baiolard' [= 'lick-lard']. Since he rejected this
name, given to him as if from a failing, he had himself called 'Habelard' [=
'have-lard'], not dissimilar in letters, as he had mastered the entirety and the
fat [adipem, word play on apicem or peak] of the arts. For in the course of
time, he introduced himself mightily to the lard of the quadrivium to such a
great extent that we see many works of his on the subtleties of geometry and
arithmetic right up to the present day.
of this story is based on historical fact ? The first detail needing
is the correct spelling and pronunciation of Peter's cognomen.
scholars of referring to him as 'Abelard'
among English-speaking
How much
to be elucidated
The
habit
the force of the joke about 'Baiolard.'

unfortunately weakens
Twice within the Dial?ctica Peter comments on his cognomen to argue that a
word is a human construct with no intrinsic meaning beyond that established
those utterances are to be considered [as part of logic]
by convention: Only
which signify by convention, that is, according to the will of the imposer, and
which, having been formed at will by men, are retained for constituting human
has
expressions and imposed for designating things, as the word "Abaelardus"
been allocated to me so that through it, my substance can be referred to.'7
Elsewhere
referred by convention
7 Petrus
Abaelardus.
igitur solas
oportet
uidelicet
nentis,
que
he observes that until the present 'Abaelardus'

to himself alone, and not to any common substance.8
in the Dial?ctica
2nd ed. Assen

1970) 114: 'Eas [sc. voces]
(ed. L. M. de Rijk;
hoc
est
voluntatem
secundum
ad
que
significant,
impo
placitum
formate ad humanas
locutiones
constituendas
libuit ab hominibus
Dial?ctica
exequi
prout
ut hoc vocabulum
ideo
Abaelardus
michi
imposite,
reperte et ad eas res designandas
mea
est ut per ipsum de substantia
collocatum
agatur.'
8 Ibid. 566:
voces unius tantum
"commune"
'Quod autem
singularis
supposuit
[Boetius]
ut Abaelardus,
arbitror.'
convenire
substantie
quod michi uni adhuc
separavit,
designativas
sunt
174
traditio
In the single surviving manuscript of this text (ms Paris, BN lat. 14614, fols.
127v and 196v), 'Abaelardus' is spelt with a and e as separate vowels, as in aer,
Michael or Israel. This is the spelling of his signature in a copy of a charter of
du Ronceray,
Notre-Dame
drawn up
Angers,
1128.9
in his presence
on 15 March
is the most frequently found spelling in the manuscript tradi

as
both
Duchesne
and Geyer observed.10 It is never spelt with a cedilla
tion,
underneath the e. One finds '[magistri] Petri Abaelardi' with ae as a double
vowel in rubrics to manuscripts of his glosses on Porphyry and Aristotle,11 the
'Abaelardus'
intellectibus,12 the Sic et Non,13 the Theologia1* his commentary on the

Epistle to the Romans,15 the Expositio inHexameron (in a manuscript probably
the Historia
copied in part by Abaelard himself),16 the Problemata Heloissae17
De
calamitatum
and
correspondence
with Heloise,18
and
a number
of smaller
works.19
9 The
on the front cover of Ab?lard
en son temps. Actes du colloque
is reproduced
signature
de Pierre Ab?lard
international organis? ? l'occasion du 9e centenaire de la naissance
(14-18 mai
Paris
from
H 351,
Jean
Archives
Jolivet;
1981)
1979) (ed.
Loire-Atlantique,
d?partementales
III
Archives
d'Anjou
pi?ce 1. The charter is edited by P. Marchegay,
453.
10 A.
Not
ad Hist?ri?m
in P?tri Abaelardi...
Duchesne,
Calamitatum,
eius...
repr.
Opera
(Paris 1616) 1141-42,
into 'Abaelardus'
'Abaelardus'
Duchesne's
in Peter
spelling
21.1; M?nster
11 ms
Milan,
Abaelards
in ms Paris,
glosses
philosophische
. 1.
1919)
Biblioteca
BN
has
Abelardo
13 mss
Kk
3.24,
been
e il 'Tractatus
Civica
289 no.
etHeloiss
coniugis
178 changed
printers of PL
on the correct
comments
Geyer
The
B.
by mistake.
1.
Die
Schriften
Logica
'Ingredientibus'
(BGPTMA
M 63 sup., fols. 1, 15v, 16, 43v, 44; see also the briefer
fols. 128, 146, 156. All manuscripts
cited are of the twelfth
stated.
mun.
reaffirmed
Brescia,
178.1 13ab.
1854)
ambrosiana
lat. 13368,
century unless otherwise

12 ms
Bibl.
Avranches,
work
in PL
(Angers
de
135,
and
fol. 64,
its text
intellectibus'
Biblioteca
fol. 67v, from Christ
(Rome
Queriniana
Church,
from Mont-St-Michel.
re-edited
Urbani
by Lucia
103-27.
1976)
A.V.21,
Canterbury;
The
fol. 17; Cambridge

Archivia
Montecassino,
11 A.V,
British
277 (saec. xm);
London,
Library,
Royal
14 ms
Preussischer
Staatsbibliothek
Kulturbesitz,
Berlin,
fol. 73,
theol.
of this
authenticity
di
La psicologia
Ulivi,
University
Library
della Badia
174, p.
from Merton,
lat. oct.
95,
Surrey.
fol. 64, from
of Cambrai
'Summi boni').
diocese
Hautmont,
(Theologia
15 ms
68, fol. 36.
Angers, Bibl. mun.
16 ms
Bibl. mun.
135, fol. 75, from Mont-St-Michel.
Avranches,
one
of the
three
Critical
Edition
California
17 ms
Paris,
18 mss
argues that
Mary Romig
the
in
Hexameron
is
that
of
Abaelard:
copied
Expositio
in Hexameron'
of Peter Abelard's
of Southern
Expositio
(diss. University
lxxxv-cxviii.
1981)
BN
hands
which
lat.
14511,
Bibl.
mun.
fol. 44v
(saec. xv).
fol. 1 (saec. xm/xiv);
C 271, fol. 76 (saec.
lat. 2923, fol. 1 (saec. xm);

Paris, BN
Add.
See J. Monfrin, Pierre Ab?lard,
Library,
xiv).
Historia
calamitatum
1959) 1-24.
(Paris
19
in ms Oxford, Bodleian
'Universis'
Canon. Pat.
lat. 171, fol.
E.g., Confessio
fidei
Library,
in mss Paris, BN
lat. 2445a,
fol. 35; BN
lat. 1447,
222v; letter 11 ( on the identity of St. Denis)
Oxford,
Troyes,
Bodleian
802,
175
abaelard
It is the spelling given in the largest extant collection of his theological

writings (ms Oxford, Balliol College 296), containing the Theologia, Scito teip
of the
sum, Collationes, and commentary on Romans.20 The best manuscript
of Saint-Thierry and Bernard of Clairvaux relating
correspondence ofWilliam
to Abaelard preserves the same orthography.21 The great majority of manu
scripts with the spelling ae come from northern France.
an ae in twelfth-century manuscripts
indicates two distinct syllables is
name in verse, as noted
evident from the way in which poets scan Abaelard's
both
and
The
Poole
of
the
Goliae is only
by
Geyer.
example
Metamorphosis
That
one of many which
could be quoted:
Celebrum theologum uidimus Lumbardum

cum
Yvone,
Petrum,
Helyam
et Bernardum
quorum opobalsamum spirat os et nardum

et professi plurimi sunt Abaelardum.22
a consonantal
Sometimes
the
is used to divide the a and e, but this does not affect
scansion.
The pronunciation
suggested by poetic testimony is corroborated indirectly
the
variations
of spelling in manuscripts
from outside northern
by
myriad
France. The variations in orthography reflect different ways of transcribing
the same underlying phonetic structure. A brief excerpt from Abaelard's
tentie in a late twelfth-century manuscript
from G?ttweig (ms Vienna,
in theologia
cvp 998, fol. 177) is introduced as 'Petrus abaielardus
Sen
?NB
sua.'
is also the spelling in a thirteenth-century manuscript of the Sic

etNon from Tegernsee
Staatsbibliothek
Clm. 18926,
(ms Munich, Bayerische
fol. 14v) and in a fourteenth-century fragment of that work.
'Abaialardus'
'Abaielardus'
occurs in twelfth-century copies of the Sententie (ms Pavia, Biblioteca Univer

sitaria, Aldini 49, fol. 73), of the Sic etNon and five sermons from Einsiedeln
(ms Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek 300, pp. 1, 74), and in two related late twelfth
of the Theologia
'Scholarium' from the abbey of Anchin
century manuscripts
mun.
an unknown English house (ms Lon
Bibi.
fol.
and
Douai,
357,
(ms
108)
nouv.
fol. 17; BN
lat. 288,
Reg.
199.
20 Fols.
acq.
lat. 1509,
fol. 63v; Carmen
fol. 16; Planctus
ad Astralabium
Biblioteca
Jephta in ms Vatican,
Apostolica,
in ms London,
British Library, Burney
216, p.
The opening page of the ms, which might have carried an

61, 80, 161 (saec. xiv).
is missing.
attribution
for the Theologia
'Scholarium,'
21 ms
Bibl. mun.
from William's
of Signy.
Charleville-Mezi?res,
67, fols. 72v-132,
abbey
22
aus
Goliae
ed.
R.
C.
B.
Handschriften,'
'Metamorphosis
episcopi, Mitteilungen
Huygens,
at 771. The
two mss of the poem differ in their
3e ser. 3 (1962)
764-72
Studi Medievali
spellings:
ab ab aelardum
Philosophische
Schriften
[sic]; abaielardum
. 1.
H.
See Poole,
Illustrations
313-15
and Geyer,
176
traditio
read 'Abailar
don, British Library, Royal 8 A.I, fol. 3).23 Some manuscripts
dus,' but these do not match those with 'Abaelardus' in authority or number.24
i is replaced with an h ('abahelardus')
in the title of certain
The consonantal
verses on the Blessed
Virgin
in ms M?ns,
Biblioth?que
publique
25/118
(fol.
52v).25
found in
A similar pronunciation is intended by the form 'petri aBaGelardi,'
a mid-twelfth-century manuscript of the Expositio
inHexameron
(ms Copenha
gen, Kongelige bibliotek e don. var. 138 4?, fol. 9), belonging to the Cistercian
in the diocese of Lund.26 The majuscule
house of Herrevad,
G here indicates
the same guttural sound as used for 'Apulegius,'
in this manuscript.
In a reportatio of Abaelard's
first half of the twelfth century to the margin
London, British Library, Cotton Faustina

as
variously
23 On
'abagelardus.'
of an Anglo-Saxon
text (ms
fol. 151), master P. is qualified
Its
copyist
follows
practice
scribes of the early twelfth century who use a g to denote the sound
of English
mento
and
'abagel.,'
'abag.,'
A X,
the spelling consistently used

ethical teaching added in the
P?tri Abaielardi
'Tractatus Magistri
de Sacra
fragment, see J. S. Barrow,
a comment made
40 (1984) 328-36.
Abaielardus
Traditio
introduces
after q.
non prosunt infidelibus, found only in a Monte
etNon, Quod opera misericordie
the Turin
altaris,'
141 of the Sic
.
della Badia
174) of the Sic et Non
(Archivio
(edd.
Boy er and R. McKeon;
to this ms, as well as to
609-10.
The Turin
fragment is related textually
it is the closest), and Einsiedeln.
Brescia
The common
(to which
exemplar
of these mss seems to have been Abaelard's
personal workbook,
containing
heavily annotated
cassino
ms
1976-77)
Chicago
those from Tours,
and Theologia
to Italy by
Christiana, a copy of which was brought
copies of the Sic etNon
friend of Abaelard
and later Pope
II. See Mews,
Cardinal
Celestine
'Peter
Guy of Castello,
Abelard's
Christiana
and Theologia
"Scholarium"
RTAM
52 (1985)
Re-examined,'
Theologia
at 148-49.
111-59
24 mss
Tours, Bibl.
mun. 85, fol. 106, introducing

the Sic etNon;
lat. 7493, fol.
Paris, BN
Universit?tsbibliothek
168, introducing
71,
glosses on the De differentiis topicis; Heidelberg,
fol. 145v (a letter against Bernard);
Indiana University
Bloomington,
Library, Poole ms frag
ment 99 (two lines from the Carmen
ad Astralabium);
British Library, Add. 22287,
London,
fol. 128 ('versus magistri
P?tri
(group B) of Otto of Freising's
Simson;
Hannover
later recension.
25 The
poem
16565,
Cambrai.
fol. 59
The
edited
in Petri
has
'Abaiolardus,'
maria
The oldest manuscripts
vergine').
I Imperatoris
1.48 (edd. G. Waitz
and B. de
but the editors adopted
'Abailardus'
from a
from this 13th-century

ms and ms Paris, BN
lat.
are from the region of
I (Paris
Opera
1849) 330. Both
the attribution
'abellardi'
in ms Douai,
Bibl. mun. 825, fol. 140
by V.
Abaelardi
same poem
de sancta
Gesta Frederici
68 read
1912)
was
Abailardi
Cousin
in ms London,
British Library Add.
fol. 128 (from the
22287,
(from Anchin)
of
diocese
of
Celestine
The
obiit
Offemont,
Sainte-Croix,
Soissons).
priory
entry 'a.d. mcxlii
occurs at the end of a late 13th- or early 14th-century
Petrus Abahelardi
perypateticus'
copy
cen
of Abaelard's
in the mid-fourteenth
lat. 2544) belonging
correspondence
(ms Paris, BN
see
to
master
Jacobus
de
Historia
20.
Gantis;
Monfrin,
calamitatum,
tury
26 On the Herrevad
occurs twice
lviii-lxv.
The reading Apulegius
ms, see Romig, Expositio
on fol. 14 (PL
178.752c).
and
'abailardi'
177
abaelard
3> forwhich there was no direct equiv
previously denoted by the Anglo-Saxon

alent in continental script.27
form of the cognomen occurs in manuscripts

from Germany and
A mid-twelfth-century
the
of
'Stimmi
bonV from the
copy
Theologia
Cistercian abbey of Heilsbronn
in the diocese of Eichst?tt (ms Erlangen, Uni
versit?tsbibliothek
182, fol. 27 = E) begins with lavish praise of its author in
the opening rubric: 'Incipiunt capitula librorum de trinitate magistri petri,
Another
Austria.
clarissimi atque doctissimi uiri, cognomento adbaiolardi.'28

In a catalogue of
the library of Pr?fening, Regensburg, drawn up in 1165, Wolfger noted that
was one of the many modern authors represented in the
'Petrus Baiolardus'
?
library
alongside Hugh of Saint-Victor, Gratian, Rupert of Deutz, and Peter
Lombard,
among many others.29 Wolfger specified that the library owned a
codex containing 'Sententie Petri baiol. et liber eius qui dicitur Scito teipsum
et sent. m. Hugonis
in uno uolumine.' This manuscript was very similar to,
cannot
be
identified
with, Clm. 14160 (M), which contains the anecdote
though
cited at the beginning of this study.30 The same scribe who copied this anec
dote composed the rubrics 'sentencie magistri Petri Abelardi'

(fol. lv) and 'liber
Petri
Abelardi
dicitur
Scito
magistri
qui
teipsum' (fol. 39v).31 The script and
27
the Cotton
On
ms,
see N.
1957) 194-96, who

to David
Luscombe
(Oxford
grateful
on these
logical commentary
ambivalences
socio-culturelles:
au
(ive session)
given.
28 H.
tung
29
(Spicilegium
Fischer, Katalog
I. Die
lateinischen
G.
Ker,
Catalogue
of Manuscripts
Containing
Anglo-Saxon
the hand to the first quarter
of the twelfth century.
I am
and Charles Burnett
for a transcription
of this gloss. For philo
see Cecily Clark,

et ses
changes,
'L'Angleterre
anglo-normande
Un coup d' uil de philologue,'
Les mutations
socio-culturelles
si?cles. Actes du colloque
international
du CNRS.
Anselmien
?tudes
tournant des xf-xif
nes
R.
dates
Becker,
Beccense
2; Paris
der Handschriften
Catalogi
entries
Munich
1977) 422. These
Kloster Pr?fening
im 12. Jahrhundert
1975) 74, 91-92.

30 Both Mss are
again
detail
in a catalogue
of 1449/52 (MABK
in Peter Abelard's
listed
in catalogues
by Luscombe,
crept into the opening
Staatsbibliothek
Clm.
Bayerische
cognomen
lardi.'
31
Under
Summa
claustro
animae
claustralibus.'
works
the heading
Senlentiarum,
Pr?fening
be referring toM
in deutschen
references
are
Neubearbei
Erlangen.
I 202-203.
1928)
4 (ed. C. E.
(Bonn
1885) 209 and MABK
are re-edited and discussed
in detail by H.-G.
Bavarica
Munich
Monacensia;
(Miscellanea
(Erlangen
of 1347
28363,
fol. 4):
magistri
from works
'Incipit
Hugonis'
of Hugh
liber magistri
of Hugh
of Fouilloy
(| 1172/73), here
latter text, not mentioned
by Wolfger
petri abelardi
uel baio
the
together on fols. 68-157
Ivo of Chartres., and the De
M
groups
of St-Victor,
The
of Baiolard
Kloster
further
4.1.431
and 4.1.157).
M, mentioned
(MABK
and 1500 (MABK
is described
in
4.1.172)
4.1.193),
over the spelling of the
Ethics
xli-xliv.
Uncertainty
rubric of a 15th-century
copy from Tegernsee
(ms Munich,
'Sententie
extracts
where
99-110,
der Universit?tsbibliothek
Pergamenthandschriften
bibliothecarum
antiqui
Ineichen-Eder;
Schmitz,
1984)
entitled
'Liber
as found within
domini
de
Hugonis
the ms containing
occurs
and Hugo,
in another manuscript
cited in the catalogue:
Schmitz,
H. Weisweiler
could not
reported the opinion of L. Ott that Wolfger
von Laon und Wilhelm
in Das
von
Schrifttum der Schule Anselms
Champeaux
91-92.
Bibliotheken
(BGPTMPA
33.1-2;
M?nster
1936)
27.
178
traditio
suggest that itwas copied at Pr?fening in either the late third

or the .early fourth quarter of the twelfth century.32 M had passed to the
neighbouring abbey of St. Emmeran by the late twelfth century, when the
ofM
decoration
inscription Emmerammum was added over an erasure on its flyleaf.

The spelling 'Baiolardus' or a variant on this is often found inmanuscripts
belonging to Benedictine houses inAustria. Admont owned a copy (ms Prince
Sententie textually
ton, University Library, R. Garrett 169 = A) of Abaelard's
on
to
in
that
fol.
83
the
title
'Sententie
M, bearing
given by Wolfger:
superior
St. Peter, Salzburg, possessed a

'Sententie Petri Bailardi,'34 as did the canons of St.
The
Petri Baiolardi.'33
magistri
Erzabtei
containing
manuscript
Nicolas, Passau
(ms Munich,
Clm. 16085, unat

Staatsbibliothek
Bayerische
introduces Abaelard's Collatio
tributed). The rubric 'Dial?gus Petri Baiolardi'
nes or dialogue of a philosopher with a Jew and a Christian in a manuscript
fromKlosterneuburg
(ms Vienna, ?NB cvp 998, fol. 151).35 The initial a is not
is enlarged in a rubric introducing some unpublished
'Versus
elided, but the
in laudem crucis' in a twelfth-century manuscript
Petri aBaiolardi
(now ms
in a
cvp 143, fol. 12). Another copy of these verses ismentioned
ofWalderbach
(diocese of Begensburg)
compiled in 1511/12.36 The
?NB
Vienna,
catalogue
32 A. Boeckler
observed
He
Munich,
compared
Clm. 14042
in identifying M
the decoration
of initials
and
Clm.
14051.
inM
and
to that
in two other Pr?fening

copied by one Ysingrinus,
latter was
The
mss,
now
under
the
is not unlike that of an important

scientific ms
script ofM
(1149-77).
of its contents
(Munich, Clm. 13021; see n. 72 below), which because
(the Tole
was probably
in particular)
1170.
copied not before
The
of Adalbert
abbacy
of Pr?fening
other manuscripts
of Pr?fening
in
.Jahrhunderts
(Munich
1924) 81, 120,
ms (and hence datable
with Wolfger's
to before
Buchmalerei
Regensburger-Pr?feninger
he was mistaken
although
1165).
between M
des
the similarities
Die
dan Tables
33 Its
ms, now Oxford, Bodleian
script is similar to that of another Admont
Library,
Lyell
as E. The Sententie
inM and A were attributed
from the same exemplar
to
49 (L), descended
a supposed
called Hermann
'Die Sentenzenb?cher
der
by H. Ostlender,
disciple of Abaelard
Schule
Abaelards,'
mannus'
is cited
another
recension,
not
work
Quartalschrift
Theologische
as a name within examples
in better mss).
of any Hermann,
has been
re-edited
I argue
in 'The Sententie
by Sandro
117 (1936) 208-52,

of future propositions
that the Sententie

of Peter
Buzzetti,
Abaelard,'
Sententie
on the grounds
report
RTAM
magistri
Petri
1983).
manni)
(Florence
34
237 n. 211.
Becker,
Catalogi
35 See too an
a semet compositum,'
Petri Baiolardi
'Epitaphium
Abelard
and Heloise
thek C 58, fol. 5V, discussed
by Peter Dronke,
(where
the lectures
53
that
'Petrus'
(1986)
Abelardi
ms Z?rich,
inMedieval
'Her
occurs
131-84.
The
(Sententie Her
Zentralbiblio
Testimonies
(Glasgow 1976) 37, 47-50.
On
in
of Abaelard,
36 'Versus
Petri Baiolardi
valde boni' are listed at Walderbach
in MABK
4.1.561.
magistri
see
in
this
of
the diffusion of Abaelard's
the
Peter
'Zur
Classen,
part
writings
Empire,
Geschichte
der Fr?hscholastik
in ?sterreich
und Bayern,'
Mitteilungen
des Instituts
f?r ?ster
ABAELARD
179
abbey of Engelberg (diocese of Constance) owned certain 'Excerpta auctorita

tum a Petro Baiulardo
collecta,' presumably the Sic etNon, according to a
catalogue drawn up before 1178.37
This survey of different twelfth-century spellings of the cognomen shows
that in northern France the most widely used form was 'Abalardus.' Outside
this region scribes rendered a name pronounced as 'Aba'elardus' in a variety of
ways. The form 'Baiolardus,' attributed in the anecdote to master Thierry,
occurs mainly in manuscripts
from religious houses along the Danube
and its
no
tributaries. To my knowledge,
twelfth-century manuscript other than M
supplies
the form 'Abelardus.'
The
is ostensibly to explain the derivation of two

'Baiolard' and 'Abelard.' The story also
?
personality
notably that he was ambi
function of the anecdote
imagined forms of the cognomen,

hints at certain aspects of Peter's
tious, yet easily frustrated and at times depressed. The information that Abae
lard began to get bored as a pupil of Roscelin
introduces a similar story about
his inability to follow the lectures of Thierry. The comparison of 'Baiolard' to
a well-fed dog used to licking up more lard than necessary is a caustic comment
on an insatiable intellectual appetite which seemed to over-run natural capa
city. The pun on 'have-lard' itself contains another play on words, impossible
to translate, which suggests that he mastered the sum and the 'fat' of the arts
If the Latin is read aloud, it become
(artium apud se summ?m et adipem).
that adipem is used to evoke apicem, so as to refer to both fat or lard

the
quadrivium) and a physical summit. There may also be another
(namely,
on
artium
and lardum. Peter's achievement inmastering these disciplines
play
is quoted as proof of his outstanding intelligence, mentioned at the beginning
apparent
Can any historical credence be attached to the text, which

relates episodes not mentioned at all in the Historia calamitatum, or is it to be
confined to the realm of unsubstantiated
fantasy?
of the anecdote.
We
pupil
know
only surviving letter that Abaelard had been his

but not that the friction between the
to early manhood,'
from Roscelin's
'from boyhood
von Peter Clas

67 (1959) 249-77,
repr. in Ausgew?hlte
Aufs?tze
Geschichtsforschung
sen (Sigmaringen
1983) 279-306.
37 MABK
occurs
in ms
1.32. An early list 'He sunt hereses petri baylardi
pauce de multis'
a
Petri
attribution
from
fol.
173
?NB
Vienna,
cvp 998,
G?ttweig;
14th-century
'Theologia
is almost
in ms Cologne,
extracts
of the Sententie
to 12th-century
totally erased
Baylardi'
reichische
Historisches
Archiv
4?
137,
fol.
1.
180
TRADITIO
two men went back to this early period.38 According

started to teach in reaction to his master's demand
to the anecdote, Abaelard

that he remain a student
for another year. This kaleidoscoping of events is not so far from the truth. In
calamitatimi Abaelard minimises
any debt to other teachers,
because this is not part of his theme:
began to travel about in several
the Historia
provinces disputing, like a true peripatetic philosopher, wherever I heard there

was a keen interest in dialectic' He then came to Paris to study with William
of Champeaux, but after a while started to question the opinions of his master
and began to teach himself.39 Like Otto of Freising, the author of the anecdote
recognised that Abaelard's
principal teacher was Roscelin.40 Their testimony
corrects The misleading perspective provided by the Historia

calamitatum.
no
a
other
evidence
confirms
that
Abaelard
had
had
serious argu
Although
ment with Roscelin in his youth or that he had left his teacher after refusing to
remain for another year, such an episode helps explain the evolution of Abae
lard's early career and thinking about logic. He went to study in Paris, having
mastered
William's
Abaelard
the subject matter under a teacher known to be quite opposed to

realist views. Such initial tutelage would
inevitably have made
critical ofWilliam
from the outset. Whereas
in the Dial?ctica Abae
lard expressed frequent disagreement with the realist opinions of 'our teacher'
only once did he allude to Roscelin, and he did so then
(likely to be William),
to mock him for holding an 'insane opinion' about the relationship between
parts and a whole.41 The tone which Roscelin adopts towards his former pupil,
whom he charges with gross ingratitude, is no less vitriolic. His criticism of
38
ed. J. Reiners,
ad Abaelardum,
Die
Nominalismus
in der Fr?hscholastik
Epistola
8; M?nster
1910) 63: 'Si christianae
quam habitu
religionis dulcedinem,
(BGPTMA
ipso praefe
tui ordinis tuaeque
immemor et bene
rebas, vel tenuiter d?gustasses,
nequ?quam
professionis
ad iuvenem
tibi tot et tanta a puero usque
sub magistri
et actu
nomine
ficiorum, quae
ecclesia vel Locensis,
ubi ad pedes meos
.'; (p. 65:) 'Neque vero Turonensis
exhibui, oblitus..
tui discipulorum
magistri
cus sum, extra mundum
minimus
tarn diu resedisti,
sunt, quae me
omnes
aut Bizuntina
et venerantur
ecclesia,
et fovent
libenter accipiunt.'
studio
39
. 43 below.
ed. Monfrin
Historia
calamitatum,
64; see
40
I Imperatoris
1.48 (edd. Waitz
Gesta Frederici
and de Simson
41
ed. de Rijk 554-55.
A similar criticism of Roscelin's
Dial?ctica,
in quibus
et, quae
69).
logic ismade
dico,
canoni
discendi
in letter
14
to the bishop
of Paris, Peter Abelard,
Letters IX-XIV
Smits; Groningen
(ed. Edm?
1983)
279-80.
The best study on Roscelin
is still F. Pica vet, Roscelin
et th?ologien, d'apr?s
philosophe
l'histoire (2nd ed. Paris
la l?gende et d'apr?s
I argue
that
1911).
'magister noster'
(often
identified as V. and once as W.)
is the same person, namely William
of Champeaux,
in 'On
AHDLMA
53 (1985)
at 85.
73-134
In the gloss on
of univer
up two major
weighs
possible
interpretations
voces (ed. Geyer
In a later gloss
'Nostrorum
sale, concluding
firmly that they were
22).
so as to criticise definition
sociorum'
he changes
his terminology
to sermones
of
petitioni
as voces and so distance
universale
himself from Roscelin's
approach
(ed. Geyer
522).
Dating
Porphyry
the Works
of Peter
(Ingredientibus,,
Abelard,'
Abaelard
181
ABAELARD
Abaelard's
church
theological
of St. Martin
teaching
of Tours
provoked
where
Roscelin
an angry
was
letter, since lost, to the
a canon.
Roscelin's
virulent
reply certainly influenced, if it did not prompt the composition of, the Theolo
attacked the arrogance of un
gia 'Summi boni.'*2 In this treatise Abaelard
named 'pseudo-dialecticians'
while asserting that their arguments had to be
in their own terms, namely of logic. The conflict between master and
former pupil was as much personal as doctrinal in nature.
Abaelard's
silence about Roscelin in the Historia calamitatimi does not prove
answered
the inauthenticity of the latter document, as has been claimed.43 Roscelin

himself accused Abaelard
of ingratitude towards his former teacher. Nowhere
in his writings does Abaelard acknowledge any intellectual debt to the famous
'
nominalist
in the early
logician. When
drafting the
neologia Scholarium'
1130s (the apparent date of the Historia

calamitatum) he deliberately deleted
from the Theologia Christiana a hostile allusion to Roscelin, who was no longer
the target of his argument.44 In the short autobiographical
account which
described the circumstances

(Scholarium3 Abaelard
prefaces the Theologia
behind the initial composition of the Theologia without referring to Roscelin by
name.45 Although he did not want to be remembered as the pupil of a teacher
who had been condemned
for heresy, contemporaries did not dissociate the two

so easily. The brief allusion in the anecdote to the argument with Rosce
lin provides valuable
insight into a period of Abaelard's
youth about which he
was unwilling to speak.
men
42 The
letter,
of events must be reconstructed

sequence
to comments
of Roscelin
itself a reaction
63-68.
Once
This
Roscelin
had
to write
led Abaelard
from Roscelin's
of Abaelard's
description
in his Epistola
ad Abaelardum,
ed. Reiner
seen Abaelard's
for heresy.
treatise, he tried to have it condemned
a long discussion
letter 14 to the bishop of Paris.
to
Smits devotes
the authenticity
and the circumstances
behind the redaction
of this letter and the
establishing
in Letters IX-XIV
189-202.
'Surnrni bon?
Theologia
43 Hubert
of any mention
of Roscelin
in the Historia
Silvestre
that the absence
argues
in 'Pourquoi
is proof of its inauthenticity,
calamitatimi
Roscelin
n'est-il pas mentionn?
dans
"Historia
48 (1981)
other arguments
calamitatum"
218-24
and with
in
?,' in RTAM
et H?lo?se:
la part du roman,' Acad?mie
Bulletin
de la
'L'idylle d'Ab?lard
royale de Belgique.
et politiques
5th ser. 71 (1895)
classe des lettres et des sciences morales
157-200.
His argument
on the assumption
that Abaelard
account
of his past and that any
the result of colouring
by Abaelard
depends
accurate
than
44 In version
in the recension
CT
R.
of Tchr
The
can only be expected

must
inconsistencies
himself.
244), Abaelard
(ed. Buytaert
CT include Tchr 3.131,
manuscripts
3.132
and Mews
Buytaert
262) it is evident
to Roscelin:
direct appeal
'Responde
to give a completely
full and
be mistakes
of a forger rather
has
revised
the text as
it stood
from TSch
2.89 (edd.
although
that Abaelard
intended to omit this paragraph
with its
seu [not aut as Buytaert]
acute
tu mihi,
dialectice
uersipellis
45 TSch
sophista.
Prol. 2 (ed. Buytaert;
CCL cm 12.401):
id est Christiana,
'Quo enim fides nostra,
uidetur et ab humana
ratione longius absistere,
implicita questionibus
inquiunt, difficilioribus
uero contra
est rationum
ualidioribus
presidiis, maxime
utique munienda
impugnationes
eorum
qui
se philosophos
profitentur.'
182
TRADITIO
The story-teller mentions Abaelard's

inability to concentrate on Roscelin's
lectures to introduce the account of his difficulty in following the mathemati
cal lectures given by Thierry. Is there any truth to this part of the anecdote ?
Abaelard
to this very episode
allude
may
in his Dial?ctica:
Although I have heard many solutions [to a certain objection] offered by

arithmeticians, I judge that I should not offer any, as I recognise that I am
completely ignorant of this subject.46
In the Theologia
also
We
Christiana, written
know
two
brothers,
who
ca.
1122-25, Abaelard
themselves
number
asserts:
among
out
the most
standing teachers, one ofwhom attributes such efficacity to the words uttered
over the eucharist that they could be uttered validly by a woman; the other is
so involved in philosophical texts that he asserts that God could not have
existed before the world.47
Since Otto of Freising says that Thierry had an equally famous brother called
we may presume that these are the brothers to whom Abaelard
is
Bernard,
alluding in the Theologia Christiana.*8 Although Thierry never taught that the
world was eternal, he did argue in his commentary on the De trinitate of Boe
thius that the forms of all things existed eternally in the divine mind. Abae
lard was
46
suspicious of any literal interpretation of Plato.49 Thierry by contrast
ed. de Rijk
59:
tarnen
null?m
etsi multas
ab arithmeticis
solu
obiectionis,
quidem
iudico, quern eius artis ignarum omnino
proferendam
on Abaelard's
are made
to the quadrivium
Good
comments
attitude
recognosco.'
by Jean
13-19.
Jolivet, Arts du langage et th?ologie chez Ab?lard
(Paris
1969)
47 Tchr 4.80
et duos fratres qui se inter summos connumerant
'Nouimus
302):
(ed. Buytaert
Dial?ctica,
tiones
audierim,
quibuscumque
mentum
altaris
tantam
alter
quorum
magistros,
ipsa proferantur
conficere queat.
'Cuius
a me
uim
aeque
Alter
diuinis
suam
uerbis
in conficiendis
habeant
efficaciam,
sacramentis
ut etiam
ut a
tribuit,
sacra
mulier...
uero adeo philosophicis

innitatur sectis, ut profiteatur
esse. Est et quidam
eorum patriota,
mundo
nullatenus
inter
priorem per existentiam
tantam
in
diuinos
ut
celeb?rrimos
dominicum
insaniam,
corpus
magistros,
qui
prorumpit
seu grossitudinis
in utero Virginis
eiusdem
fuisse adstruat
cuius et in prouecta
longitudinis
deum
aetate
exstitit.'
48
Otto, Gesta Frederici
tioned
by Otto
men
and de Simson
the Bernard
(edd. Waitz
68). Whether
to by Abaelard
is Bernard
of Chartres
is a separate matter.
M.-D.
that the belief in the intrinsic efficacy of the sacramental
formula imputed
1.48
and alluded
Chenu
suggested
to one of the brothers reflects a Platonist
by Abaelard
du xne
'Un cas de platonisme
espoused:
grammatical
to language
such as Bernard
approach
si?cle,' Revue des sciences philosophiques
of letter 18 in a letter book of Chartres
asks for
et th?ologiques 51 (1967) 666-68.

The writer
news
from a brother of master
'de gente nostra'
Bernard,
(other Bretons?)
et d'autres
'Lettres d'Ives
de Chartres
de son temps 1087-1130,'
personnages
l'Ecole
Bernard
sentence
ser.
ments
de
at 460. The main

1 (1855) 443-71
and
argument
are not brothers
is that John of Salisbury
of Chartres
mentions
them both in one
without
that they were
1.5 (ed. C. C. J. Webb
related, Metalogicon
indicating
des Chartes
4th
[Oxford 1929] 16); see nn. 63 and 66 below.

49 The
ed. L. Merlet,
Biblioth?que
that Thierry
criticism
such
as
of Thierry's
teaching may
enim rerum uniuersitas
'Est
have
been
in deo,'
based
on misinterpretation
4.7 (ed. H?ring
Commentum
of state
97).
183
ABAELARD
was
well
interested in scientific cosmological

as in issues of theology.50
questions
inspired by the Timaeus,
as
There
is further evidence in the Dial?ctica

that Abaelard might have had
contact
with
Minio-Paluello
has
prior
Thierry.
pointed out that the only direct
follows the same
quotation from the Prior Analytics supplied in the Dial?ctica
text incorporated by Thierry into his Heptateuchon.51 Within his gloss on the
Peri hermeneias Abaelard
commented that he had seen a manuscript purport
ing to contain the Sophistical Refutations of Aristotle, but said he was not fully
convinced that this was the genuine text because its contents did not corre
spond fully to the description of its argument given by Boethius.52 His text of
is itself closely related to that included within the Hepta

teuchon.53 The copy of the De trinitate of Boethius quoted in every recension of
as that used by
the Sic etNon belongs to the same group of manuscripts
the Peri
hermeneias
Thierry and is quite different from that commented upon by Gilbert of Poi
tiers.54 Abaelard's
knowledge of works of Boethius and Aristotle was not as
encylopaedic as that of his great contemporary. That he made only superficial

use of the Prior Analytics and Sophistical Refutations is itself a comment on the
nature
of their relationship.
Abaelard was not hostile to the subjects of the quadrivium, his scien
tific assumptions were more traditional than those of Thierry. In every version
While
of the Theologia he praised arithmetic as 'themother and mistress of the arts,'

an expression taken from the De arithmetica of Boethius. He also included in
his text an extensive quotation from the De musica to demonstrate that the
ancient
philosophers
perceived
the soothing
effect of music
as an echo of
50
1954
between
Jeauneau
studies of Thierry's
thought published
Stimulating
by Edouard
sur l'?cole de Chartres
in his Lectio philosophorum:
Recherches
1964 are collected
(Amster
of Thierry on the De
dam 1973) 5-23, 75-99. Klibansky
claimed to have found a commentary
School
of Char
but has not published
arithmetica of Boethius,
any more about this; cf. The
and
tres' 5
51 L.
(see
n. 3 above).
Minio-Paluello,
con scolii
"Vulgata"
Primi
Analitici:
la redazione
carnutense
usata
da Abelardo
e la
di filosofia neo-scolastica
46 (1954) 211-23,
greco,' Rivista
The Latin Aristotle
(Amsterdam
repr. in Opuscula:
1972) 229-41.
52
'Memini tarnen quendam
et dili
libellum vidisse
ed. Geyer 400:
Logica
'Ingredientibus/
de sophisticis
intitulatus
elenchis
erat, et cum
qui sub nomine Aristotelis
genter relegisse,
tradotti
dal
inveni.'
nil de ea scriptum
inter cetera sophismatum
genera de univocatione
requirerem;
53
II. Abaelardiana
inedita (Rome
Minio-Paluello,
1958) xxxii-xxxiv.
Twelfth-Century Logic
54 The Boethian
in Tchr 3.74, 85-86
and 4.10, 33 (ed. Buytaert
De
trinitate is mentioned
and 9.1-2
225, 270, 280) but is cited much more fully in the Sic etNon qq. 8.7-16
(edd. Boyer
crux where
is one significant
136. There
the ms
130-31,
1976-77)
Chicago
in reading
of the De
trinitate divides: Abaelard
agrees with Thierry
'praeter id quod
etNon
2.59, ed. H?ring
8.7; Commentum
86), against Gilbert, who reads
'praeter id
and McKeon;
tradition
est'
quo
(Sic
est'
in his
own
Commentary,
Poitiers (Toronto 1966) 372.
ed. H?ring,
The
Commentaries
on Boethius
by Gilbert
of
184
TRADITIO
harmony, the fruit of divine goodness.55 These works of Boethius

argument about harmony as a manifestation
provided support forAbaelard's
of the Holy Spirit, not the core of his trinitarian theology. He had no interest
heavenly
analogies of unity, connection, and equality mentioned

in the De doctrina Christiana and expanded by Thierry
briefly by Augustine
of Conches had both
into a key argument. Thierry and the young William
asserted that the world soul was the Holy Spirit.56 Abaelard never went this
in the mathematical
far. Insisting on a theological interpretation of the Timaeus he did not hesitate

to criticise those who adopted (in his eyes) an excessively literal approach to
Plato's doctrine of the world soul. Full of praise for pagan wisdom in general
as proof of God's self-revelation through reason, Abaelard
concentrated with
?
?
for the oppor
dialectic
little apology on only one branch of that learning
on
to
the
which
it
reflect
gave
Trinity.
tunity
towards natural science is apparent in their
of
the
first
contrasting interpretations
chapters of Genesis. Faithful to a scien
could not accept, as he
tific perspective inherited from Augustine, Abaelard
The difference in their attitudes
says some argued, that the waters placed by God above the firmament 'where
they praise the name of the Lord' (Gen. 1.6; Ps. 148.4) fell to the earth at the
time of the Flood. Thierry held a contrary, more original opinion: that this
slipped to the earth to give life to creation.57 Quite traditional attitudes

lie behind Abaelard's
suspicion of those astronomi who use their discipline to
pronounce on future contingents, which can never be known. Nonetheless, he
did recognise that in studying the nature of the stars and the regions of heav
water
en, astronomers are justified inmaking climatic and medical pronouncements

described Moses as an outstanding example of
about the future. Abaelard
'astronomical discipline.'58 It was legitimate to be concerned with natural as
55 Tchr
the most
1.80-82
104-106).
(ed. Buytaert
of all things:
exemplar
In Tchr
'Omnis
1.79 Abaelard
ordo
comments
naturae
that number
was
et concinna
quippe
dispositio
et omnium perfectissimum
assignatur,
exemplar
eos [eos omitted by Buytaert]
non latet
Quod quidem
arcana.'
arithmetical
further
Thierry
developed
imagery much
lines, but stressed that number was created by unity, in which all things
along not dissimilar
on Boethius
cf. Tractatus
de sex dierum operibus 34-36
Commentaries
(ed. H?ring,
participated;
numerorum
perfect
proportionibus
occurrit qui rebus congruit
rimantur
qui philosophiae
uestigatur
uniuersis.
atque
by Thierry of Chartres 69-70).

56
ed. de Rijk 558-59;
Tchr 1.123 (ed. Buytaert
Dial?ctica,
124). For further references, see
98-102.
Mews, On
Dating'
57
in Tractatus
de sex dierum
discussion
Commentaries
Thierry's
operibus
(ed. H?ring,
can be compared with that of Abaelard,
in Hexameron
28-34,
Expositio
558-60)
(ed. Romig
on xxxv-xl;
with discussion
PL
178.742a-45d).
58
see Abaelard's
and its dangers,
inHexameron
On astronomia
55-60;
Expositio
(ed. Romig
PL
M.-T.
to that of Raymond
his reserved attitude
of
compares
178.753d-56a).
d'Alverny
in 1141) in 'Abelard et l'astro
(author of the Liber cursuum planetarum,
composed
?
Pierre
Ab?lard
Pierre
courants
le
V?n?rable:
Les
litt?raires et artistiques
logie,'
philosophiques,
en Occident au milieu du xif si?cle. Abbaye
de Cluny, 2 au 9 juillet 1972 (Paris 1975) 611-28.
Marseilles
185
ABAELARD
distinct
from contingent events in the future. He claimed the authority of

for doing so. Heir to the predominantly
linguistic bias of Roscelin
and William
of Champeaux, Abaelard
had a superficial enthusiasm for the
Aristotle
natural
sciences without
matter.
The
pun
on
ever being profoundly

name
Abaelard's
influenced by their subject
'lick-lard'
was
funny
on a core of truth.
touched
it
because
under
might have attempted to study mathematics
is difficult to determine.
If Thierry is the teacher alluded to in the
Just when Abaelard
Thierry
it is likely to have been before Abaelard became a monk at Saint
Dial?ctica,
Denis.59 Estimates of Thierry's age in relation to that ofAbaelard vary consid
allusion to 'two brothers' in the Theologia Christiana sug
erably. Abaelard's
gests that Thierry had already gained a considerable reputation by the early
as a
(1121) Thierry, described by Abaelard
a
as
a
the
Athanasian
Creed
in
such
to
ridicule
way
magister scolarum, quoted
remark of the papal legate.60 Thierry is last heard of in 1149 and had probably
1120s. At the Council
of Soissons
died by 1156.61 He may thus not have been much younger than Abaelard,
if at
all. From the standpoint of their relative ages it is not impossible for the
famous logician to have heard Thierry lecture on arithmetic.
With the evidence at our disposal, no firm judgement can be made about
where Thierry was teaching before the 1130s, when he surfaces as a teacher in
Paris.62 The issue has provoked considerable debate. Briefly put, there is no
firm proof that he taught at Chartres prior to becoming its chancellor in 1142.
His name
is not found in any early charters of the cathedral, although he may

of Dreux in the 1130s.63 In his account of the Council of
have been archdeacon

59 I have
after he had
that the single surviving

argued
a monk
at Saint-Denis
become
'Summi boni':
60Historia
see Mews,
On
Dating'
ed. Monfrin
copy
(ca.
was
of the Dial?ctica
1117),
but
before
probably
completed
he wrote
the Theologia
74-104.
88: 'Quo audito Terricus

Scolaris magister,
quidam,
irridendo subintulit
illud Athanasii
"Et tarnen non tres omnipotentes,
sed unus omnipotens".'
61William
as an
of Tyre, who
in Paris between
studied
1144 and 1163, described
Thierry
in his History: R. B. C. Huygens,
old man
'Guillaume
de Tyr ?tudiant: Un chapitre
(XIX,
12)
calamitatimi,
de son "Histoire"
21 (1964) 822. Thierry

is last heard of in 1149, when he
retrouv?,' Latomus
a journey to Frankfurt
as a guest of Albero,
see Balde
of Trier (1131-52);
archbishop
SS 8.257. He subsequently
took the Cistercian
habit.
Otto of
rich, Gesta Alberonis
26, MGH
in the past tense in Gesta Frederici
in 1157, speaks
of Thierry
1.48 (edd.
Freising,
writing
made
Waitz
Date
and
and de Simson 68). Ward

does not justify the late dates which he gives in his title 'The
on Cicero's De
inventione by Thierry
of the Commentary
of Chartres
(ca. 1095-1160?)
on the Liberal Arts,' Viator 3 (1972) 263-66.
the Cornifician Attack
Vern?t's
estimation
have been about sixty in 1149 is only a guess.

in?dite' 662) that Thierry would
('Une ?pitaphe
could have been up to ten years or so older than this.
Thierry
62 Adalbert
in Paris
to the Vita Adalberti
studied with Thierry
1132-37,
684-788,
according
rerum Germanicarum
ed. Ph. Jaff?, Bibliotheca
63Much
the vexed
has been written
about
Southern
questioned
its importance
3
issue
in 'Humanism
(Berlin
1866) 589-92.
of 'the school of Chartres'
since R. W.
and
published
the School
of Chartres,'
in
186
TRADITIO
does not make clear whether or not Thierry owed obedience

at the time to the bishop of Chartres. No manuscripts have been found which
combine writings of Thierry with the works of Gilbert of Poitiers, chancellor of
of Conches, often associated with
Chartres 1126-42, or with those ofWilliam
Soissons Abaelard
its cathedral school. By contrast, Thierry's writings do sometimes occur along

side works of Abaelard and other Parisian masters.64 Even ifThierry's brother
was Bernard
follow that Thierry taught

of Chartres, it does not automatically
at Chartres in his early years. Chartres did not have a monopoly over teaching
the arts of the quadrivium.
The pun on 'Baiolard' or 'lick-lard' reported by the story-teller sums up

rather neatly. Could Thierry in fact
Abaelard's
attitude to the quadrivium
have made the joke with which he is credited? The cutting power of his
Goliae.*5 John of
tongue is commented on by the author of theMetamorphosis
an
who
obscure
of
reports unfavourably
Salisbury,
Thierry slighting the
joke
Aristotle
'as
the
work
of
of
confesses
that he had tried
of
Topics
Drogo
Troyes,'
to study rhetoric with Thierry, but understood little. He found one of Thier
ry's pupils, Peter Helias, a much better teacher of the subject. By contrast,
John could not learn enough from Abaelard, whom he describes as a master of
Medieval
Humanism
Schools
of Paris
and
and Other Essays

(Oxford
the School
of Chartres,'
He
1970) 61-85.
in Renaissance
reviewed
the debate
and Renewal
and G. Constable;
Southern
Oxford
Century (edd. R. L. Benson
1982) 113-37.
1970 essay (70) that he could not find any text to substantiate
the claim of A.
?coles de Chartres
Chartres
1119-24,
(Paris
based
de
in 'The
in the Twelfth
in his
reported
Clerval
name was mentioned

in a
160, that Thierry's
1897)
on the authority
of B. Haur?au,
'M?moire sur quelques
M?moires
de l'Acad?mie
et Belles-Lettres
des Inscriptions
in Les
charter
from
chancelliers
31.2 (1884)
l'?glise de Chartres,'
80. H?ring
followed Clerval's
claim without
in Life and Works
verification,
of Clarenbald
of
Arras
In a thoroughly
documented
(Toronto
1965) 23.
reply to Southern, H?ring was unable
see 'Chartres and Paris Revisited,'
to identify Thierry
in any such charter:
in
positively
in Honour
ed. J. R. O'Donnell
Essays
of Anton Charles Pegis,
(Toronto
1974) 268-329.
64
occurs with works attributed
in Hexameron
to Hugh
of Saint-Victor
Thierry's Expositio
and his school in ms Tours, Bibl. mun. 85, fols. 181?83v, a ms which also contains Abaelard's
occurs in the
A fragment of Thierry's Expositio
Heiligenkreuz
fol. 110v; see H?ring,
Commentaries
52, and Southern, Platonism,
Method
and the School of Chartres
(Stenton Lecture;
Reading
1979) 33-34. While
ment
is more
from the Expositio
than to be an oral
likely to have been copied
Theologia
bibliothek
Christiana.
153,
the context
in which
it occurs suggests that
thought by Southern,
student's
in Paris
in the 1130s. Besides
notebook
works
compiled
Saint-Victor,
'Scholarium'
Paris
ca.
Abaelard's
the Heiligenkreuz
and a commentary
1125-50.
This
own Expositio
latter
ms also
on the Apocalypse
also
commentary
in Hexameron;
<(Scholarium"
Re-examined,'
Theologia
65
ed. Huygens
Goliae,
Metamorphosis
truncat velut ensis.'
lingua vehemens
see Mews,
52
771:
'Ibi
this
frag
report, as
come from a
of the school
of an
'Peter Abelard's
RTAM
have
Scholastic
of Hugh
of
early draft of the Theologia
in
by an unknown master who
taught
occurs
in ms Paris, BN
lat. 17251 after
a copy
contains
it may
ms Stifts
(1985)
doctor
Theologia
140 n. 70.
cernitur
Christiana
ille Carnotensis
and
/ Cuius
187
ABAELARD
clear exposition.66 Thierry himself tells us that he preferred to exclude 'the

common herd' from his classes.67 Although not opposed to the educational
values which Thierry represented, John was more interested in the study of
letters as expounded by Bernard of Chartres than in Thierry's goal of linking
the quadrivium to the trivium. With characteristic shrewdness, he describes

Thierry as 'that most studious investigator of the arts.' He qualifies the peri
patetic of Le Pallet as one 'who outshone his contemporaries in the teaching of
logic to such an extent that he alone was thought to converse with Aristotle.'68
The contrast which John draws between a learned master of all the arts
endowed with an acerbic tongue and a teacher whose reputation was that of a
logician is not unlike that drawn between Thierry and Peter 'Baiolard' in the
first part of the anecdote.
story-teller is definitely wrong in asserting that Peter was

English and wrote much on geometry and arithmetic. An original joke about
seems to have been overlaid by another about
'Baiolard'
'Abelard.' An
The
unknown
Englishman who did write about geometry and arithmetic was Adelard of
Bath, whose name may have been confused with that of the logician either out
66
4.24 (ed. Webb
habeant
Melalogicon
191): 'Satis ergo mirari non possum quid mentis
(si
non
exonere
tarnen
hec
Aristotilis
opera
que
carpunt,
quid
habent)
qui
utique
propositum
non Aristotilis
ut memini,
fuerat sed laudare.
sed Trecassini
Theodericus,
Magister
Topica
docuit.
auditores magistri Rodberti
de
irridebat; eadem tarnen quandoque
Quidam
Drogonis
Meliduno
librum hunc fere inutilem esse calumniantur.'
D. McGarry
follows Clerval's
transla
tion of this passage,
to Thierry
favourable
the Topics
of
of Drogo
deliberately
('... derided
in The Metalogicon
Troy es rather than of Aristotle
...')
of John of Salisbury
(Gloucester, Mass.
of John's
statement
leaves no
1971) 240; see Clerval, Les ?coles 170 and 245. The context
was quite
doubt
that Webb
correct in believing
it to mean
that Thierry was deriding
the
as worthy only of Drogo
rather than of Aristotle.
John's comment
inMetalogicon
2.10
Topics
rethoricam,
quam prius cum quibus
(ed. Webb
80) is similarly unfavourable:
'Relegi quoque
dam aliis a magistro
tenuiter auditis paululum
Theoderico
his praise
intelligebam.'
Compare
for Abaelard,
ibid. 2.10 and 3.1 (ed. Webb
78 and 120).
67 In his
on the De
'Un commentaire
du moyen
inventione, ed. P. Thomas,
commentary
?ge
sur la rh?torique
de Cicer?n,' M?langes
de travaux d'?rudition
Graux: Recueil
(Paris
classique
nos magistri
'Ut ait Petronius,
in scolis soli relinquemur
says of himself:
1884) 41-45, Thierry
. Ecce Theodericus
et insidiis auribus
fecerimus.
nisi multos
palpemus
Ego uero non ita...
mendacem
insulsus, corpore ac mente
Brito, homo barbaricae
nationis, verbis
incompositus,
contraxi ut vulgum
et farraginem
de se te vocat_
Sic tarnen consilium meum
profanum
sonos
Invidiae
Talibus
verbis Fama
alas concutit,
scolae petulcam
excluderam....
permota
multiplicat,
accus?t,
urbes
et nationes
ignominiosis
of Chartres
duce
nominibus
Invidia
appellai.
peragat,
'
These
rumoribus
passages
implet, Theodoricum
ubique
are discussed
in
by H?ring
26 (1964) 271-86.
and Dominicus
Mediaeval
Studies
Gundissalinus,'
litterarum,
16): 'Sed et alii uiri, amatores
utpote magister
(ed. Webb
itidem Willelmus
de Conchis,
artium
studiosissimus
Theodericus,
inuestigator;
gramaticus
et Peripateticus
Carnotensem
Palat?nus,
opulentissimus;
qui logice opinio
post Bernardum
usus colloquio,
se
nem pretulit
crederetur
omnibus
coetaneis
suis, adeo ut solus Aristotilis
omnes opposuerunt
errori.'
'Thierry
68
Metalogicon
1.5
188
TRADITIO
of ignorance or out of a desire to make another joke. There is a redundant de in

the last sentence of the anecdote which may hide yet another pun: 'Nam
processu temporis se usque de lardo quadriuii potenter

sibly the person who invented the pun 'Abelardus' as
spelling 'Adelardus.' We cannot tell for certain.
intromisit....'
'have-lard'
Pos
knew
the
far as is known, Adelard never studied in Paris, reputed more for the
study of linguistic than of scientific subjects. He preferred to travel exten
sively in southern Italy and perhaps further East in search of 'the wisdom of
As
A recent survey of Adelard's

the Arabs,' before returning back to England.
shows
that
in
the
twelfth
and
translations
century they mainly circu
writings
lated within the ambit of England and northern France.69 One rare exception
to this is a manuscript
of the Erzabtei
St. Peter, Salzburg
(a.V.2), which
on fols. 35v-63v the Quaestiones naturales of Adelard
and on fols.
contains
the best of four known
copies of his De opere astrolapsus. Hitherto

in this Salzburg manuscript
is a quotation on fol. 105 from Abae
lard's Theologia, placed among various theological notes. It concerns the diffi
culties inherent both in accepting and in denying that God cannot do more or
82-101
unidentified
less than he does.70 The
manuscript
69 CS.
parallels
F. Burnett,
combination
of texts of Adelard
the conflation of two separate
'The
of Arabic
Introduction
Science
and Abaelard
in this
stories in the anecdote.71
into Northern
France
and Norman
of Adelard
of Bath
and Petrus Alfonsi
and Closely
of the Writings
in
with
the
which
Adelard
Associated
Occur,'
Works,
Manuscripts
They
of Bath: An
Together
Scientist and Arabist of theEarly Twelfth Century, ed. C. S. F. Burnett
(London
1987).
English
A
Britain:
Catalogue
for showing me proofs of this catalogue

to the author
I am indebted
prior to publication.
70 The
no.
ms
the
text of the Theologia
114
of
69
The
is
(n.
above).
Catalogue
(Sa)
Salzburg
is identical to that in Tchr 5.29-30
(ed. Buytaert
358) and TSch 2.27, 29 in the manuscripts
arbitror utrum plura
and Mews
facer? possit
BMAP
'Querendum
321-22):
(edd. Buytaert
cessare ne ea umquam
faciat aut ab his etiam que facit ullo modo
siue negemus multa
fortassis inconuenientie
siue concedamus
Quod
[-tium
ut plura uel pauciora
incurremus.
Si enim ponamus
facer? possit uel ab
Tchr TSch] anxietates
summe eius
his que facit cessare
[Sa adds multa] multum
profecto
[cessare facit Tchr TSch]
deus
uel meliora
uidelicet
bonita
quam
faceret.
te derogabimus
facer? posse.
nisi bona
[derostrabimus
< space where
eum quippe
Sa]. Constat
[quippe
Tchr TSch BMAP
read: Si autem
eum Tchr TSch]

non
bona cum possit non
essent se retrahat,
uel
et ab aliquibus
emulum>
que facienda
quis eum tamquam
eum in faciendo aliquid grauet cuius eque
iniquum non argu?t ( ?) presertim cum nullus labor
ms contains
a copy of Bernard's
sunt.' The Salzburg
letter 190 on
omnia uoluntate
subiecta
faciat,
on fols. 72-80.
the final list of 19 articles)
An unidentified
(without
found on fols. 64-67
concludes
liber
journey through the zodiac
'Explicit
names of Abaelard
could easily be confused by someone who did
and Adelard
the errors of Abaelard

text on the soul's
Alardi.'
The
not know
71 The
them
disparate
of numbers
personally.
notes on fols. 67-71v
on the De
the body
of Boethius),
of Sa about
and
life of the soul, the classifi
virtues and vices,

on creation
of Chartres:
include comments
similar to ideas of Thierry
scriptural
exegesis
si
et
uidetur
interualla
'Dicunt
etiam
deus
successiue
per
opus
(fol. 70)
quidam
quod inpotens
suum distinxisset.
in eternum omnia creauit
Tercio
de auctoritate
loco opponunt
qui manet
cation
(based
arithmetica
the elements,
and
189
abaelard
The abbey of Pr?fening possessed one manuscript

(now ms Munich, Baye
rische Staatsbibliothek
Clm. 13021), written in a late twelfth-century hand
similar to that ofM, of particular scientific interest. It contains a translation
of Euclid's Elements and the Liber ysagogarum Alchorismi, a synthesis ofmuch
new learning about arithmetic. An abbreviated form of the later text occurs in
another Pr?fening manuscript
it is
cvp 275).72 While
(now ms Vienna, ?NB
or
that
either
this
translation
of
Euclid
Liber
the
ysagoga
unlikely
particular
rum was written by Adelard, these could have been the works of geometry and
arithmetic mistakenly
attributed to 'Abelardus' in the anecdote.73
The story reported inM seems to have originated as an oral tradition which
included a reference to Roscelin as well as Thierry's pun on 'Baiolard.'
It was
then elaborated upon by someone who thought or pretended that Baiolard and
Adelard, here called 'Abelard,' were the same person. While the pun on 'Abe
lard' as 'have-lard' is weak and inaccurate, the first part of the anecdote does
express
a core of truth about Abaelard's
can we explain
Thierry.
from the abbey of Pr?fening?
How
the presence
and
relationship to both Roscelin
of this anecdote in a manuscript
is a long way from Paris.

Regensburg
One possibility is that the story was transmitted by the student who brought
to Pr?fening the copy of Abaelard's
Sententie and Scito teipsum from which M
derives. Both works, however, belong to a relatively late date in his career.
eos ignorare quomodo

simul. Ad oppositionem
eis respondemus
de inperfectione
primum
errare qui supernam
siue inperfectum
perfectum
(fol. 70v) 'Vnde illi probantur
accipiatur';
esse
non
esse
dicunt.
in
Nota
etiam
elementa
equa
pondere,
quia illa in
igneam
quod
oportuit
est uis consumptiua
ut ignis, alia omnino
tantum
sed in potentiis
liberata
superaret,
quibus
. 57 above.
a critical approach
The author adopts
to patristic
sunt'; see
(fols.
testimony:
in exponendo
secundum
licitam
si sancti dicant contraria
in qua non credere est superbum,
sicut in uera assertione
hereticum.
Non
in exponendo,
sed ubi de eis agunt que pertinent
ad
semper habent
spiritum sanctum
catholicam.'
The authorship
of these notes will be examined
in a future study.
72
no. 74. ms Vienna
after
?NB
Burnett,
cvp 275 was
'Catalogue'
copied sometime
not in that year, according
to H. Fichtenau,
des
'Wolfger von Pr?fening,' Mitteillungen
70v-71)
'Non est inconueniens
mationem,
esti
enim
fidem
1143,
Insti
51 (1937) 313-57
tuts f?r ?sterreichische
at 320. On the liber ysagogarum,
Geschichtsforschung
see A. Allard,
Les plus anciennes
versions latines du xif si?cle de Varithm?tique
d'Al-Khwa
de Bath et Jean
rizmi: Histoire
des textes suivis de l'?dition critique des trait?s attribu?s ? Ad?lard
of this work
in ms Paris,
is to a 'master A.'
(Louvain
1975). The only attribution
of the late twelfth century.
fols. 76-83v,
73
other examples
of confusion of the names of Abaelard
and Adelard
may be noted
Among
'Petri Abadelardi
in the catalogue
of Richard
of Fournival,
liber de pugna numerorum
qui
see L. Delisle,
Le cabinet des manuscrits
II
de la Biblioth?que
nationale
dicitur Rychmimachya';
de Seville
BN
lat.
16208,
John Erghome
gave to the Augustinian
(Paris
1874) 526. Master
and a 'philosophia
'liber sacratus petri abellardi'
petri abelardi':
at
inFasciculus
Friars
the
the
York,
of
of
Library
Augustinan
logue
ca.
friars of York,
see M. R.
Ioanni
James,
Willis
The
Clark
(Cambridge 1909) 55 and 64.
1373,
Cata
dicatus
190
traditio
The Sententie provide a summary of Abaelard's

lectures on faith, the sacra
ments, and charity as delivered in the mid-1130s. The Scito teipsum was writ
ten not long before 1140. There is another path of transmission which deserves
to be considered: one that leads through the Benedictine abbey ofMichelsberg
in Bamberg.
clues point in this direction.

That Wolfger of Pr?fening, who died sometime after 1173, was familiar with
?
?
is
Peter Baiolard
the names of many teachers in France
among them
Various
from the catalogue which he produced in 1165. He had entered the

of
abbey
Michelsberg by 1103, to move to its daughter house of Pr?fening
I (1112-23) and
(founded in 1109) by 1130.74 Under the abbacies ofWolfram
a
Gottfried I (1123-46) Michelsberg acquired
large number of philosophical as
evident
well as sacred texts. Many of its books were copied by Cistercian monks from
in
Ebrach
(founded in 1127), who in turn established a house at Heilsbronn
1132.75 One mid-twelfth-century manuscript of Heilsbronn
(E) contains mar
on
sacra
the
Boethian
and
interlinear
perhaps by Bemi
ginal
glosses
Opuscula
on
or
these texts by Thierry
Commentum
gius of Auxerre, the continuous gloss
of Chartres, and the Theologia 'Stimmi boni,' here the attributed work 'magistri
A closely
Petri, clarissimi atque doctissimi Viri, cognomento adbaiolardi.'76
occurs in a manuscript
related copy of the Commentum on Boethius
(ms
a house
Clm. 2580) from Aldersbach,
Staatsbibliothek
Munich, Bayerische
settled in 1146, again by Cistercians from Ebrach. Almost identical to E is a
=
manuscript fromAdmont (ms Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lyell 49
L) which
includes two versions of the Carolingian gloss, the Commentum (here attributed
to 'Helias, a certain French master'), and an unattributed copy of the Theolo
gia 'Summi boni.' L was transcribed late in the third quarter of the twelfth
century from the same defective exemplar as E.77
74 On
early career, see Fichtenau,
Wolfger's
Kloster Pr?fening
234ff.
75
Fischer, Katalog
541, 547-51.
76 See n. 28 above.
and interlinear
Marginal
close
to those
edited
Johannes
by E. K. Rand,
und Untersuchungen
(Quellen
'Wolfger
von Pr?fening'
on the Opuscula
glosses
Scotus
ihm zugeschriebenen
341-50
sacra
Glossae
and
(I,
Schmitz,
II, III, V)
zu Boethius'
are found on fols.

1.2; Munich
1906) 30-80,
to Remigius
of Auxerre
M.
'Le plus ancien
by
Cappuyns,
et son origine,' RT AM
commentaire
des "Opuscula
Sacra"
3 (1931) 243. The Commentum
of
occurs on fols. 66-103v.
Commentaries
It includes the so-called
(ed. H?ring,
57-116)
Thierry
on the Athanasian
'Stavelot'
Creed on fols. 103-106.
Abaelard's
treatise
commentary
(fols.
Sacra'
Opuscula
l-25v.
These were
27-65v)
glosses.
Anselm
77 L
was
This
attributed
originally
copied
separately
scribe also copied another
of Canterbury.
is described
in detail
by A.
C.
but by the same person

ms (Erlangen
Heilsbronn
de
la Mare,
Catalogue
who
216),
copied
the Boethian
containing
of the Collection
works
of
of Medieval
Manuscripts Bequeathed to theBodleian Library Oxford byJames P. R. Lyell (Oxford 1971)

as
131-33.
As well
contains
on fols. 59-79v
The
third part
of L
the marginal
and interlinear
these glosses written out
(fols. 81-99v)
contains
sacra found in E, L
gloss on the Opuscula
in continuous
form with the Boethian
text.
the Commentum
introduced
as Commentum
Helye
191
ABAELARD
contents of L correspond to those of one codex mentioned

in a Michels
of
books
which
entered
the
house under
1140,
detailing
berg library catalogue
?I
the abbacy ofWolfram
that is, between 1112 and 1123: 'Boecii tres, unus
The
ex his glosatus cum continuis glosis.' This may be the same codex as the 'Glose
at an unspecified
super Boecium'
given by a monk Berenger to Michelsberg
date in the early twelfth century.78 Could this lost codex have been the
common
ancestor
of E
and L?
Thierry's Commentum differed from earlier

trinitate precisely because it offered a continuous commen
glosses on the De
tary on itsmajor themes rather than literal glosses on individual words. That
Abaelard's
treatise is not mentioned
in the Michelsberg
is not a
catalogue
It is not cited either inmedieval descriptions of

sufficient counter-argument.
and L.
Irimbert, abbot of Admont 1172-77, had previously been abbot of
(1160-72),
following in the footsteps of his brother Gottfried
Michelsberg
E
(abbot 1138-52).79 The connection between the two abbeys was close.
IfE and L both derive from the Michelsberg codex, then it contained Caro
lingian glosses on the Opuscula sacra of Boethius, a continuous commentary by
own attempt at a treatise on the
Thierry on the De trinitate, and Abaelard's
same subject. A monk had given it to the abbey sometime before 1123. Could
he also have brought back from his student days in France a funny and rather
biting joke which had been attributed to Thierry about the name 'Baiolard' ?
cuiusdam magistri
of a commentary
super Boetium
gallicani
on the De hebdomadibus,
de trinitate and, by the same author,

as the Fragmentum
edited by H?ring
the beginning
Admuntense
text of Abaelard's
discusses
L's
treatise
119-21).
H?ring
(the best surviving
Third Manuscript
of Peter Abelard's
"Summi
boni"
(MS. Oxford,
Theologia
18 (1956) 215-24.
Studies
and
On the authenticity
),' Mediaeval
Lyell 49, ff. 101-28
see n. 80 below.
of the Commentum
(Commentaries
in
witness)
Bodleian
date
78 Edd.
P. Lehmann
3.1 (Munich
and P. Ruf, MABK
1939) 358 and again by K. Dengle
zur Biblio
und Bibliothek
des Kloster Michelsberg
in Bamberg
(Studien
Scriptorium
'L
41'.
Graz
15
The
librarian
14
Burckhardus
2;
1979)
(f
theksgeschichte
Sept. 1149) records
cum ipse
I: '. .. ita fuit in augmentandis
of abbot Wolfram
libris promptus
et alacer.
Nam
Schreiber,
in discipulis
suis liberalium
studiorum maxime
exercicia.'
sciencia,
diligebat
of
the
Boecium
Glose
super
Berenger's
gift
along with scriptural glosses, Commentum Ammonii
are listed
Albr?cus
de radiis dictaminum,
Ivonis, and Derivationes
super Analetica,
Epistole
3.1.365
and Dengle-Schreiber,
204. L 41 is mentioned
after
separately, MABK
Scriptorium
liberali
polieret
on Porphyry
of glosses
and Aristotle
texts, but before a number
(L 44-47).
patristic
79
L
not
41
and
does
doubts
that
owned any mss of
identify
Dengle-Schreiber
Michelsberg
as compared
nature of its collection,
to that of Pr?fe
of the 'conservative'
because
Abaelard,
that a library catalogue
86 and 92. This presumes
would
always document
ning, Scriptorium
the most
'modern'
authors.
Yet
Boecium,'
(Graz
1961)
ed. G. M?ser-Mersky,
30. On the abbots
in a thirteenth-century
Heilsbronn
catalogue
. 92; L was described
in 1376
566
Katalog
commentum
et
Boecium
super
super
Helyas
magister
is mentioned
de trinitate in duobus,
only as Boetius
as 'Boecius
de S. Trinitate,
glosatus
ed. Fischer,
Mittelalterliche
of Admont,
3 Steiermark
?sterreichs.
Bibliothekskataloge
see M?ser-Mersky,
MABK
3.2.
?sterreichs
192
TRADITIO
If the Commentum on the De trinitate of Boethius did exist in the Michelsberg

codex, then Thierry may have written it at about the same time as Abaelard
composed the Theologia 'Stimmi boni' (ca. 1120) rather than over twenty-five
years later, as has been thought. This re-dating also helps explain why Thierry
had established a reputation by the early 1120s.80 The impression Abaelard
indirectly conveys in the Historia calamitatum that he was the only outstand
ing teacher of his day is not wholly accurate. He wrote the Theologia 'Stimmi
commentary on the De trinitate of

Boethius such as found in the Heilsbronn and Admont manuscripts.
An early
date for the Commentum also gives indirect support to the picture presented
bonV for students accustomed
to extensive
as contemporaries of equal stature.

by the anecdote of Thierry and Abaelard
If a secondary and fictitious layer to the story, based on a confusion of Abae
80 The
cuiusdam magistri gallicani

de trinitate
super Boetium
Helye
as had
to suggest
that the gloss was written
not by Thierry,
but by his pupil Peter Helyas,
who
hitherto been believed,
and rhetoric
taught grammar
?
between
the late 1130s and the early 1150s
'Bulletin d'histoire
des
notably, L.-j. Bataillon,
et th?ologiques 43 (1959) 692 and under
doctrines m?di?vales,'
Revue des sciences philosophiques
the same rubric ibid. 46 (1962) 508 and 51 (1967) 69-72; M.-T.
Alain
de Lille.
d'Alverny,
in L
attribution
led some
has
Textes
in?dites
Summa
super
Commentum
scholars
1965)
(Paris
Priscianum
. 62;
176
on William
.M.
'The Dependence
of Petrus Helias'
Fredborg,
super
of Conches'
Glose
de
Cahiers
Priscianum,'
l'Institut du Moyen
1-57 at 51-54.
argues that the close
Age grec et latin 11 (1973)
Fredborg
the Commentum
and Thierry's
known thought could be explained
affinity between
by Thier
on
was
without
that
its
author.
influence
Helias
The
views
of Batai
Thierry
excluding
ry's
in Commentaries
The authenticity
of the Commentum was
llon are discussed
20-23.
by H?ring
in a detailed
Rerum Universitas
study by E. Maccagnolo,
(Saggio sulla filosofia di
di Chartres)
inconsistencies
(Florence
1976) 4-7. No critic has noted any doctrinal
to Thierry or indeed any close connection
other works attributed
of the Commentum
to
reaffirmed
Teoderico
with
Helias'
of Arras, who quotes

Clarenbald
from the Commentum,
says in a
glosses on Priscian.
letter that he was
of Saint
(as well as of Hugh
imitating the lectures of Thierry
never modified
his
(Toronto
Life and Works
of Clarenbald
of Arras
1965) 64. H?ring
that the Commentum was earlier than the Lectiones
and Glosa on Boethius,
but was
prefatory
Victor):
opinion
on Boethius
In 'Two Commentaries
less clear regarding the date.
(De Trin. and De H ebd.) by
AHDLMA
27 (1960) 75, he held that it had been written
of Chartres,'
'ca. 1135 or
Thierry
even earlier,' but changed
this to a date of ca. 1148 in Commentaries
24.
He was
(1971)
of d'Alverny
176 n. 62) that the Sibylline
in part by an argument
influenced
(Alain de Lille
in the Commentum
2.34 (ed. H?ring
known around
1148
79) Only became
quoted
prophecy
it was disproved
but did not remain current for long because
by the failure of the second
Proemium
Otto of Freising,
and de Simson
Crusade.'
Gesta Frederici
(edd. Waitz
10-11) says
that
time.
not
in France,
this prophecy was widely
respected
invented
is no evidence
that the prophecy was
There
that
it suddenly
at this
appeared
in 1146 for political
ends. H?ring's
based on its criticism of a doctrine
for dating the Commentum

after 1148 was
argument
at
the
of Reims,
to
of
Poitiers
Council
Commentum
Gilbert
imputed
second
et desipit
peccat
deitate.'
Writing
(Ulger of Angers?)
date
homo dicitur ab humanitate

qui quemadmodum
a similar accusation
ca. 1122-25, Abaelard
made
in Tchr
for the Commentum
3.167
are
not
and 4.77
based
257
and
(ed. Buytaert
on any firm evidence.
4.2 (ed. H?ring

'Et
95):
a
sic deum dici estim?t
301).
about
another
Arguments
teacher
for a late
193
ABAELARD
lard's name with
that of Adelard of Bath, is disregarded, the anecdote has

as a restless individual who could not
to say. It presents Abaelard
submit for long to the tutelage of others. In subjects such as mathematics
he
much
was
not as competent as Thierry, whose lectures he apparently had tried to

career is so influenced by his own
follow. Given that our picture of Abaelard's
version of events, this little text deserves respect.
*
*
if there is a grain of truth in the pun on 'Baiolardus,' Thierry certainly

come
did the name 'Abaelardus'
did not invent Peter's cognomen. Where
Even
from ?
In a short note published in 1870 Ernest Renan said that 'Petrus Abaelar
'Petrus filius Alardi.' He noted that Ab was a Gallic word meaning
in Breton and that it occurred quite frequently in his home
'son' like Mab
dus' meant
own testimony about

region of lower Brittany.81 This contradicts Abaelard's
the name of his father, Berengar, as Renan himself acknowledged. We may
safely assume that Abaelard's
parents were responsible for choosing the cogno
men
chose
of their first-born son, in the same way that Abaelard and Heloise
to call their child 'Astralabe' ('Petrus Astralabius'
according to the necrology
of the Paraclete).82
'Astralabe' and 'Abaelard' were intimate names, used to
differentiate one Peter
from another.83
may have been too eager to suggest a link between his own Breton
at least one regional connection
roots and those of Abaelard.
Nonetheless,
escaped the notice of the great philologist. A contemporary of Peter Abaelard
Renan
was
also called
81 E.
Renan,
led to this
idea
in the vernacular): the son of Hum

('Abaielart'
the nephew of Robert Guiscard and grandson of Tan
'Abaielardus'
phrey, count of Apulia,
He
du nom d'Ab?lard,'
Revue
'Sur l'etymologie
celtique 1 (1870) 265-68.
to Abaelard's
ad Astralabium
of an allusion
Carmen
by his discovery
lat. 15451, p. 227;

(ms Paris, BN
... Quintilianum
... Petrum
ad manum
Boecium
enim et habere potestis
a
also remembered
reference
vocant Ad filium.' Renan
Abaelart
seeing
Guibert
of Tournai's
De modo
on the first page
filius Alardi'
addiscendi
of a 13th-century
glossary,
but could
was
in
saec.
'Habetis
xni):
filium Alardi
quem
'Abaelardus,
not recall
id est
the shelfmark
of
this ms.
82 Historia
sororem meam
tarn diu conversata
est
74: '... apud
ed. Monfrin
calamitatum,
des
de
la
France:
cf.
historiens
Astralabium
Recueil
masculum
nominavit';
quam
pareret
du Retail
and P.
de Sens
IV (Meaux-Troyes)
de la province
Obituaires
(edd. A. Boutillier
et l'astrologie'
'Ab?lard
Paris
Pi?trisson
de Saint-Aubin;
611, notes
1923) 425. D'Alverny,
donee
that
the
scientific
thus
might
83 Heloise
have
instrument
'fallen
is sometimes
from the
called
astrolapsus
and
suggests
that
the
child
stars.'
in her first letter (ed. Monfrin

111) in the
simply as 'Abaelardus'
in the Historia
calamitatum
refers to his child simply as 'Astralabius'
scribes almost always
'Petrus' when
include
and the Carmen
ad Astralabium.
By contrast,
a work
to him.
attributing
same way
addresses
Peter
that Abaelard
194
TRADITIO
founder of the dynasty which was to hold such influence in

southern Italy.84 This family came fromHauteville,
eight miles north of Cou
tances and not far from the ill-defined border between Brittany and Nor
as Abaielard
mandy. Tancred and his son Humphrey were born at Hauteville,
were
also
have
been.
The
obscure
unable to
may
family, relatively
locally,
ered de Hauteville,
satisfy territorial ambitions in their own region and turned instead to military
adventures in southern Italy.
were linked by kin, the
While
it is most unlikely that the two Aba(i)elards
fact that the cognomen was used by a Norman is significant. Peter Abaelard
did not consider himself a brito, even though he had been born within the
borders of Brittany. The province had been overrun by Normans in the tenth
the late
century, when Nantes had become one of their strongholds. While
of
Nantes
affirms
chronicle
that
the
Normans
had
eleventh-century
invading
been driven out, some of these Norman knights established themselves in the
region as a new local aristocracy pitting itself against other Normans.85 An
ethnic divide between Normans and Bretons within the court of Hoelus, count
of Nantes, is apparent in a charter of 1085, drawn up in his presence. A list

divides people into two groups: 'Daniel de Palatio
[Le Pallet], Gaufridus Nor
de
Iestin filius
mannus, Warinus
Britonibus,
dapifer ceterique Namnetenses;
Daniel, Alan filius Guegon, Gurmahelon filius Glevian.' The witnesses all have
Celtic names: David, Mab Gulchuen, Mab Tanki.86 The antagonism between
the Namnetenses and the Britones is a major theme of the chronicle of Nantes.
Its clerical author was very hostile to the Breton
local
faction, then dominant
in
politics.87
did not speak Breton is evident from his admission

the language of the monks of Saint-Gildas.88
That Abaelard
was unable
to understand
that he
Unlike
84
filius Unfredi
is mentioned
of Apu
principis Normannorum,'
'Abagelardus,
by William
ca. 1111, in Gesta Roberti Wiscardi
536-656
and 3.289, MGH
SS 9.263,
lia, writing
2.451,
289. Amatus, whose Historia
Normannorum
is known only through a late translation,
276-78,
Y
Istoire
de
li Normant
5.4
Rouen
(ed. O. Delarc;
1892),
se clamait
autres, Balarde....
liquel
'Abaielardus'
'Rogier-Toute-Bone
este filz de lo fr?re.'
is the form used
1129,MGH SS 6.489.
85 J. Le
major
Nantes
region
Patourel
source
invasion
110-12.
(Paris
1896) 80-96,
in 'Le comt? nantais
1981) 11-20.
86 G. A.
Lobineau,
13.
87
Merlet,
88Historia
La
chronique
calamitatum
et turpis atque
gnita
gens terre illius inhumana
erat,
N.-Y.
Tonnerre
? la fin du xie si?cle,'
Histoire
by Robert
on this process
in The Norman
is the Chronicon Namnetense,
comments
for the
implies that
Et Balalarde
de Bretagne
de Nantes
(ed. Monfrin
indomabilis
atque
(Paris
a cognomen:
pour ce qu'il avoit
in his chronicle
for
Empire
(Oxford
ed. R. Merlet, La
7. Our
1976)
chronique de
tensions
in the
describes
the political
en son temps (ed. J. Jolivet;
Ab?lard
1707)
de Monte
it was
2.119;
cf. Tonnerre,
'Le comt?
Paris
nantais'
xxxix-xl.
'Terra quippe
barbara
98):
illorum monachorum
vita
incomposita.'
Abaelard
mentions
et terre
inco
lingua mihi
et
fere notissima,
that he once stayed with
omnibus
195
ABAELARD
Thierry, he never described himself as a Breton. He preferred the sobriquet

palat?nus, a pun combining the word for courtier with the name of his native
or Le Pallet.89 The hostility which Abaelard encountered at
village, Palatium
Saint-Gildas was directed against a reformer from the East whose vernacular
tongue and political loyalties differed from those of the local population.
the Dial?ctica
he did not hesitate to make abusive references to Bretons
In
in
discussing the etymology of brito. When arguing that Aristotle used 'infinite'
in a particular context to refer to an infinitemultitude because of its affinity to
what was
infinite, he commented:
Such reasons are often given in etymologies, where for example brito is said to
be 'like a brute.' For granted that they are not all or the only ones to be
stupid, the person who composed the name brito according to its affinitywith
the name 'brute' had inmind that the greatest number of Bretons were unin
telligent.90
Near
the end of his Dial?ctica
came back to this example to distin

from its etymology: 'as Britons are said to be
Abaelard
of a word
guish the meaning

quasi-brutes in so far as they seem brutish and irrational out of folly.'91While
denying that 'Breton' meant 'a brute,' he accepted that the name originated in
an individual's judgement that the Bretons were brutish. Abaelard,
no brito
his
when
brother
Historia
calamitatum
the
visiting
106. This
count
brother
and
that
could
he
have
then
been
narrowly
Porcarius,
avoided
a canon
being poisoned:
of Nantes,
who,
to a cartulary
of Buz?
pour servir ? l'histoire de Bretagne
(ed. H. Morice, M?moires
called Astralabius,
also a canon
of the cathedral.
The
1.587), had a nephew
and Nantais
fac
attempt was probably
provoked
by friction between Breton
according
[Paris 1742]
assassination
tions
in the city. Otto of Freising,

1.48 (edd. Waitz
Gesta Frederici
and de Simson 68) identi
as a native of Brittany
like the brothers Bernard
and Thierry.
The assumption
was a Breton
that Abaelard
is widespread
in scholarly
literature:
'Deux
see, e.g., P. Lasserre,
fied Abaelard
Deux
in his Un conflit religieux au xif si?cle (Paris
Lasserre
races,'
1930) 69-96.
as Chateaubriand,
in the same noble Breton
Abaelard
tradition
and
Lamennais,
places
Renan.
89 For
a man of a barbarie
of himself as 'a Breton,
nation,'
Thierry's mocking
description
. 67 above.
see
as 'Theodericus
on
identifies Thierry
Clarembald
brito' in his commentary
the De
trinitate 10 (ed. H?ring,
Life and Works
of Clarembald
of Arras
69). The
epithet
hommes:
occurs within
used
rubrics to
Palat?nus,'
frequently
by John of Salisbury,
'Peripateticus
and
Abaelard's
the
the
Berlin
of
the
'Summi
Dial?ctica,
boni,'
copy
logical glosses,
Theologia
cited in nn. 11 and 14 above.
90
cause
ed. de Rijk
128: 'quales
ut
Dial?ctica,
redduntur,
sepe in ethimologiis
quidem
enim non omnes vel soli sint stolidi, hic tarnen qui
Licet
"Brito"
dictus est "quasi-brutus.1*
nomen
"Britonis"
affinitatem
secundum
nominis
in intentione
habuit
"bruti,"
composuit
fatua esset, atque hinc hoc nomen
illi affine in sono protulit.'
pars Britonum
non inveni interpretationes
ed. de Rijk
583:
'Sed has quidem
sed
appellari,
sonum
maxime
vocis
ut suprapo
forte ethimologie
sive sint orationes,
consequuntur,
ipsius
quod maxima
91
Dial?ctica,
sita,
sive dictiones,
insipientia
ut Britones
quasi-brutones
dicti
sunt, eo quod
bruti
et irrationabiles
videantur.'
ex
196
traditio
himself, was as inclined as the unknown humorist of Pr?fening to use the

etymology of a name as an argument that there could be a rational reason for
its imposition.
The anecdote
found inM is ofmore than passing interest for understanding

inwhich two outstanding teachers of the twelfth century, Thierry and
Peter Abaelard, appeared to contemporaries. The brief picture it presents of
Abaelard's
personality and relationship to both Roscelin and Thierry fits in
the way
is already known about these figures. The pun on 'Baiolard' attrib

uted to Thierry hides a barbed comment on Abaelard's
attitude to the quadri
vium. It is ofmuch greater force than a second pun in the anecdote, based on
confusion of the names of Abaelard
and
(correctly pronounced as 'Aba'elard')
with what
Adelard
on
of Bath. While
'Abaelard'
it is possible
in the circumstances
that Thierry may have made such a pun

described in the anecdote, the cognomen
a familiar name probably chosen by his parents. Not all the details
in the anecdote are meant to be taken seriously. Nonetheless,
like all good
a
of
the
contains
truth.
humour,
story
grain
itselfwas
the
epilogue:
history
of
name
abaelard's
If twelfth-century scribes were uncertain about the correct spelling of Abae

lard's name, more recent scholars have not fared much better. It is to the
that he should have established
'Abaelardus'
great credit of Andr? Duchesne
as the reading of the best manuscripts.
the
a and
the
e were
printed
as
took care that in the edition of 1616
He
vowels,
separate
and
not
as
ae as
conventional
in typography of his day.92 Seventeenth-century

scholars tended to remain
an
to
authentic
close
S?bastien
Bouillard,
fairly
spelling.
writing in French in
Before the 1616 edition appeared he had read

1628, used 'Pierre Abaielard.'
and Heloise
in a manuscript,
the correspondence of Abaelard
since lost, be
to
of
the
The
Saint-Victor.93
Maurist
author of a
anonymous
library
longing
92 See
. 10 above.
93Histoire
de M elun (Paris 1628) 331-51.
to appear
in French
after the 1616 edition.
This
is one of the first accounts

notes
Rouillard
(348):
of Abaelard's
life
sceu qu'il
demand?
y en
'Et ayant
curieusement
en la Biblioth?que
de S. Victor,
de manuscripts
par
je les ay
ce
obtenu,
communication;
je me mis a les lire et les relire, avec un ardeur non
qu'ayant
Rouillard
1616:
'elle me
fut baill?e
says (334) that he first read the ms before
pareille.'
avoit
de S. Victor, du depuis elle ha est? imprim? avec les aultres

de la Biblioth?que
manuscripte,
GGG
uvres.'
This may have been the lost ms of Saint-Victor
in Claude
de
17, mentioned
as
on
fols.
1-57
Petri
folios had
Grandru's
Abaelardi.
These
containing
Epistole
Catalogue
been
cut
remainder
1706.
from the ms when

of the ms,
Monfrin
gives
Jean
Picard
annotated
in 1604).
the Catalogue
(probably
inter alia, disppeared
Petrarch
texts of Gerson
and
containing
these details without
mentioning
Rouillard,
in Historia
The
after
calamitatum
42-43.
197
abaelard
major history of the monastery of Saint-Gildas, written in 1668 (ms Paris, BN

fr. 16822), preferred 'Pierre Abaelard.'
L. E. Dupin preserved the correct pro
nunciation by using the form 'Pierre Abaelard'
throughout a long essay on his
doctrine.
E. Mart?ne
followed a similar practice in printing

their editions of the Theologia Christiana and
and U. Durand
'Petrus Aba?lardus'
throughout
in Hexameron.9*
Expositio
These orthographical
standards slipped with reprintings of the editio prin
was not only quite unscrupulous
Richard
Rawlinson
in adding fictitious
ceps.
text so as to pass it off as a new edition, but
manuscript readings to Duchesne's
he adopted the form 'Abaelard'us' throughout.95 The practice was followed by

Dom Gervaise in his 1723 edition of the letters, again pirated from Duchesne's
text, and by Victor Cousin in the following century.96 For the PL volume 178,
J.-P. Migne reprinted the editions of Duchesne and Mart?ne without modifica
name in the same way as

tion, apart from corrupting the spelling of Abaelard's
Cousin had done, to conform to popular convention.
Its pronunciation had already been shortened to four syllables by 1662 when
L. Bertaud
(sometimes called Berthault) and P. Cusset published a history of
They generally used 'Abelard,' but sometimes itwas 'Abe
are the earliest writers that I have been able to trace to venture
Chalon-sur-Sa?ne.
lard.' These
an etymological
explanation
of one other form, 'Abailard':
D'autres l'ont appell? Abailardus et on tire l'Etymologie et l'origine de ce nom

de la langue fran?aise, qui signifie une petite abeille, ce qui fut sans doute un
augure et un presage (si les noms peuvent estre les charact?res et les images
des choses) de la prudence de son esprit, et de la profondeur de sa doctrine, qui
l'on
94 L. E.
Dupin,
(Paris
en
signal?
1696)
son
prioribus
des controverses, des mati?res

eccl?siastiques
novus anecdotorum
5 (edd. E. Mart?ne
Histoire
360-409;
Thesaurus
1717) 1155-1416.
95 PETRI
si?cle.97
ABMLARDI,
Editionis
trait?s dans
le xif
si?cle
and U. Durand;
Paris
a
et HELOISSM
Paraclitensis
EPISTOLA
Ruyensis
cum
cura
et
A.M.
Cod.
MS.
Collat
Ricardi
Rawlinson,
purgatae
in Historia
The
calamitatum
46-50.
the fraud involved,
exposes
Abbatis
Erroribus
(London
1718). Monfrin
that his translation
claim of Gervaise
anciens
Manuscrits
that of Rawlinson
Manuscrit
Latin
1723) xiii.
96
Ouvrages
Paris
Cousin;
a
long note
97 L'illustre
trouv? dans
la Biblioth?que
de Fran?ois
d'Amboise
Conseiller
d'Etat
(Paris
in?dits d'Ab?lard
pour servir ? l'histoire de la philosophie
scolastique
(ed. V.
lardus' was the correct spelling in
argued that 'Ab
1836). Charles de R?musat
on the problem,
1.14 n. 1.
Ab?lard
1845)
(Paris
ou l'histoire eccl?siastiqie
de la ville et cit? de Chalon-sur-Sa?ne
orbandale
(Paris
la chronique
du s?avant
adds here:
Bertaud
'J'ay trouv? ce dernier nom dans
1662) 2.2-3.
Historien
Jean
l'?glise
was based not only on the 1616 edition

'mais de plus
les plus curieuses'
is as false as
que j'aye p? trouver dans les Biblioth?ques
et d'Heloise,
tir?es d'un ancien
Les v?ritables lettres d'Abeillard
; see Gervaise,
(Bergues
but
Crespin,'
sur le Zoom
I have
been
unable
1605)
333,
Crespin
to locate
this reference.
only mentions
'Pierre
In his L'Estat
de Balard.'
de
198
TRADITIO
The belief that names were images of what they signified lasted long into the
modern period. Even though the seventeenth-century etymology of 'Abailard'
was quite spurious, this spelling was widely used for over two centuries subse
quently.
'Abailard' became particularly popular through a highly imaginative history,
Les amours dfAbailard et d'Helo?se, apparently
first published by Jacques
Alluis, a notary of Grenoble, in 1675.98 His essay was reprinted inAmsterdam
in 1693 along with a free translation of part of the correspondence. The same
text of Alluis was published in The Hague

in 1693 (and reprinted many times
subsequently) with the title Histoire d'Elo?se et d*Abelard. The only change to
the original text made by the rival publishing house was to replace 'Abailard'
by 'Ab?lard.' The fact that the spelling 'Abelard' has come to prevail in the
world is largely due to the fact that in 1710 John Hughes

English-speaking
on
relied
the French translation of the correspondence published in The Hague
for his own English version.
'Abelard' was popularised by Alexander Pope in
his poem Eloisa
to Abelard, written in 1717.99 Another translation had been
in
1687
comte de Bussy, with the spelling
prepared
by Roger de Rabutin,
was not printed until 1697.100
'Abeilard' (by analogy with
but
'abeille'),
'Abaillard'
appeared
in a translation
supposedly
published
at the Paraclete
in
1696.101
The
matter
question of the correct spelling of the philosopher's name became a

of considerable learned debate in the early eighteenth century. Dom
Gervaise argued in the firstmajor biography (1720)

correct form. He cited an unidentified tradition:
sa m?re
ce nom au sortir de son
lui donna
Que
et de cet amas
future ?loquence,
des plus belles
sein
that
par
un
connoissances,
'Abeillard' was
the
de
pressentiment
dont
il d?coule
sa
roit un miel plus d?licieux que celui de l'Abeille. En s'attachant ? cette ?ty
il faut dire Abeillard et non pas Ab?lard, ni Abalard, ni Abaillard.
mologie,
C'est
en
la
suivant
saint
que
Bernard
l'appelle
Apis
de
Francia.102
98
Allard, La Biblioth?que du Dauphin? (Paris 1680) 9, identifiesAlluis (f 1688) as the
but
there are no surviving
in the major
editions
Parisian
libraries from earlier than
of R?mond
des Cours (and
bibliographical
history of the free translations
of other translators)
has been documented
dans l'histoire et dans
Charrier, H?lo?se
by Charlotte
la l?gende (Paris
The Hague
and Amsterdam
both of which
are
translations,
1933) 406-32.
author,
1693.
The
anonymous,
complex
are
conveniently
bound
into
volume
single
in the British
Library
copy,
1085.a.l2.
99 On
source and the reception

of his poem, see Pope:
The Critical Heritage
Pope's
(ed. J.
London
140-42.
1973)
Lettres de Messire
comte de Bussg
II 116.51.
Roger de Rabutin,
(Paris
1697)
101 Le
histoire gallante, contenant une Dissertation
curieuse sur la vie de
amoureux,
philosophe
Barnard;
100Les
Pierre Abaillard
102Dom F.-A.
Saint-Benoist,
et celle d'H?loise,
Gervaise,
La
et celle d'H?lo?se,
ed. F.-N.
vie de Pierre
Du
Bois
Abeillard,
son ?pouse,
premi?re
(Au Paraclet
1696).
abb? de Saint-Gildas-de
Ruis,
abbesse
du Paraclet
(Paris
de l'ordre de
1720)
3. His
199
abaelard
and Cusset had used the 'abeille' pun to emphasise Abaelard's

and
prudence
depth of wisdom, Gervaise used it as an augury of his eloquence.
to establish
La Monnoye
invoked the authority of the Acad?mie
Fran?aise
'Abailard' as the correct form.103He in turn was countered by the abb? Papil
lon, who argued in an essay published within Nic?ron's M?moires:
Where
Bertaud
Mais il me semble que la prononciation d'Ab?lard est plus douce et plus

conforme au g?nie de notre langue. Quelques Anciens d'ailleurs avec Vincent
de
Beauvais,
en ma
ont mis
l'affaire
faveur,
ciation que celle que

The
transformation
en
c'est
uvre
que
cette
orthographe.
les Bretons
n'admettent
Au
ce
reste,
point
qui
d'autre
d?cide
pronun
j'ai adopt?.104
of Abaelard's
regional identity had become complete.

Pierre Bayle did much to popularise
'Ab?lard' through his article in the
on
the translation published in The
Dictionnaire
historique, again dependent
in
1693.105
have
been
also
influenced by the grossly inaccu
may
Hague
Bayle
rate 'Abelardus,' used by Christian Thomasius

in a Latin summary of his life
in
without
the
1693
aid
of
Duchesne's
edition.106 Although most
published
translations in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries used 'Abailard,'
'Ab?lard' for his edition of the philosophical
Victor Cousin adopted Bayle's
in 1836.
works
and
Since this time 'Ab?lard' has prevailed
in French
scholarship
literature.
Writing in 1884, Reginald Lane Poole used poetic testimony to re-establish

the correct pronunciation, ifnot the correct spelling, of the name.107 Having at
hand only limited manuscript evidence, Poole suggested that the correct form
from a thirteenth-century Tegernsee manuscript
might be 'Abaielardus,'
(ms
Clm. 18926), but opted for 'Abailardus'
Staatsbibliothek
Munich, Bayerische
on the authority of another, of the twelfth (ms Tours, Bibl. mun. 85). He
maintained
that it was only a coincidence that this spelling was also used by
French translators. Poole thus broke with a tradition established by John
Hughes.
The
first scholar to return to the exact spelling selected by Duchesne
source may have been Bertaud

His claim that Bernard
relied
acknowledged
(see n. 92 above).
on this tradition
in letter 189 (ed. J. Leclercq,
S. Bernardi
Opera VIII
[Rome 1977] 14) is not
made
by Bertaud.
103 La
in his notes to A. Baillet,
ouvrages
Monnoye,
Jugements des savants sur les principaux
on prononce
ont ?crit Abaillard,
des auteurs (Amsterdam
mais
et l'on
1725) I 326: 'Plusieurs
devait
104
?crire Abailard.'
toujours
M?moires
pour servir ? l'histoire des hommes
illustres dans la r?publique des lettres

IV 1 (Paris 1728) 1. The reference to Vincent
of Beauvais
is based on a remark of Duchesne
in
. 10
his notes (see
In the 1624 Douai
edition of the Speculum
naturale
above).
(col. 2468de)
the spelling
'Abailardus'
is given.
105 P.
et critique (Rotterdam
Bayle, Dictionnaire
historique
1697) I 23-31;
(2nd ed.; Rotter
dam
1702) 17-23.
106 C.
in Historia
et stultitiae (Halle
Vita Abelardi,
I 75-112.
Thomasius,
sapientiae
1693)
107 See
. 2 above.
Nic?ron,
200
TRADITIO
was Bernhard
Geyer. Relying on his excellent knowledge of the manuscripts,

Geyer pointed out that the correct spelling was 'Abaelardus,' pronounced with
five syllables. His practice of writing 'Abaelard' has been followed by most
scholars, although not often by those from other countries. Sikes,

in
1932 in apparent ignorance of Geyer's important footnote, repeated
writing
the argument of Poole in favour of 'Abailardus.'108 Geyer's spelling of 'Abae
lardus' is, however, the more accurate. By being aware of its correct pronun
?
if only
ciation, we can come a little closer to the peripatetic of Le Pallet
through understanding a joke made about his name.
German
Monash
University
Victoria, Australia
108 J. G.
Sikes,
Peter
Abailard
(London
1932)
I 108.

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IN SEARCH OF A NAME AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE: A TWELFTH-CENTURY ANECDOTE ABOUT

THIERRY AND PETER ABAELARD

IN SEARCH OF A NAME AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE:

of the exact spelling and pronunciation of the famous philosopher's

lists thirty-seven medieval

und der Schweiz,

but then found the

mum grammatice et dialetice.

Sed cum esset

cepit eum cum exfestucatione4

auditor aliquando magistri Roscii.

hinc diuinitati operam dedit.

ipsius interesset. Mox ergo socios habere, et parisiis palam dialetice

maret optentu difficultatis intellectus resiliebat audientis. Cui semel afflicto et

de might have been copied mistakenly

lardo quadriuio potenter intromisit. ut nos opera illius de geometricis et arith

the force of the joke about 'Baiolard.'

he observes that until the present 'Abaelardus'

2nd ed. Assen

is the most frequently found spelling in the manuscript tradi

intellectibus,12 the Sic et Non,13 the Theologia1* his commentary on the

century unless otherwise

fol. 67v, from Christ

fol. 17; Cambridge

lat. 2923, fol. 1 (saec. xm);

It is the spelling given in the largest extant collection of his theological

one of many which

Celebrum theologum uidimus Lumbardum

quorum opobalsamum spirat os et nardum

is used to divide the a and e, but this does not affect

is also the spelling in a thirteenth-century manuscript of the Sic

occurs in twelfth-century copies of the Sententie (ms Pavia, Biblioteca Univer

fol. 63v; Carmen

fol. 16; Planctus

The opening page of the ms, which might have carried an

London, British Library, Cotton Faustina

the spelling consistently used

141 of the Sic

mun. 85, fol. 106, introducing

from this 13th-century

3> forwhich there was no direct equiv

previously denoted by the Anglo-Saxon

form of the cognomen occurs in manuscripts

clarissimi atque doctissimi uiri, cognomento adbaiolardi.'28

dote composed the rubrics 'sentencie magistri Petri Abelardi'

1957) 194-96, who

see Cecily Clark,

tournant des xf-xif

1975) 74, 91-92.

suggest that itwas copied at Pr?fening in either the late third

inscription Emmerammum was added over an erasure on its flyleaf.

St. Peter, Salzburg, possessed a

Clm. 16085, unat

in two other Pr?fening

is not unlike that of an important

117 (1936) 208-52,

that the Sententie

(Glasgow 1976) 37, 47-50.

abbey of Engelberg (diocese of Constance) owned certain 'Excerpta auctorita

the form 'Abelardus.'

is ostensibly to explain the derivation of two

function of the anecdote

imagined forms of the cognomen,