USD $216.00
Gerard of Abbeville, Secular Master, on Knowledge, Wisdom and Contemplation (2 vols)
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Gerard of Abbeville (d. 1272) was the foremost secular theologian at the University of Paris during the third quarter of the thirteenth century. Significantly, Gerard’s corpus includes the most comprehensive treatment of the nature and extent of human knowledge from the generation before Henry of Ghent.
Stephen M. Metzger’s study presents Gerard’s complete theory of human knowledge, which is a hierarchy extending from the knowledge acquired in faith, through scientific thought and culminating in the full vision of God by the blessed in patria. It is the fullest exposition of the life, works and thought of Gerard yet written and is augmented by the presentation for the first time of editions of several disputed questions and other texts.
Stephen M. Metzger’s study presents Gerard’s complete theory of human knowledge, which is a hierarchy extending from the knowledge acquired in faith, through scientific thought and culminating in the full vision of God by the blessed in patria. It is the fullest exposition of the life, works and thought of Gerard yet written and is augmented by the presentation for the first time of editions of several disputed questions and other texts.
Stephen M. Metzger, Ph.D. (2013), University of Notre Dame, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in that university’s Medieval Institute. He was an editor of Philosophy and Theology in the Studia of the Religious Orders and at Papal and Royal Courts (Brepols, 2012).
"Metzger's Gerard of Abbeville offers one volume placing Gerard in his context (with 30 pages of texts) and another volume of editions. In an age when medievalists' command of Latin--let alone Latin palaeography--has plummeted to the point where reviewers of editions are often averse to commenting on anything beyond the introduction and summaries of the Latin text in modern languages, these editions of texts alone are cause for admiration, but Metzger gives us much more. [...] Much more important is Gerard's time as master of theology at Paris, for which Metzger makes three significant contributions: (a) he sketches a portrait of the institutional context and Gerard's position within it, showing how Gerard himself shed light on that context; (b) he situates Gerard in the Parisian discussion of knowledge, wisdom, and contemplation, as the title suggests; and (c) he provides editions of texts. [...] Overall, considering that there is only one manuscript and hundreds of pages of texts, Metzger's edition is trustworthy and accurate, and we should look forward to his critical edition of the complete Quodlibeta of Gerard of Abbeville." Chris Schabel, University of Cyprus, in: Vivarium 55 (2017), pp. 340-359.
All interested in the history of Scholastic philosophy and theology, especially theories of cognition, during the thirteenth century, and in the history of the University of Paris.