Education

Issu d’un colloque organisé en septembre 2020 ce volume part de la nécessité de faire dialoguer histoire de la théologie et histoire des savoirs. Il se concentre plus particulièrement sur les lieux académiques de la production de la théologie sur son rapport à d’autres disciplines et son séquençage en sous-disciplines sur sa circulation dans des espaces plus vastes et sur le rapport aux éditeurs. Les 16 contributions ici rassemblées rompent avec l’écriture classique de l’histoire de la théologie qui est restée à grande distance des questions et des méthodes de l’histoire des savoirs ils rompent également avec la réticence des historiens des savoirs à appréhender l’objet-théologie malgré son importance dans les universités européennes des deux derniers siècles. Ce volume s’inscrit dans un agenda renouvelé d’historicisation des conditions et de la production des savoirs théologiques dans le monde catholique depuis les restaurations européennes du 19e siècle jusqu’à Vatican II.

This book explores the intersection between the early development of medieval universities and the arrival of Aristotle's works in the Christian West especially De anima: one of his most famous and obscure writings straddling the fields of biology and psychology and devoted to the functions of living beings – including the human being.

The leading figures in this very special meeting of cultures also involving scientific writings from the Islamic world are the Masters of Faculties of Arts. From the first half of the 13th century they embarked on a theoretically very demanding enterprise namely to restore a complete understanding of De anima; and they accomplished this difficult task by establishing a close – and often polemical – relationship with their more famous colleagues: theologians such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.

By resorting to the research and teaching methods of their time the Masters of Arts addressed crucial topics such as the soul/body relationship sense perception intellectual knowledge and the special status of the human intellect mediating as far as possible between scientific requirements and those of the Christian faith.

Authors such as Adam of Buckfield Peter of Spain Siger of Brabant John of Jandun and John Buridan together with other less famous ones and a small crowd of completely anonymous – yet theoretically no less interesting – scholars gave rise to a choral narrative that disclosed new philosophical perspectives on man. It is in this intellectual context that the roots of Modern philosophical thought lie.

The Institutiones humanarum litterarum - that is the second book of Cassiodorus’ masterpiece devoted to secular learning - have come down to us in three different textual forms: the ‘authentic’ recension Ω corresponding to Cassiodorus’ final wishes and two subsequent recensions designated as Φ and Δ. In these two recensions later interpolations were added on the basis of an earlier authorial draft providing modern readers with valuable information both about Cassiodorus’ progressive revisions and about the early fortune of his work.

This volume provides a full commentary to the first critical edition of the interpolated recensions Φ and Δ (CC SL 99A). In doing so it conveys a full picture of the complex history of the Institutiones saeculares from their first appearance in the monastery of Vivarium to the Carolingian Renaissance at which time they knew their greatest success and circulation.

In 1517 the Brabant city of Louvain witnessed the foundation of the Collegium Trilingue (Three Language College). Funded by means of the legacy of the humanist and diplomat Jerome of Busleyden (d. 1517) and steered by guiding spirit Erasmus of Rotterdam this institute offered courses in the three so-called sacred languages Hebrew Greek and Latin which students could attend for free. However this kind of initiative was not unique to Louvain in the early 16th century. In a time span of barely twenty years Greek and Hebrew were also offered in Alcalá de Henares (near Madrid) Wittenberg and Paris among other places. It would not take long before these ‘sacred’ languages were also on the educational agenda at universities throughout the whole of Europe.

The present volume examines the general context in which such polyglot institutes emerged and thrived as well as the learning and teaching practices observed in these institutes and universities. Devoting special attention to the study of the continuity or rather the discontinuity between the 16th-century establishment of language chairs and the late medieval interest in these languages it brings together fifteen selected papers exploring various aspects of these multilingual undertakings focusing on their pedagogical and scholarly dimensions. Most of the contributions were presented at the 2017 LECTIO conference The Impact of Learning Greek Hebrew and ‘Oriental’ Languages on Scholarship Science and Society in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance which was organized at the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the Louvain Collegium Trilingue.

Henry of Rheinfelden a Dominican from Basel spent the last decade of the fourteenth century at the University of Vienna studying theology. During this time he took notes on the academic activities of the first rectors of the university and deans of the Faculties of Arts and Theology. This volume explores Rheinfelden’s contribution to our understanding of the doctrinal curricular administrative and prosopographical history of the early University of Vienna. Deciphering Rheinfelden’s surviving notebooks in the Universitätsbibliothek Basel sheds new light on the rise of an academic elite in Vienna. His manuscripts reveal a network of scholars sharing a passion for knowledge and supply a gallery of intellectual profiles starting with the mentors of the group Henry of Langenstein and Henry Totting of Oyta and continuing with the lesser-known figures Stephen of Enzersdorf Gerhard Vischpekch of Osnabrück Paul (Fabri) of Geldern Andreas of Langenstein Rutger Dole of Roermond Nicholas of Hönhartzkirchen Nicholas of Dinkelsbühl John Berwart of Villingen John Stadel of Russbach Peter de Treysa Michael Suchenschatz of Hausleiten Peter Schad of Walse Thomas of Cleves and Leonhard of Dorffen. The papers gathered in this volume highlight the intricate relationship between a commitment to administrative duty and an appetite for the creation of a doctrinal tradition via debating forging arguments defending and attacking positions commenting on authorities and adopting and adapting academic practices imported from Paris since the majority of the authors in our gallery were educated in Paris and built their careers in Vienna. Through Rheinfelden’s notebooks this volume provides access to unique and previously unknown texts that together offer a new image of the medieval University of Vienna.

Since the early nineteenth century European pedagogical theory has stimulated a didactic turn towards the visual as an alternative to textual mediations of knowledge through books and lectures. Pedagogues and policymakers who strove for a more child-centred approach to teaching were soon joined by media producers and marketers in their aim to transform the classroom into a multimodal space for learning. From the turn of the twentieth century onwards teachers were increasingly pressured to incorporate high-profile media technologies such as stereoscopes lantern and film projectors into their lessons.

This collection of essays focuses on European educational light projection from its first appearance at the end of the nineteenth century through the 1990s when digital image projection started to gradually replace analogue film slide and overhead projectors. It explores the classroom use of these technologies. In doing so it challenges top-down approaches to the introduction of new visual technology and questions discourses that characterize the relation of visual media technology to teachers as one of consumption. The studies in this volume demonstrate how everyday demands and preferences transformed the 'ideal' instructional culture as put forward by policymakers producers and pedagogues into distinctive didactic practices that worked around or went beyond the pre-imposed ways of usage of visual media products. The volume moves beyond the view of instructional technology as a one-way route to modernization and teaching efficiency. By laying bare the power relations interests and ideologies at play the contributions also lend insight into the intertwinement between politics media material culture and classroom practices.

A modest man of great accomplishments Walahfrid Strabo was a fine poet teacher abbot gardener liturgist and diplomat. His personal notebook reveals that he loved arithmetic and astronomy. For a decade he tutored Carolus iunior youngest son of Judith and Ludwig der Fromme who became emperor Charles the Bald. On two occasions Walahfrid found and transcribed formulae and explanations of time series often correcting them.

By identifying Walahfrid's sources and scripts Professor Stevens is able to trace his life and scholarship as they relate to Carolingian politics and schools in the first half of ninth-century Europe.

A rare survival provides unmatched access to the the medieval classroom. In the academic year 1330-31 the Franciscan theologian William of Brienne lectured on Peter Lombard’s Sentences and disputed with the other theologians at the University of Paris. The original official notes of these lectures and disputes survives in a manuscript codex at the National Library of the Czech Republic and they constitute the oldest known original record of an entire university course. An analysis of this manuscript reconstructs the daily reality of the University of Paris in the fourteenth century delineating the pace and organization of instruction within the school and the debates between the schools. The transcription made during William’s lectures and the later modifications and additions reveal how the major vehicle for Scholastic thought the written Sentences commentary relates to fourteenth-century teaching. As a teacher and a scholar William of Brienne was a dedicated follower of the philosophy and theology of John Duns Scotus (+1308). He constructed Scotist doctrine for his students and defended it from his peers. This book shows concretely how scholastic thinkers made communicated and debated ideas at the medieval universities. Appendices document the entire process with critical editions of William’s academic debates (principia) his promotion speech and a selection of his lectures and sources.

L’étude de l’Ars de Priscien débutée discrètement dans les Îles britanniques au VIIe siècle a occupé une position essentielle dans la formation médiévale. Sous l’impulsion d’Alcuin elle a ouvert de nouvelles perspectives aux réflexions grammaticales pour des générations d’écolâtres. Les plus anciens témoins manuscrits de l’Ars attestent que les innombrables explications notées en marges ont tenu un rôle capital dans la transmission du savoir.

Le présent volume décrit le contexte pédagogique et plus largement le milieu culturel dans lequel s’insère l’étude de la grammaire dans le haut Moyen Âge et s’attache tout spécialement à dégager les étapes de sa réception dans les monastères d’abord sous l’angle des livres qui la transmettent puis de celui des maîtres qui les ont utilisés. À cet effet les gloses constituent des témoignages fondamentaux qui font l’objet d’une triple enquête : typologique textuelle et historique.

Les gloses présentées ici dévoilent les rouages intimes d’un monde scolaire en constant renouvellement. Elles font la lumière sur les patients travaux des maîtres carolingiens qui ont minutieusement décortiqué le texte complexe de Priscien. Elles montrent l’élaboration d’une méthodologie promise à un brillant avenir. Et si les Carolingiens se sont attachés surtout aux seize premiers livres ils n’en ont pas moins préparé le terrain d’une seconde réception qui placera dès la fin du XIe siècle les deux derniers livres sur la syntaxe au centre des débats scolastiques.

Nicole Oresme est sans doute un des philosophes médiévaux les mieux connus. L’intérêt qu’il a suscité depuis longtemps dépasse le cercle étroit des spécialistes du fait de l’exceptionnelle variété de son œuvre aujourd’hui presque complètement éditée. Cet intérêt a largement contribué à modifier l’image du Moyen Âge conçu traditionnellement comme une période obscure mais a aussi malheureusement conduit à la production d’un nombre considérable de contre-sens voire de fables.

C’est à l’occasion de la parution de son dernier texte important encore inédit ses Questions sur la Physique qu’à l’initiative de Christophe Grellard nous avons organisé à la Sorbonne les 16 et 17 novembre 2012 deux journées d’études sur son activité philosophique qui ont pu bénéficier des dernières avancées de la critique.

Ce livre est issu des communications produites à cette occasion mais à la lumière des discussions qui ont suivi elles ont été modifiées puis révisées pour assurer la cohérence de l’ensemble. L’objectif était de réaliser un ouvrage qui ferait le point sur nos connaissances de l’œuvre d’Oresme en philosophie de la nature et en philosophie de la connaissance et sur les débats dans lesquels elle s’inscrivait.