In Search of a Name and Its Significance: A Twelfth-Century Anecdote about Thierry and Peter Abaelard

Author:

Mews Constant J.

Abstract

‘Abaelard,’ ‘Abelard,’ ‘Baiolard’ …? Twelfth-century scribes were as uncertain of the exact spelling and pronunciation of the famous philosopher's cognomen as scholars have been in more recent centuries. Trivial as it might seem, correct pronunciation provides the key to understanding a short anecdote copied onto the opening folio of a twelfth-century manuscript (MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm. 14160 = M), formerly belonging to the Benedictine abbey of St. Emmeran, Regensburg. It tells the reader that the peripatetic philosopher wanted to supplement his studies of the trivium by following the lectures of master Thierry on mathematics, but then found the subject too difficult. Thierry gave Peter the name ‘Baiolard’ because he was like a greedy dog who had eaten his fill yet still wanted to lick (given as the meaning of baiare) lard, here used as an image of the quadrivium. The word lardum may itself be a pun on artium. The story-teller goes on to claim that Peter changed ‘Baiolard’ (‘lick-lard’) to ‘Abelard’ (‘have-lard’) because he came to master geometry and arithmetic. The patent absurdity of a number of details in this anecdote — such as, that Abelard was an Englishman or that he wrote on geometry and arithmetic — has led most scholars to dismiss the story as a spurious invention. 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.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Literature and Literary Theory,Philosophy,Religious studies,Visual Arts and Performing Arts

Reference116 articles.

1. The criticism of Thierry's teaching may have been based on misinterpretation of statements such as ‘Est enim rerum uniuersitas in deo,’ Commentum 4.7 (ed. Häring 97).

2. Dialectica, ed. de Rijk 128: ‘quales quidem cause sepe in ethimologiis redduntur, ut “Brito” dictus est “quasi-brutus.” Licet enim non omnes vel soli sint stolidi, hic tamen qui nomen “Britonis” composuit secundum affinitatem nominis “bruti,” in intentione habuit quod maxima pars Britonum fatua esset, atque hinc hoc nomen illi affine in sono protulit.’

3. Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen. Neubearbeitung I;Fischer;Die lateinischen Pergamenthandschriften,1928

4. ‘Sur l'etymologie du nom d'Abélard,’;Renan;Revue celtique,1870

5. Histoire de Melun (Paris 1628) 331-51. This is one of the first accounts of Abaelard's life in French to appear after the 1616 edition. Rouillard notes (348): 'Et ayant sceu qu'il y en avoit de manuscripts en la Bibliothèque de S. Victor, je les ay curieusement demandé par communication

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