Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition (Yale Intellectual History of the West Se)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 448 pages
• Published by: Yale University Press February 8, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0300078528
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0300078527
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

From Library Journal
This is the first book in what promises to be an exciting new series. It will seek to provide "a chronological account of the intellectual life and the development of ideas in Western Europe from the early medieval period to the present day."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This magisterial book provides an analysis of the course of Western intellectual history between A.D. 400 and 1400. The book is arranged in two parts: the first surveys the comparative modes of thought and varying success of Byzantine, Latin-Christian, and Muslim cultures, and the second takes the reader from the twelfth-century revival of learning to the high Middle Ages and beyond, the period in which the vibrancy of Western intellectual culture enabled it to stamp its imprint well beyond the frontiers of Christendom.

Reader Reviews
Colish's book is a tour-de-force in the Yale Intellectual History of the West. Her thesis, that the foundation of the Western intellectual mindset and tradition really began in earnest in the Middle Ages rathern than Greek antiquity is an interesting one, and one for which I beleive she gives good arguments. The way she suggests that the ideals of Greece were filtered through Rome and Latin Christianity befire they reached "Euorope" as we know it today comes off convincingly. For her, it is a matter of the development of ideas counting for more than their sources; as a historian, she knows that things didn't have to turn out the way that they did. Colish fleshes this out very nicely in the section of the book where she gives an evenhanded and scholarly account of the parallel cultures of the Latin West, Byzantium, and Islam. Her work in this volume shows that she has thought long and hard about these issues, and her conclusions deserve close attention. In addition to her excellent discussion of European Medieval intellectual thought, Colish goes into the vernacular literature and day-to-day culture of the Medieval world and proves again that the "Dark Ages" were anything but in some very important ways. Her treatment of theology in dialogue with Medieval law, science, and literature is nothing less than inspired: as a theologian, I found myself wondering how Colish, a historian, had found the time to track down all the relevant arguements, and how she had been able to explain such byzantine issues as the Nominalist controversy and lay-investiture in so clear a manner. Read this book (not really for beginners) in conjunction with or immediately following Cantor's Civilization in the Middle Ages, and you will have a firm grasp of the entire span of the Medieval era, its ideas, culture, politics, religion, and heritage. A wonderful book.