What do you think?
Rate this book
Heloise and Abelard
Recounts the most famous love story of the Middle Ages
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
Étienne Gilson
231 books168 followersÉtienne Henri Gilson was born into a Roman Catholic family in Paris on 13 June 1884. He was educated at a number of Roman Catholic schools in Paris before attending lycée Henri IV in 1902, where he studied philosophy. Two years later he enrolled at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1907 after having studied under many fine scholars, including Lucien Lévy Bruhl, Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 12, 2016
One of the most famous romantic tragedies of the Middle Ages was also a historical event--the relationship of Heloise and Abelard. Abelard was a philosopher and theologian teaching in Paris during the early 1100s. He had a towering intellect with an ego to match. His career was highly successful and occasionally controversial. He was hired by Fulbert to teach his niece Heloise. She had private lessons in Fulbert's house and the thirty-something Abelard fell in love and had an affair with the teen-aged Heloise. She was a brilliant student even before coming under Abelard's influence. When Fulbert found out about the affair, he had them separated. Heloise and Abelard continued to meet in secret. She became pregnant and went to Brittany to have the child in the home of Abelard's sister. Abelard proposed a secret marriage (kept secret to preserve his intellectual career) to appease Fulbert. Heloise objected but finally consented. Fulbert did not want it kept a secret so he announced the marriage after it happened. Abelard sent Heloise to a convent to free her from the influence of her uncle. Fulbert took this a a rejection of Heloise and had some men break into Abelard apartment at night and castrate him. Abelard decided to become a monk and argued Heloise into becoming a nun at the convent. She still pined for his love and was uncomfortable in her role as a nun and eventually an abbess. They exchanged several letters which are the primary source for their story.
Gilson draws on these letters to give not so much the history of Heloise and Abelard but a sense of them as two people swept up in their passion for learning the classics (they were as fond of Roman Stoics as of Christian writings) and for each other. Heloise realizes that, in order to be a great man of letters like Seneca of St. Jerome, Abelard needs to be chaste and focused on his intellectual work. She objects to marrying since that will certainly hurt his academic career, not so much for causing scandal or limiting his clerical options, but for creating other responsibilities that will consume his energy and time. He seems to want it both ways--to be married but not admit it in public so as to let him advance his career. His ego lets him think it will work and he persuades her to accept his judgment. When things turn out poorly, he has a change of mind and heart which causes anguish and strife for both of them.
Gilson does a great job describing them as persons. He also spends quite a while debunk others who have written about the pair from the historical-critical method, casting doubts on the authenticity of the letters. Theories range from "the letters were substantially rewritten" to "the letters were created afterwards." Gilson argues ably and interestingly against these theories, though the arguments are a bit dry and academic. They are important, however, from the viewpoint of trying to know Heloise and Abelard as they were themselves, rather than as readers would like them to be.
This book is an interesting read and makes me want to read the original letters, along with Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, which also describes the events.
Gilson draws on these letters to give not so much the history of Heloise and Abelard but a sense of them as two people swept up in their passion for learning the classics (they were as fond of Roman Stoics as of Christian writings) and for each other. Heloise realizes that, in order to be a great man of letters like Seneca of St. Jerome, Abelard needs to be chaste and focused on his intellectual work. She objects to marrying since that will certainly hurt his academic career, not so much for causing scandal or limiting his clerical options, but for creating other responsibilities that will consume his energy and time. He seems to want it both ways--to be married but not admit it in public so as to let him advance his career. His ego lets him think it will work and he persuades her to accept his judgment. When things turn out poorly, he has a change of mind and heart which causes anguish and strife for both of them.
Gilson does a great job describing them as persons. He also spends quite a while debunk others who have written about the pair from the historical-critical method, casting doubts on the authenticity of the letters. Theories range from "the letters were substantially rewritten" to "the letters were created afterwards." Gilson argues ably and interestingly against these theories, though the arguments are a bit dry and academic. They are important, however, from the viewpoint of trying to know Heloise and Abelard as they were themselves, rather than as readers would like them to be.
This book is an interesting read and makes me want to read the original letters, along with Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, which also describes the events.
August 17, 2024
start to finish insanity. rip astrolabe you would have loved x æ a-12
September 28, 2024
Good brief overview of Heloise and Abelard's life. I wish we knew more about Astrolabe.
August 13, 2025
This is reputed to be a scholarly work, but I did not find it hard to read. He lays out their story chronologically, all from the Abelard's and Heloise's letters, though the author is a scholar of medieval history and knows the world they live in and some of the people that figure in their lives. In the last chapter, the author sets the couple's story into an overview of those times, complexity of which defies a neat, definitive definition.
December 25, 2023
Η ιστορία πίσω από τις επιστολές πιο ενδιαφέρουσα από τις ίδιες τις επιστολές.
April 5, 2023
Bezżenność Kafki, Flauberta, Schulza, Gogola... Heloiza przekonuje Piotra Abelarda by wzorem Seneki i św. Hieronima nie brał na siebie tego jarzma. Ambiwalencja miłości do kobiety i wierności własnej duchowej drodze. Listy Abelarda i Heloizy, pisane w XII w. są fascynujące. Gilson słusznie zżyma się na dogmatyzm historyków, którzy początek Odrodzenia widzą w XIV-wiecznych państwach-miastach włoskich. Niby że indywidualizm, psychologiczna introspekcja, wolność od autorytetów są obce średniowieczu... O kant d...py potłuc taką wizję historii. Le Goff pod koniec życia również zżymał się na ograniczające myślenie etykietowanie literatury i wielkich osobowości metkami epok.
Obydwoje: Heloiza i Abelard to potężne osobowości. Niech nikogo nie zwiedzie, że to banalna historia tragicznego romansu genialnego wykładowcy, filozofa i teologa i zbałamuconej przez niego nastolatki (równie genialnej: Heloiza znała łacinę, grekę i hebrajski; równie sprawnie cytowała Senekę, św. Pawła, Owidiusza "Sztukę kochania" i św. Hieronima). Jest w tej historii i korespondencji kochanków iskra niewypowiadalnego szaleństwa - fascynująca, prowokująca do pytań i dociekania.
Obydwoje: Heloiza i Abelard to potężne osobowości. Niech nikogo nie zwiedzie, że to banalna historia tragicznego romansu genialnego wykładowcy, filozofa i teologa i zbałamuconej przez niego nastolatki (równie genialnej: Heloiza znała łacinę, grekę i hebrajski; równie sprawnie cytowała Senekę, św. Pawła, Owidiusza "Sztukę kochania" i św. Hieronima). Jest w tej historii i korespondencji kochanków iskra niewypowiadalnego szaleństwa - fascynująca, prowokująca do pytań i dociekania.
November 27, 2012
I'm a pushover for star-crossed love - but also love that transcends the commonplace physical attraction, although this love certainly started that way. I saw this story performed as a play at USF. I was entranced for a long time afterward.
November 2, 2014
Such a sad story! I couldn't put it down.
January 14, 2015
A really good attempt at psychologically analyzing the couple, with excellent citations.
December 15, 2017
I loved the letters of Abelard and Heloise and found Abelard's Historia Calamitatum amongst the most honest, open and moving biographies since Augustus' Confessions and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Additionally, the chapter on Abelard in Gilson's Unity of Philosophic Experience was fantastic and Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages was entertaining and informative.
Thus I approached the respected historian of Medieval Studies from the Pontifical Institute in Toronto and the Académie Française with an air of hopeful expectation. I was expecting a historical discussion of the protagonists, their situation and difficulties. However, I found Gilson's book long and drawn out. Though the discussion on Abelard's status as a cleric lends an interesting insight into the Medieval concept of Holy Orders, overall the book was dry and felt like it was fighting battles periphery to the interests of the reader and story. It reads more as a scholarly defense of a particular interpretation of the period than a biography and thus it was lacking in the very human aspect which eminates from the letters.
Interesting and definitive to anyone doing advanced studies on the subject but not light or uplifting.
Thus I approached the respected historian of Medieval Studies from the Pontifical Institute in Toronto and the Académie Française with an air of hopeful expectation. I was expecting a historical discussion of the protagonists, their situation and difficulties. However, I found Gilson's book long and drawn out. Though the discussion on Abelard's status as a cleric lends an interesting insight into the Medieval concept of Holy Orders, overall the book was dry and felt like it was fighting battles periphery to the interests of the reader and story. It reads more as a scholarly defense of a particular interpretation of the period than a biography and thus it was lacking in the very human aspect which eminates from the letters.
Interesting and definitive to anyone doing advanced studies on the subject but not light or uplifting.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews