By Things Seen: Reference and Recognition in Mediaeval Thought

by David Lyle Jeffrey

The self and the reference and recognition in medieval thought -- 1. Creation and Redeeming the the Confessions of St. Augustine / Patrick Grant -- Dante's allegory and autobiography / John Freccero -- Number as cosmic language / Russell A. Peck -- The contest of Apollo and ideas about music in the middle ages / Bruce Smith -- The meaning of space in fourteenth century Tuscan painting / David Wilkins -- 2. Vernacular The practical transmission of medieval culture / Robert S. Lopez -- Franciscan spirituality and the growth of vernacular culture / David Jeffrey -- The Societas Riccardorum and economic change / Richard W. Kaueper -- 3. Turning to Albertus Magnus and the rise of empiricism / James R. Shaw -- The development of medieval astronomy / John W. Abrams -- The concept of God's absolute power in the later fourteenth century / Laurence Eldredge -- Breaking up the from Plato's Academy to the "School of Athens.".

272 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent set of essays, edited by David Lyle Jeffrey. The essays explore economics, number , Philosophy and theology is as well as art, during the mediaeval period. They bring out the distinctively Christian worldview of the mediaevals, even if tainted by other philosophies. What the contributors also do, is show the subtle dependencies on the development of the thought of Plato and Aristotle. The mediaevals were not really assimilationists, but scholars who carefully weighed what they found in the ancients and incorporated it into the Christian system.