The Repentant Abelard: Family, Gender, and Ethics in Peter Abelard's Carmen ad Astralabium and Planctus

by J. Ruys

Overview

The Repentant Abelard is both an innovative study and English translation of the late poetic works of controversial medieval philosopher and logician Peter Abelard, written for his beloved wife Heloise and son Astralabe. This study brings to life long overlooked works of this great thinker with analyses and comprehensive notes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312240028
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/04/2014
Series:	The New Middle Ages
Edition description:	2014
Pages:	355
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Juanita Feros Ruys is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Sydney Node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her areas of expertise include the writings of Abelard and Heloise, medieval Latinate women's writings, medieval and early modern didactic literature, and high medieval demonology.

Table of Contents

Introduction PART I: CARMEN AD ASTRALABRIUM ANALYSIS 1. Writing the Carmen 2. Reading the Carmen : The Medieval Reception of the Carmen PART II: PLANCTUS ANALYSIS 3. The Planctus as a Series 4. Specific Studies in the Planctus PART III: CARMEN AD ASTRALABIUM TEXT PART IV: PLANCTUS TEXT Appendices

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Juanita Feros Ruys introduces us to a more humane Abelard, as he evolved in the 1130s only after re-connecting with Heloise, the woman who had transformed his life two decades earlier. Through her edition, translation, and commentary of two, unjustly neglected poetic texts, his Carmen or Song for Astralabe and his Planctus or Laments, Ruys shows with elegance and finesse how Abelard could move beyond the moralism that characterises his earlier writing to Heloise to reflect on complex issues of family relationships, justice, and the human condition." - Constant J. Mews, Professor and Director, Centre for Religious Studies, Monash University, Australia

"This is one of the most original and important books to have been published about Abelard. Through impeccable scholarship, the fascinating but difficult poetry of his later years is made accessible to today's readers. The master of Latin rhetoric, who is revealed here, is as engaging as the more familiar figure of Abelard the philosopher and theologian. Here too is a fresh way of understanding the personal story of Abelard and Heloise." - M. T. Clanchy, University of London, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK

Editorial Reviews

Juanita Feros Ruys’s study is massively learned and erudite. Peter Abelard is reintroduced to medievalists as a figure beyond the heady days of his public life and Ruys sheds new and important light on other dimensions of this complex and fascinating personality. The text produced by Ruys is noteworthy and stands without antecedent or peer both for originality and interpretation. … The study is supplemented by an international, up-to-date bibliography.” (Thomas A. Fudge, Parergon, Vol. 32 (2), 2015)

“This important book shows how questioning the meaning of family might lead to a new understanding of human connections between men and women, brothers and sisters, or parents and children, about what bound them and how they dealt with loss, transforming grief into songs that reflected somehow the utterly ordinariness of being human.” (Babette Hellemans,Speculum, Vol. 94 (2), April, 2019)

From the Publisher