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The World of John of Salisbury
The medieval Englishman, John of Salisbury, was a philosopher and humanist, theologian and bishop, courtier and diplomat, poet and political thinker. This book provides a reassessment of his life and work. It features 25 papers by international scholars.
- GenresHistory
482 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 1984
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August 24, 2015
This is a solid collection of interesting essays that became a bit of a slog for me thanks to detours into French, Italian, and German, which it turns out I cannot really read all that well.
John of Salisbury is an interesting guy: exceptionally literate, impressively well-connected, the sort of cultural commentator who seems objective at first glance but really just has complex and ambivalent perspectives on some of the most interesting aspects of his age. He was a scholar but disliked the minutia of philosophical squabbles, he was an Englishman who spent a great deal of his life outside of England, he dabbled in political philosophy, theology, history, law, and diplomacy.
This collection of essays tends to focus more heavily on John's academic background: there's a lot of work reconstructing what he learned while and university, and from whom, particularly in a good article by Pierre Riché. There's also a good bit of interest in John's Policraticus, his book on political theory, and how it fit into the politics and intellectual currents of his period.
It's an interesting read because John is a very interesting person. The articles are probably too technical and specific to function well as an introduction to John's life, though. Something like John of Salisbury by Cary Nederman would probably work better (though I haven't read it), or just diving right into John's political works (John of Salisbury: Policraticus) or historical works (The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury).
John of Salisbury is an interesting guy: exceptionally literate, impressively well-connected, the sort of cultural commentator who seems objective at first glance but really just has complex and ambivalent perspectives on some of the most interesting aspects of his age. He was a scholar but disliked the minutia of philosophical squabbles, he was an Englishman who spent a great deal of his life outside of England, he dabbled in political philosophy, theology, history, law, and diplomacy.
This collection of essays tends to focus more heavily on John's academic background: there's a lot of work reconstructing what he learned while and university, and from whom, particularly in a good article by Pierre Riché. There's also a good bit of interest in John's Policraticus, his book on political theory, and how it fit into the politics and intellectual currents of his period.
It's an interesting read because John is a very interesting person. The articles are probably too technical and specific to function well as an introduction to John's life, though. Something like John of Salisbury by Cary Nederman would probably work better (though I haven't read it), or just diving right into John's political works (John of Salisbury: Policraticus) or historical works (The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury).
Displaying 1 of 1 review