The Repentant Abelard - (New Middle Ages) by J Ruys (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The great medieval thinker Peter Abelard is renowned for his uncompromising and radical approach to ethics and theology, a towering public figure in twelfth-century schools and monasticism. The Repentant Abelard argues, however, that later in his life, Abelard's thoughts turned again towards his own family, and it explores the works he wrote at this time for his former wife Heloise and son Astralabe. These include six laments (Planctus) for Heloise written in the voices of Old Testament figures, works of extraordinary poetry, resonant with love, sorrow, and despair. For his son he wrote a long poem of didactic advice (Carmen ad Astralabium) in which he summarized decades of his controversial ethical and theological ideas. This book offers a new Latin edition of these texts complete with first-time full English translation and comprehensive notes. The works are introduced by thematic, stylistic, and reception studies which reveal how powerful and unique these texts are within Medieval Latin literature. As such, they stand as truly personal gifts from Abelard to his family"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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)

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.