CFA/CFP: The Parisian School of Saint-Victor in the Middle Ages: A European-wide Thought

The editorial board of the book "The Parisian School of Saint-Victor in the Middle Ages: A European-wide Thought" (to be published in Bibliotheca Victorina series of Brepols) has decided to prolong the dates for submission of abstracts and full papers (details below). The book is aimed to be a collection of articles focusing on the Parisian school of Saint Victor and its doctrinal contribution to a widely construed common European culture (see more below).

Call for abstracts and papers

The preparation of the book will consist in two steps:

1) Orientation. We kindly ask to send us the title and the abstract of your paper before 31th July. The abstract should have about 2000 signs. The aim of this step is not selection. It will allow the editors to have the idea of the number of papers, the range of subjects etc. Moreover, if the editors realise that the proposed text raises big difficulties, they will be able to contact the author.

2) Selection. We kindly ask to send us the complete papers by the end of November. Those, after a reviewing procedure, will be published in the book. The papers should be about 40 000 signs long. The following languages are accepted: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, with preference to English and French.

Founded at the beginning of the twelfth century on the outskirts of Paris, the Parisian school of Saint-Victor soon became an intellectual centre on a European scale: through the international recruitment of its masters: Hugh, Achard, Richard, Andrew, Godfrey, Thomas Gallus, and many others; through the wide handwritten dissemination of their works, in particular those of Hugh and Richard; and finally through the extent of its doctrinal contribution to a common European culture, on a large number of points:

• The importance of acquiring, before specializing, a «general culture» according to an encyclopaedic curriculum rooted in classical and patristic traditions;
• The need for a rigorous historical approach to biblical texts, open to rabbinic exegesis, before moving on to their allegorical or moral interpretation;
• A contagious interest in the writings and thought, hitherto largely neglected, of the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite;
• A major contribution to the constitution of a theological discipline, distinct from both exegesis and philosophy;
• An effort to reconcile rigour in doctrinal speculation, fervour in spiritual life, and psychological finesse in the analysis of contemplation and its stages.

In short, a curiosity about all fields of knowledge and, at the same time, an effort to unify them into a universal and unified wisdom explains the role, direct or indirect, played by the masters of Saint-Victor in the constitution of a common European thought, at the time of medieval universities and beyond.

Scholarly Committee

Giulio D’Onofrio (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

Fr. Hugh Feiss OSB (Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, Idaho)

Cédric Giraud (Université de Lorraine, Université de Genève)

Ruedi Imbach (Université de Fribourg, Université de Paris – Sorbonne)

Paul Rorem (Union Theological Seminary, New York)

P. Patrice Sicard SVict (École Cathédrale de Paris, Collège des Bernardins)

Editors

Wanda Bajor (KUL JPII)

Agnieszka Kijewska (KUL JPII)

Dominique Poirel (IRHT/CNRS, KUL JPII)

Michał Buraczewski

Marcin Janecki

Featured authors

Alexander Baumgarten (Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca)

Montse Leyra Curiá (Universidad San Dámaso, Madrid)

Giulio D’Onofrio (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

Cédric Giraud (Université de Lorraine, Université de Genève)

Ruedi Imbach (Université de Fribourg, Université de Paris – Sorbonne)

Contact

We invite those interested in the topic to contact the secretary:

Michał Buraczewski: [email protected]

or Marcin Janecki: [email protected]

or Agnieszka Kijewska: [email protected]

or Dominique Poirel: [email protected]