Poetic Works - Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library - Bernardus Silvestris - Books - Harvard University Press - 9780674743786 - April 20, 2015
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Poetic Works - Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library

Bernardus Silvestris

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Poetic Works - Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library

Having studied with pioneers in philosophy and science, Bernardus Silvestris became a renowned teacher of literary and poetic composition. His versatility as scholar, philosopher, and scientist is apparent in this collection, particularly his masterpiece the Cosmographia, which has been compared to the poetry of Lucretius and Giordano Bruno.


Publisher Marketing: Bernardus Silvestris exemplifies the scholastic culture of his time. Having studied with pioneers in philosophy and science, he became a renowned teacher of literary and poetic composition. His versatility as scholar, philosopher, and scientist is apparent in his masterpiece, the "Cosmographia." In alternating verse and prose, this foundational text for later Latin and vernacular literature synthesizes important intellectual movements of the early twelfth century. It owes its deepest debt to the tradition of philosophical allegory, including Plato s "Timaeus," Cicero s "Somnium Scipionis," and the "prosimetra" of Martianus Capella and Boethius. Bernardus also displays a masterly awareness of classical Latin poetry. Though less widely influential than his great disciple, Alan of Lille, Bernardus is the most subtle of the twelfth-century Latin poets; the "Cosmographia" has been aptly compared to the poetry of Lucretius and Giordano Bruno, and a copy survives written in the hand of Boccaccio. In "Mathematicus" ( The Astrologer ), a Roman hero, faced with an astrologer s prediction that he will kill his father, resolves to defy fate by committing suicide. This text is the most substantial of the surviving twelfth-century poems based on the ancient exercises in rhetoric known as "controversiae," and it illustrates the twelfth century s concern with astral determinism."

Contributor Bio:  Wetherbee, Winthrop Winthrop Wetherbee is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities Emeritus, Cornell University.

Media Books     Hardcover Book   (Book with hard spine and cover)
Released April 20, 2015
ISBN13 9780674743786
Publishers Harvard University Press
Genre Chronological Period > Medieval (500-1453) Studies
Pages 384
Dimensions 141 × 213 × 29 mm   ·   500 g
Language English  

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