The Dialectical Crisis of the Thirteenth Century and its Reflection in Richard de Fournival

165 Pages·1975·6.241 MB·English

by  Thomas Joseph Daly

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Xerox University Microfilms
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DALY, Thomas Joseph, 1927-
THE DIALECTICAL CRISIS OF THE THIRTEENTH
CENTURY AND ITS REFLECTION IN RICHARD
DE FOURNIVAL. '
Tufts University, Ph.D., 1975
Literature, modern
Xerox University Microfilms,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
© 1975
THOMAS JOSEPH DALY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED.
THE DIALECTICAL CRISIS OF THE
THIRTEENTH CENTURY AND ITS
REFLECTION IN
RICHARD DE FOURNIVAL.
A DISSERTATION
Submitted by
THOMAS J. DALY
In partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
May, 1975
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I The Medieval Scene: The Kingdom of the Mind . . . 2
II The Medieval Scene: The Kingdom of Letters . . . 54
III Richard de Fournival: His L i f e ................... 71
IV Richard de Fournival: His Works................... 86
V Conclusions.............. 135
List of Works Consulted.......................... 141
1
ABSTRACT
The Middle Ages have often been viewed as an organic
whole because of the drive to develop hierarchical structures
in both ecclesiastical and civil domains, and above all be­
cause of the attitude of faith which could and did often
result in a short-circuiting of rational thought. But
at the same time the medieval view was far from being mono­
focal. '
Dualism was part of the scene during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Those perennial pairings, which had
so fascinated the ancients, were rediscovered: matter and
form, body and soul, male and female, the self and the
other person. To these the medieval Schoolmen added:
natural and supernatural, faith and reason and allegory
and symbolism.
This medieval dualism resulted in a dialectical crisis,
the ramifications of which are found even today. We see
this in the development of a certain interiorization within
man where his soul became the battleground for the great
psychomachia, the struggle where salvation was the prize.
Looking outside of himself man discovered polarities be­
tween himself and others. The age of inter-personal rela­
tionships was at hand. Particularly was this so with re­
spect to relationships between persons of the opposite sex.
The "Art of Loving" assumed an importance never appreciated
before.
2
What emerged from this pursuit of dialectics was a
growth toward greater maturity, both in spiritual and so­
cial realms. An inner refinement was achieved on the part
of some. More importantly, there was discovered the pos­
sibility of inner harmony. A recognition came that polari­
ties did not have to be destroyed, that one could live by
constantly shifting and balancing divergent tendencies
within the person. The humanistic problem of how to live
life came to be as important as the dogmatic statements
on life itself.
Consideration has often been given to the many major
figures in the domains of medieval philosophy, theology
and literature. Together with their own Renaissance the
Middle Ages had their own galaxy of dazzling figures.
Among the minor literary figures that of Richard de
Fournival, Chancellor of the Diocese of Amiens during the
middle decades of the thirteenth century, emerges as one
who at least hints at the many currents toward maturity
which were the result of that great dialectical crisis.
He is a cleric involved with books, so he translates the
thirst for knowledge prevalent at the time. He is also
involved, indirectly at least, in the philosophical dis­
putations of Aristotelian Paris. He also contributes his
own small share to the literary efforts to portray human
love in its many dimensions. In his own minor way Richard
emerges as a "watershed" figure for many medieval currents
and fancies. We have here a man who demonstrates at least
3
a nodding acquaintance with growth in maturity, if not a
deep appreciation of medieval trends. Richard is a bookish
dilettante who serves to confirm what is demonstrated far
more remarkably by others.
While there have been references to Richard de Fournival
throughout the centuries, it was only in the revival of
medieval studies in the nineteenth century that he was
really discovered. Editions of his Bestiaire and his Bib-
lionomia appear in mid-century. In 1904 some of his poems
receive critical study. A thesis is written on him in
1929, and his Consaus d'Amors receives critical study in
1935. Recently two studies have been completed on the De
Vetula which most likely is his work. To this date there
has been no overall study of Richard de Fournival in English.
The purpose of this dissertation is to present a survey
of the many currents which led to the great medieval dia­
lectical crisis, together with certain technical notions of
the literature of the time. There follows a presentation
of the facts that are known of Richard's life. Finally
there is an introductory study to the works of Richard de
Fournival with some tentative conclusions as to their rela­
tive worth, and to the manner and extent to which they
mirror their age.
PREFACE
Very frequently a minor literary figure will better re­
flect the currents and historical details of his particular
times than will the literary giant. The latter, because he
is great, will reflect the great characteristics of all cen­
turies with the result that what he tells us of his own times
will easily be forgotten.
In speaking of the Middle Ages we are first tempted to
understand it as a period when simplistic certitude reigned
supreme Credo ut intelligam but then we have also come
to discover that the Medieval Man ceased to believe in the
simplicity of the world. There prevailed apparent contradic­
tions in the Middle Ages: love was both crude and refined;
philosophy was both spiritual and naturalistic; and govern­
ment— both church and civil— was at the same time simple and
also byzantine. Many currents swirled about, often at cross
purposes one with another. We have only to witness the in­
ner debates of the scholastic philosophy of the thirteenth
century to recognize that fact.
What was happening of course was a gradual recognition
of that perennial dualism, and all its offspring, which has
always obsessed mankind. This phenomenon was a gift which
the Middle Ages had inherited from history. During the Mid­
dle Ages it was sharpened by the cult of logic which had be­
come strong in that period, and dualism grew fat with the
ii
pursuit of encyclopedic knowledge which is characteristic
particularly of the thirteenth century.
Small wonder then that with all this historical burden
and accumulation of knowledge an awareness of the individual
as person came to emerge in medieval times. Individualism
did not begin in our era only with the Renaissance. People
began discussing, for instance, the roles of the passions.
In the long this "discovery of the emotions" in the Middle
Ages was to prove as important as the development of scholas­
tic philosophy or the building of the cathedrals. It was a
time when love was being reinvented, where a whole new form
of social interaction came into existence, where love came
to be looked upon as a unique form of growth in self-con­
sciousness.^-
It is in the North of France that this deepening of the
mind, this increase in self-awareness is best seen. Geograph­
ically speaking, the North was the recipient of the currents
from the Midi and from the regions of the Celtic tradition.
It is the North which developed the classical inheritance—
consider Chartres— and later with its university milieus
saw great advances in many areas of human thought.
Consideration has often been given to the many major
figures who give stature to the medieval age, who display
this growth in maturity which may have started in the twelfth
century, but achieved a greater perfection and became far
■^Herbert W. Richardson, Nun, Witch, Playmate (New York,
1971), p. 53.
iii
more evident in the thirteenth century. The achievements
of this latter century, whether in philosophy or literature,
demonstrate a variety of views on all phases of human conduct
whether in relation to God or to one's fellow man. And this
inner exploration is bolstered by the increasing desire for
all types of knowledge; the desire and the investigation
feed one another, and so an encyclopedic view emerges as
early as the thirteenth century.
Among the minor figures Richard de Fournival emerges
as one who, in perhaps a superficial but accurate fashion,
reflects a great many of the intellectual currents swirling
about at that time. As Chancellor of the diocese of Amiens
in the mid-thirteenth century, Richard is a cleric who dem­
onstrates at least a nodding acquaintance with growth in
sophistication and maturity if not a deep appreciation of
the many intellectual phenomena which came to pass during
the medieval times.
In Richard we have the figure of a literary dilettante,
one who manifests many currents within himself, one who
serves to confirm what is demonstrated far more remarkably
by others. He can catalogue many of the authors of past
times who were held in benediction in his day. If his appre­
ciation for the ancients is superficial, at the same time
he does demonstrate in his own writings their great lessons
of dualism, of symbolism and allegory. It appears that a
major obsession of medieval times was the preoccupation with
human love. Richard too enters into the lists, and to the