Bernard Silvestris

Bernard Silvestris

Bernard Silvestris, also known as Bernardus Silvestris, was a Medieval Platonist philosopher and poet of the 12th century.

Biography

Little is known about his life. André Vernet, who edited Bernard's "Cosmographia", believed that he lived from 1085 to 1178; the only certain date in his life is 1147, when the "Cosmographia" was supposedly presented to Pope Eugene III. There is some evidence that he was connected to Spanish schools of philosophy, but it seems likely that he was born in Tours, due to the intimate descriptions of the city and the surrounding area found in the "Cosmographia". Later medieval authors also associated him with that city.

Wherever he was born, he certainly studied and taught at Chartres, home of the most important school in western Europe until the rise of the universities later in the 12th century. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was assumed that Bernard was the same person as Bernard of Chartres, although this identification has been challenged by more recent scholars such as Julian Ward Jones. Most notably, a contemporary of Bernard, John of Salisbury, who was bishop of Chartres, quotes from works attributed to Bernard but does not know the author by name. He also quotes from Bernard of Chartres and knows him as a separate author.

Works

Bernard's greatest work is the aforementioned "Cosmographia", a "prosimetrum" on the creation of the world, told from a 12th-century Platonist perspective. The poem influenced Chaucer and others with its pioneering use of allegory to discuss metaphyscial and scientific questions. Bernard also wrote the poem "Mathematicus" and probably the poem "Experimentarius" as well as some minor poems.

Among the works attributed to Bernard later in the Middle Ages were a commentary on Virgil's "Aeneid" (Bernard's authorship of which has been questioned by modern scholars) and a commentary on Martianus Capella's "De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii". The commentary on the "Aeneid" is the longest medieval commentary on that work, although it is incomplete, ending about two-thirds of the way through book six.

Editions and translations

::"For editions and translations of the" Cosmographia, "see Cosmographia (Bernard Silvestris)#Editions and translations".

*"Mathematicus", ed. and trans. Deirdre M. Stone, "Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge" 63 (1996): 209–83.
*"Experimentarius", ed. Charles Burnett, in "What Is the "Experimentarius" of Bernardus Silvestris?: A Preliminary Survey of the Material," "Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge" 44 (1977): 62–108. Reprinted in Burnett, "Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages" (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996). ISBN 0-86078-615-3
*"The Commentary on the First Six Books of the" Aeneid "of Virgil Commonly Attributed to Bernardus Silvestris", ed. Julian Ward Jones and Elizabeth Frances Jones (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977). ISBN 0-8032-0898-7
*"The Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil's" Aeneid, trans. Earl G. Schreiber and Thomas E. Maresca (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979). ISBN 0-8032-4108-9

Bibliography

*Desmond, Marilynn, "Bernardus Silvestris and the Corpus of the "Aeneid"," in "The Classics in the Middle Ages", ed. Aldo S. Bernardo and Saul Levin (Binghamton: Centre for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1990).
*Dronke, Peter, "Fabula: Explorations into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism" (Leiden: Brill, 1974).
*Dronke, Peter, "Bernard Silvestris: Nature and Personification," in "Intellectuals and Poets in Medieval Europe" (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1992).
*Jeauneau, Édouard, "Bernard Silvestre," in "Dictionary of Scientific Biography", vol. 2 (New York: Scribner's, 1970): 21–22. ISBN 0-684-10114-9
*Jones, Julian Ward, "The So-Called Silvestris Commentary on the "Aeneid" and Two Other Interpretations," "Speculum" 64 (1989): 838-48.
*Stock, Brian, "Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century: A Study of Bernard Silvester" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). ISBN 0-691-05201-8
*Wetherbee, Winthrop, "Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century: The Literary Influence of the School of Chartres" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). ISBN 0-691-06219-6

ee also

*Allegory in the Middle Ages


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • BERNARD SILVESTRIS — BERNARD SILVESTRIS, SILVESTRE ou DE TOURS (XIIe s.) Bernard Silvestre, qui a traité de grammaire, de morale, de géomancie, d’astrologie, compose avant 1148 une Cosmographia , ou De mundi universitate , dédiée à Thierry de Chartres. C’est un… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Bernard Silvestris — Bernard Silvestre Bernard Silvestre est un moine du XIIe siècle, originaire de Tours, habituellement rangé dans la mouvance de l école de Chartres[1] qui se fondait sur les théories pythagoriciennes de Platon[1], et notamment sous l… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Cosmographia (Bernard Silvestris) — Cosmographia (also known as De mundi universitate) is a Latin philosophical allegory, dealing with the creation of the universe, by the twelfth century author Bernard Silvestris. In form, it is a prosimetrum, in which passages of prose alternate… …   Wikipedia

  • Bernard Silvestre — (vers 1100 vers 1165, ou vers 1075 vers 1126 selon Benoît Patar) est un moine du XIIe siècle, originaire de Tours, habituellement rangé dans la mouvance de l école de Chartres[1], qui se fondait sur les théories pythagoriciennes de Platon,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bernardo Silvestris — Bernardus Silvestris war ein Philosoph und Dichter des 12. Jahrhunderts. Er ist vor allem als Autor einer Cosmographia bekannt. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Werk 3 Moderne Rezeption 4 Textausgaben und Übersetzungen …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bernardus Silvestris — (* 1085; † 1160 oder 1178) war ein Philosoph und Dichter des 12. Jahrhunderts. Er ist vor allem als Autor einer Cosmographia bekannt. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Werk 3 Moderne Rezeption …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Felis silvestris catus — Chat Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chat (animal) et Chat (homonymie) …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Felis silvestris — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chat sauvage et Chat (animal) …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Felis silvestris cafra — Felis silvestris Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chat sauvage et Chat (animal) …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Felis silvestris ornata — Felis silvestris Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chat sauvage et Chat (animal) …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”