The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance

Alex J. Novikoff

ISBN 10: 0812245385 / ISBN 13: 9780812245387

Published by UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA PR, 2013

About this Item

Through hundreds of published and unpublished sources, Alex J. Novikoff traces the evolution of disputation from its ancient origins to its broader influence in the scholastic culture and public sphere of the High Middle Ages.&Uumlber den Autor.

Seller Inventory # 595036197

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance
• Publisher: UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA PR
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812245385
• ISBN 13: 9780812245387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Scholastic disputation, the formalized procedure of debate in the medieval university, is one of the hallmarks of intellectual life in premodern Europe. Modeled on Socratic and Aristotelian methods of argumentation, this rhetorical style was refined in the monasteries of the early Middle Ages and rose to prominence during the twelfth-century Renaissance. Strict rules governed disputation, and it became the preferred method of teaching within the university curriculum and beyond. In The Medieval Culture of Disputation, Alex J. Novikoff has written the first sustained and comprehensive study of the practice of scholastic disputation and of its formative influence in multiple spheres of cultural life.

Using hundreds of published and unpublished sources as his guide, Novikoff traces the evolution of disputation from its ancient origins to its broader impact on the scholastic culture and public sphere of the High Middle Ages. Many examples of medieval disputation are rooted in religious discourse and monastic pedagogy: Augustine's inner spiritual dialogues and Anselm of Bec's use of rational investigation in speculative theology laid the foundations for the medieval contemplative world. The polemical value of disputation was especially exploited in the context of competing Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Bible. Disputation became the hallmark of Christian intellectual attacks against Jews and Judaism, first as a literary genre and then in public debates such as the Talmud Trial of 1240 and the Barcelona Disputation of 1263. As disputation filtered into the public sphere, it also became a key element in iconography, liturgical drama, epistolary writing, debate poetry, musical counterpoint, and polemic. The Medieval Culture of Disputation places the practice and performance of disputation at the nexus of this broader literary and cultural context.

About the Author

Alex J. Novikoff teaches medieval history at Fordham University and is translator of The Conversion of Herman the Jew: Autobiography, History, and Fiction in the Twelfth Century by Jean-Claude Schmitt, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.