Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T14:34:06.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Reception in the Middle Ages

from Part III - Reception and Reading Strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

By
Eric Leland Saak
Edited by
Tarmo Toom
Tarmo Toom
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

This chapter analyzes the various avenues of the reception of the “Confessions” in the Middle Ages, based on extant manuscripts, medieval florilegia, and handbooks such as Peter Lombard’s Sentences. While the “Confessions” was one of Augustine’s best-known works, surprisingly there is very little evidence of direct reception, and Petrarch, who was an avid reader of the “Confessions,” rejected its basic premise of conversion in and devoting oneself completely to God, although the work did serve as a major source for medieval biographies of Augustine. The reception of the “Confessions” in the Middle Ages mirrored that of Augustine himself, whereby what we find upon close analysis is an ambiguous reception that is far less than the influence Augustine had in general.

Keywords

manuscriptsbiographies (vitae)Petrarch
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's 'Confessions' , pp. 263 - 276
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Courcelle, P. Les Confessions de Saint Augustin dans la Tradition Littéraire. Antécédents et Postérité. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1963.Google Scholar
Luciani, É. Les Confessions de Saint Augustin dans les Lettres de Pétrarque, Collection des études augustiniennes. Série Antiquité. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1982.Google Scholar
Pollmann, K. and Otten, W. (eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, three vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Saak, E. L. High Way to Heaven. The Augustinian Platform between Reform and Reformation, 1292–1524, SMRT 89. Leiden: Brill, 2002.Google Scholar
Saak, E. L. Creating Augustine. The Interpretation of Augustine and Augustinianism in the Later Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Saak, E. L. “In the Wake of Lombard: The Reception of Augustine in the Early Thirteenth Century.” Augustinian Studies 46/1 (2015), 71–104.Google Scholar
Saak, E. L. “Augustine and Augustinianisms in the Fourteenth Century: The Cases of Petrarch and Robert de Bardis.” In Augustine, Augustinians, and Augustinianisms in the Italian Trecento, eds. Bartuschat, J., et al. (Ravenna: Longa, forthcoming).Google Scholar
Schaefer, J. T. (ed.), Saint Augustine and His Influence in the Middle Ages. Sewanee, TN: The Press of the University of the South, 1988.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×