Part 4 (1/2)

3. THE NEW STUDIES

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the intellectual life of western Europe was enriched by the addition of a group of books, old and new, which were destined to influence profoundly the growth of the universities, as well as the whole course of mediaeval life and thought.

Without some such addition to the stock of learning higher education could hardly have developed at all, for the materials available for it previous to the twelfth century were decidedly scanty. The books presently to be described furnished a body of advanced and solid instruction, suited to the needs of the times. They formed one of the permanent influences which both developed and maintained centers of higher education, for the new learning was not less potent in attracting students than the fame of individual teachers or the new method of study.

The greater number of the books which formed the body of university instruction were recoveries from the ma.s.s of ancient and long-disused Greek and Roman learning, together with a few works of Arabic and Jewish origin. To this group belong the works of Aristotle, the body of Roman Law, and the medical works of Galen, Hippocrates, and various Arabic and Jewish physicians. In the main, these had been hitherto unknown in western Europe, or at least practically for-gotten since the days of the Roman Empire. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they were collected and made generally accessible to students. Those not originally written in Latin were now translated into Latin; ma.n.u.script copies were multiplied and widely diffused.

But the intellectual activity of the times accomplished much more than the recovery of some fragments of ancient learning; it also created two new fields of study,--Scholastic Philosophy and Theology, and Canon Law,--and produced the text-books which marked them off as distinct and professional studies. The book which established the _method_ of these studies was Abelard's ”Yes and No” (see p. 20); but the works which furnished the substance of university instruction were, in Theology, the ”Sentences” (Sententiae) of Peter Lombard, and in Canon Law, the ”Decree” (Decretum) of Gratian, which was also known as the ”Harmony of Contradictory Canons” (Concordia Discordantium Canonum), and additions thereto, indicated on page 56.

Thus, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the growth of universities was stimulated by the development of a great body of learning hitherto inaccessible or unknown. The striking nature of this development will be clearer if we recall that no addition to the learning of western Europe in the least degree comparable to this had been made during the entire seven centuries preceding.

The books above mentioned did not const.i.tute the sole resources for higher education. Besides the already long-used text-books on the Seven Liberal Arts there were mathematical and philosophical works of Arabic origin, and as the revival progressed many new books were written on the old subjects. But the books already named were fundamentally important as furnis.h.i.+ng not only the early intellectual impulse to the growth of universities, but also the main body of studies in the Faculties of Arts, Theology, Law, and Medicine down to the year 1500. Many of them were in use at a much later date, and some--with many revisions--are still standard text-books. No one can understand the intellectual life of the universities who does not have some acquaintance with the t.i.tles and contents of these works. It may be added that acquaintance with them is essential also to the understanding of European history and literature. This section is therefore devoted to certain details concerning the early history of university studies.

(a) _The Works of Aristotle_

The works of Aristotle were composed in Athens, 335-322 B.C. Their history, from the time of Aristotle's death to their appearance in Latin translations in western Europe, fifteen hundred years later, cannot be here detailed. The translations commonly used in the universities were nearly all made during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earlier ones were made in Spain, from Arabic versions of the original Greek; the later, directly from Greek copies found in Constantinople, and elsewhere in the East. The Arabic-Latin translations were very poor, owing to the two removes from the original Greek and the incapacity of the translators. Those directly from the Greek were somewhat better, yet far from satisfactory; and new versions were repeatedly made down to the end of the fifteenth century. University reforms sometimes included the adoption of these better translations (see p. 48).

The works known by the year 1300 may be cla.s.sified in four groups:

{1. Categories = {Predicamenta.

I. Logical { {Categoriae.

treatises {2. On interpretation = {De Interpretatione.

commonly { {Peri Hermeneias.

referred to {3. Prior a.n.a.lytics = a.n.a.lytica Priora.

as the Organon {4. Posterior a.n.a.lytics = a.n.a.lytica Posteriora.

or {5. Topics = Topica.

Methodology {6. Sophistical} = Sophisticae Elenchi.

{ Refutations}

II. Moral {7. Politics.

and Practical {8. Ethics.

Philosophy {9. Rhetoric.

{10. Poetics.

{11. A Physical Discourse (Physics).

{12. On the Heavens.

{13. On Generation and Destruction.

{14. Meteorologies.

{15. Researches about Animals.

{16. On Parts of Animals.

{17. On Locomotion of Animals.

{18. On Generation of Animals.

III. Natural {19. On the Soul.

Philosophy. {20. Appendices to the work ”On the Soul.”

{ (_a_) On Sense and Sensible Things.