Medieval World: Quadrivium > Page 3
PETER LOMBARD, CA. 1100–1160
Sententiarum libri IV
Manuscript book on parchment
France, second quarter of the 13th century
Plimpton MS 061
Peter Lombard taught theology in the school of Notre Dame from 1136 to 1150. He was consecrated Bishop of Paris in 1159, but only lived for one more year. His Sententiae in four books, a collection of the teachings of the Church fathers, became the standard theological text of the Middle Ages. Depicted at the pinnacle of the “Tower of Knowledge” in Reisch’s Margarita philosophica, of the eleven master teachers included in the woodcut, only Lombard lived within 1,000 years of its first publication in 1503.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton
PETER LOMBARD, CA. 1100–1160
Sententiarum libri IV
Venice: Vindelinus de Spira, March 10, 1477
Incunable Goff P-480
Peter Lombard’s book was the textbook for the medieval university; all scholars aiming for the doctorate were required to lecture on the Lombard’s Sentences for two years. The reason for such overarching use lay in a felicitous combination of organization, content, and even-handedness: all of contemporary theology was covered in the four books: Trinity, Creation, Christ, Sacraments; the appropriate biblical passage was accompanied by relevant quotations from theologians of the patristic era down to Lombard’s time; the Lombard presented views that could sometimes be problematic, but that were not heterodox. His declared and laudable goal was to make materials immediately accessible, saving scholars from searching the individual authors singly.
Gift of George Arthur Plimpton