Abstract
Scholars will be grateful to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies for its enterprise in undertaking the publication of a new series of studies and texts. A priori it was clear that much valuable work done in doctorate theses here, as in all other universities, was not generally available; Gilson’s monumental History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages evidently depended on results contained in some of these theses. The present volume is the worthy beginning of a scheme to present these studies in detail to the mediaevalists of the world. Much of the present picture of mediaeval thought was the work of great pioneers at the end of the last century; they took the main figures and great themes and created the outline. To-day the work is less thrilling: it is a matter of the patient study of detail, adjusting and filling in the outline; the joy of great discovery is rare, but the task is vital if a true picture is to result. The texts published here shed light on details from the 12th until the 14th century.