Authorship and publicity before print: Jean Gerson and the transformation of late medieval learning

Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as it searches for a compelling narrative to tell the story of his era.Daniel Hobbins argues for a new understanding of Gerson as a man of letters actively managing the publication of his works in a period of rapid expansion in written culture. More broadly, Hobbins casts Gerson as a mirror of the complex cultural and intellectual shifts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In contrast to earlier theologians, Gerson took a more humanist approach to reading and to authorship. He distributed his works, both Latin and French, to a more diverse medieval public. And he succeeded in reaching a truly international audience of readers within his lifetime. Through such efforts, Gerson effectively embodies the aspirations of a generation of writers and intellectuals. Removed from the narrow confines of late scholastic theology and placed into a broad interdisciplinary context, his writings open a window onto the fascinating landscape of fifteenth-century Europe.The picture of late medieval culture that emerges from this study offers neither a specter of decaying scholasticism nor a triumphalist narrative of budding humanism and reform. Instead, Hobbins describes a period of creative and dynamic growth, when new attitudes toward writing and debate demanded and eventually produced new technologies of the written word.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; List of Illustrations and Maps --; Preface --; Introduction --; 1. Gerson as Bookman: Prescribing ''the Common School of Theological Truth'' --; 2. Justifying Authorship: New Diseases and New Cures --; 3. A Tour of Medieval Authorship: Late Works and Poetry --; 4. Literary Expression: Logic, Rhetoric, and Scholarly Vice --; 5. The Schoolman as Public Intellectual: Implications of the Late Medieval Tract --; 6. Publishing Before Print (1): A Series of Publishing Moments --; 7. Publishing Before Print (2): From Coterie Readership to Massive Market --; Conclusion --; List of Abbreviations --; Appendix: Gerson Manuscripts in Carthusian and Celestine Monasteries --; Notes --; Selected Bibliography --; Index of Manuscripts --; Index of Works by Gerson --; General Index --; Acknowledgments