Introduction

Abstract

This book in some respects defies its title. Important areas of the intellectual composition of the middle ages have been consciously omitted. Broadly speaking, theology is not considered, to the extent at least that it derived from scripture rather than from philosophical reflection, though exceptions have been admitted where necessary in order to illuminate particular aspects of a thinker’s method. Nor do I deal with literature as such, music, art, architecture or law, except for passing references — as, for instance, to their place within the programme of study or to how, in the case of law, it was affected by evolving techniques of criticism. The emphasis is on speculative thought, not however considered in the abstract but as manifesting the continuing vitality of an aspect of classical culture in the medieval world.