Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c.1100--c.1375 The Commentary-Tradition [Paperback]

This anthology of newly-translated texts covers the single most important branch of medieval literary theory and criticism--the commentary tradition--in one of the most significant periods of its development. Fully annotated with notes and introductions, the selections encompass a wide range of topics--including authorship, ethics, symbolism, biography, poetics, allegory, and semiotics--and represent many important writers--including Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Grosseteste, Abelard, and Peter Lombard.

One of the many benefits of this new book is the opportunity it provides to compare the differences and similarities between medieval and modern literary theory and criticism....Each chapter is prefaced by a lucid introduction. It is possible to read all ten together as one absorbing essay on the commentary tradition....The extracts, which are tactfully chosen and superbly translated, comprise an invaluable and original anthology of medieval criticism. --Studies in the Age of Chaucer

Meets a special need in medieval studies, and medieval philosophy in particular. It fully illustrates the range, kind, and quality of textual analysis as a literary endeavor that engaged philosophers and theologians. --Review of Metaphysics

Impressive and highly useful....The editors have our thanks for producing a volume that makes a wide range of difficult sources accessible to scholars and students. --Speculum

This book unveils a whole new field of study, presenting a whole new set of texts which will surely be studied for years to come. Minnis and his colleagues have effectively refuted the commonly-held belief that there was no significantly independent literary theory in the middle ages. --James J. Murphy,University of California, Davis