Thesis ID: CBB001561794

Geometric Theology and the Meaning of Clannesse in the Poems of the Pearl Manuscript (2004)

unapi

Edwards, Michael (Author)


University of California, Davis
Osborn, Marijane


Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Advisor: Osborn, Marijane
Physical Details: 277 pp.
Language: English

Fourteenth-century theologians like Thomas Bradwardine and William of Ockham show increasing tendencies both to express their problems in terms of geometry and to reduce the role of logic in theology in favor of greater emphasis on the role of scriptural interpretation. Following suit, the Pearl Poems address a number of the central theological controversies of the fourteenth century, such as the power of God's grace, God's knowledge of future contingencies, and the role of free will in sin, through scriptural interpretation that in several places uses geometry as a pedagogical tool, as with Gawain's pentangular catalogue of virtues. Despite a fascination with mathematics, however, the poems address their issues in imaginative terms through reference to scriptural authority, explicitly rejecting logic. Beyond simply rejecting logic, the poet stays very close to the Merton School in his evocation of mathematics as a reflection of an order that transcends logic and mathematics. This dissertation begins by examining the role that mathematics was beginning to take in late medieval theologies and how the study of mathematics interacted and interfered with the study of revelation. The determinism implied by mathematical theories of natural order particularly problematized questions of free will, grace and prophecy, the issues that are central to the Pearl Poems. After placing the poems in the broader context of mathematical theology, the dissertation spends four chapters, one for each poem, examining the poet's concept of _clannesse_, or ``cleanness,'' as it relates to an Aristotelian ethic of harmony and balance that is also turned into aesthetic principle. Part of my argument entails demonstrating how the poet extends this concept of _clannesse_ into the very forms of the poems themselves in the elaborate proportional structures of the poet's verse forms. Several scholars have suggested that these numeric structures are related to the poems' thematic content, and the final chapter of this dissertation will show that, indeed, the poet's numerical formalism is intimately tied to his overall treatment of the problem of grace and free will.

...More

Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 66/01 (2005): 186. UMI pub. no. 3161418.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561794/

Similar Citations

Chapter Giulio Ferroni; (2019)
Il punto e il cerchio: geometria dantesca (/isis/citation/CBB919628327/)

Book Biard, J.; Celeyrette, J.; (2005)
De la théologie aux mathématiques. L'infini au XIVe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB000640954/)

Book Busard, H. L. L.; (2010)
Nicole Oresme, Questiones super geometriam Euclidis (/isis/citation/CBB001023099/)

Article Hughes, Barnabas; (2010)
An Early Abridgement of Fibonacci's De practica geometrie (/isis/citation/CBB001022154/)

Article Enrico Giusti; (2022)
Un trattato trecentesco di geometria di ambito genovese e la sua traduzione in volgare (/isis/citation/CBB047716193/)

Chapter Carlo Toffalori; (2018)
Lo Cielo del Sole: la Matematica e Dante (/isis/citation/CBB188109492/)

Book Oresme, Nicole; Busard, H. L. L.; (2010)
Nicole Oresme, Questiones super geometriam Euclidis (/isis/citation/CBB001231905/)

Article Gabriele Vanin; (2023)
The Dating of Dante’s Voyage in the Divine Comedy (/isis/citation/CBB275667449/)

Chapter Burns, E. Jane; (2013)
A Snake-Tailed Woman: Hybridity And Dynasty in the Roman de Mélusine (/isis/citation/CBB001201722/)

Article Wintroub, Michael; (2009)
The Heavens Inscribed: The Instrumental Poetry of the Virgin in Early Modern France (/isis/citation/CBB000932108/)

Book Matthew Boyd Goldie; (2019)
Scribes of Space: Place in Middle English Literature and Late Medieval Science (/isis/citation/CBB268443645/)

Book Curtis Runstedler; (2023)
Alchemy and Exemplary Poetry in Middle English Literature (/isis/citation/CBB981270345/)

Chapter Raman, Shankar; (2012)
Constructing Selves, Making Publics: Geometry and Poetry in Descartes and Sidney (/isis/citation/CBB001201597/)

Article Gregg De Young; (2016)
An Arabic Introduction to Euclidean Geometry in Didactic Verse (/isis/citation/CBB021362442/)

Chapter Floriano Jonas Cesar; (2015)
Crossing Borders: Medical Ideas in Late Medieval Non-Medical Areas (/isis/citation/CBB765947097/)

Book Emery, Kent, Jr.; Friedman, Russell L.; Speer, Andreas; Mauriege, Maxime; Brown, Stephen F.; (2011)
Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages: A Tribute to Stephen F. Brown (/isis/citation/CBB001024789/)

Article Elisabetta Ulivi; (2015)
Su Maestro Grazia dei Castellani teologo e matematico del XIV secolo (/isis/citation/CBB018015251/)

Book Gentile da Foligno (pseudo); Girolamo di Viterbo; Evangelista Bartoli; Edoardo D'Angelo; (2019)
Le terme di Viterbo tra Medioevo e Rinascimento. La trattatistica in latino: pseudo Gentile da Foligno, Girolamo di Viterbo, Evangelista Bartoli (/isis/citation/CBB832944506/)

Authors & Contributors
Busard, H. L. L.
Bartoli, Evangelista
Sorokina, Maria
D'Angelo, Edoardo
Runstedler, Curtis
Gabriele Vanin
Concepts
Mathematics
Science and literature
Poetry and poetics
Geometry
Theology
Science and religion
Time Periods
14th century
Medieval
15th century
13th century
Renaissance
16th century
Places
Italy
France
England
Florence (Italy)
Great Britain
Institutions
Oxford University
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment