Historical surveys with a subject as broad as this one generally take the form either of the interpretative essay that argues a broad, original thesis or of a manual that gathers together in one place material already familiar to experts in different fields so that it can easily be consulted and studied. The Introduction to Marcia Colish's Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400 appears to promise the first kind of book, offering as not one thesis but two: that "the foundations of western intellectual history were laid in the Middle Ages and not in classical Greece and Rome or the Judeo-Christian tradition; and, in a comparative mode, that "despite its apparently lackluster start ... Western medieval thinkers developed the means and methods that enabled them to outpace the Byzantines and Muslims decisively in the high Middle Ages" (p. x-xi). These positions are more asserted than actually argued, however, and in reality the book falls into the second category, attempting to touch all of the familiar bases and to leave no topic unmentioned.
In fact, the book appears to have been intended for a general public, since the handful of endnotes (45 for the entire 360 pages) and 6-page bibliographical essay providing references mainly to other surveys is not sufficient either for scholars or for advanced students. This intended public may also explain the fact that Colish does not discuss or barely touches on many of the topics that have engaged scholarly attention in recent decades. I noticed, for example, the absence of extended treatments on the development of vernacular language in the early Middle Ages, Steve Jaeger's work on courtliness, the history of literacy and book production, and the School of Chartres; Hildegard of Bingen does better, getting a paragraph (p. 226), but not as well as John of Salisbury. Her emphasis, rather, seems to be on covering the material, and on this she does very well, departing from a traditional "history of philosophy" by including material from an impressive array of scholarly disciplines, offering chapters on vernacular literature, Byzantine culture, and Muslim and Jewish thought. Including all this in 360 pages of text is not a task anyone would envy, but Colish accomplishes her objective in a workmanlike and reliable way. Her strategy, generally, is to concentrate on principal thinkers and works, summarizing their opinions or arguments; she is less interested in linking thinkers to their historical context.
The book is organized into seven parts. The first three deal with the early Middle Ages. From Roman Christianity to the Latin Culture of the Early Middle Ages, contains chapters on the classical and early Christian background of medieval culture; Ambrose and Jerome; Augustine and Gregory the Great; the "Transmitters" (especially Boethius and Cassiodorus) and monasticism; the New Schoolmasters (Franks, Celts and Anglo- Saxons); and the Carolingian renaissance. The second part is devoted to vernacular culture, with chapters on Celtic and French literature (including the Song of Roland), Germanic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon literature (including the Nibelungenlied).
In Part 3, with chapters on Byzantium, Islamic and Jewish thought, and Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Colish finally arrives at the comparative themes enunciated in the introduction. Her argument appears to be that in Byzantium the separation of elite learning from vernacular culture, together with a dependence on imperial patronage, meant that the main intellectual impulse was "to discourage creativity, and to encourage the production of encyclopedias" (p. 126); in Islam, where vernacular literature flourished, the separation of philosophy from theology limited the possibilities for serious debate in either area. These positions are only suggested, however, since again the vast majority of the discussion is given over to summaries of principal thinkers and intellectual movements. The emphasis on coverage also shapes the section of Judaism, which is discussed in terms of talmudism, mysticism, and pietism as well as more philosophical movements, with the most important of these coming after 1100. For the West, the usual suspects are rounded up to represent the tenth and eleventh centuries (Gerbert, Fulbert, Berengar of Tours, Lanfranc), with the most detailed discussions being accorded to the Eucharistic Controversy and Anselm.
The last half of the book is devoted entirely to western Europe from 1100 to 1400, with parts devoted to literature (both Latin and vernacular), religion (including heresy), logic and scholasticism, and the legacy of scholastic thought. Most of the chapter on Latin literature is given over to "Chartrain" authors, especially John of Salisbury; notably absent is any discussion of whether the School of Chartres is even a useful category of analysis. The other chapters on literature were organized topically, according to genres, so, as with elsewhere in the book, one gets little sense of chronological development. Thus, the chapter on the literature of courtly love is divided into sections on lyric, epic, and romance; the chapter on non-courtly literature is divided into goliardic poetry, fabliaux, satire, and drama; while the chapter on later medieval literature discusses only Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer.
The organization of Part 5, on Mysticism, Devotion, and Heresy, is somewhat more chronological, since chapter 16 covers the Cistericians and Victorines, both from the twelfth century, while chapter 17 deals with the Franciscans, Dominicans, and with the later medieval mystics. This strategy is not without its problems, however, since Joachim of Fiore ends up in chapter 18 with twelfth- and thirteenth-century heresies, although he was not a heretic himself and his ideas were profoundly influential within the Franciscan order; also among the heretics are various scholars, the Waldensians, the Flagellants, the Heresy of the Free Spirit and (oddly, at the end of the chapter) the greatest popular heresy of the twelfth century, the Cathars. Chapter 19 discusses the heretical theories of Wycliff and Huss.
Parts 6 and 7, which deal with the intellectual history from 1100 to 1400, first in the speculative sciences of philosophy and theology, and then with applications in science, canon law, and government, are unabashed intellectual history of the kind Colish is known for. In Part 6, after an overview of the history of universities, successive chapters discuss the principal issues in logic and theology in the twelfth century, the thirteenth century (to Aquinas), and in later scholasticism, with William of Ockham being the latest thinker discussed in detail. She does not hesitate to introduce even apparently technical subjects, such as 'terminism' and 'modism' in thirteenth century logic, and indeed one of the useful aspects of this presentation is that Colish never lets the reader lose sight of the continuing importance of purely logical issues as providing a framework within which broader philosophical and theological issues were discussed. Part 7, "The Legacy of Scholasticism," deals with science, economics, and politics. Where necessary, Colish provides early medieval and even ancient context for the debates of the medieval schools on these practical topics, with the result that her treatment of topics such as 'just price', 'usury', 'conciliarism' and 'feudal monarchy' are little more than schematic. A brief conclusion focuses on discontinuities in literary taste, religious culture, and constitutional theory that may be taken to mark the end of the Middle Ages.
The great strength of this book is that it offers an introduction to an extraordinarily wido range of materials in a comparatively brief compass; I can think of no other book that attempts so much. I am less certain that the general public for whom Medieval Foundations is intended will be able to follow everything. While the discussion of Abelard, for example, is a lucid brief introduction to that important thinker, in many other passages Colish introduces technical terms ('equipollency', 'terminism', 'modism') without supplementing her definitions with examples. Difficulties of a different sort are likely to be posed by the topical organization of much of the material that placed contemporary developments into different chapters or even different parts, leaving it to the reader to put it all back together. As a result the book does not have much analytical or narrative drive, and is more easily be consulted than read.
Finally, inevitably, I noticed some errors. Alcuin certainly did not invent Caroline minuscule, (p. 67) and the idea that he did has not been seriously entertained by paleographers since World War I. Whatever Mathilda of Canossa's connection with the studium of Bologna, there is certainly no evidence that "she endowed a law school at Bologna whose generous stipends drew the most distinguished scholars;" nor that it was at Bologna that the Corpus Iuris Civilis was rediscovered; nor am I certain what it means to say that from the beginning most of the students at Bologna were "postgraduates in law" (p. 267). Graduates from where, one is tempted to ask, and what degrees did they have when they arrived at Bologna in, say, the 1110s?