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The Resource Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age, Mary Franklin-Brown

Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age, Mary Franklin-Brown

Creator
Summary
The thirteenth century saw such a proliferation of new encyclopedic texts that more than one scholar has called it the "century of the encyclopedias." Variously referred to as a speculum, thesaurus, or imago mundi<U+0127> �the term encyclopedia was not commonly applied to such books until the eighteenth century<U+0127> �these texts were organized in such a way that a reader could easily locate a collection of authoritative statements on any given topic. Because they reproduced, rather than simply summarized, parts of prior texts, these compilations became libraries in miniature. In this groundbreaking study, Mary Franklin-Brown examines writings in Latin, Catalan, and French that are connected to the encyclopedic movement: Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum maius; Ramon Llull's Libre de meravelles, Arbor scientiae, and Arbre de filosofia d'amor; and Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose. Franklin-Brown analyzes the order of knowledge in these challenging texts, describing the wide-ranging interests, the textual practices<U+0127> �including commentary, compilation, and organization<U+0127> �and the diverse discourses that they absorb from preexisting classical, patristic, and medieval writing. She also demonstrates how these encyclopedias, like libraries, became "heterotopias" of knowledge<U+0127> �spaces where many possible ways of knowing are juxtaposed. But Franklin-Brown's study will not appeal only to historians: she argues that a revised understanding of late medievalism makes it possible to discern a close connection between scholasticism and contemporary imaginative literature. She shows how encyclopedists employed the same practices of figuration, narrative, and citation as poets and romanciers, while much of the difficulty of the imaginative writing of this period derives from a juxtaposition of heterogeneous discourses inspired by encyclopedias. With rich and innovative readings of texts both familiar and neglected, Reading the World reveals how the study of encyclopedism can illuminate both the intellectual work and the imaginative writing of the scholastic age.--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xxii, 446 pages
Contents
  • The archive
  • The book of the world : encyclopedism and scholastic ways of knowing
  • The order of the encyclopedia
  • Narrative and natural history : the organization of the Speculum maius
  • The obscure figures of the encyclopedia : tree paradigms in the Arbor scientiae
  • Metaphor in the mirror of nature: nature's speech in the Roman de la rose
  • Heterotopias
  • A fissured mirror : the Speculum maius as heterotopia
  • The phoenix in the mirror : the encyclopedic subject
Isbn
9780226260686
Instance
Label
Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age
Title
Reading the world
Title remainder
encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age
Statement of responsibility
Mary Franklin-Brown
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
The thirteenth century saw such a proliferation of new encyclopedic texts that more than one scholar has called it the "century of the encyclopedias." Variously referred to as a speculum, thesaurus, or imago mundi<U+0127> �the term encyclopedia was not commonly applied to such books until the eighteenth century<U+0127> �these texts were organized in such a way that a reader could easily locate a collection of authoritative statements on any given topic. Because they reproduced, rather than simply summarized, parts of prior texts, these compilations became libraries in miniature. In this groundbreaking study, Mary Franklin-Brown examines writings in Latin, Catalan, and French that are connected to the encyclopedic movement: Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum maius; Ramon Llull's Libre de meravelles, Arbor scientiae, and Arbre de filosofia d'amor; and Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose. Franklin-Brown analyzes the order of knowledge in these challenging texts, describing the wide-ranging interests, the textual practices<U+0127> �including commentary, compilation, and organization<U+0127> �and the diverse discourses that they absorb from preexisting classical, patristic, and medieval writing. She also demonstrates how these encyclopedias, like libraries, became "heterotopias" of knowledge<U+0127> �spaces where many possible ways of knowing are juxtaposed. But Franklin-Brown's study will not appeal only to historians: she argues that a revised understanding of late medievalism makes it possible to discern a close connection between scholasticism and contemporary imaginative literature. She shows how encyclopedists employed the same practices of figuration, narrative, and citation as poets and romanciers, while much of the difficulty of the imaginative writing of this period derives from a juxtaposition of heterogeneous discourses inspired by encyclopedias. With rich and innovative readings of texts both familiar and neglected, Reading the World reveals how the study of encyclopedism can illuminate both the intellectual work and the imaginative writing of the scholastic age.--
Assigning source
Provided by Publisher
Cataloging source
ICU/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Franklin-Brown, Mary
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Vincent
  • Llull, Ramon
  • Jean
  • Llull, Ramon
  • Literature, Medieval
  • Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Label
Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age, Mary Franklin-Brown
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-421) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The archive -- The book of the world : encyclopedism and scholastic ways of knowing -- The order of the encyclopedia -- Narrative and natural history : the organization of the Speculum maius -- The obscure figures of the encyclopedia : tree paradigms in the Arbor scientiae -- Metaphor in the mirror of nature: nature's speech in the Roman de la rose -- Heterotopias -- A fissured mirror : the Speculum maius as heterotopia -- The phoenix in the mirror : the encyclopedic subject
Control code
FIEb17548822
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xxii, 446 pages
Isbn
9780226260686
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)756577783
Label
Reading the world : encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age, Mary Franklin-Brown
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-421) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The archive -- The book of the world : encyclopedism and scholastic ways of knowing -- The order of the encyclopedia -- Narrative and natural history : the organization of the Speculum maius -- The obscure figures of the encyclopedia : tree paradigms in the Arbor scientiae -- Metaphor in the mirror of nature: nature's speech in the Roman de la rose -- Heterotopias -- A fissured mirror : the Speculum maius as heterotopia -- The phoenix in the mirror : the encyclopedic subject
Control code
FIEb17548822
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xxii, 446 pages
Isbn
9780226260686
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)756577783

Subject

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