The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France (The New Middle Ages)

This book examines a medieval text long neglected by most scholars. The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard looks at the earlier correspondence between these two famous individuals, revealing the emotions and intimate exchanges that occurred between them. The perspectives presented here are very different from the view related by Abelard in his "History of My Calamities," an account which provoked a much more famous exchange of letters between Heloise and Abelard after they had both entered religious life. Offering a full translation of the love letters along with a copy of the actual Latin text, Mews provides an in-depth analysis of the debate concerning the authenticity of the letters and look at the way in which the relationship between Heloise and Abelard has been perceived over the centuries. He also explores the political, literary, and religious contexts in which the two figures conducted their affair and offers new insights into Heloise as an astonishingly gifted writer, whose literary gifts were ultimately frustrated by the course of her relationship with her teacher.This new edition offers fascinating insights into one of the most celebrated love affairs of the Middle Ages. A new chapter charts the debate about the letters and offers fresh evidence to attribute them to Abelard and Heloise. The complete Latin text is reproduced with an annotated translation by Chiavaroli and Mews. "In this book, Constant Mews examines a collection of Latin love letters preserved in a fifteenth-century manuscript of Clairvaux, edited by Ewald Konsgen in 1974 under the title The Letters of Two Lovers. He argues that it records 113 love letters exchanged by Heloise and Abelard at the time of their love affair. Mews provides an indepth analysis of the debate concerning the authenticity of the letters and looks at the way in which the relationship between Heloise and Abelard has been perceived over the centuries. He explores the political, literary, and religious contexts in which the two figures conducted their affair, and offers new insights into Heloise as an astonishingly gifted writer whose literary gifts were only revealed in the course of her relationship with her teacher. The complete Latin text of the love letters as edited by Konsgen is reproduced in the volume, along with an annotated translation by Neville Chiavaroli and Constant J. Mews."--BOOK JACKET. Cover 1 Series 2 Title 8 Copyright 9 Dedication 10 Contents 12 Introduction 14 Abbreviations 20 I Perceptions of Dialogue 23 1. The Discovery of a Manuscript 24 2. Memories of an Affair 49 3. Paris, the Schools, and the Politics of Sex 76 4. Traditions of Dialogue 105 5.The Language of the Love Letters 133 6. The Voice of Heloise 163 7. New Discoveries and Insights (1999–2007) 196 II From the Letters of Two Lovers 220 The Edition 221 Ex epistolis duorum amantium (From the Letters of Two Lovers) 230 Notes 329 Select Bibliography 414 Bibliography since 1999 420 Index 424 Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Discovery of a Manuscript....Pages 3-27 Memories of an Affair....Pages 29-55 Paris, the Schools, and the Politics of Sex....Pages 57-85 Traditions of Dialogue....Pages 87-114 The Language of the Love Letters....Pages 115-144 The Voice of Heloise....Pages 145-177 New Discoveries and Insights (1999–2007)....Pages 179-202 Front Matter....Pages 203-203 The Edition....Pages 205-214 From the Letters of two Lovers....Pages 215-313 Back Matter....Pages 315-421