William of Conches

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Tonsured William of Conches (Magister Wilhelmus, "Master William") teaching the Duke of Normandy that "A thing existing in itself is said to be a substance" (Res extans per se substancia dicitur esse) in a medieval copy of the Dragmaticon (Beck MS 12, c. 1230)

William of Conches (Latin: Gulielmus de Conchis; French: Guillaume de Conches; c. 1090–1154), historically sometimes anglicized as William Shelley,[1] was a medieval Norman-French scholastic philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism by studying secular works of classical literature and fostering empirical science. He was a prominent Chartrain (member of the School of Chartres). John of Salisbury, a bishop of Chartres and former student of William's, refers to William as the most talented grammarian of the time, after his former teacher Bernard of Chartres.

Life[edit]

Relief of William from his tombstone, originally at St Germanus's Church in Tilleul but now displayed at St Faith's Church in Conches-en-Ouche

William was born around 1085[2]–1090[3] in a small village near Évreux, Normandy. From his surname, that village is generally taken to have been Conches[4] although it was possibly nearby Tilleul instead, the location of his later grave.[5][a] At the time, Normandy was still uneasily controlled by Norman England in notional homage to France. William studied under Bernard of Chartres in Chartres, Blois, and became a leading member of the School of Chartres, early Scholastics[4] who formed part of the 12th-century Renaissance.

William began teaching around 1115[2]–1120[1] and was primarily based in Paris and Chartres.[4][b] He composed his De Philosophia Mundi around the period 1125 to 1130.[7] He taught John of Salisbury at Chartres in 1137 and 1138, and John later considered him the most accomplished grammarian of his time[1] or just after his master Bernard.[c] John describes his method of teaching in detail, noting it followed Bernard and both followed Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria.[1] There were lectures on classical with questions on parsing, scansion, and composition. Students practiced writing prose and poetry on classical models and undertook frequent discussion on set subjects with the aim of developing fluency and cultivating elegant diction.[1] William of St. Thierry, who had previously encouraged Bernard of Clairvaux to prosecute Peter Abelard, wrote another letter to the same cleric "on the errors of William of Conches" (De Erroribus Guillelmi de Conchis) in 1141,[7] complaining of the modalist view of the Trinity implicit in the Philosophia. With Abelard's writings successfully condemned by Bernard at the Council of Sens for a litany of heresies the same year, William withdrew from public teaching.[1]

William sought the protection of Geoffrey Plantagenet, the powerful count of Anjou.[1] In 1143 or 1144, he became the personal tutor of Geoffrey's 9 to 11-year-old son Henry, later King Henry II of England. He also tutored Henry's brothers in the period from 1146 to 1149[9] and composed his Dragmaticon, a revision of his Philosophia in the form of a dialogue,[1] sometime between 1144 and 1149.[10] He dedicated it to Geoffrey.[1]

He died in 1154[4] or shortly afterward,[3] probably at Paris or the environs of Évreux.[1] The funeral slab with his effigy has been moved from its original location at St Germanus's Church, Tilleul, to St Faith's Church in Conches.[5]

Works[edit]

A large number of works have been attributed to William. Given his royal connections and reputation for learning and esoterism, the true attribution of those works is a matter of scholarly debate. It seems probable, however, that he wrote the encyclopedic De Philosophia Mundi ("On the Philosophy of the World") and the related dialogue Dragmaticon, whose neological name probably intended something like "A Dramatization". (Others emend the title to the Pragmaticon Philosophiae, "The Business of Philosophy".)[4] He likely also wrote glosses on Plato's Timaeus, on Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, on Priscian's Institutes of Grammar, and on Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio and was the author of a lost treatise entitled Magna de Naturis Philosophia ("The Great Philosophy of Nature"). He is also sometimes still credited as the author of Moralium Dogma Philosophorum ("Philosophers' Moral Teachings"), the first medieval treatise on philosophical ethics,[4] although this attribution is more suspect.[citation needed]

William's generally credited works are marked by special attention to cosmology and psychology.[11] They also display the humanism, Platonism, and affinity for the natural sciences of other members of the School of Chartres[11] and are among the first works of medieval Christian philosophy to devote considerable attention to Islamic philosophy and science, using the Latin translations produced by Constantine the African.[11]

De Philosophia Mundi[edit]

The De Philosophia Mundi ("On the Philosophy of the World") is divided into four books, covering physics, astronomy, geography, meteorology, and medicine.

William glosses the composition of the world as rooted in the four elements but follows Constantine the African in considering an element "the simplest and minimum part of any body—simple in quality, minimum in quantity".[d] Therefore, he does not identify elemental fire, air, water, or earth with any of the composite forms in which they are experienced by humans.[e] He argues that the pure forms of the elements cannot be perceived but only grasped by reason applied to abstracted division of sensible forms.[f] He considers that these pure elements are defined by their intrinsic temperature and moistness: earth was cold and dry, water cold and moist, air hot and moist, and fire hot and dry.

The work's section on meteorology includes discussion of air becoming less dense and colder as altitude increases. It also draws parallels between atmospheric circulation and ocean currents. The discussion of medicine deals chiefly with procreation and childbirth. This work influenced Jean de Meung, the author of the second part of the Roman de la Rose.

Editions[edit]

  • De Philosophia Mundi is edited under the name of Bede in Patrologia Latina, Vol. 90, and under the name of Honorius Augustodunensis in Vol. 172:
    • Migne, Jacques Paul, ed. (1850), "Περι Διδαξεων sive Elementorum Philosophiae Libri Quatuor" [Four Books of Peri Didaxeōn or Philosophy of the Elements], Venerabilis Bedae Anglosaxonis Presbyteri Opera Omnia, Tomus Primus [The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede, Anglo-Saxon Priest, Vol. I], Patrologia Latina [Latin Patrology], Vol. 90 (in Latin), Paris: Ateliers Catholiques, cols. 1127–1178.
    • Migne, Jacques Paul, ed. (1854), "De Philosophia Mundi Libri Quatuor" [Four Books on the Philosophy of the World], Honorii Augustodunensis Opera Omnia [The Complete Works of Honorius of Autun], Patrologia Latina [Latin Patrology], Vol. 172 (in Latin), Paris: Ateliers Catholiques, cols. 41–101.
  • Jeauneau, Édouard, ed. (1965), Glosae super Platonem [Glosses on Plato] (in Latin), Paris: Vrin, ISBN 2-7116-0336-9.
  • Maurach, Gregor, ed. (1974), Philosophia Mundi [Philosophy of the World] (in Latin), Pretoria: University of South Africa Press.
  • Wilson, Bradford, ed. (1980), Glosae in Iuvenalem [Glosses on Juvenal] (in Latin), Paris: Vrin.
  • Ronca, Italo, ed. (1997), Guillelmi de Conchis Dragmaticon [William of Conches's Dragmaticon], Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, Vol. 152 (in Latin), Turnhout: Brepols, ISBN 2-503-04522-7.
  • Ronca, Italo; Matthew Curr, eds. (1997), A Dialogue on Natural Philosophy (Dragmaticon Philosophiae), Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
  • Nauta, Lodi, ed. (1999), Guillelmi de Conchis Glosae super Boetium [William of Conches's Glosses on Boethius], Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, Vol. 158 (in Latin), Turnhout: Brepols, ISBN 2-503-04582-0.
  • Jeauneau, Édouard, ed. (2006), Glosae super Platonem [Glosses on Plato], Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, Vol. 203 (in Latin) (Rev. ed.), Turnhout: Brepols.
  • Albertazzi, Marco, ed. (2010), Philosophia [Philosophy] (in Latin), Lavis: La Finestra, ISBN 978-88-95925-13-4.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ William's birth was placed in Cornwall by John Bale on the supposed authority of John Boston of Bury St Edmunds Abbey, although Mary Bateson and others have considered this implausible.[1]
  2. ^ He has sometimes been identified as the "Guillaume de Conques" listed as born 1080 and died 1154 who figures in the list of faculty of the medical school of the University of Montpellier, although this remains a minority opinion.[6]
  3. ^ ... Willelmus de Conchis, grammaticus, post Bernardum Carnotensem, opulentissimus ...[8]
  4. ^ Elementum ergo, ut ait Constantinus in Pantegni, est simpla et minima pars alicuius corporis—simpla ad qualitatem, minima ad quantitatem.[12]
  5. ^ Si ergo illis digna velimus imponere nomina, particulas praedictas dicamus "elementa", ista quae videntur "elementata".[12]
  6. ^ Quae elementa numquam videntur, sed ratione divisionis intelliguntur.[12]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DNB (1900).
  2. ^ a b Ferrara (2016), p. 13.
  3. ^ a b Ramírez-Weaver (2009), p. 1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Brit. (2024).
  5. ^ a b Ferrara (2016), pp. 2–3.
  6. ^ Ferrara (2016), p. 14.
  7. ^ a b Ramírez-Weaver (2009), p. 8.
  8. ^ Migne (1855), Col. 832.
  9. ^ Ferrara (2016), p. 10.
  10. ^ Ferrara (2016), p. 9.
  11. ^ a b c Cath. Enc. (1913).
  12. ^ a b c De Philosophia Mundi, Book I, Ch. 22.

Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Ellard, Peter (2007), The Sacred Cosmos: Theological, Philosophical, and Scientific Conversations in the Twelfth Century School of Chartres, Scranton: University of Scranton Press.

External links[edit]

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