The Letters Of Abelard And Heloise

Abelard and Heloise do not provide dates in their letters. The dates assigned by medieval chroniclers also vary. The Chronology is therefore essential for situating the reader in the general history of the time and place in which the letters occurred. It also helps to provide context such as Parisian, French, and church politics. The Chronology begins with vital dates related to the church. It notes that between 1073 and 1085, Pope Gregory VII made attempts to enforce celibacy among the clergy and to bolster ecclesiastic authority.

The Chronology also provides vital information regarding the main figures, Abelard and Heloise, such as their probable dates of birth (1079 C.E. and 1090-1100 C.E., respectively); their educations; their personal and professional interactions; the secular and religious intellectual debates in which they engaged; their scholarly works; their intellectual trajectories; their religious lives; and their deaths. The Chronology focuses more heavily on Abelard than it does on Heloise and the other minor, historical actors.

Betty Radice, the original translator and editor, writes an Introduction in which she addresses both the history and politics informing the work at large, as well as her scholarly interpretation of the relationship and letters between Abelard and Heloise. She discusses the 12th-century Renaissance in Paris, France, and parts of Western Europe that enabled the vibrant yet charged intellectual atmosphere in which Abelard and Heloise were steeped. Radice discusses the division and conflicts between secular and religious education in 12th-century France, the politics of the Catholic Church and the subject of heresy, social and cultural life in Paris, attitudes towards sex and marriage, and the lovers’ legacies.

M.T. Clanchy uses the Preface to introduce Betty Radice’s translation as a classic but also to note that he has made changes to some of the formatting, translation, and content. One of the primary changes is his addition of another introduction, titled, “The Letters of Abelard and Heloise in Today’s Scholarship.” In this addition, Clanchy places the work in the context of contemporary scholarship. He notes that, despite the fact that most scholars now accept that the letters are authentic and written by Abelard and Heloise, in the past there has been and remains some discussion over whether the letters could be forgeries produced by a single author. This stems from the fact that we only have their later copies, made around 1280 C.E. Clanchy also draws our attention to new debates over the letters, including a renewed focus on Heloise as an intellectual in her own right, and new letters attributed to the lovers, which could provide insight into their early relationship.