The culture of the twelfth century has been rightly called “The Twelfth-Century Renaissance” because medieval Europe experienced a dramatic growth in courtly literature, philosophy, law, the arts, architecture, and also technology (see Charles Homer Haskins,
The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, 1927; Giles Constable,
The Reformation of the Twelfth Century, 1996; Heinrich Fichtenau,
Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages[1992], 1998). One of the leading theoretical thinkers was John of Salisbury who has been hailed as a true humanist even in the modern sense of the word. He was born at Old Sarum (the former site of Salisbury) sometime between 1115 and 1120. The famous Peter Abelard, who basically introduced “modern” rationality to medieval philosophy (see his treatise
1928 words
Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "John of Salisbury". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5533, accessed 21 November 2024.]
