Aristotelianism in John of Salisbury's Policraticus

Abstract

JOHN OF SALISBURY'S contr ibut ions to the intellectual revival which characterized twelf th-century Western E u r o p e have of ten been exp lored . ' J o h n stood at the pinnacle o f twelf th-century letters, his though t manifes t ing a reawakened interest in the classics and the Latin li terary tradit ion. Unfor tuna te ly , the humanis t t enor o f t hough t which e m e r g e d f rom ' s writings did not p roduce many original philosophical insights; too of ten his work was a simple t ranscr ipt ion or res ta tement o f classical views and authorit ies. As a consequence , m o d e r n scholarship on J o h n o f Salisbury has concen t ra ted much e f fo r t and a t tent ion on establishing the textual tradit ions and sources on which J o h n drew in compos ing his own treatises. In part icular, J o h n came u n d e r the inf luence o f four major intellectual traditions: the scriptural and patristic texts which f o r m e d the basis for Christian o r thodoxy ; the work o f Latin authori t ies, l i terary, jurist ic and philosophical; previous medieval publicistic and ecclesiastical tracts; and finally, the Aristotelian corpus which was r e tu rn ing to circulation in the West du r ing ' s t ime af ter its virtual d i sappearance for centuries . It is the last o f these u p o n which we shall focus ou r at tent ion. T h e r e is little doub t about the presence o f Aristotelian ideas in ' s thought . Al though J o h n died pr io r to the recovery and translat ion o f most ' For instance, Charles H. Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927), PP. 99-104; Sidney Painter, John of Salisbury and the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, in G. Boas, ed., The Greek Tradition (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1939), pp. 77-89; R.L. Poole, Illustrations in the History of Medieval Thought and Learning, 2nd ed. (New York: Dover, 196o), pp. 176-97; Clement c.J.. Webb, John of Salisbury, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 2 (1894), pp. 97--1ol; and Hans Leibschiitz, Medieval Humanism in the Life and Writings of of Salisbury (London: The Warburg Institute, 195o ).