Sermones

The present volume provides the first critical edition of the sermons of Peter Abelard gathered by the author on behalf of the nuns of the Paraclete, as Abelard's dedicatory letter to Heloise makes clear. The collection contains 35 sermons, 33 of which were edited in 1616 by François d'Amboise and André Duchesne. Unfortunately the manuscript kept at the Sorbonne, used for the editio princeps, has disappeared.
Only 6 out of the 33 sermons have survived in three recently discovered manuscripts. A supplementary sermon (s. 34) of the same collection and a fragment of an extra sermon (against the Cistercians) turned up respectively in one of those manuscripts. Modern scholars have provided editions of the eight sermons that survived in the manuscripts. Well acquainted with Peter Abelard's writing skills and style, the present editor investigated and compared the six sermons of the editio princeps that are also present in the manuscripts.
After this profound research, he took on the immense job of re-editing the entire collection. Where necessary he intervened on the basis of his knowledge of the language and ideas of Abelard.