Verdeyen, Paul, ed. Guillelmus a Sancto Theoderico. <i>Opera Omnia</i>, IV-V.
Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis 89-89A.
Turnhout: Brepols, 2005-2007. Pp. xix, 139. ISBN: 2503038913, and pp.
215, ISBN: 250303893X.
Reviewed by Constant J. Mews Monash University
William of Saint-Thierry is a thinker who has tended to languish in
the shadow of his more well-known friend, Bernard of Clairvaux. Yet
the edition of his <i>Opera Omnia</i> by Paul Verdeyen provides the
opportunity for scholars to revisit this author, perhaps most often
remembered for having asked Bernard to intervene against Peter
Abelard. Verdeyen introduced this project with his edition of
William's commentary on Romans, CCCM 86 (1989), prefaced with a useful
introduction to this author, born around 1075 (thus fifteen years
younger than Bernard) and abbot of Saint-Thierry in Reims from Lent
1121 until 1135 when he joined the Cistercian Order at Signy. There
followed a volume (CCCM 87, 1997), containing his important brief
commentary on the Song of Songs (from around 1130), and his
compilation from both Ambrose and Gregory on that text, and another
(CCCM 88, 2003) containing editions of a range of smaller treatises,
<i>De contemplando Deo</i> and <i>De natura et dignitate amoris</i>
(from 1121-24), <i>De sacramento altaris</i> (addressed to Rupert of
Deutz around 1127), the <i>De natura corporis et animae</i> (around
1138) and the <i>Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei</i> (1144-1145).
Part IV of the <i>Opera Omnia</i> provides an edition of his
<i>Meditationes devotissimae</i>, probably written while he was still
at Saint-Thierry, but completed soon after he came to Signy in 1137.
These are philosophical meditations, in the spirit of St Anselm. They
move from reflection on the wisdom and knowledge of God, to reflection
on <i>amor</i>, as the goal of the spiritual life.
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