Why we included some authors and not others

Who IS here

These materials focus on the thirteenth-century Latin scholasticism, so most of our authors fit that description.

Thirteenth-century authors included here:

• Albert the Great
• Bartholomew the Englishman
• Bonaventure
• John Duns Scotus
• Richard Rufus
• Robert Grosseteste
• Roger Bacon
• Thomas Aquinas.

We included a few Latin thinkers from before and after the thirteenth century in attempt to offer a sense of the continuity of tradition:

• Two earlier medieval authors who deeply influenced Scholasticism, Peter Abelard and the Venerable Bede
• Two fourteenth-century authors, Meister Eckhart and William of Ockham.

We made a modest attempt to include a few medieval authors from the Arabic and Islamic world, authors who deeply influenced thirteenth-century scholasticism:

• Alfarabi
• Algazel
• Averroes
• Avicenna
• Maimonides

Excerpts from the works of several women provide a sense of what those outside the scholastic world accomplished:

• Hildegard of Bingen
• Gertrude the Great
• Brigid of Sweden

Who is NOT here

We could not include Greek philosophers or Latin authors from the world of late antiquity. Missing but deeply influential are both Aristotle and Augustine, though you will find that our authors frequently cite them. Other influential Greek authors not included here are

• Pseudo-Dionysius
• Pliny
• Plotinus
• Proclus.

Influential Latin authors whose absence will be obvious are:

• St. Benedict
• Boethius
• Gregory the Great
• Isidore of Seville.

To a limited extent, we hope to make up for these omissions with links and in the Works Cited.