Exploring the history of the cardinal virtues from patristic times to the late fourteenth century, this book offers a comprehensive view of the development of moral debate in the Latin Middle Ages.

The contributors to this volume examine the diverse roles played by moral virtues in the political writings of the Later Middle Ages. Medieval political thought has a long tradition of scholarship, and its ethical dimension has always received sustained attention. This volume specifically concentrates on the meaning and function of virtues in a political context, a theme which has thus far been neglected. The authors deal with Latin texts (occasionally in combination with vernacular ones) from the 13th to 15th centuries that define, legitimize, or criticize secular rule by using catalogues of virtues, originating from ancient philosophy as well as Christian moral theology. The medieval texts under discussion are of French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish origin, and vary from educational treatises and historiography to moral theology and political philosophy.

This collection surveys the tradition of medieval commentaries on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" from its thirteenth-century origins to the fifteenth century, concentrating on the conception of the moral and intellectual virtues in a continuous interplay of ancient and Christian moral thought.

In The Four Cardinal Virtues, Joseph Pieper delivers a stimulating quartet of essays on the four cardinal virtues. He demonstrates the unsound overvaluation of moderation that has made contemporary morality a hollow convention and points out the true significance of the Christian virtues.

This is the first reference ever devoted to medieval philosophy. It covers all areas of the field from 500-1500 including philosophers, philosophies, key terms and concepts. It also provides analyses of particular theories plus cultural and social contexts.

In this volume, the persistence, resurgence, threat, fascination, and repression of various forms of pagan culture are studied in an interdisciplinary perspective from late antiquity to the upcoming Renaissance. The contributions deal with the survival of pagan beliefs and practices as well as with the Christianization of pagan rural populations and with the different strategies of oppression of pagan beliefs. They deal with the problems raised by the encounter with pagan cultures outside the Muslim world and examine how philosophers attempted to "save" the great philosophers and poets from ancient culture notwithstanding their paganism. The contributors also study the fascination of classic "pagan" culture among friars in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the imitation of pagan models of virtue and mythology in Renaissance poetry. Contributors: Carlos Steel, KU Leuven-University of Leuven; John Marenbon, Trinity College, Cambridge; Ludo Milis, University of Ghent; Marc-André Wagner, Brigitte Meijns, University of Leuven; Rob Meens, University of Utrecht; Edina Bozoky, Université de Poitiers; Henryk Anzulewicz, Albertus-Magnus Institut, Bonn; Robrecht Lievens, KU Leuven-University of Leuven; Stefano Pittaluga, Università di Genova; Anna Akasoy, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum

In the Middle Ages the cardinal virtue Prudence is revered and her depiction widespread. In the modern era, however, few Westerners esteem Prudence or can recognize her iconography. This dissertation describes what happens to her personification between the sixth and twenty-first centuries by examining cultural artifacts ranging from Constantinople to the United States using content analysis, iconography, intertextuality, and depth psychology. A content analysis of 456 artworks portraying Prudence shows that her depiction begins by the fifth century, peaks during the sixteenth, and then declines. The results provide a detailed accounting of her presentation. Further iconographic analysis of key artworks focusing on two of Prudence’s symbols—book and mirror—and the discussion of related literature form a comprehensive picture of her evolution. Bookish Prudence is firmly established as a secular virtue allied to education and philosophic wisdom in the Anicia Juliana Codex(512). Centuries later Prudence surfaces in Europe redefined for a burgeoning Christian culture and associated with memory and reading practices. Content analysis shows that sixty percent of artworks featuring bookish Prudence have a religious context, pointing to why she recedes as secularism rises. The mirror—subsequently incorporated—adds further thematic depth suggesting self-knowledge, reason, anima mundi, and propriety. Giotto’s Prudentia offers a starting point to explore Prudence’s mirror of self-knowledge. Authors from Boethius to Shakespeare contribute to the development of Prudence’s mirror of reason. Medieval mythography unravels the enigma of Prudence’s absence in the tarot despite the presence of the other cardinal virtues, and uncovers Prudence’s relationship to the World Soul. Finally, several eighteenth century artworks show Prudence tasked with policing female desire and encouraging propriety. By the modern era the formerly multifaceted Prudence becomes narrowly characterized as cautious or prudish, evidenced in popular culture (e.g., film). Her value might appear negligible. However, the fuller embodiment of Prudence as manifested in the Middle Ages reemerges in the field of psychology where archetypal Prudence is apparent in Jung's paradigm. This revelation together with corroborative research in neuroscience compels a reconceptualization of and new context for virtue ethics in the post-modern world.

"Charity" as a Christian and, in particular, also monastic virtue was a complex phenomenon in the Middle Ages. The present volume outlines, albeit with broad strokes, the field of charity in the monastic form of life. The collected essays endeavour to approach the subject from different angles, which present themselves as especially significant. The focus is placed both upon older communities oriented towards separation from the world as well as upon those open to the world and interested in interaction with all people, so that insights can be gained into mutual fraternal charity within the convents as well as into charity towards all. Additionally, the volume attempts to touch upon the wide spectrum of the communication levels of charity. Not least, attention is given to the pivotal point of charity - the systemic embedding of charity between people in the love of man for God, which leads to assimilation with Him. In doing so, the purpose was to draw attention to the fertility of the subject and to outline its importance for the history of the vita religiosa.