Guibert of Nogent: Portrait of a Medieval Mind

Guibert of Nogent has provided us with much of what we know about life in Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. His autobiography, his crusade chronicle, and his critique of relics create a rich and textured portrait of this vibrant and violent social landscape. His observations range widely from the philosophical to the extremely personal with topics including his mother, sexuality, cleanliness, and life in a Benedictine monastery. Yet, in spite of his importance to our understanding of his era, Guibert himself has not been the subject of an historical biography in nearly a century.Guibert of Nogent: Portrait of a Medieval Mindremedies this an in doing so challenges many of the long held assumptions about this enigmatic man. Instead of being a neurotic, as earlier historians have described him, Guibert is revealed as one of Europe's most sophisticated early psychological thinkers who led the way in transforming hagiography, biography, historiography, and theology. He interactedwiththe most important minds of his time and fearlessly espoused his views even at the risk of being charged with heresy. This is a well written and valuable study of the life of a familiar but still somehow shadowy figure and an important contribution to medieval intellectual history, with insights into the meaning of the twelfth-century renaissance, the monastic mindset, the invention of psychological thought, the birth of the university, and the historiography of the Crusades.

Jay Rubenstein is Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico.