Boyer, Blanche, ed.; McKeon, Richard, ed., Sic et Non: A Critical Edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976).

Text name(s): Sic et Non; Decree of Pope Gelasius Regarding Authentic Books; Excerpta Retractionem Augustini

Number of pages of primary source text: 485

Medieval Author(s): Abelard, Peter

Dates: 1121 - 1121

Archival Reference: Edited and collated from the following Manuscripts: Zurich, Centralbibliothek 325 (Car. C. 162), ff. 23r-38v; Tours, Bibliotheque Municipale 85, 3, ff. 106r col. 2-118v; Monte Cassino, Archivio della Badia 174, pp. 277-451; Einsiedelm, Stiftsbibliothek 30

Original Language(s): Latin;

Translation: Original language included.

Translation Comments:

Geopolitical Region(s): Europe;

County/Region:

Apparatus: Index Appendices Introduction

Comments:

Abelard was a controversial twelfth century philosopher and theologian, who offered a number of revolutionary insights in logic and was famous for his romance with Heloise. In Sic et Non, Abelard gathers together excerpts from the Church Fathers under distinct questions in order to demonstrate the contradictory opinion of these authorities. Like Peter Lombard’s Sentences, it is an artifact of early scholasticism and forms the tradition for the later codified disputed question. Abelard included a lengthy set of exerpts from St. Augustine’s Retractions.

Introduction Summary:

The seven page introduction discusses the original “rediscovery” of Peter Abelard’s Sic et Non by Victor Cousin, his publication of an edited and abridged version of the text in 1851, as well as a complete edition published by Henke and Lindenkohl the same year based upon a German manuscript of the text.
A seventy-three page section entitled “Description of the Manuscripts” discusses the particular manuscripts which this critical edition drew upon.
Three appendices provide supplementary material which discuss different versions of the manuscript tradition of Sic et Non and which compare Abelard’s work to similar collections of the sayings of the Fathers, including Lombard’s Sentences.
This critical edition includes indexes of authors and works cited by Abelard, as well as an index of questions.

Cataloger: SLE