ABELARD, PETER

born 1079, Le Pallet, near Nantes, Brittany [now in France] died April 21, 1142, Priory of Saint-Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Sane, Burgundy [now in France] French Pierre Ablard, or Abailard, Latin Petrus Abaelardus, or Abeilardus French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals and for his original use of dialectics. He is also known for his poetry and for his celebrated love affair with Hlose. Additional reading Abelard's autobiography and the correspondence between him and Hlose are the starting point for knowledge of his life, and a good English edition is Betty Radice (trans.), The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. from Latin (1974). tienne Gilson, Heloise and Abelard (1951, reissued 1972; originally published in French, 1938), contributed influentially to a debate about this correspondence; it has also been reassessed in D.E. Luscombe, "From Paris to the Paraclete: The Correspondence of Abelard and Heloise," in Proceedings of the British Academy, 74:247-283 (1988). A recent biographical study is M.T. Clanchy, Abelard: A Medieval Life (1997). The twelfth-century reception and rejections of Abelard's thought and teaching are the subject of D.E. Luscombe, The School of Peter Abelard (1969); and D.E. Luscombe (ed. and trans.), Peter Abelard's Ethics (1971), with Abelard's text in English and Latin. Abelard's writing and teaching are preeminently covered in John Marenbon, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard (1997).