Editing Bernard of Chartres

{{short description|French Neo-Platonist philosopher}}
'''Bernard of Chartres''' ({{langx|la|Bernardus Carnotensis}}; died after 1124) was a twelfth-century [[France|French]] [[Neo-Platonist]] [[philosopher]], scholar, and administrator.

== Life ==

The date and place of his birth are unknown. He was previously believed to have been the elder brother of [[Thierry of Chartres]] and to be of [[Brittany|Breton]] origin, but research has shown that this is unlikely.<ref>Paul Edward Dutton (ed.), ''The Glosae super Platonem of Bernard of Chartres'', Toronto 1991, p. 40-42.</ref> He is recorded at the [[cathedral school of Chartres]] by 1115 and was chancellor until 1124. There is no proof that he was still alive after 1124.<ref>For the date of his death see Dutton p. 32-33.</ref>

== Contemporary accounts ==

[[Gilbert de la Porrée]] and [[William of Conches]] were students of his, and their writings reference his work, as do the writings of [[John of Salisbury]].  According to the latter, Bernard composed a prose treatise named ''De expositione Porphyrii'', a metrical treatise on the same subject, a moral poem on education, and probably a fourth work seeking to reconcile Plato and Aristotle. Fragments of these treatises are found in John's ''Metalogicon'' (IV, 35) and ''Policraticus'' (VII, 3).<ref>[[Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'', Vol. CXLIX, coll. 938 and 666.</ref> [[Hauréau]]<ref>''Catholic Encyclopedia'', I, 408</ref> confounds Bernard of Chartres with [[Bernardus Silvestris]], and assigns to the former works which are to be ascribed to the latter.

The earliest attribution of the phrase "[[standing on the shoulders of giants]]" is to Bernard (by [[John of Salisbury]]):
{{quote|Bernard of Chartres used to say that we [the Moderns] are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants [the Ancients], and thus we are able to see more and farther than the latter. And this is not at all because of the acuteness of our sight or the stature of our body, but because we are carried aloft and elevated by the magnitude of the giants.<ref>John of  Salisbury, ''Metalogicon'', Book III, Chapter 4. Cfr. Troyan, Scott D., Medieval Rhetoric: A Casebook, London, Routledge, 2004, p. 10.</ref>}}

== Doctrines ==

Bernard, like others of his school, studied the ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' and the Neo-Platonists more than [[Aristotle]]'s  [[Aristotle#Logic|dialectical treatises]] and [[Boethius|Boethius's commentaries]]. Consequently, he not only discussed the problem of [[universals]] (distinguishing between the abstract, the process, and the concrete—exemplified, for instance, by the Latin words ''albedo'', ''albet'', and ''album'') but also addressed problems of [[metaphysics]] and [[cosmology]].

=== Metaphysics ===

According to Bernard, there are three categories of reality: God, matter, and idea. God is supreme reality. Matter was brought out of nothingness by God's creative act and is the element which, in union with Ideas, constitutes the world of sensible things. Ideas are the prototypes by means of which the world was from all eternity present to the [[Nous|Divine Mind]]; they constitute the world of [[Divine providence|Providence]] ("in qua omnia semel et simul fecit Deus"), and are eternal but not coeternal with God. According to John of Salisbury, Bernard also taught that there exist native forms—copies of the Ideas created with matter—which are alone united with matter. It is difficult, however, to determine what was Bernard's doctrine on this point. It is sufficient to note that he reproduced in his metaphysical doctrines many of the characteristic traits of [[Platonism]] and Neo-Platonism: the intellect as the habitat of [[Theory of forms|Ideas]], the [[Anima mundi|world-soul]], eternal [[matter]], matter as the source of imperfection, etc.

=== Cosmology ===

Bernard argued that matter, although caused by God, existed from all eternity. In the beginning, before its union with the Ideas, it was in a chaotic condition. It was by means of the native forms, which penetrate matter, that distinction, order, regularity, and number were introduced into the universe.

==Glosses on Plato's ''Timaeus''==

Paul Edward Dutton has shown that a set of anonymous glosses on Plato's ''Timaeus'' must be attributed to Bernard. These glosses edited by Dutton are Bernard's only extant work.

==Editions==
* ''The Glosae super Platonem of Bernard of Chartres'', edited with an introduction by Paul Edward Dutton, Toronto 1991. {{ISBN|0-88844-107-X}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Bernard of Chartres|volume=3}}
*{{cite CE1913|wstitle=Bernard Sylvester|volume=14|first=William|last=Turner}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia
  | last = Jeauneau
  | first = Edouard
  | title = Bernard of Chartres
  | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
  | volume = 2
  | pages = 19–20
  | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
  | location = New York
  | year = 1970
  | isbn = 0-684-10114-9
 }}

{{Medieval Philosophy}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard Of Chartres}}
[[Category:12th-century French philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholastic philosophers]]
[[Category:1120s deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:12th-century French writers]]
[[Category:French male writers]]
[[Category:12th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Latin commentators on Plato]]