Abelard and Heloise

This volume presents the twelfth-century Latin letters of the philosopher and teacher Peter Abelard and his former student Heloise, together with Abelard's account of his misfortunes. Their history includes a secret love, a child, a clandestine marriage, the assault that ended Abelard's public manhood, and their later lives in religious houses. The correspondence argues over love, blame, monastic rule, and the naming of their foundations. Heloise writes as abbess and as the woman who will not recast their past as Abelard wishes. The work is a medieval epistolary record of scholarship, desire, and the church's hold on both lives.

Bound in cream canvas with a design in gold by Sally Lou Smith. Map endleaves. Blue page tops. Dark blue slipcase.