The invention of wisdom in Jean Chéron's illustrated thesis print

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Alexander Marr and Vera Keller for their invitation to submit this article. I would also like to acknowledge Jill Kraye, Berthold Kress, Jean Michel Massing, Elizabeth McGrath, and Joshua Walden for their detailed feedback. I am grateful to David Butterfield for his assistance with the Latin translations. Thanks are also due to Stephen Ferguson, Curator of Rare Books at the Princeton University Library, for help in securing photographs for this article. This work was supported by the Perkins-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University.

Notes

1. This article offers the first close reading of this teaching aid in the context of its use in disputations in the Carmelite convent in Paris. The broadside has been almost entirely overlooked by contemporary historians. For the sole discussion of this engraving, see Nauwelaerts, “De Wijsgeren,” 146–147.

2. Cicero introduces inventio as the first of five stages in the composition of speech and defines this process in De Inventione (I.7.9) as “the discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments to render one's cause plausible.” Cicero, De Inventione, 18–19. Cicero, Opera omnia, 131: “Inventio, est excogitatio rerum verarum, aut verisimilium, quae causam probabilem reddant.”

3. This inscription is based on Proverbs 8:35. Chéron portrays a close association between Aristotelian logic and biblical wisdom throughout the broadside.

4. On Gaultier and Messeager, see Brugerolles and Guillet, “Léonard Gaultier,” 1–24; and Selbach, “L'activité,” 35–51. The broadside was only printed in a single edition; it consists of two sheets of paper that have been glued together. One impression of the upper half of the broadside is held by the British Museum (1880,0214.122). Impressions of the entire broadside survive in the Graphic Arts Collection of Princeton University (Oversize Broadside 120), the Bibliothèque nationale de France (hereafter BNF) (AA5), the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (hereafter BRB) (S. IV 86230), the Museo Francescano di Roma (Inv. nr. I-N-7/7), and the Graphische Sammlung der Albertina in Vienna (HB137, number 44). The size of the Princeton broadside is 74×47 cm; its plate mark measures 72.7×45.4 cm. The dimensions of the printed area on the BNF impression are 72.3×44.9 cm; its plate mark measures 72.8×45.5 cm. The size of the BRB broadside is 77.4×48.8 cm; the dimensions of its plate mark are 72.5×44.85 cm. The dimensions of the Albertina broadside are 72×44.5 cm; its printed area extends to the edge of the broadside and its highest section is cropped slightly.

5. The Typus was created for public disputations. On public disputations in early modern France, see Meyer, “Les thèses,” 76–86. On two other thesis prints engraved by Gaultier and published by Messager, see Berger, “Martin Meurisse's Theater,” 269–293; and Berger, “Martin Meurisse's Garden,” 203–249.

6. Chéron, Typus: “P. Thomas Despres, I. Verbiale, N. Adam, V. La-ruele, H. Couplet, F. de Harne, R. Contansin, F. Fontaine, I. Boulin, and the rest will answer concerning these theses, in the year 1622” (De his respond[ebunt] fratres P. Thomas Despres. I. Verbiale. N. Adam. V. La-ruele. H. Couplet. F. de Harne. R. Contansin. F. Fontaine. I. Boulin. etc. Anno. 1622). Chéron is identified by the inscription, “Brother Jean Chéron, among the Carmelites of Paris, in charge of Logic” (Fr[ater] Joannes Cheron apud Carmelitas Paris[ienses] Logicorum Regens).

7. The pre-Socratic Greek lyric and elegiac poet Simonides is credited with formulating this memory technique. See Rossi, Clavis universalis; Yates, Art of Memory; Carruthers, Book of Memory; Carruthers, Craft of Thought; Bolzoni, La stanza della memoria; Spence, Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci; and Busse Berger and Rossi, Memory and Invention.

8. On the early modern ars memoriae and recollection as a heuristic exercise, see Lewis, “Francis Bacon,” 158–159.

9. Carruthers, “Concept of Ductus,” 190.

10. Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 77. Chirius Consultus Fortunatianus, who is believed to have been Augustine's contemporary, first described this notion in his textbook on rhetoric.

11. Modern scholars contend that the original Greek text is from the first century a.d. Cebes converses with Socrates in Plato's Phaedo. Schleier, Tabula Cebetis; Sider, Cebes' Tablet; and Trapp, “On the Tablet of Cebes,” 159–180.

12. On images of the Tabula Cebetis, see Schleier, Tabula Cebetis.

13. Milton, Of Education, 4.

14. See Vietor's Tabula Cebetis, London, British Museum, Prints & Drawings, E,8.4. The metaphor of learning as a journey towards wisdom is also employed by Michel de Montaigne in his essay On Educating Children. Whereas Chéron and the illustrators of the Tabula Cebetis emphasize the difficulty of this quest, Montaigne argues that Philosophy does not dwell “as they teach in schools” (comme dit l'eschole) in an inaccessible area, but rather can be reached “by shaded grassy paths, flower-scented, smooth and gently rising, like tracks in the vaults of heaven” (par des routes ombrageuses, gazonnees, & dou-fleurantes; plaisamment, & d'une pante facile & polie, comme est celle des voutes celestes). Montaigne, Complete Essays, 181; Les essais, 138.

15. On the Descriptio, see Bauer, “Artificiosa totius logices descriptio,” 2–5; Bauer, “Die Philosophie auf einen Blick,” 481–519; Ferguson, “System and Schema,” 8–11; Maas, “Zur Rationalität des vermeintlich Irrationalen,” 68–72; and Berger, “Martin Meurisse's Garden,” 203–249.

16. By the seventeenth century, many competing interpretations of Aristotle's writings had developed: Schmitt, “Towards a Reassessment,” 159–160. Chéron's summation of logic resembles other syntheses created in Paris in this period, especially the Descriptio and the popular philosophical textbooks of Charles François d'Abra de Raconis (1580–1646) and Eustachius a Sancto Paulo (1573–1640). Gaultier, the engraver of the Typus, also cut the frontispiece to the edition of Eustachius's textbook published in 1611: Paris, BNF, Cabinet des Estampes, Ed. 12 Rés.

17. Brockliss, French Higher Education, 194–195. This tripartite division of logic appears in textbooks throughout the seventeenth century. Nuchelmans, “Logic in the Seventeenth Century,” 105.

18. Chéron, Typus: “She [i.e. Philosophy] hath sent her maids to invite to the tower” (Misit ancillas suas ut vocarent ad arcem). Proverbs 9:3. Presumably the “tower” here is the temple of wisdom.

19. Aristotle, nova editio, 485; Aristotle, Metaphysics, 982b20; trans. Complete Works, 1554.

20. Aristotle, nova editio, 485; Aristotle, Metaphysics, 982b12–14; trans. Complete Works, 1554. Abra de Raconis also cites wonder as a reason to find philosophy: Totius philosophiae, 13: “It should first be noted that two principles, namely wonder and experience, come together in order to invent any given art” (Notandum est primo ad inventionem cuiuscumque artis, duo concurrere principia, scilicet admirationem & experientiam). Emphasis in original.

21. Chéron, Typus: “In the treasures of wisdom is understanding” (In thesauris sapientiae intellectus). Ecclesiasticus 1:26.

22. Chéron, Typus: “Give me wisdom” (Da mihi sapientiam). 2 Paralipomenon 1:10.

23. On the lives of these philosophers, see Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers; trans. De vita et moribus philosophorum.

24. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 2, 483. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 980b22; trans. Complete Works, vol. 2, 1554.

25. The Tabula militiae scholasticae is reproduced and discussed in Siegel, Tabula, 118.

26. In seventeenth-century Europe, philosophical arguments were often compared to military actions. Schmutz, “Bellum scholasticum,” 131–182.

27. Abra de Raconis also notes that experience motivates people to study philosophy, see n. 20.

28. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 2, 45; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1142a12–20; trans. Complete Works, 1803.

29. Job 28:13.

30. Wisdom 10:8.

31. Publius Syrus, Mimi 42: “Stultum est timere quod vitari non potest.”

32. Proverbs 3:13.

33. Odysseus escapes the sirens, in book 12 of the Odyssey: Homer, Odysseae libri, 90v–91r. And in Boethius's Consolatio philosophiae (I.1), Lady Philosophy banishes pagan Muses, to whom she refers as “Sirens,” calling Christian Muses in their place: “Sed abite potius Seirenes usque in exitium dulces meisque eum Musis curandum, sanandumque relinquite” (Get out, you Sirens, beguiling men straight to their destruction! Leave him to my Muses to care for and restore to health). Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, 7; trans. Consolation of Philosophy, 134–135. See also Bettini and Spina, Il mito delle Sirene.

34. Chéron, Typus: “En rectrix animi clavisque modusque sciendi / quo spreto sophiam / nullus adire potest.” Michael of Bologna's comments form an elegiac couplet. Michael of Bologna was born around the middle of the fourteenth century in Bologna, Italy. Around 1372 he was made definitor of the province of Bologna.

35. Carmelite constitutions of the sixteenth century required colleges to teach the ideas of Michael of Bologna and John Baconthorpe (ca. 1290–1347), who is represented in segment six. Payne, John of the Cross, 4.

36. Chéron's words are based on the following passage in Proverbs 20:8: “The king, that sitteth on the throne of judgment, scattereth away all evil with his look” (Rex qui sedet in solio judicii dissipat omne malum intuitu suo).

37. On the gesture of this individual, who implores Logic to lead him to Wisdom, see Bulwer, Chirologia, 28–29: “The stretching forth of the Hand is the forme of pleading.”

38. Ecclesiasticus 6:21.

39. The 1603 edition of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia includes a description of Logic personified, but lacks a representative image. Ripa's “Logica” holds four keys. Ripa writes, “Le quattro chiavi significano i quattro modi d'aprire la verità in ciascuna figura sillogistica, insegnate con molta diligenza da professori di quest'arte” (The four keys signify the four modes of opening the truth in each syllogistic figure, as taught with much diligence by professors of this art). Iconologia, 298.

40. Aristotle asserts that concepts alone do not have truth-values. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 9. Aristotle, Categories, 2a8–10; trans. Complete Works, I, 4.

41. Porphyry, Isagoge, 12.25–26. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 5.

42. Chéron presents explanations of the five predicables and the 10 categories near one another because categories are construed as the most general genera, and can be classified and arranged by the predicables. Porphyry, Isagoge, 6.6–11. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 3.

43. Aristotle presents a house as an entity produced by artificial generation and a man as an entity that comes to be by nature: nova editio, vol. 2, 526 and 528; Metaphysics, 1032a16–20 and 1034a9–10; trans. Complete Works, vol. 2, 1629 and 1632.

44. Houses and piles of stones were popular examples of entities per accidens in this period. Both examples are cited in Abra de Raconis's textbook (tractatio, 186).

45. Technically they should be fully naked, but this would have been considered improper in the illustrated broadside.

46. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 175; Aristotle, On Sophistical Refutations, 166a16–18, 20–21. In the Jonathan Barnes edition of Aristotle's works, the translator William Adair Pickart-Cambridge presents what is characterized as a “stilted but fairly literal version of the Greek,” because “Aristotle's Greek ambiguities rarely translate neatly into English ambiguities.” See Complete Works, vol. I, 280 n. 3.

47. Martial, Epigrammatum libri XIV, 14.73, fol. 770: “Psittacus a vobis aliorum nomina discam: Hoc didici per me dicere, Caesar ave.” The translation of this epigram is by Anderson, A Grammar of Iconism, 155–156.

48. These three types of syllogisms are also represented by the three fruit trees at the top of the Descriptio and are cited by Eustachius, Summa philosophiae quadripartita, 193.

49. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 76; Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, 70b18–19; trans. Complete Works, I, 115.

50. Aristotle organised all possible premise arrangements into figures, based on whether the middle term, i.e. the term shared by the major and minor premises, functioned as a subject or a predicate in the major and minor premises.

51. The arrangement of the columns resembles the device of Emperor Charles V, in which two columns are represented in a sea with the words “More Beyond” (Plus Ultra). Rosenthal, “Plus Ultra,” 204–228.

52. Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 76; Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, 70b21–23; trans. Complete Works, I, 115.

53. Chéron, Typus: “False Reasoning” (Nugatio); “Refutation” (Redargutio); “False thing” (Falsum); “Paradox” (Paradoxum); and “Solecism” (Sole[cismus]). Aristotle, nova editio, vol. 1, 174: “quae sunt quinque: Reprehensio, falsum, incredibile, quodque sit contra omnium opinionem, soloecismus: & quintum, cogere eum, quicum disputant, nugari.” Aristotle, Sophistical Refutations, 165b14–165b17; trans. Complete Works, I, 279: “These [aims] are five in number: refutation, falsity, paradox, solecism, and fifthly to reduce the opponent in the discussion to babbling.” These goals are also cited by Eustachius, Summa, vol. 1, 263. The goals are labelled with a marginal annotation. They are also inscribed onto the Descriptio, near an image of two kneeling Sophists playing flutes.

54. This quotation is a paraphrase of Boethius, Consolatio philosophiae, I.3; Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, libri V, 10: “Do you think that this is the first time wisdom has been attacked and endangered in a wicked society?” (Nunc enim primum censes apud improbos mores lacessitam periculis esse sapientiam?)

55. Wisdom 5:6.

56. Job 34:27.

57. This quotation is taken from Isidore of Seville, Soliloquiorum, G4r.

58. Job 28:14.

59. Proverbs 9:1. Wirth, “‘Sapientia,’” 213–266.

60. Proverbs 8:34.

61. Ecclesiastes 1:8.

62. Chéron, Typus: “Voluntary action is of the intellect” (Praxis est intellectus); and “Voluntary action is in the will” (Praxis est in voluntate).

63. “Baco” is an abbreviation for John Baconthorpe's name: Marenbon, “Baconthorpe.”

64. Bulwer, Chirologia, 84.

65. Ripa's personification of “Philosophy” (Filosofia) holds a book that exposes the secrets of nature and their causes (Iconologia, 162–164). On the personification of Philosophy, see Hope and McGrath, “Artists and Humanists,” 179–182.

66. Ripa's “Mathematics” (Mathematica) also employs a compass to draw on a tablet, in order to show the practical application of this discipline: Iconologia, 307–309.

67. A dove also flies above Theology in an engraved frontispiece by Jan II Collaert, based on a design by Peter Paul Rubens, to a Biblia Sacra, published in Antwerp in 1617. Leesberg and Bowen, New Hollstein, 152 and 154–155.

68. Schmitt, “Philosophical Textbook,” 792–804.