This study analyses the complex role played by the concept of a ‘veiled truth’ (integumentum) in the intellectual culture of the Twelfth Century.
Eight chapters examine the concept in theological texts and milieux (e.g. Peter Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Poitiers); in natural philosophy (William of Conches); in literary commentaries and literary theory; in literature (Bernard Silvester, Alan of Lille); and in methodological discussions of the Artes sermocinales and language (John of Salisbury).
Key questions implied (and discussed) include: 12th-century reflections on the limits of human rationality; the impact of 12th-century methodological discussions for the evolution of Scholasticism; the nature and scope of medieval literary theory and hermeneutics; the importance of an interdisciplinary intellectual history for the understanding of medieval thought.