Abstract

No one doubts that the reading of authoritative texts lay at the centre of medieval theology, philosophy, and letters; repeated efforts to explain that reading, however, have not been persuasive. The 14 contributors to Ad litterum address the medieval interpretation and use of authoritative texts in the different disciplines united by the medieval practice of reading. The authors share the intention to recover medieval readings as they would want to be recovered. Thus the essays suggest that the present-day reader must replace presumptions about historically pure reading or critically creative reading with the different assumptions evident in the learned culture of the Middle Ages. Central among these assumptions are the analogies of reading that bind together medieval letters, philosophy, and theology.