Literature, Logic and Mathematics in the Fourteenth Century.

Author / Editor
Baker, David Philip.

Title
Literature, Logic and Mathematics in the Fourteenth Century.

Published
Ph.D. Dissertation. Durham University, 2013. Open access at http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7716/ (accessed January 28, 2023).

Physical Description
324 pp.

Description
Explores interrelations between literary and logical/mathematical texts in late-fourteenth century England, focusing on how "sophismata" (relatively standardized, imagistic, absurd logical puzzles) underlie late-medieval literary texts. Explains the role of "sophismata" in medieval logic, particularly issues of future contingency, and includes extended discussion of "ars-metrick," insolubles, and "buf" in SumT; the logic of Thomas Bradwardine and Robert Holcot in NPT; and logic and determinism in TC, with attention to its reference to Ralph Strode. Also studies related concerns in Gower's "Confessio Amantis," and in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Pearl," and "Patience."

Chaucer Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Troilus and Criseyde
Summoner and His Tale
Nun's Priest and His Tale
Style and Versification
Language and Word Studies