Fictiones in medieval philosophies and medieval philosophies in the fictions

Abstract

This contribution is divided into two independent parts: in the first part, it will deal not so much with examining individual cases of fictio and their role within a certain philosophy or an author, as to see how philosophizing or reasoning through fictiones has been theorized and practiced during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; in the second part, it will try, instead, to share what can be found reading medieval setting novels, and in particular medieval crime fiction, namely which image is given of medieval philosophers, philosophies and types of knowledge, and what type of role a wide range of disciplines going from medicine to the arts of trivium play within those narratives.

Keywords: fabula, integumentum, medieval allegory, philosophical fictions, medieval crime fiction, medicine, logic of investigation.

Authors: William of Conches, Peter Abelard, Simon of Tournai, Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Giles of Rome, Radulphus Brito.