It seems I’m still in my medieval revival phase. Today I’m presenting at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, on William of Saint-Amour and Thomas Aquinas. This is also connected to a book that will be published this fall on the conceptual history of “work”. A brief outline of today’s presentation:
“In the 1250s, the mendicant orders’ rising stature at the University of Paris incited a bitter controversy about the role of teaching and learning, preaching and praying, or manual labor and begging in religious life. Although this was an obvious existential and prestige struggle between the lay clergy and the regulars, it also had a long-term impact on theoretical discussions, including the definition of labor. As can be demonstrated by the texts of William of Saint-Amour, the main opponent of the mendicants, and the replies given to it by Thomas Aquinas or Albert the Great, it was during this controversy that intellectual activities such as teaching and learning began to be treated not as the mere opposites of manual work but as specific forms of ‘labor‘ themselves. “
