The Experience of Beauty in the Middle Ages

Mary Carruthers studies memory training and rhetorical practices of the Middle Ages, in universities and monasteries, clerical and court cultures, focussing in particular on compositional and performative practice in the arts of the twelfth through the mid-fifteenth centuries in Europe. Her work has been fruitful to scholars in a number of other disciplines besides literature, including cultural history, comparative religion, the history of psychology and education, art and architecture history, and musicology. She received her BA from Wellesley College and her PhD from Yale University, both in English language and literature, though her work now is mainly with Latin materials. She retired from New York University in 2011. In Oxford she has been George Eastman Visiting Professor and Fellow of All Souls College. She is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.

Mary Carruthers is well-known to medievalists across the disciplines for her pioneering work on the art of memory, which has transformed the way in which we think about medieval processes of learning. . . This is not a book to be read in a single sitting. Readers will want to savor the essays, chew them over in order to release their flavor.

• Introduction: Making Sense ; 1. Artful Play ; 2. Sensory Complexion and Style ; 3. Taking the Bitter with the Sweet ; 4. Taste and Good Taste ; 5. Varietas ; 6. Ordinary Beauty