دانلود کتاب William of Wheteley’s (fl. 1309-1316) commentary on the Pseudo Boethius’ tractate De disciplina scolarium and medieval grammar school education [thesis]

From various references in his works, William of Wheteley is known to have taught in the Stanford grammar school in 1309 and in the Lincoln grammar school in 1316. His statement that he had spent fifteen years at the university of Paris in his youth, an allusion which suggests that the village of Wheteley in Nottinghamshire was his native place, and his claiming kinship with Ellas of Wheteley, an official of the Wardrobe during the first decade of the fourteenth century comprise the only additional facts of his biography. It is possible that this grammar school master is the same person as the William of Wheteley whose activities as a cleric of the Great Wardrobe may be traced in writs of the early years of the century.

Because very little is known in detail about the curriculum of the medieval grammar school, Wheteley's commentaries provide valuable examples of what was taught in two Ehglish grammar schools early in the fourteenth century. His commentary on the text of Pseudo Boethius' De Disciplina Scolarim together with its quaestiones, which form an integral part of his lectio of De Disciplina, preserves an almost verbatim account of what he taught at Stamford in 1309. Similarly his commentary and quaestiones on Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae record what he taught at Lincoln in 1316; and from a reference in the latter commentary we learn that he had presented his lectio of Da Disoiplina to his students at Lincoln before he began his lectio of De Consolations. Three manuscripts containing his cowentary on De Disciplina are known: MS. Exeter College 28, MS. Pembroke College (Cambridge) 155, and MS. McClean 169 of the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge University.

Although it is probable that De Disciplina was written by a master of arts at Paris during the third decade of the thirteenth century for use in his school, the tractate, which purports to have been written by A. M. S. Boethius to provide guidance for the youth who aspired to become a teacher of grmnmar, dialectic, and the other liberal arts, was not included in the curriculum of the faculty of arts which was established by the Parisian statutes of 1202 and 1200. The survival of more than two hundred manuscripts containing De Biaciplina, forty-five printings of the text before 1000, and numerous printings in the early sixteenth century show that its popularity did not depend upon a place in the ourriculm of the faculty of arts. However, the appearance of De Disciplina in numerous manuscripts containing other works regularly taught in medieval grammar schools indicates that the work at times found a place in the curriculum of those grammar schools whose teachers had received the education in philosophia naturalis offered as a regular part of the curriculum of the faculty of arts.

A comparison of Wheteley's commentary on De Disciplina with the remains of the original commentary, which can be partially reconstructed from a group of glossed texts frequently occuring in gramnar school books, indicates that both the compilers of these glossed texts and Wheteley made use of the work to serve the same purpose in their schools. The contents of this "Common Gloss" and of Wheteley's commentary show that the formal lectio ordinarla with its attendant quaestiones which had developed in the universities during the thirteenth century had also come into use in grammar schools by the end of the century. R. W. Hunt's recent publication of excerpts from the writings of thirteenth and fourteenth century grammar school masters showed that the formal quaestio form was regularly used in in the teaching of grammar; Wheteley’s commentaries on De Disciplina and De Consolatione show the sane rigorous use of the lectio and quaestio by a master who used these texts to provide his grammar school students with an introduction to Aristotelian philosophia naturalis.

Wheteley's occasional use of French and English words within his paraphrase of the text of De Disciplina reminds the modem reader that although the modus procedendi employed in the lectio of the text made no concession to boys who had only recently mastered the conjugations and declensions of the Latin language, the teacher had to be sure that all the boys could at least learn the literal meanings of the words contained in the day’s lectio. In his effort to clarify the meanings of unfamiliar words, Wheteley made extensive use of the lexicographical resources available to the medieval grammarian. He made use of etymological information from Isidore, Hugutio, and Petrus Helias, of the lexicon of Papias, and of the collections of synonyms and homonyms of John of Garland.

This study includes a transcription from MS. Exeter College 28 of the first thirteen quaesticnea from the commentary on De Disciplina. English summaries of these quaestiones are provided.