Professor Bloomfield’s study of the Seven Deadly Sins’ undoubtedly holds the position of authority on its subject. It proposes an explanation of the origins of the scheme and then follows its history from Greek and Latin patristic writers through the Middle Ages to Spenser, analyzing a large number of works and giving a full account of the scheme in Middle English literature. The book is a monument to vast learning and surprises its reader again and again, not only by the breadth of its coverage, but also by its attention to seemingly marginal matters, such as the topos of the castle of man’s body or certain socio-historical implications of a given work, which often are stuck away in a footnote. Yet Bloomfield avowedly considered his book only an “introduction,” a first attempt at a full history of the concept, which would hopefully lead to further investigations of this topic.
At a time when mediaeval studies here and abroad entered a phase of unprecedented bloom, when hitherto hardly known texts were being edited in increasing numbers, when the work of such men as De Ghellinck, Chenu, Landgraf, Jean Leclercq, and many others became more widely known and began to bear fruit, it was indeed justified to think that the impetus given to the exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins would soon produce further results. The more astonishing is it to observe that since 1952 virtually no major study on the seven chief vices and closely related subjects has appeared.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Some Problems of Research
Siegfried Wenzel
Speculum, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 1-22
Abstract
Professor Bloomfield’s study of the Seven Deadly Sins’ undoubtedly holds the position of authority on its subject. It proposes an explanation of the origins of the scheme and then follows its history from Greek and Latin patristic writers through the Middle Ages to Spenser, analyzing a large number of works and giving a full account of the scheme in Middle English literature. The book is a monument to vast learning and surprises its reader again and again, not only by the breadth of its coverage, but also by its attention to seemingly marginal matters, such as the topos of the castle of man’s body or certain socio-historical implications of a given work, which often are stuck away in a footnote. Yet Bloomfield avowedly considered his book only an “introduction,” a first attempt at a full history of the concept, which would hopefully lead to further investigations of this topic.
At a time when mediaeval studies here and abroad entered a phase of unprecedented bloom, when hitherto hardly known texts were being edited in increasing numbers, when the work of such men as De Ghellinck, Chenu, Landgraf, Jean Leclercq, and many others became more widely known and began to bear fruit, it was indeed justified to think that the impetus given to the exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins would soon produce further results. The more astonishing is it to observe that since 1952 virtually no major study on the seven chief vices and closely related subjects has appeared.
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