Portable Scholasticism? The Intellectual Horizons of Gervase of Tilbury

The career of Gervase of Tilbury (c.1150-1220) opens a window into the complexity of the late twelfth-century intellectual world. Often dismissed as a mere compiler, Gervase was a scholastic thinker outside the schools who adapted complex theological arguments for an English prince, a Sicilian king, and a German emperor. His writing reveals the "portability" of scholastic thought. It also demonstrates how scholastic authors were molded by their experiences of royal courts. Gervase's time in the Norman Sicilian kingdom shaped his attitude to political authority and his experience of royal hospitality allowed him to fashion a distinctive view of heavenly beatitude.