The Ivory Tower
The academic Ivory Tower is a modern—not medieval—invention. As much a myth as the “Dark Ages” ever were.
If modern academics have been reprimanded by their activist contemporaries for wanting to stay in their Ivory Towers rather than engaging politically with the world, medieval scholars were reprimanded by their monastic contemporaries for engaging too much with it—the irony being that the cloisters of the Middle Ages actually existed, whereas the modern Ivory Tower exists only in the insults activists hurl at their ideological opponents in an effort to claim the moral high ground against “fascism.” (It’s true! Steven Shapin wrote a whole paper about it!*)
Nor were medieval universities free of dispute between faculties or of rivalries between different disciplines. The whole point of a university was to stage debates. Even before there were universities, scholars vied with each other for students by displaying their ability to wield logic. From their very beginning, universities were conceived of as places of battle, where students might take up the weapons of dialectic and engage in disputation with their peers.
It was a very masculine space. Only men could participate in the jousts with words. Women’s education took place in more tranquil settings such as the cloister and the home. And yet, ironically, the patron of the universities was—you guessed it—a woman, herself the original Tower of Ivory in whom the Word of God had become flesh. Mary as the Mother of the Word was also the Magistra of the classroom, the one whom the Lord had filled with his wisdom.
What did Mary know? According to medieval scholastics, everything. She had knowledge of all the mechanical arts, including those particularly associated with women: embroidery, silk-working, sewing, and weaving. But she was also skilled in the liberal arts: the trivium of language (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the quadrivium of numbers (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). She was well-versed in civil and canon law, physics and medicine. And she knew the nature of things animal, vegetable and mineral. She likewise had knowledge of all the matter of the Sentences: everything pertaining to the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the sacraments. Above all, she had knowledge of Scripture—because the Scriptures talked about her and her Son all the time.
Mary was the Tower standing against the onslaught of ignorance and lies about the Creator, her Son, and his relationship with his creatures. She was the bride described in the Song of Songs, the tower of the true David against which the forces of darkness could not stand: “Thy neck is as a tower of David, which is built with bulwarks. A thousand bucklers hang upon is, all the armour of valiant men” (Song of Songs 4:4). It was for this reason that the faculty of arts at the University of Paris took her as their patron. They knew Mary as the “mirror of justice” and the “seat of wisdom” most perfectly reflecting the wisdom and justice of her Son.
Modern academics would do well to rediscover the Tower of Ivory upon which the medieval universities were founded as places dedicated to the study of all the arts and sciences. There is no need for STEM to be at odds with the humanities nor for people of faith to be precluded as serious scholars. What we need is a return to the masculine ideal of the university as a place to hone one’s skills in disputation while under the protection of the Nourishing Mother of the Word.
If you would like to engage in nourishing discussion with scholars in medieval studies, there are several annual meetings at which they congregate. All are open to anyone interested in the study of the Middle Ages. Random Laypersons welcome!
The Medieval Academy of America
*Steven Shapin, “The Ivory Tower: The History of a Figure of Speech and Its Cultural Uses,” The British Journal for the History of Science, 45.1 (March 2012): 1-27. NB Figure 1: “An Ivory Tower, virtuously damaged and about to fall down, depicted on the cover of the summer 1939 number of Direction, a periodical publication of the left-wing, anti-Fascist American Writers’ Congress. Source: Harvard College Library, Widener Library, P 149.6.”
Image: Seal of the University of Paris with the Four Nations or Faculties of Arts, sixteenth century. In Paul Lacroix, Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance (1878-1884), fig. 15.
If modern academics have been reprimanded by their activist contemporaries for wanting to stay in their Ivory Towers rather than engaging politically with the world, medieval scholars were reprimanded by their monastic contemporaries for engaging too much with it—the irony being that the cloisters of the Middle Ages actually existed, whereas the modern Ivory Tower exists only in the insults activists hurl at their ideological opponents in an effort to claim the moral high ground against “fascism.” (It’s true! Steven Shapin wrote a whole paper about it!*)
Nor were medieval universities free of dispute between faculties or of rivalries between different disciplines. The whole point of a university was to stage debates. Even before there were universities, scholars vied with each other for students by displaying their ability to wield logic. From their very beginning, universities were conceived of as places of battle, where students might take up the weapons of dialectic and engage in disputation with their peers.
It was a very masculine space. Only men could participate in the jousts with words. Women’s education took place in more tranquil settings such as the cloister and the home. And yet, ironically, the patron of the universities was—you guessed it—a woman, herself the original Tower of Ivory in whom the Word of God had become flesh. Mary as the Mother of the Word was also the Magistra of the classroom, the one whom the Lord had filled with his wisdom.
What did Mary know? According to medieval scholastics, everything. She had knowledge of all the mechanical arts, including those particularly associated with women: embroidery, silk-working, sewing, and weaving. But she was also skilled in the liberal arts: the trivium of language (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the quadrivium of numbers (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). She was well-versed in civil and canon law, physics and medicine. And she knew the nature of things animal, vegetable and mineral. She likewise had knowledge of all the matter of the Sentences: everything pertaining to the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the sacraments. Above all, she had knowledge of Scripture—because the Scriptures talked about her and her Son all the time.
Mary was the Tower standing against the onslaught of ignorance and lies about the Creator, her Son, and his relationship with his creatures. She was the bride described in the Song of Songs, the tower of the true David against which the forces of darkness could not stand: “Thy neck is as a tower of David, which is built with bulwarks. A thousand bucklers hang upon is, all the armour of valiant men” (Song of Songs 4:4). It was for this reason that the faculty of arts at the University of Paris took her as their patron. They knew Mary as the “mirror of justice” and the “seat of wisdom” most perfectly reflecting the wisdom and justice of her Son.Modern academics would do well to rediscover the Tower of Ivory upon which the medieval universities were founded as places dedicated to the study of all the arts and sciences. There is no need for STEM to be at odds with the humanities nor for people of faith to be precluded as serious scholars. What we need is a return to the masculine ideal of the university as a place to hone one’s skills in disputation while under the protection of the Nourishing Mother of the Word.
*
If you would like to engage in nourishing discussion with scholars in medieval studies, there are several annual meetings at which they congregate. All are open to anyone interested in the study of the Middle Ages. Random Laypersons welcome!
The Medieval Academy of America
The Medieval Academy of America, founded in 1925, is the largest organization in the United States promoting excellence in the field of medieval studies. The Academy publishes the quarterly journal Speculum; awards prizes, grants, and fellowships; and supports research, publication, and teaching in medieval art, archaeology, history, law, literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, social and economic institutions, and all other aspects of the Middle Ages.
Membership in the Medieval Academy is open to all persons concerned with the study and teaching of the Middle Ages, including, but not limited to, independent scholars, secondary teachers, graduate students, curators, librarians, and college and university professors of all ranks and at all types of institutions. We aim to foster an environment of diversity, inclusion, and academic freedom for all medievalists. Further, we affirm the right of students and junior faculty to receive supportive, professional mentoring that respects their intellectual freedom and personal integrity. We expect members to abide by and promote these values, in particular when participating in Medieval Academy programming or publicly affiliating with the Academy.International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies (aka Kalamazoo)
Hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, the International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual gathering of around 2,750 scholars interested in medieval studies.
The congress features more than 550 sessions of papers, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, demonstrations, performances, and poster sessions. There are also some 100 business meetings and receptions sponsored by learned societies, associations and institutions. The exhibits hall boasts nearly 70 exhibitors, including publishers, used book dealers and purveyors of medieval sundries. The congress lasts three and a half days, extending from Thursday morning, with sessions beginning at 10 a.m., until Sunday at noon.International Medieval Congress at Leeds
Drawing medievalists from over 60 countries, with more than 2,000 individual papers as well as public concerts, performances, excursions, bookfairs and more, the International Medieval Congress (IMC) is Europe’s largest forum for sharing ideas in medieval studies.
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| Ivory statue of the Virgin and Child, Paris, ca. 1260-80 Metropolitan Museum of Art 199.208 |
*Steven Shapin, “The Ivory Tower: The History of a Figure of Speech and Its Cultural Uses,” The British Journal for the History of Science, 45.1 (March 2012): 1-27. NB Figure 1: “An Ivory Tower, virtuously damaged and about to fall down, depicted on the cover of the summer 1939 number of Direction, a periodical publication of the left-wing, anti-Fascist American Writers’ Congress. Source: Harvard College Library, Widener Library, P 149.6.”
Image: Seal of the University of Paris with the Four Nations or Faculties of Arts, sixteenth century. In Paul Lacroix, Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance (1878-1884), fig. 15.
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