Sapientia. Scientia. Fides: Ekkehart IV. und die artes liberales in St. Gallen

Abstract

Bernhard Hollick: Sapientia. Scientia. Fides: Ekkehart IV and the artes liberales in St Gall

Ekkehart IV of St Gall is known as a historiographer and a poet, but not necessarily as a philosopher. Yet throughout his career as a teacher and writer, he reveals a profound interest in epistemological questions.
Building on the Augustinianism of his teacher, Notker III (Labeo, the German), he defines on several occasions the relevance and the limita-tions of secular knowledge. His writings offer insights into the complexity and consistency of philosophical thought in the circle of the St Gall School. At the same time, they throw light on the role poems and manuscripts played within the sophisticated communication strat-egies by which ideas were spread in the monastery. Ekkehart’s o euvre is, too, a source for the history of philosophical practice in eleventh-century Europe.