- Your letter written to a friend for his comfort, beloved, was lately brought to me by chance. Seeing at once from the title that it was yours, I began the more ardently to read it in that the writer was so dear to me, that I might at least be refreshed by his words as by a picture of him whose presence I have lost...4
The story of Abelard and Heloise might have been lost to future generations were it not for the letters that survived them. The course of events that their romance followed was described unstintingly in a letter Abelard wrote, known to us as the Historia Calamitatum, or "the Story of My Misfortunes." His intent in writing the letter was ostensibly to console his friend by telling him, essentially, "You think you've got problems? Listen to this..."
The Historia Calamitatum was widely circulated and copied, as letters sometimes were in those days. There is a school of thought that Abelard had an ulterior motive in its composition: to call attention to himself and keep his work and his genius from slipping into oblivion. If that was indeed the case, the philosopher, though still confident in his abilities to the point of arrogance, showed a remarkably brutal honesty and a willingness to accept responsibility for the disastrous results brought on by his vanity and pride.
Whatever his motives for writing the letter, a copy eventually fell into Heloise's hands. It was at this point that she took the opportunity to contact Abelard directly, and an extensive correspondence ensued from which the nature of their later relationship can be gleaned.
The authenticity of the letters supposedly written by Heloise has been called into question. For more on this matter, see the Mediev-l Discussion of Heloise's Letters to Abelard, collected from the Mediev-l mailing list and presented online by Paul Halsall at the Medieval Sourcebook. For books examining their authenticity, see Sources and Suggested Reading, below.
Note
4 From Heloise's first letter.
Additional Resources
Abelard's autobiography is online here at the Medieval History site:
- Historia Calamitatum, or, The Story of My Misfortunes
by Peter Abelard
Translated by Henry Adams Bellows, with an introduction by Ralph Adams Cram. Presented in fifteen chapters, an introduction, a foreword and an appendix.
For books and websites of interest, visit these Who's Who profiles:
Sources and Suggested Reading
The links below will take you to a site where you can compare prices at booksellers across the web. More in-depth info about the book may be found by clicking on to the book's page at one of the online merchants.
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
translated by Betty Radice
A Penguin classics collection of their correspondence.
Heloise and Abelard
by Etienne Gilson
Literate analysis of the letters of Abelard and Heloise focuses on individual topics and themes rather than a chronological presentation.
The Philosophy of Peter Abelard
by John Marenbon
A re-examination of Abelard's work as a logician and theologian.
Stealing Heaven: The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard
by Marion Meade
This fictionalized account is well-written and fairly accurate, and has been made into a well-received film.
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The URL for this feature is:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/peterabelard/a/love_story.htm
Guide's Note: This feature was originally posted in February of 2000, and was updated in February of 2007.
