'Our Boethius': Traditions of Thierry of Chartres and the Christology of Nicolaus Cusanus in De docta ignorantia

In 1995 Maarten J.F.M. Hoenen analyzed an anonymous medieval treatise, Fundamentum naturae quod videtur physicos ignorasse (Eichstatt Cod. st 687), that engages certain doctrines of Thierry of Chartres (d. 1157). Hoenen contends that this text provided another reader of Thierry, Nicolaus Cusanus (1401-1464), the core of his great work, De docta ignorantia (1440). Hoenen's provocative claim has gone largely ignored. This dissertation establishes new arguments that Cusanus did use a version of Fundamentum in composing De docta ignorantia and explains the treatise's significance among other Chartrian sources of early Cusan theology. In particular, I contend that Cusanus's synthesis of various traditions stemming from Thierry, including Fundamentum, drove the German cardinal toward the famous Christological doctrine of De docta ignorantia.;Hoenen's hypothesis has not been successfully challenged by the few scholars who have engaged it. Once one corrects oversights regarding Chartrian sources, De docta ignorantia, and other Cusan works, his case becomes stronger. To evaluate the hypothesis further requires one to situate the Fundamentum treatise among other receptions of Thierry of Chartres's doctrines, the most significant of which are Clarembald of Arras (1110-1187) and the anonymous author of the twelfth-century Hermetic fragment De septem septenis. Once examined in context, it seems the author of Fundamentum understands Thierry well, but rejects many of his doctrines. Cusanus nevertheless integrates the anonymous treatise with passages from Thierry and his students, inadvertently undoing the treatise's critique of Chartrian theology. This fundamental misunderstanding exposes Cusanus's use of the treatise but also made possible his interpretation of the Incarnation, which combines insights of Thierry of Chartres with the objections of his critic. The resulting synthesis thus harmonizes two Chartrian traditions on both theological and documentary levels. Cusanus's writings over the next two decades corroborate this perspective on De docta ignorantia, as he frequently returns to Chartrian traditions while developing his Christology further.