"First the Bow is Bent in Study..."

"First the bow is bent in study, then the arrow is released in preaching": such is the image the Dominican Hugh of St-Cher once used to describe the relationship between learning and ministry which his order embodied. Taking that image as its starting-point, this book explores Dominican education during the first century of the order's life, providing a detailed account of the full reach of the order's schools, from the simple convent scholae and the practical training they imparted to the specialised studia operated by every province. The book begins by examining the enduring relationship with learning the Dominicans established during their order's formative years. The history of Dominican schools is taken up directly in the book's second part: the existence of pre-postulancy schools for boys is mooted, and the formation of novices described; conventual education is discussed at length; the growth of the Dominican studium system from the mid-thirteenth century is also examined, with lengthy sections devoted to each type of studium, to the history of its development, its curriculum, and its place in an expanding hierarchy of studies; finally, the points of contact between the Dominican studium generale and the universities of Europe are analysed. Part 3 turns from institutional history to a consideration of the texts utilised within Dominican education, revisiting a number of familiar genres, but working to moor these texts more firmly to their context of use within Dominican schools. The first comprehensive study of medieval Dominican education, this book offers a radical new reconstruction of the Dominican programme of study - the schools, the curricula, the pedagogical techniques and the mental habits in which Dominican preachers and confessors were formed. The result is both a fresh perspective from which to view the work of the greatest Dominican thinkers of the middle ages, as well as a new appreciation of the care taken in the for