Pavel Blažek

Dr. Phil. Pavel Blažek blazek[at]flu.cas.cz Education Pavel Blažek is a medievalist and intellectual historian. He studied history and medieval studies in London (University College London, B.A. hons. 1996), Pisa (Scuola Normale Superiore), Louvain-la-Neuve (Université Catholique de Louvain, D.E.A. 1997), and Jena (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität), where he obtained his PhD (Dr. Phil., 2004). Affiliations He has been affiliated as a researcher to the Institute of Philosophy since 1997, except between 2001 and 2004 when he held a research and teaching position at the University of Jena. He is the deputy head of the Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought and the coordinator of the department’s Research Team for Translations and Editions of Medieval Philosophical and Theological Texts (TRANSED). Moreover, he has a part-time affiliation with the Thomas-Institut of the University of Cologne (since 2015) where he participates in the critical edition project of the first two redactions of the Sentences commentary by Durandus of Saint-Pourçain.

Research

His research interests comprise the medieval reception of Aristotle, the history of marriage and the family in medieval thought, medieval moral and social philosophy, and the medieval reception of the Bible. Topics he has worked on include the medieval reception of Aristotelian texts on marriage and the family, medieval treatises on the household, virginity and polygamy in medieval moral philosophy and theology, western perceptions of Islamic marriage, questions concerning the interpretation of medieval Aristotle commentaries, medieval views on usury and the taxation of Jews, and the medieval exegesis of the penitential psalms.

One particular concern of his work is the editing of medieval philosophical and theological texts. He has edited the commentary on the (pseudo?) Aristotelian treatise De inundatione Nili by Bartholomew of Bruges, two sermons on the Christian household by Berthold of Regensburg and selected theological works by the Frankfurt Dominican Johannes Streler.

He is currently finishing a critical edition of Bartholomew of Bruges's commentary on the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics and he is preparing an edition of extant commentaries on the pseudo-Aristolian treatise De pomo. Furthermore, he participates in the aforementioned edition project of the Sentences commentary by Durandus of Saint-Pourçain based at the Thomas-Institut in Cologne. Within this project, he published a critical edition of the treatise on the sacrament of marriage in Durandus’ commentary (bk IV, dist. 26-42) and is currently working on the edition of the treatise on the theological virtues (bk III, dist. 23-33) of the same commentary.

Teaching

Pavel Blažek has taught courses on medieval intellectual history and on the editing of medieval texts at the University of Jena and at Charles University in Prague.

Fellowships and awards

Pavel Blažek has held several research fellowships and grants, including the Alexander von Humboldt-Fellowship, the EURIAS-Fellowship, the KAAD-Fellowship, and the Adrew-Mellon-Fellowship. He has conducted research stays at a number of prestigious institutions (London, Warburg Institute; Munich, Grabmann-Institut; Dresden, FOVOG; Erfurt, Bibliotheca Amploniana; Cambridge, CRASSH/Clare Hall; Berlin, FU Dahlem Humanities Center; Paris, IRHT; Cologne, Thomas-Institut). Between 2005 and 2011 he was secretary of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Theologische Mediävistik. He is a member of the programming committee of the annual International Medieval Congress in Leeds. In 2007 he has obtained the Otto Wichterle award.

Publications

Monographs

Pavel Blažek (ed.): Sacramentum Magnum. Die Ehe in der mittelalterlichen Theologie – Le mariage dans la théologie médiévale – Marriage in Medieval Theology, Münster: Aschendorff-Verlag 2018 (Archa Verbi Subsidia 15), 531 pp.

Pavel Blažek: Die mittelalterliche Rezeption der aristotelischen Philosophie der Ehe. Von Robert Grosseteste bis Bartholomäus von Brügge (1246/7–1309) , Leiden–Boston: Brill Academic Publishers 2007 (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. History, Culture, Religion, Ideas 117), 442 pp.

Editions and Translations

Durandi de Sancto Porciano Scriptum super IV libros Sententiarum. Dist. 26-42 libri Quarti, ed. Pavel Blažek, Leuven–Paris–Bristol (CT): Peeters 2021 (Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales. Bibliotheca 10.4.3), 130* + 263 pp.

Barbora Řezníčková (ed.), Pavel Blažek (intr.): Pseudoisidor Sevillský: Naučení hříšnému člověku a Pseudobernard z Clairvaux: List o řádné správě hospodářství , Praha: Ústav pro jazyk česky AV ČR 2020 (= Electronic edition with commentaries and an introductory study of two medieval Czech translations of the De norma vivendi vivendi by Pseudo-Isidore of Seville and of the Epistola de cura rei familiaris attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux: https://vokabular.ujc.cas.cz/materialy/e-knihy/IsidNauc-BernListC/IsidNauc-BernListC_A4.pdf)

Pavel Blažek: Zwei unedierte Predigten Bertholds von Regensburg (†1272) für den christlichen Hausstand, in: Sacramentum Magnum. Die Ehe in der mittelalterlichen Theologie – Le mariage dans la théologie médiévale – Marriage in Medieval Theology, Id. (ed.), Münster: Aschendorff-Verlag 2018, 477-515

Pavel Blažek: Due commenti di Johannes Streler OP († 1459) alle Sentenze di Pietro Lombardo. Edizione dei prologhi e tabula quaestionum, in: Angelicum 91 (2014), 669-726

Pavel Blažek: Les leçons inachevées de Jean Streler OP († 1459) sur les psaumes de la pénitence. Édition du texte , in: Revue Mabillon 23/84 (2012), 163-193

Pavel Blažek: Tři dopisy Tomáše Akvinského [=Three letters of Thomas Aquinas], Praha: Krystal 2011, 110 pp. [=Czech translation of the Epistula ad Ducissam Brabantiae, De emptione et venditione ad tempus and De iudiciis astrorum with an introduction and commentary]

Pavel Blažek:Il commento di Bartolomeo di Bruges al De inundatione Nili. Edizione del testo, in: Medioevo. Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale 33 (2008), 221-264

Articles

Pavel Blažek, Iste liber videtur esse factus ab Aristotile. Bartholomew of Bruges and the Medieval Reception of the De inundatione Nili, in: Pseudo-Aristotelian Texts in Medieval Thought, ed. by Monica Brinzei, Daniel Coman, Ioana Curuţ, Andrei Marinca, Turnhout: Brepols 2023, 235-267

Pavel Blažek: Spis Tomáše ze Štítného a jeho latinská předloha [=Thomas of Štítné's On the Householder and its Latin Model], in: Studia Mediaevalia Bohemica 14 (2022), 235-267

Pavel Blažek, Barbora Řezníčková: The Pseudo-Bernhardine Epistola de cura rei familiaris and its Reception in Medieval Bohemia and Moravia, in: Books of Knowledge in Late Medieval Europe. Circulation and Reception of Popular Texts, ed. by Pavlína Cermanová, Václav Žůrek, Turnhout: Brepols 2021, 85-135

Pavel Blažek: Thomas of Štítné's On the Householder (O Hospodářovi) and its Latin Model, in: Pursuing a New Order: vol. I: Religious Education in Late Medieval Central and Eastern Central Europe, ed. by Pavlína Rychterová with the collaboration of Julian Ecker, Turnhout: Brepols 2018, 91-119

Pavel Blažek: Die Falsche geheiratet? Gratians Lehre vom Irrtum über den Heiratspartner und ihre Rezeption in Sentenzenkommentaren des 13. und frühen 14. Jahrhunderts, in: Irrtum – Error – Erreur (Miscellanea Mediaevalia 40), Andreas Speer, Maxime Mauriège (edd.), Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter 2018, 477-506

Pavel Blažek: Dopis brabantské vévodkyni Tomáše Akvinského a jeho recepce v Knížkách šesterých o obecných věcech křesťanských Tomáše ze Štítného [=Thomas Aquinas' Letter to the Duchess of Brabant and its Reception in the Six Books on General Christian Matters by Thomas Štítný. With English summary], in: Studia mediaevalia bohemica 8 (2016), 247-258

Pavel Blažek: Zhovadilé způsoby. Islámská manželství očima středověkých západních cestovatelů [=Brutish Customs. Islamic Marriages through the Eyes of Medieval Western Travellers], in: Manželství v pozdním středověku: rituály a obyčeje [=Marriage in the late Middle Ages: Rituals and Customs], Paweł Kras / Martin Nodl (edd.), Praha: Filosofia 2014, 259-291

Pavel Blažek: Žena očima středověkých kazatelů. Kázání ad mulieres Humberta de Romanis († 1277) [With German summary: Die Frau in den Augen mittelalterlicher Prediger. Die Predigten ad mulieres des Humbert von Romans (†1277)], in: Církev, žena a společnost ve středověku. Sv. Anežka Česká a její doba [=Church, Women and Society in the Middle Ages. St. Agnes of Bohemia and her Time], Petr Polehla / Jan Hojda (edd.), Ústí nad Orlicí: Oftis 2010, 97-120

Pavel Blažek: Bartoloměj z Brugg o relevanci praktické filosofie [=Bartholomew of Bruges on the Relevance of Practical Philosophy], in: Aither 2/1 (2010), 181-185

Pavel Blažek: I beni della casa. Temi etico-economici nei trattati medievali d'oeconomica, in: I beni di questo mondo. Teorie etico-economiche nel laboratorio dell'Europa medievale, Roberto Lambertini / Leonardo Sileo (edd.), Porto (Fédération Internationale d'Instituts d'Études médiévales): Brepols 2010 (Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge 55), 67-96

Pavel Blažek: Jak interpretovat středověké aristotelské komentáře? [=How to Interpret Medieval Aristotle Commentaries?], in: Aither 1/2 (2009), 214-222

Pavel Blažek: Staří filosofové jako společníci při hledání pravdy [=Old Philosophers as Partners in the Search for Truth], in: Aither 1/1 (2009), 113-116

Pavel Blažek: The virtue of virginity: The Aristotelian challenge, in: Virtue Ethics in the Middle Ages: Commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, 1200-1500, István P. Bejczy (ed.), Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers 2008, 247-273

Pavel Blažek: Akademická dráha nebo pastorace? Jindřich z Gentu o dilematu intelektuálně založených absolventů teologie [With German summary: Akademische Laufbahn oder Seelsorge? Heinrich von Ghent zum Dilemma intellektuell veranlagter Theologen], in: Teologické texty 17 (2006), 67-73

Pavel Blažek: Konrad von Megenberg als Aristoteles-Rezipient. Zur Rezeption der aristotelischen Ehelehre in der Yconomica, in: Konrad von Megenberg (1309-1374) und sein Werk. Das Wissen der Zeit, Claudia Märtl / Gisela Drossbach / Martin Kintzinger (edd.): München: C.H. Beck 2006 (Zeitschrift für Bayerische Landesgeschichte, Beiheft 31, Serie B), 317-352

Pavel Blažek: Historia calamitatum aneb manželství filozofa. K dějinám jednoho námětu v antické a středověké filozofické literatuře [With English summary: Historia calamitatum or the marriage of a philosopher. On the history of one topic in ancient and medieval philosophical literature], in: Evropa a Čechy na konci středověku [=Europe and Bohemia at the end of the Middle Ages], Eva Doležalová / Robert Novotný / Pavel Soukup (edd.), Praha: Filosofia 2004, 351-367

Pavel Blažek: Das Florilegium als Textinterpretation. Zur Rezeption der pseudo-aristotelischen Oeconomica in den Auctoritates Aristotelis, in: Geist, Gesellschaft, Kirche im 13.-16. Jahrhundert, František Šmahel (ed.), Praha: Filosofia 1999 (Colloquia mediaevalia Pragensia 1), 23-37

Encyclopedia articles

Pavel Blažek: Cátaros y sexo, in: Diccionario de sexo, amor y fecundidad, edd. José Noriega / René & Isabelle Ecochard, Madrid: Didascalos 2022, 122-124

Pavel Blažek: Catari e sesso, in: Dizionario su sesso, amore e fecondità, hrsg. von José Noriega / René & Isabelle Ecochard, Siena: Edizioni Cantagalli 2019, 111-113

Pavel Blažek: Bartholomew of Bruges (1286?-1356), in: Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, Marco Sgarbi (ed), Heidelberg et al.: Springer, http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_24-1

Pavel Blažek: Divorce. Greek and Latin Patristics, and Orthodox Churches, in: Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 6: Dabbesheth – Dreams and Dream Interpretation, Berlin: De Gruyter 2013, 1006-1008

Essays

Pavel Blažek: Jedno tělo. Co se mění a nemění v katolickém učení o manželství [One Flesh. What Does and Does not Change in the Catholic Teaching on Marriage] , Praha: Karmelitánské nakladatelství 2021, 64 pp.

Pavel Blažek: …und sie werden ein Fleisch. Veränderliches und Unabänderliches in der katholischen Ehelehre , Kissleg-Immenried: Christiana-Verlag im Fe-Medieverlag 2021, 84 pp.

Reviews

Pavel Blažek: Constant Mews / John Crossley (edd.), Communities of Learning, Networks and the Shaping of Intellectual Identity in Europe, 1100-1500, Turnhout: Brepols 2011, in: Studia Mediaevalia Bohemica 5 (2013), 137-138

Pavel Blažek : Jack P. Cunningham (ed.), Robert Grosseteste. His Thought and its Impact, Toronto 2012, in: Sehepunkte. Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften [ http://www.sehepunkte.de/2014/02/22041.html ]

Pavel Blažek: Sara McDougall, Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late Medieval Champagne, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2012, in: Sehepunkte. Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften 13 (2013) [ http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/12/21962.html ]

Pavel Blažek: Kim Siebenhüner, Bigamie und Inquisition in Italien 1600-1750, Paderborn-München-Wien-Zürich 2006, in: Český časopis historický 106,1 (2008), 184-186

Pavel Blažek: Pavel Floss, Architekti křesťanského středověkého vědení, Praha 2004, in: Filosofický časopis 54 (2007), 945-947

Pavel Blažek: Evelyn Edson, Emilie Savage-Smith, Anna-Dorothee von den Brincken, Der mittelalterliche Kosmos. Karten der christlichen und islamischen Welt, Darmstadt 2005 , in: Teologické Texty 18 (2007), 163-165

Pavel Blažek: Archa verbi 1 (2004). Yearbook for the Study of Medieval Theology, in: Český časopis historický 104 (2006), 157-158

Pavel Blažek: Marcin Bukała, Zagadnienia ekonomiczne w nauczaniu wrocławskiej szkoły dominikańskiej w późnym średniowieczu, Wrocław 2004, in: Český časopis historický 104 (2006), 957-958

Pavel Blažek: Karl Ubl, Engelbert von Admont. Ein gelehrter im Spannungsfeld von Aristotelismus und christlicher Überlieferung, München 2000, in: Český časopis historický 99 (2001), 876-877

Pavel Blažek: Sabine Föllinger, Differenz und Gleichheit. Das Geschlechterverhältnis in der Sicht griechischer Philosophen des 4. bis 1. Jahrhunderts v. Chr., Stuttgart 1996, in: Filosofický časopis 48 (2001), 1052-1055

Pavel Blažek: Kurt Ruh, Initiation à Maître Eckhart. Théologien, prédicateur, mystique, Fribourg – Paris 1997, in: Scriptorium 53 (1999), 105-106

Pavel Blažek: Gisela Drossbach, Die „Yconomica" des Konrad von Megenberg. Das „Haus" als Norm für politische und soziale Strukturen, Köln – Weimar - Wien 1997, in: Český časopis historický 97 (1999), 852-853

Pavel Blažek, Der Erste Kreuzzug 1096 und seine Folgen. Die Verfolgung der Juden im Rheinland. Hg. v. der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland, Düsseldorf 1996, in: Geschichte in Köln. Zeitschrift für Stadt- und Regionalgeschichte 43 (1998), 140-142

Conference reports

Pavel Blažek, Pseudo-Aristotelian texts in Medieval Thought, International conference (Cluj-Napoca, 28 - 30 September 2016), in: Reflexe 51 (2016), 201-206

Pavel Blažek, Marriage Symbolism. Cognition and Society (Řím, 19-21. května 2016), in: Filosofický časopis 5 (2016), s. 807-811

Pavel Blažek, Tagungsbericht „Marriage Symbolism. Cognition and Society (Rom, 19.05.2016 – 21.05.2016)“, in: H-Soz-Kult: http://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-6670

Pavel Blažek: Conference report "Sacramentum magnum: The Sacrament of Marriage in the Middle Ages – Le sacrement du mariage au moyen âge – Das Ehesakrament im Mittelalter", in: Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 54 (2012), 439-447

Pavel Blažek: Tagungsbericht „Sacramentum magnum: The Sacrament of Marriage in the Middle Ages – Le sacrement du mariage au moyen âge – Das Ehesakrament im Mittelalter". 14.06.2012 – 16.06.2012, Praha, in: H-Soz-u-Kult: http://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-4533

Pavel Blažek: Universality of Reason - Plurality of Philosophies in the Middle Ages, XII. International Congress of Medieval Philosophy, Palermo, 16. – 22.9.2007, in: Studia Neoaristotelica 4 (2007), 213-215

Pavel Blažek: Kulturkontakte und Rezeptionsvorgänge in der Theologie des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, Jahrestagung der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Theologische Mediävistik, Weingarten 28.4 – 1.5.2005, in: Studia neoaristotelica 2 (2005), 155-156

Other

Pavel Blažek: Vorwort, in: Sacramentum Magnum. Die Ehe in der mittelalterlichen Theologie – Le mariage dans la théologie médiévale – Marriage in Medieval Theology, Id. (ed.), Münster: Aschendorff-Verlag 2018, 1-6

Pavel Blažek: In memoriam Prof. Dr. Riccardo Quinto (1961-2014), in: Archa Verbi 11 (2014), 199-201