extent confirmed the evidence of the record here under consideration.
4. The next point, namely, that Abailard was unversed in the arts of the quadrivium is also of importance, since it is incidentally corroborated by Abailard s own statement that he was ignorant of mathematics : after quoting a geometrical argument from Boethius, he adds,
Cuius quidem solutionis, etsi multas ab arithmeticis solu- tiones audierim, nullam tamen a me praeferendam iudico, quia eius artis ignarum omnino me cognosce.
5. Then follows the story of his attendance upon the lectures of master Tirric. After what twe have said about Theodoric or Terric of Chartres, it is natural that we should be disposed to identify him with this teacher of mathe matics, especially since Tirric is found among the audience at Abailard s trial at Soissons. But what raises this conjecture to a higher degree of probability is the circumstance that the extracts which u M. Haureau has recently printed from an unpublished treatise by Theodoric, show an evident partiality ior mathematical illustrations. The account then of Abailard s connexion with Tirric suits exactly with what we know from other sources of these scholars attitude towards mathematics.
6. The concluding story about the origin of the name Abailard is of course a figment. Apart from its grotesqueness and intrinsic improbability (especially when we remember that, on the narrator s showing, Abailard must have adopted a new name after he had acquired his remark able reputation as a teacher), there is sufficient evidence that the name is not unique. A little before Peter Abailard’s birth, a son of Humphrey the Norman and nephew of Robert Wiscard received the name of Abaielardus.
7. Dismissing this legend then, we find that our document names two of Abailard’s teachers, one of whom (though the name is corrupted) points to an established fact, and the other to one inherently probable. The chronology however presents serious difficulties. There is no
