Why and How Gilson’s Institute of Mediaeval Studies Was Different from Other Medieval Programs

Etienne Gilson was convinced that a multi-disciplinary core curriculum was essential to educate scholars properly about the Middle Ages. Having failed to interest universities on both sides of the Atlantic in his vision, he was elated in1927 to find that the priests at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto were eager to implement his approach. Although enrollment was hindered by both the Great Depression of the 1930s and the subsequent Second World War, Gilson’s Institute of Mediaeval Studies (“Pontifical” since 1939) produced a significant number of medievalists who had immersed themselves in the full Gilsonian curriculum: palaeography, sources of history, philosophy, theology, medieval science, law, art, and literature. For three decades PIMS was the only institution devoted exclusively to mediaeval studies. In the post-War era, however, a number of universities founded centres for medieval studies, but they reverted to the pre-Gilsonian concentration on specialization in one discipline. The sheer number of those programs, together with financial difficulties at PIMS, relegated Gilson’s dream of a multidisciplinary curriculum at PIMS to history. The Pontifical Institute has successfully implemented a smaller program of Manuscript Studies, and its library continues to attract scholars from both North America and Europe.