- and her mother Hersende de Champigné -
La même page en français Les chapitres 1 à 15 en français
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- Appendix: Bulk Images
Let's start with illustrations, of book covers or frontispieces, not shown previously.
Tweet (link), articles: 1 2, photo.
"Abelard writing to his beloved" by Mary Evans (link) (also Héloïse).
"Heloise as a Witch" by Lewis Spence 1917 (Scotland, link).
Estamp of undetermined origin, 50 x 42 cm (link)
Jean-Claude Fourneau 1960 (link). Alex Székely (1901-1968) (Hungary, link).
Illustration from the musical "Rage of the heart" (shown later).
"Heloise and Abelard" by Marina Argentini, 25 x 75 cm (link).
"In the Time of Abelard and Heloise" and "The Way of Heloise", oil paintings 100 x 100 cm by Gérard Bost (b. 1940, France) (link).
Chartres Notre Dame Church window (+ drawing) and 19th century engraving (link).
Nineteenth century lithographs. A gauché, by Vayron (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, link).
"Abelard and Heloise" by Paulo Barrosa (link)
Portrait of Heloise (Alamy, link) and another portrait, inset [Getty, Kean Collection, link]
Gravure by Jules Platier (link). At right, Abelard installs Heloise at the Paraclete (link Pinterest).
To the left, undetermined origin and date. Right, 1782 illustration (link).
1807 engraving by Samuel Freeman, after Adam Buck (London, link). Heloise by Elin Denise (link)
Nineteenth Century Engraving. John Raphael Smith 1774 (link).
Now here are some portraits of Abelard among those referenced by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (link), not seen previously. Then, again from the BnF, engravings depicting episodes from the lives of Heloise and Abelard. At right Austrian publication (link).
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Portraits of Pierre Abelard and Heloise, engraved by Charles Mauduit, after Charles Le Carpentier, 1820 (links: 1 2).
In the center, an excerpt from an album by Auguste Lenoir: portraits of Abelard and Heloise. (Musée du Louvre, link).
On the sides, drawings by Charles-Paul Landon (link)
Bust of Abelard by Louis-Pierre Deseine 1801 (link). The bust of Heloise is missing.
Right, engraving of Heloise after a bust of Deseine, probably the lost one... (link).
This bas-relief with the features of Heloise and Abelard was hidden in Paris after the French Revolution,
so that Alexandre Lenoir was not included in the mausoleum of Heloise and Abelard at Père-Lachaise.
| Lenoir, a conscientious archaeologist, having himself found no documents, had the heads of the legendary lovers executed according to a method he set forth in a work published in 1825: We have been unable to procure authentic statues or busts of Heloise and Abelard. The heads of the two statues shown here were sculpted by a modern artist on the skeleton of the head of each of the characters. M. Lenoir's testimony allows us to state that the girl was, like Abelard, of "great stature and beautiful proportions." Having carefully observed their precious remains, he wrote, in 1795: "Héloïse's head is of beautiful proportion, her forehead, of a flowing form, well rounded and in harmony with the other parts of the face, still expresses perfect beauty. This head, which was so well organized, was molded before my eyes for the execution of the bust of Heloise." (link). |
Two undated chromos, by unknown authors. On the left (link), exists for Poulain chocolate (image, link)
and "La Faveur" chocolate, Montpellier (image, link). Right, origin unknown (links: 1 2).
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Original engraving (19th century, BnF, link).
To the left, Abelard, Anonymous 1830, Alfred Howard's "Biographical Illustrations" (Getty, link).
Abelard and Heloise, prints published by La famille Campion, Jean Testard circa 1786 (Musée Carnavalet, Paris, links: 1 2 3).
Quotes from the site Quotes.
Variants of two Epinal images seen in chapter 14 (link).
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Abelard Pipe (link) |
Abelard with scroll, tempera on parchment, French origin, date unknown (Detroit Institute of Arts, USA, link)
Librairie Abélard in Montolieu (Aude, France) (flickr Anne-Marie Falgas, link) (+ photo, site)
Abelard Bookstore in Toronto, USA (flickr hot_toddygal, link).
Illustration for a play by Michael Meeuwis, "Eloisa and Abelard," at Trinity College in Toronto (USA).
"Note the full ashtray and naughty scribble on the scroll" (flickr Noosh S-W, link Gazette Drouot).
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Here are two miniatures that are sometimes found associated with Abelard and Heloise. But were they so from their creation? It is easy to take an image of two medieval lovers and associate them with the two famous lovers, especially if they have a professor-student or monk-nun look.
The first, opposite, is from the 1839 book illustrated by Jean François Gigoux, with this caption : "Fac-Simile of manuscript from the king's library on which the letters have been translated". 
Joanna Fronska of the IRHT-CNRS points us to the original manuscript, dated between 1301 and 1325, which belonged to Petrarch (already presented at the beginning of chapter 9) (BnF, ms. lat. 2923) (link, with full consultation) (with other drawn lettering : 1 2 3) : 
For the second miniature, opposite, the halo of a saint cannot be attributed to Abelard... link),  -->
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"Abelard receives Heloise his wife at the convent of Paraclete". Mache paper box, France 19th century, diameter 6.5 cm, height 2 cm. (link). 
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Abelardo ad Eloisa (links: 1 2 3 4).
Abelardo y Eloisa, Madrid 1858 (link).
Héloïse, Abélard and Astralabe returning from Le Pallet, heading back to Paris. Abelard pensive (Jean Gigoux 1839). 
Anselm of Laon (chapter 12) and Foulques de Deuil (below) (J. G.) 
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Peter the Venerable (Jean Gigoux 1839).
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Heloise and Abelard outside and inside (Portal of Notre-Dame de Corbeil, now in Saint-Denis,
Manuscript of the Library of Tours, portal of Notre-Dame de Chartres, idem).
Heloise's bed, Abelard's Benedictine frock, arrival of Abelard's coffin at Paraclete (Bibl. Strasbourg, BnF, Bibl. Impériale)
Marie-Amélie Chartroule de Montifaud wrote under the name Marc de Montifaud. In 1883, she published three fascicles of a gallant story "L'abbesse du Paraclet", with three etchings by A. Aubry. Excerpts from the text: 1 2 3 (links: 1 2. 
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"The Three Doctors": Anselm of Laon, Abelard, and Foulques de Deuil (Louvre, link).
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This little part of the body which, by a judgment of God and by a benefit, you have lost, it has harmed you and, as long as it remained, it did not fail to harm you: your own diminution teaches you this better than I could demonstrate it. All that your word brought you, if we except what it was necessary for your maintenance, you did not cease, as one said to me, to swallow it in the abyss of impurity; the hard greed of the courtesans took away all your goods... Your great poverty would seem to prove it; indeed it was told that of all this wealth there remained only some rags when the misfortune struck you. You are suffering at this moment from the damage caused to your body and, according to the vanity of the world, you consider yourself lessened. Therefore, my brother, do not complain, do not grieve and do not let yourself be troubled by this accident as it is said, brings you so many advantages and which is irreparable. You had entrusted your limbs to rest and sleep and were not preparing to do any harm when hands and a fatal iron did not hesitate to shed your blood for nothing. The benevolence of the venerable bishop (of Paris, Gilbert 1116-1123) mourned your wound and your damage; as far as possible, he strove to do justice. She wept for the crowd of generous canons and noble clerics. They wept for the citizens of the City: they considered that this crime was a dishonor for them and that their city had been soiled by the shedding of your blood. Why recall the complaints of all the women who, at the announcement of this news, flooded their faces with tears because in you they had lost their knight. One would have said that each one, by the fate of the war, had to deplore the loss of her husband or her friend. A happy man does not know that he is loved. For you, almost all the City was mourning with pain. You lose the fruit and the advantages of a so great sorrow. You make the pontiff of the Parisian church, the canons and the brothers of your monastery determined and bitter enemies against you. To make vain efforts, said the historian, and to obtain nothing but hatred: it is the worst of follies. If you seek a revenge that your soul craves and desires, do not let it eat away at you or consume you with perpetual pain; for this revenge is largely accomplished. For those who harmed you have been mutilated themselves and had their eyes plucked out. As for the one who denies that the thing was done at his instigation (Fulbert), he has been deprived of all his goods. |
With and without...
The statue of Abelard, in the Louvre, with his hands. Plaster model. (link). | 
Lucien Métivet for the newspaper "Le Rire" (link). Héloïse - What is it you have, friend? You seem to be looking for something... Abelard - No, It's the menu that... the menu that cuts it for me. |
Bas-relief by François Bayeux, illustrating his site "Light Underground." (link).
Right; scene where Abelard appeals to Pope Innocent II, after his condemnation at the Council of Sens in 1141.
Panel from Stams Abbey, near Innsbruck, Austria. Details on this page from the site pierre-abelard.com.
Héloïse and Abélard in Paris, at 54 rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (links: 1 2).
Door of 3 bis rue d'Athènes, Paris 9e (link) | 
Art illustrated maps by Augusto Rodrigues 1977 (link). |
Cup and saucer offering, in medallions, the portraits of Heloise and Abelard. Photos: 1 2 3 4 5.
Diameters 6.3 and 13.7 cm. Porcelain of German origin. Date 1791-1800 (liens : 1 2).
1836, "Héloïse and Abeilard," drama by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu². On the left Fulbert, Heloise and Abelard.
Other prints: 1 2 3 4 (BnF, link Gallica).
E. Weyner and John Boydell (1719-1804) engraving, after John Raphael Smith, London 1777.
Center, Heloise and Abelard, 2006. "Illustration in the form of a playing card for visual support for announcing festivities
and writing contest around Heloise and Abelard, "Et si on parlait d'amour dans le pays du vignoble nantais",
for the Nantes vineyard museum in Le Pallet (link). + gouache alone. At right, print by H. Godin (BnF).
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In 1907, Maximilian Fisher illustrated a collection of the letters of Heloise and Abelard, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in the "Art Nouveau" style of the time
(link to the full work).
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Above left, presentation of a play based on the novel by Ronald Duncan.
Book by Ronald Duncan 1981, illustrated by Wiesław Rosocha (Poland, link). |
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"The body is Abelard and the soul is Heloise" (Giani Esposito's formula), collages by Michel Baumann 2011, 105 x 80 cm (link).
"Eight Love Letters, Heloise To Abelard," Margaret Evangeline 2018, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Yotk (link).
Posters of Abelard (after the statue in the Louvre), Heloise, and sticker (also exists as a poster). Links: 1 2 3.
Abelard and Heloise, sculptures by Evelyn Wilson 1995, 35.6 x 11.4 cm (Gabert Library, Jersey City, USA, link).
In the center, Heloise, origin undetermined (Poland, link).
3 of 5 "Portraits of Heloise Imagined and Dreamed by Abelard," by Kathy Toma 1984 (Paris, link).
"From the Lady with the Unicorn to Heloise," "Heloise (anamorphosis)," "Heloise (in three fragments)."
Katie Hoffman 2014 (Denver, link). Jacek Sroka 2022, 70x100 cm (Poland, link)
In 2020, on a page of his blog, Italian psychologist and psychoanalyst Guido Savio gives his vision of Heloise and Abelard under the title "The Satisfied Passion", accompanied by the three illustrations below by Taz. The words spoken are worth the detour, with these excerpts (translation DeepL).
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As the ultimate and paradigmatic example of what is called "love passion," Stendhal cites two medieval characters, Abelard and Heloise. A love passion that was a precursor of the time insofar as the indisputable mark of this relationship was double.
On the one hand a strong and recognized sexual attraction, on the other hand an unconditional admiration of the woman for the intellectual and, if one wants, moral value of the man. Heloise is the prototype of the woman to listen to because she has a lot to say about passion, especially at a time when passion was considered "a feeling that takes hold of us, it is an impurity of the mind far from the 'sovereign way of love' of which Paul speaks" and as Augustine comments (the reference is the epistle to the Corinthians, 12, 31).
"Everyone ran to see you when you appeared in public and women followed you with their eyes turning their heads if they passed you in the street (...) What woman did not envy my joys and my bed ? [...] Above all, two things in you fascinated: the grace of your poetry and your songs, talents that were really rare in a philosopher like you (...) You were young, handsome, intelligent." And further : "My love for you was so boundless and unlimited that I deprived myself of everything, even myself, to have the only object of my desire (...) I did everything to show you that the only master of my body and soul was you". The connotative characteristics of love passion appear clearly in these lines: physical desire; feeling love as an irresistible (but not overpowering) force and not external to the lover; the recognition that the beloved is worth more than the lover and that he is nobler and more powerful than the lover despite the latter's reproaches, suffering and jealousy. Until the end. "I did everything to obey you, not God, it was only for you that I took the monastic veil". The relationship between Abelard and Heloise is paradigmatic of love passion in that it highlights what might be called the redhibitory fact: love between a man and a woman can only be reciprocal and one can only love those who truly love one ("Amor che nullo amato amar perdona"). In fact, Abelard and Heloise speak in their epistolary of a true love, not of a courtly love, not of an abstraction. They do not speak of what happens outside two bodies and two souls (which are part of the same body). It is neither infatuation nor voluptuousness; they were two beings made for each other but above all two beings who loved for the first time. 
{...] Another salient paradigmatic feature of Eloise's love for Abelard is selflessness. "You have kept silent," Heloise writes in response to Abelard in Letter II, which is a letter of reproach to Abelard for not understanding her reasons for not desiring marriage, "most of the reasons why I preferred love to marriage, freedom to the nuptial bond. Passion in love, Heloise says, is not institutionalizable. Both in the sense of marriage, but especially in the sense that passion cannot require an exchange like a demand. It is the absolute gift. Heloise wants nothing in return, except to be left free to love the one she loves and the one who loves her. A certain anti-marriage ideological pressure was certainly present in the Middle Ages, and Heloise was an ardent spokesperson for it: "It is better to be a lover than a wife" she often repeated in her letters. But what is surprising is the positivity she attributes to sexual pleasure: "We went through all the stages of love," she writes from the convent, "and if in love anything can be invented, we invented it. Our pleasure was all the more intense because we had not known it before and we did not tire of it...". Yet Eloise, in her culture and intelligence, knows how to subordinate sexual pleasure to love itself in the scale of its criterion of merit. In one of her many letters of reproach, she has occasion to write, "Here is what I think and what everyone suspects: it was the senses and not love that bound you to me, I attracted you physically but I was not really loved by you." And Heloise never has the opportunity to regret her adulterous love: passion, as the poets say, can only be judged by one's own inner judgment, and Heloise feels and is truly innocent. [...] In a new rebuke to Abelard, Heloise addresses the Catullian dialectic of the difference between loving and loving well. [...] "When desire has disappeared, all love has disappeared too". In fact, Abelard only loves, while Heloise, in addition to loving him, also wants his good. Passion goes beyond love precisely in the sense of wanting the good of the other both in the possible reciprocity but also in the moment of the impossibility of reciprocity of desire. [...] Love is the subject's experience of identification. We come from love and others define us in relation to love. This seems to be the testamentary heritage of Heloise. |
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Niels Bo Bojesen 1956, Denmark (link).
With a wave of a magic wand, the wine pitcher of the naked lovers of 1956 is transformed, in 2020, into a gift box of three bottles of "Blue Oak" wine, under the benevolence of the same lovers, in their religious clothes (link). + other images 1 2 Of boxed set with a bottle "Astralabe fruit of love" 2015. |
Pierre Abélard by François Marius Granet (Nervi Museum in Genoa, Italy, link)
Abelard at his Desk by Gilbert Stuart Newton 1833 (Royal Academy of Arts, London, England link)
"Heloise and Abelard" painting by Suzanne Lopata 1991, acrylic on isorel, 57.5 x 54.5 cm (link).
Théâtre du Peuplier Noir (Colombes) "La coupe d'amour d'Héloïse et Abélard", 1999, text and directed by Jean-Pierre Muller, with : J.-P. Muller Abelard and Frédérique Muller Héloïse (link). |
| "Abelard - The Emasculation," German film by Franz Seitz, 1977. Two young women go to see the tomb of Abelard and Heloise, fall in love with a man, who prefers a 3rd woman. They emasculate the unfaithful lover and defend their crime by quoting letters from Abelard. (links : 1 2 translation of the plot). |
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"Heloiza i Abelard" by Irena Babel, Warsaw Powszechny Theater, 1962 (link), with Abelard, Heloise, Fulbert, the Duke of Anjou, Margot, Servant, Pious Young Girl, Berta, Garland, Three Burghers, Religious, Foreman, Soldier.
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"Heloise: faith, hope, and love" faith, hope, and love, short film by Fred Raimondo 2010, 30 min, shot in Los Angeles (links : 1 2 with 2:25 clip). |
"In extremis," English drama by Howard Brenton, first performed in 1997 at UC Davis in California, revived in 2006. Romance with tragic and philosophical discussion. With Abelard, Heloise, Bernard of Clairvaux (links : 1 2). |
In 1970, Englishman Ronald Millar created, based on the best-selling novel "Peter Abelard" (1933) by Helen Waddell, the tragedy "Abelard and Heloise." This play was also a success with many revivals. Here is the one from the Titirangi theater in New Zealand in 2015, directed by Liz Watkinson, featured on this page from which the following photos are taken. Starting with a 1952 edition of Helen Wadell's novel. 
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Another adaptation was done in Quebec City by the Théâtre du Bois Coulonge, based on a French translation by Jacques Allard, playing the role of Abelard, set by Paul Bussières. Illustrations from the dedicated page: 
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The opera "Heloise and Abelard" by Ahmed Essyad, created in 2000 by the Opéra du Rhin in Mulhouse, performed at the Théâtre Musical du Châtelet in Paris in 2001, presents two "free thinkers" facing the institutions of the twelfth century, two lovers fighting against a guardian uncle who will finally have the one who is finally a mere rival castrated in the name of morality and institutions. Links : 1 2. |
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"We approach the story of Abelard and Heloise, medieval characters, archetypes of a passionate and exciting love affair, linking the secular world to spirituality, carnal love to divine devotion, questioning the meaning of fidelity, commitment, that of sacrifice, faith, renunciation... We created " Divine Goodness " with humor, intuition, abandonment, heart." Pascale Houbin and Dominique Boivin present their 2005 show at the Centre National de la danse de Pantin. Links: 1 2 3. 
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"Abelard i Heloiza," play by Andrzej Czernik 2015 (Poland, link). 
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Above, Abelard drawn by Vincent Sorel, text by historian Florian Mazel. Appendix page from the comic book "Knights, Monks and Peasants - From Cluny to the First Crusade," Volume 6 of "The Comic History of France," 2019 (cover, link). Opposite, "Abelardo ed Eloisa", watercolor by Mario Voltaggio 2019, 24 x 33 cm (link). Below, left, "Eloisa e Abelardo," lithograph by Tono Zancanaro 1984, 50 x 70 cm (link). Right, "Abelardo y Eloisa," painting by Roberto Gutiérrez Currás 2020, 42 x 52 cm (link). |
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Two "Abelard and Heloise" by anonymous authors posted on Pinterest by Galen Weeks (links: 1 2). And also a collage (link).
Below, again posted by Galen Weeks, "Heloise and Abelard" by Arwen Gernak on DeviantArt (links :1 2).
| Comment on link 2 above by hyneige :
"Wonderfully sad story that of Heloise and Abelard that inspired this drawing".
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Helen King Boyer 1952, 21.4 x13;7 cm (link)
"Abelard i Heloiza", Jerzy Skarżyński 1987, 90 x 51 cm (Poland, link).
"Abelard and Heloise," Maja Berezowska (Poland 1898-1978), before (26 x 21 cm, link) and after (1956, link).
Paolo Perrotti and Giovanni Merloni (link). |
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Ben Nicholson 1950, "Abelard and Heloise"
(National Gallery of Canada, link)
(Flickr link) Folha de S. Paulo, Caderno Ilustrada, "Eloisa e Abelardo" (Flickr Ricardo Cammarota 2014 link) |
Loss of balls seen by Daniela Hurezanu 2004 (link). | 
Anh Glou 2012 (link) 
2009 (link) |
Raymond Winger, "Abelard and Heloise" (Flickr Joan 2008, Chicago Cultural Centerlink)
Drawing by Dilvo Lotti 1914, reprinted for the play "Eloisa e Abelardo" by Franco Enriquez, performed in 1978 and directed
by Franco Enriquez (link). Painting by Salvatore Martini (1823-1882) 135 x 97 cm, Royal Palace of Naples (link).
German print (link). Samuel Shelley 1784, engraver John Raphael Smith (link **).
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I wish, my love, that your love was less sure of me, so that you were more worried. But the more reasons I have given you for confidence in the past, the more you neglect me now. At every moment of my life, God knows, I have always feared to offend you, and not to offend God. I have sought to please you, rather than him.
If Augustus, emperor of the whole world, saw fit to honor me with a marriage, and conferred upon me the whole earth to possess it forever, it would be dearer and more honorable for me not to be called his empress [imperatrix], but your whore [meretrix]. Even during the celebration of mass, where our prayers should be purer, lustful visions of these pleasures take hold of my unfortunate soul, so much so that my thoughts turn to their wantonness rather than to prayers. i should groan over the sins i have committed, but i can only sigh for what i have lost. |
with Bonnie Wheeler, then from English into French by deepl.com. This passage from the
first long letter of Heloise to Abelard has already been shown before in
chapter 10, in the 1840 book, in a more austere translation (link).
| It is a thousand times easier to renounce the world than love. I hate this deceitful and unfaithful world, I think of it no more, but my wandering heart still seeks you, and it is filled with anguish that I have lost you, despite all the strength of my reason. |
Nantes Museum of Arts (link) (chapter 14, 1847).