Presents an account of Western European thought from the Patristic age to the mid-14th century. The author aims to keep his reader close to the sense of the texts, which he translates or summarizes in his exposition. He includes key matters which are generally omitted in broad treatments, such as the hexameral tradition (ancient and medieval), the scientific tradition, 12th-century treatises on nature and cosmology, discussions on the eternity of the world, and the thought of Robert Grosseteste. Throughout, Dales stresses the diversity and vigour of medieval thought, qualities which he illustrates from Latin and medieval poetry and literature of various kinds, as well as from philosophical and theological texts.