Professors on Screen: Learned Authority and the History of Knowledge

Abstract

Films about pre-modern scholars rarely show university professors in the simple act of teaching. More often, they follow learned men taking their knowledge outside the classroom and into a wider arena, such as the court, the tribunal, the church, or even the princely household. Such films do not merely illustrate biographies: they show how learned authority was made visible in social situations. Tables 1 and 2 contain the titles and synopses of fifteen films that feature pre-modern professors. The three sections that follow focus on specific examples of academic thought in a social, scientific or legal context. Jean de Coras, in Le Retour de Martin Guerre, shows humanist law confronted with the problem of identity and proof. Pierre Cauchon, in Bresson’s Procès de Jeanne d’Arc, shows university theology and canon law confronted with the problem of revelation and obedience. Galileo, in Losey’s Galileo, shows mathematical natural philosophy confronted with the problem of observation, demonstration, and, finally, censorship. Together, these films suggest that pre-modern professors were not only transmitters of established learning. They were also mediators between specialised knowledge and public truth. Their authority depended on institutions, but it was tested in moments of uncertainty and conflict.