Van 't Spijker (U. of Cambridge) focuses on the work of Peter Damian, Hugh of Saint-Victor, Richard of Saint-Victor, and William of Saint-Thierry to explore how the theme of self-knowledge manifested in 12th-century religious literature. The treatises he investigates do not consider the distinction between the interior person and other people as important as it is for modern individuals, he says, just as they play into a long tradition of discarding differences of class, gender, history, and other differentiating factors. They were all written by and for men, however, and scholars should keep in mind they they are designed to help construct a specifically male identity. Distributed by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)