Literature, in its essence, is constituted by an ever-growing network of writers, poets, thinkers who all share, translate, and communicate with each other, build upon their sources, and hand on ideas and materials to the next generation. The more connections are at work, the better the literary process turns out, though there are also, of course, some texts characterized by their highly esoteric, hermetically closed concepts, created in extreme isolation. The norm, however, has always been that authors learned from each other, influenced the next generation, debated and argued with each other, which altogether has established a complex system of giving and taking.

Some of the barriers to this fundamental process have been linguistic and cultural differences, spatial distances, and

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Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Petrus Alfonsi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 October 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14790, accessed 14 December 2024.]

14790 Petrus Alfonsi 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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