- Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas (also Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino; c. 1225 - 7 March 1274) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest in the Order of Preachers, a philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. He is the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. St.
- Walter Map
Walter Map (fl. 1160-1196, died c. 1208-1210) was a medieval writer. He claims Welsh origin and to be a man of the Welsh Marches ("marchio sum Walensibus"); details in his writings suggest that he came from Herefordshire. He studied at the University of Paris, apparently around 1160 when Gerard la Pucelle was teaching there. He had encountered Thomas Becket before 1162.
- Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarcha) (July 20, 1304 - July 19, 1374) was an Italian scholar, poet, and early Renaissance humanist. Petrarch is often popularly called the "father of humanism". Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent that of Dante and Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for modern Italian, later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca.
- Duns Scotus
Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. 1266 - November 8, 1308) was a theologian, philosopher, and logician. Some argue that during his tenure at Oxford, the systematic examination of what differentiates theology from philosophy and science began in earnest. He was one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages, nicknamed "Doctor Subtilis" for his penetrating manner of thought.
- Archpoet
The Archpoet, or Archipoeta, is a name given to the bibulous and boastful anonymous author of ten poems from medieval Latin literature. The tenth and most famous of these poems is his Goliardic confession, found within the "Carmina Burana" manuscript. He worked in the court of Rainald of Dassel, the bishop elect of Cologne, Germany and Archchancellor to Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor.
- Guillaume de Puylaurens
Guillaume de Puylaurens is a 13th century Latin chronicler, author of a history of Catharism and of the Albigensian Crusade. He was born soon after 1200 at Toulouse, where he perhaps studied at the nascent university and gained the title of "Master". He worked with bishop Foulques around 1228 to 1230. He was curé at Puylaurens (Tarn) from 1237 to 1240 (whence his name) and during this period was close to Foulques' successor as bishop, Raimond du Fauga.
- Ratherius
Ratherius (890-974) was a teacher, writer, and bishop. His political work led to his becoming an exile and a wanderer. He is also known as Rathier or Rather of Verona.
- John Clyn
Brother John Clyn of the Friars Minor, Kilkenny was a 14th century Irish monk and chronicler who lived at the time of the Black Death. When the plague struck Clyn's monastery, it infected and ultimately killed every member. Clyn, the last survivor and infected himself, kept a journal in which he chronicled the deaths of every other person in his world. After burying the last of his brothers, he wrote: "So that notable deeds should not perish with time, …
- Joseph Of Exeter
Joseph of Exeter was a twelfth century Latin poet from Exeter, England. Around 1180, he left to study at Gueldres, where he began his lifelong friendship with Guibert, who later became Abbot of Florennes. Some of their correspondence still survives. His most famous poem is "De bello Troiano" ("On the Trojan War") in six books, most of which was written before 1183, but which was finished after 1184.
- Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 - c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and great writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. "Senator" was his surname, not his rank.
- Peter Of Blois
Peter of Blois or Petrus Blesensis (c. 1135 - c. 1203) was a French poet and diplomat who wrote in Latin. Peter studied law in Bologna and theology in Paris. It was probably during his student years that he composed a number of Latin sequences after the manner of the Goliards, some of which were preserved in the "Carmina Burana" collection.
- Geoffrey Of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth (in Welsh: Gruffudd ap Arthur or Sieffre o Fynwy) (c. 1100 - c. 1155) was a clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur.
- Otto Of Freising
Otto von Freising (Otto Frisingensis was a German bishop and chronicler.
- Columbanus
Saint Columbanus (543 - 21 November 615; Irish: Columban, the Fair Colum) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries on the European continent from around 590 in the Frankish and Italian kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil and Bobbio, and therefore as an exemplar of Irish missionary activity in early medieval Europe, …
- Magnus Felix Ennodius
Magnus Felix Ennodius (474 - July 17, 521), Bishop of Pavia, Latin rhetorician and poet. He was one of four fifth to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters survive in quantity: the others are Sidonius Apollinaris, prefect of Rome in 468 and bishop of Clermont (died 485), Ruricius bishop of Limoges (died 507) and Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne (died 518).
- Fulcher Of Chartres
Fulcher of Chartres (born around 1059 in or near Chartres) was a chronicler of the First Crusade. He wrote in Latin.
- Serlo Of Wilton
Serlo of Wilton was a 12th century English poet, a friend of Walter Map and known to Gerald of Wales. He studied and taught at the University of Paris. He became a Cluniac and then a Cistercian monk, and in 1171 he became abbot of L'Aumône; he died in 1181. His poems are in Latin. He is the subject of an 1899 essay by the French author Marcel Schwob, "La légende de Serlon de Wilton".
- Liutprand Of Cremona
Liutprand (also Liudprand, Luitprand; c. 922 - 972) was a Lombard historian and author, and bishop of Cremona. He was born towards the beginning of the 10th century, to a good family. In 931 he entered service as page to Hugh of Arles, who kept court at Pavia as King of Italy and who married the notorious and powerful Marozia of Rome. He was educated at the court and became a cleric at the Cathedral of Pavia.
- Honorius Augustodunensis
Honorius Augustodunensis (Commonly known as Honorius of Autun; died c. 1151) was a very popular 12th century Christian theologian who wrote prolifically on many subjects. He wrote in a non-scholastic manner, with a lively style, and his works were approachable for the lay community in general. He was, therefore, something of a popularizer of clerical learning. Very little is known of his life.
- Jacques de Vitry
Jacques de Vitry (c. 1180-1240) was a theologian and historian. He was born near Paris and studied at the University of Paris, becoming a regular canon in 1210 at the church of Saint-Nicolas d'Oignies. In 1211-1213 he preached the Albigensian Crusade, touring France and Germany with William, archdeacon of Paris and recruiting many Crusaders. He participated in the siege of Toulouse in 1214. In 1216 he was named Bishop of Acre and was heavily involved in the Fifth Crusade, …
- Bernard Silvestris
Bernard Silvestris, also known as Bernardus Silvestris, was a Medieval Platonist philosopher and poet of the 12th century.
- Richard Fitzralph
Richard FitzRalph (c. 1300 - 16 December, 1360) was an Archbishop of Armagh during the 14th century. He was born into a well-off burgess family of Anglo-Norman/Hiberno-Norman descent in Dundalk, Ireland. He is noted as an ex-fellow and teacher of Balliol College, at the University of Oxford in 1325 (which is the earliest known record of him). By 1331 he was a Regent Master in Theology, …
- Raymond Of Aguilers
Raymond of Aguilers was a chronicler of the First Crusade (1096-1099). He followed the Provençal army of crusaders, guided by count Raymond IV of Toulouse, to Jerusalem. He was educated as a clerk in a monastery of Vézelay and all traces of him are lost after the capture of Jerusalem. As an eyewitness of the events of the First Crusade, he is one of the most important chroniclers of the crusade, …
- Flodoard
Flodoard was a French chronicler. He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had been established by Archbishop Fulcon (822-900). As canon of Reims, and favourite of the archbishops Herivaeus (d. 922) and Seulfus (d. 925), he occupied while still young an important position at the archiepiscopal court, but was twice deprived of his benefices by Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, …
- Bernard Gui
Bernard Gui, also known as Bernardo Gui or Bernardus Guidonis, was an inquisitor of the Dominican Order in the Late Middle Ages during the Medieval Inquisition, Bishop of Lodève, and one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages. He is known for his tenure as Inquisitor of Toulouse against the Albigenses at the behest of Pope Clement V between 1307 and 1323.
- Virgilius Maro Grammaticus
Virgilius Maro Grammaticus (Virgil the Grammarian) is one of the most enigmatic of all medieval writers, author of two pseudo-grammatical texts known as the "Epitomae" and the "Epistolae". It is unknown exactly when or where he was active: in the eleventh and twelfth centuries he was known to Abbo of Fleury and others as Virgil of Toulouse, and subsequent scholars have tried to attribute him to Spain, the Basque Country and Gaul.
- Bernard Of Cluny
Bernard of Cluny (or of Morlaix) was a Benedictine monk of the first half of the twelfth century, poet, satirist, and hymn-writer, author of the famous verses "On Contempt for the World".
- Ruben Of Dairinis
Rubin of Dairinis was an Irish scholar. He was, along with Cú Chuimne of Iona, responsible for the great compendium known as "Collectio canonum Hibernensis" ("Irish collection of Canon law").
- Adam Of Dryburgh
Adam of Dryburgh (c. 1140 - 1212) was a late 12th and early 13th century Anglo-Scottish theologian, writer and Premonstratensian and Carthusian monk. He entered Dryburgh Abbey as a young man, rising to become abbot (1184-1188), before converting to Carthusianism and moving to Witham. His also somethimes known by various other later names, including Adam the Carthusian, Adam Anglicus and Adam Scotus.
- Cú Chuimne
Cú Chuimne was a monk of Iona who died in 747. Cú Chuimne, along with Ruben of Dairinis, was responsible for the great compendium known as "Collectio canonum Hibernensis" ("Irish collection of Canon law"). Little is knownn of Cú Chuimne. He is credited with composing the hymn "Cantemus in omni die." Yet he was well enough known among his contemporaries to inspire the following verses: :"Cú Chuimne in youth :read his way through half the truth.
- Matthew Of Vendôme
Matthew of Vendôme was a French poet of the twelfth century, writing in Latin. He was a pupil of Bernard Silvestris, at Tours, as he himself writes. He is known for his "Ars Versificatoria", a theoretical work on (Latin) versification. According to E. R. Curtius, <blockquote>"... he lays stress upon brevity as characteristic of the modern stylistic ideal, in contrast to the ancients.
- Aethelweard
- Jordan Of Saxony
Blessed Jordan of Saxony ("c." 1190–1237), a German of noble descent, was deacon of the Dominican Order in Paris and was highly-qualified and in an educated manner. On 1222 he became successor of the founder of the order and its first master general, Saint Dominic. During his supervision the young order increased to over 300 convents. By his lectures in university towns he won many—allegedly well over 1000—professors and students for the order, …
- Thomas Of Celano
Thomas of Celano (Italian: "Tommaso da Celano"; c. 1200 - c. 1260-1270) was an Italian friar of the Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor) was a poet and the author of three hagiographies about Saint Francis of Assisi. Thomas was from Celano in Abruzzo. The first of his works on Francis was "Vita prima" ("First Life"), a work on the saint's early life, commissioned by Pope Gregory XI in 1228 at the time Francis's canonization.
- Walter Of Châtillon
Walter of Châtillon was a 12th-century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language. He studied under Stephen of Beauvais and at the University of Paris. It was probably during his student years that he wrote a number of Latin poems in the Goliardic manner that found their way into the "Carmina Burana" collection. During his lifetime, however, he was more esteemed for a long Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great, the "Alexandreis, …
- Albert Of Aix
Albert of Aix-la-Chapelle or Albert of Aachen (floruit circa AD 1100), historian of the First Crusade, was born during the later part of the 11th century, and afterwards became canon and custos of the church of Aachen. Nothing else is known of his life except that he was the author of a "Historia Hierosolymitanae expeditionis", or "Chronicon Hierosolymitanum de bello sacro", a work in Latin in twelve books, written between 1125 and 1150.
- Andreas Capellanus
Andreas Capellanus ("Capellanus" meaning "chaplain") was the twelfth century author of a treatise commonly entitled "De amore" ("On Love"), and often known in English, somewhat misleadingly, as "The Art of Courtly Love", though its realistic, somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. Nothing is known of Andreas Capellanus's life, but he is presumed to have been a courtier of Marie of Troyes, …
- Jacobus de Cessolis
Jacobus de Cessolis (Jacopo da Cessole) was an Italian author of the most famous morality on chess in the Middle Ages. Around 1300, Cessolis, a Dominican monk in Lombardy (Northern Italy) used chess as the basis for a series of sermons on morality. They later became "Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum" ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess').
- Goffredo Malaterra
Goffredo (or Geoffrey) Malaterra was an eleventh century Benedictine monk and chronicler of Norman origin. He moved to the Mezzogiorno as a youth and entered the monastery of Sant'Eufemia and later that of Sant'Agata at Catania, on the isle of Sicily. He wrote a Latin chronicle, one of three major chronicles of the feats of the Normans in the Mediterranean, dealing mostly with the Sicilian expeditions of Roger I the Great Count, …
- Odo Of Deuil
Odo of Deuil was a historian and participant of the Second Crusade (1147-1149). He served as the chaplain of Louis VII on the expedition, and was afterwards Abbot of Saint-Denis. His narrative of the Crusade is entitled "De profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem" (On Louis VII's journey to the East). It was written so that Odo's master, Suger, could compose a history of Louis' life.