Nigel De Longchamps Speculum Stultorum (Classic Reprint)

Nigel De Longchamps Speculum Stultorum (Classic Reprint)
Author: Nigel de Longchamps
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2018-09-13
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9781390319170

Excerpt from Nigel De Longchamps Speculum Stultorum Our labors were greatly facilitated by the generous assist ance and advice of Professor André Boutemy, Professor Bruce Dickins, Professor Wayland Hand, Reverend Professor David Knowles, Professor Alfred Longueil, Professor Roger Mynors, Professor Blake Nevius, Professor John Ross, Professor Otto Skutsch, Dr. F. W. Brittain, Dr. F. J. E. Raby, Mr. W. B. Sedg w1ck, and Mr. William Urry. To them as well as to all the keep ers of manuscripts and rare books who have kindly given access to their collections or provided photostats and transcripts, we wish to express our warm gratitude. Finally, I am pleased to acknowledge my personal indebtedness to the United States Educational Commission and to President R. G. Sproul of the University of California for the award of fellowships to aid in the pursuance and completion of these researches. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Nigel of Longchamp, Speculum Stultorum

Nigel of Longchamp, Speculum Stultorum
Author: Jill Mann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 646
Release: 2023-06-15
Genre:
ISBN: 0192857711

An edition and English translation of the Speculum Stultorum (The Mirror for Fools), a long Latin beast epic written near the end of the twelfth century by a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury. This was one of the most popular works of the Middle Ages, a favourite of Chaucer, Gower, and Henryson, and was copied for over three centuries, with a circulation extending as far as eastern Europe. It is not only a milestone in the history of medieval beast epic, but a rich source of information about contemporary life and events at Canterbury. The work is dedicated to William Longchamp, who was Richard I's chancellor, and the significance of this fact is shown. This is a highly entertaining narrative about a donkey who longs to have a longer tail and journeys to Salerno to buy some (imaginary) medicines which will provide it. When his medicines are destroyed in an accident, he decides to become learned instead, and goes off to study at the university of Paris for seven years, but can still say only 'heehaw'. Interwoven into this simple narrative are other stories and long rhetorical set-pieces which satirise the distorted values of contemporary religious life or the corruption of the papal curia, and describe the qualities of an ideal bishop (which the donkey hopes to become).