VINCENT OF BEAUVAIS

French Dominican encyclopedist and theoretician, called Bellovacensis; b. Beauvais, Oise, between 1190 and 1200; d. Beauvais, probably 1264. While a student at the University of Paris, he entered the dominicans at Saint-Jacques, Paris, c. 1220. During his assignment to the priory in Beauvais (established 1228), he became intimately acquainted with the nearby Cistercian Abbey of Royaumont which was founded by louis ix in 1228 and with its first abbot, Ralph. Observing the multiplicity, and the frequent inaccessibility and inaccuracy of copies of works by learned authors, he planned to compile a systematic, encyclopedic Speculum maius that would make readily accessible the wisdom of others. His original vast collection of quotations, classified into naturale and historiale, came to the attention of King Louis c. 1244 through Abbot Ralph (Oursel 253, 257). Desirous of a copy, the king offered necessary financial aid. After verifying, correcting, and completing all the quotations, Vincent sent a volume (Dijon manuscript 568) containing the first half of the second part, Historiale, explaining that the rest still needed to be fully checked and that the prologue to the Historiale summarized the entire first part. Vincent was anxious that learned and sympathetic men, such as the bishops of Cambrai (Guidardus of Laon, d. 1247) and Paris (william of auvergne, d. 1248) be the critics. In its final form the Speculum historiale was a history of mankind from creation to 1254. The finished Naturale was a gigantic encyclopedia of nature, the six days of creation, of elements and properties, and of the first man, his Fall and Redemption through the Sacraments and virtues. Extensive remaining material inaugurated a third part, Speculum doctrinale, summarizing all learned arts: liberal, mechanical, and practical (moral philosophy and medicine).

The Speculum maius, Vincent's major work, claiming no originality for itself, was the most extensive encyclopedic venture until modern times; it required considerable financial and secretarial assistance as well as patience. A spurious Speculum morale, drawn mainly from thomas aquinas, was added between 1310 and 1325. The Historiale, being most popular, often circulated separately, and it was translated into French (c. 1328), Catalan, and Dutch verse in the fourteenth century (Ullman 323). The Speculum maius was printed seven times: Strassburg (1473–76); Basel (1481, Naturale and Morale ); Nuremberg (1473–86); Venice (1484, 1494, 1591); Douai (4 v. 1624). quÉtif, Échard, and B. L. Ullman have demonstrated fully that none of these editions is reliable, all being contaminated by numerous editorial interpolations, rearrangements, and falsifications.

Having acquired the admiration of Louis IX and the Cistercians, Vincent was given the office of lector at the abbey of Royaumont (c. 1250), appointed lector at the royal court (lector regis ), and became a lifelong friend of the king, although never tutor to the royal children. Upon the death of the dauphin, Louis, on Jan. 13, 1260, Vincent wrote a moving letter, Epistola consolatoria super morte filii. At the request of Queen Marguerite, Vincent, still lector at the abbey, laid aside an opus quoddam universale requested by the king to write a treatise for the tutors of Prince Philip on the manner of educating princes, De eruditione filiorum nobilium (1260–61). Through the Dominican master general, humbert of romans, both Louis IX and King Theobald of Navarre exerted pressure on Vincent to complete his opus universale concerning royal governance. Pleading overwork, although no longer lector in the abbey, he sent the first part (primus libellus ), entitled De morali principis institutione before Pentecost of 1263. Need for a second part eventually produced De eruditione principum by William Peraldus, which was long ascribed to Thomas Aquinas (Berges 308–313). Other works sometimes ascribed to him are of less significance and insufficiently established as authentic.

The probability that Vincent died in 1264 rests on the explicit statement of Luis of Valladolid (d. 1436), a historian familiar with the archives of Saint-Jacques, and on an enigmatic epitaph, reasonably interpreted by Quétif and Échard.

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum 5 v. (Paris 1719–23) 1.1:212–240. u. chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen-âge. Bibliographie, 2 v. (2d ed. Paris 1905–07) 2: 4683–4684. l. thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 v. (New York 1923–58) 2:457–476. c. oursel, "Un Exemplaire du Speculum Majus de Vincent de Beauvais provenant de la bibliothèque de saint Louis,"

Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartres 85 (1924): 251–262. l. lieser, Vinzenz von Beauvais als Kompilator und Philosoph (Leipzig 1928). b. l. ullman, "A Project for a New Edition of Vincent of Beauvais," Speculum 8 (1933): 312–326. vincent of beauvais, De eruditione filiorum nobilium, ed. a. steiner (Cambridge, Mass. 1938). w. berges, Die Fürstenspiegel des hohen und späten Mittelaliers (Leipzig 1938; repr. 1952). h. peltier, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 15.2:3026–3333. f. stegmÜller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi, 7 v. (Madrid 1949–61) 5:8304-8306.

[j. a. weisheipl]