(ca. 1190–ca. 1264). The author of a most spectacular encyclopedia of medieval culture and thought, Vincent de Beauvais joined the Dominican house at Paris ca. 1220, shortly after its founding, and probably moved to the new Dominican house in his native region of Beauvais toward the end of the same decade. Vincent served as lecturer to the monks of the nearby Cistercian abbey of Royaumont, founded by King Louis IX in 1228 and through this association, mediated by Abbot Ralph, won the favor of the king and ultimately the support of the royal purse for his scholarly projects.
The first half of the 13th century was a time of intellectual “consolidation,” when several scholars, Vincent among them, felt the need to integrate the results of the intellectual explosion of the 12th century with the traditional learning of western civilization. Vincent entitled his work Speculum maius, a mirror to the world and its truths, which he compares implicitly with earlier attempts, perhaps the Imago mundi of the 12th century, sometimes attributed to Honorius of Autun. The Speculum originally comprised two parts: the Naturale and the Historiale. The Naturale beings with a treatise on theology (the triune God, archetype and creator of the universe; angels; demons; account of Creation and the exitus of all reality from God), proceeds to a consideration of the Fall, Redemption, and the sacraments of the church, and concludes with a summation of natural philosophy, including a description of the physical universe and the nature of human being. The Historiale gives an account of history from the Creation story of Genesis to 1244 in his earliest edition, and extended to 1254 in his later version. Its popularity is attested by several translations into the vernacular, including French, Catalan, and Dutch verse. After revising and reorganizing his work, Vincent produced a third volume, the Doctrinale, that contained a treatise on knowledge and the arts, including all the fields of science, from grammar and mechanics to politics, law, and medicine: in short, all that is useful to know to live a fruitful and productive life, both public and private. Although Vincent had intended to publish a fourth part, the Morale, he never accomplished his goal. The tract entitled Morale that began to circulate in the 14th century with the first three parts is in fact an anonymous compilation drawn from the Summa theologica of Thomas Aquinas.
In the last years of his life, Vincent composed treaties for the royal court. On the death of the dauphin Louis in January 1260, he wrote his Epistola consolatoria super morte filii. Within the next year or so, he published at the request of Queen Marguerite a tract on the education of princes, De eruditione filiorum nobilium, for the tutors of Prince Philip. Finishing this work, Vincent returned to his treatise concerning royal government requested by Louis IX. Sometime before Pentecost 1263, he presented the first part, De morali principis institutione, to his patron. But as with his Speculum, Vincent never finished this work: the second part was only supplied at a later date by a fellow Dominican, William Peraldus.
Mark Zier
Vincent de Beauvais. De eruditione filiorum nobilium, ed. Arpad Steiner. Cambridge: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1938.
Gabriel, Astrik. The Educational Ideas of Vincent of Beauvais. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962.
Lusignan, Serge, A.Nadeau, and M.Paulmier-Foucart, eds. Vincent de Beauvais: Actes du Colloque de Montréal, 1988. Montreal, 1990.
McCarthy, Joseph M. Humanistic Emphases in the Educational Thought of Vincent of Beauvais. Leiden: Brill, 1976.
Paulmier-Foucart, M., and Serge Lusignan. “Vincent de Beauvais et l’histoire du Speculum majus.” Journal des Savants 1990, pp. 97–124.
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