Matthew of Vendôme

Matthew of Vendôme (Matheus or Matthaeus Vindocinensis) was a French author of the 12th century, writing in Latin, who had been was a pupil of Bernard Silvestris, at Tours, as he himself writes.

This article is about the 12th-century Latin author. For the 13th-century abbot of Saint-Denis and regent of France, see Matthew of Vendôme (abbot).

Works

De Vendôme is known for his Ars Versificatoria, a theoretical work on (Latin) versification, and as the author of Milo, an elegiac comedy; and also wrote on the art of letter-writing, the Ars dictaminis, as with the poor student's begging letter: "I am in want. I have no books and no clothes. Paris drinks money. What tiger would refuse its kitten?"[1]

His works have been issued in a scholarly edition in three volumes: Mathei Vindocinensis Opera; edidit Franco Munari. 3 vols. Roma: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1977-1988. v.1. Catalogo dei manoscritti—v.2. Piramus et Tisbe, Milo, Epistule, Tobias—v.3. Ars versificatoria.

Appraisals of the Ars Versificatoria

According to E. R. Curtius,

... he lays stress upon brevity as characteristic of the modern stylistic ideal, in contrast to the ancients. [...] He is the first theoretician who consciously wants to be "modern".[2]

Helen Waddell however considered that "Matthew of Vendóme is responsible for perhaps the dullest Art of Poetry that has ever been written";[3] while the work has also been criticised for its lack of organisation.[4]

See also

References
  1. Quoted in Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars (Fontana nd) p. 300
  2. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1953; p. 490
  3. Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars (Fontana nd) p. 144
  4. W. M. Purcell, Ars Poetriae (1996) p. 57

Further reading
  • E. Faral, Les Arts Poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle (Paris 1923)



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