tradition of pentitential canons to present the first known manual for confessors. The Ars
praedicandi, which applied rhetorical methods and techniques to the construction of
forty-eight sample sermons, is the earliest known preaching manual. And the
Distinctiones dictionum theologicarum was an alphabetical index of biblical words
covering scriptural and theological topics, with appropriate quotations.
The earliest of Alain’s literary works is usually considered to be the De planctu
Naturae, written probably before 1171. Like Boethius’s De consolatione Philosophiae, it
is written in the mixture of verse and prose known as Menippean satire. The Goddess
Nature, God’s vicar, appears to the dreaming poet, robed in all creation, with signs of the
zodiac in her crown and a flowery meadow at her feet. Only her heart, where man
resides, is muddied and torn. She explains to him the ways in which he has violated the
natural order, in thoughts and in deeds. The vividness of the condemnation of “unnatural”
sex in the fifth prose and metrum led some medieval commentators to describe the work
as Contra sodomitam, but all vices, including the ultimate corruption, of language and
thought, are described at length and condemned. Good love is the offshoot of Venus and
Hymenaeus, god of marriage. Evil love, Jocus, was begotten when Venus abandoned
Hymenaeus for Anti-Genius. The remedy is provided at the end of the work, when
Hymenaeus appears with a train of virtues. Nature’s vicar, Genius, then appears, order is
restored, and the poet awakens. An epilogue, Vix nodosum valeo, on the superiority of
virgins to matrons, has traditionally been ascribed to Alain but seems more of a parody
than a conclusion to the work.
In the epic Latin poem Anticlaudianus, usually dated ca. 1179–83, Nature is viewed
more philosophically, and the allegory is more clearly and consistently developed.
Nature, assisted by Nous, explains the making of the physical universe, with much
material on astronomy and cosmology drawn from Bernard Silvestris. The Seven Liberal
Arts build her a chariot in which to explore the universe.
The Anticlaudianus and the De planctu survive in over 150 manuscripts each and were
read throughout medieval Europe as part of the advanced rhetoric curriculum in schools
and universities. The Anticlaudianus was translated into German by Henry of Mursbach
and received a detailed commentary by Raoul de Longchamp ca. 1212–25. Several
commentaries on the Anticlaudianus and the De planctu Naturae remain in manuscript.
The figures of Nature and Genius in the De planctu, and Nature in the Anticlaudianus,
had great influence on allegorical dream visions in the later Middle Ages. Guillaume de
Lorris and Jean de Meun used them in the Roman de la Rose. It was to Genius that the
lover made his confession in Gower’s 14th-century Confessio Amantis. Alain is also
frequently cited in later medieval treaties on dictamen and rhetoric as a model of modern
poetic style.
Jeanne E.Krochalis
[See also: BERNARD SILVESTRIS; LIBERAL ARTS; ROSE, ROMAN DE LA]
Alain de Lille. Opera omnia. PL 210.
——. Anticlaudianus: texte critique, avec une introduction et des tables, ed. Robert Bossuat. Paris:
Vrin, 1955.
——. Alain de Lille: textes inédits avec une introduction sur sa vie et ses œuvres, ed. Marie-
Thérèse d’Alverny. Paris: Vrin, 1965.
——. Anticlaudianus, or the Good and Perfect Man, trans. James J.Sheridan. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973.
——. The Art of Preaching, trans. Gillian R.Evans. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1981.
The Encyclopedia 33