Plantagenêt. He was a member of the household of Thomas Becket when Becket became
archbishop of Canterbury. Herbert shared Becket’s exile to France (1164–70) and was
one of the most ardent supporters of Becket’s cause before and after the archbishop’s
death. Herbert was Becket’s instructor in biblical and theological matters and wrote a
Latin vita of the archbishop. Herbert was given a papal commendation to the position of
provost in the cathedral of Troyes, but he seems not to have taken it up. He retired to the
Cistercian abbey of Ourscamp as a lay resident in his old age.
Herbert of Bosham is known today for his literal commentary on the Psalms, a
commentary based on the Latin translation by Jerome known as the Hebraica, so named
because it was a fresh translation from the Hebrew. Bosham was greatly influenced by
Andrew of Saint-Victor, with whom he may have studied and whose works he certainly
knew, especially his emphasis upon the literal-historical sense of the biblical text and the
use of Jewish sources for understanding that sense in the Old Testament writings. Herbert
went beyond Andrew, however, for he was able to read texts in the Hebrew and thus had
access to the written Jewish commentary tradition. He was probably the most
accomplished Christian Hebraist (excluding converts from Judaism) between Jerome and
the Italian humanists, such as Pico della Mirandola. He corrected Jerome’s translation
where he thought it necessary and recorded a number of Jewish exegetical points in his
own commentary.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: ANDREW OF SAINT-VICTOR; BIBLE, CHRISTIAN
INTERPRETATION OF; BIBLE, JEWISH INTERPRETATION OF; BIBLE, LATIN
VERSION OF; PETER LOMBARD]
Loewe, Raphael. “Herbert of Bosham’s Commentary on Jerome’s Hebrew Psalter.” Biblica
34(1953):44–77, 159–92, 275–98.
Smalley, Beryl. The Becket Conflict and the Schools: A Study of Intellectuals in Politics. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1973, pp. 59–86.
——.“A Commentary on the Hebraica by Herbert of Bosham.” Recherches de théologie ancienne
et médiévale 18 (1951): 29–65.
——. The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983, pp. 186–95.
HERENC, BAUDET
(fl. first half of the 15th c.) A native of Chalon-sur-Saône, Herenc composed ca. 1425 a
refutation of Alain Chartier’s Belle dame sans merci. This poem, apparently very popular
(seventeen manuscripts extant), was known under various titles. In a printed version in
the Jardin de plaisance et fleur de réthorique, its title is the Parlement d’Amour. In sixty-
eight octosyllabic octets, Baudet describes a vision of a court of love in which the usual
allegorical figures (Hope, Desire, Memory, Sweet Thoughts) condemn the lady for
having dishonored “the wise and noble gentleman who is more perfect than any other
creature” (f. 152 r°).
In 1432, Baudet composed the Doctrinal de la seconde rhétorique. Like other arts
poétiques of the epoch, it contains a dictionary of spelling (containing some 2,700
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