All of Alain’s major works enjoyed wide European
circulation throughout the Middle Ages. Many were in-
novative tools for clergy. His Liber poenitentialis built
on the tradition of pentitential canons to present the fi rst
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 prob-
ably 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 fl owery 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 condemna-
tion of “unnatural” sex in the fi fth 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 Ve-
nus 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 cur-
riculum 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 Anticlaudia-
nus and the De planctu Naturae remain in manuscript.
The fi gures of Nature and Genius in the De planctu,
and Nature in the Anticlaudianus, had great infl uence
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.
See also Bernard Silvestris; Gower, JohnFurther Reading
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 ceuvres, ed. Marie-Thérése d’Alverny. Paris:
Vrin, 1965.
——. Anticlaudianus, or the Good and Perfect Man, trans.
James J. Sheridan. Toronto: Pontifi cal Institute of Mediaeval
Studies, 1973.
——. The Art of Preaching, trans. Gillian R.Evans. Kalamazoo:
Cistercian, 1981.
——. Plaint of Nature, trans. James J. Sheridan. Toronto: Pontifi -
cal Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980.
Evans, Gillian R. Alan of Lille: The Frontiers of Theology in the
Later Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.
Haring, Nikolaus. “Alan of Lille, De Planctu Natural.” Studi
Medievali ser. 3, 19 (1978): 797–879.
Jauss, Hans-Robert. “La transformation de la forme allégorique
entre 1180 et 1240: d’Alain de Lille à Guillaume de Lorris.”
In L’humanisme médiéval dans les litératures romanes du XIIe
au XlVe siècle, colloque de Strasbourg, 1962 , ed. Anthime
Fourrier. Paris: Klincksieck, 1964, pp. 107–46.
Raynaud de Lage, Guy. Alain de Lille, poète du Xlle siècle.
Montreal: Institut d’Études MédiéVales, 1951.
Roussel, Henri, and François Suard, eds. Alain de Lille, Gautier
de Ch tillon, Jakemart Gielée et leur temps: actes du Colloque
de Lille, octobre 1978. Lille, 1980.
Wetherbee, Winthrop P. Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth
Century: The Literary Infl uence of the School of Chartres.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Ziolkowski, Jan. Alan of Lille’s Grammar of Sex: The Meaning
of Grammar to a Twelfth-Century Intellectual. Cambridge:
Medieval Academy of America, 1985.
Jeanne E. KrochalisALBERTANUS OF BRESCIA
(c. 1190–1251 or after)
Albertanus, an author of legal treatises and addresses,
was active in the political and professional life of the
commune of Brescia in the fi rst half of the thirteenth
century. We know quite a lot about him from his appear-
ances in offi cial records (e.g., as a witness to a treaty or
to a legal document) and from what he reveals in his own
writings. A causidicus, or legal intermediary, perhaps
with judicial powers (the precise function of this role
is now unclear), he was regarded highly enough to be
called on to serve his commune politically. On at least
one occasion he was an aide to his fellow-BrescianALAIN DE LILLE