cunabulum, and also the many 16th-century printings of
his works attest to a moderate readership over the course
of about a century. Villon then, like most medieval writ-
ers, underwent an eclipse, with one edition at the end
of the 1600s and three in the 1700s. The years from
1832 onward have seen an increasing fl ow of editions,
translations, historical notes, and interpretive essays; and
the stream shows no sign of drying up. Villon continues
to be subject to much critical scrutiny, some of it closer
to creative writing than to explication of the texts, but
much of it responsible and serious. We can now read
Villon’s often diffi cult and allusive verses with a fair
approximation to his own meaning.
See also Charles d’Orléans
Further Reading
Villon, François. Complete Poems, ed. and trans. Barbara N.
Sargent-Baur. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1994.
——. Le lais Villon et les poèmes variés, ed. Jean Rychner and
Albert Henry. 2 vols. Geneva: Droz, 1977.
——. Le Testament Villon, ed. Jean Rychner and Albert Henry.
2 vols. Geneva: Droz, 1974–85.
——. François Villon: Œuvres, trans. André Lanly. 2 vols. Paris:
Champion, 1969.
——. François Villon: ballades en jargon, trans. André Lanly.
Paris: Champion, 1979.
——. The Poems of François Villon, trans. Galway Kinnell. New
York: New American Library, 1965.
Burger, André. Lexique complet de la langue de Villon. 2nd ed.
Geneva: Droz, 1974.
Champion, Pierre. François Villon: sa vie et son temps. 2nd ed.
2 vols. Paris: Champion, 1934.
Fox, John Howard. The Poetry of Villon. London: Nelson, 1962.
LeGentil, Pierre. Villon. Paris: Hatier, 1967.
Peckham, Robert D. François Villon: A Bibliography. New York:
Garland, 1990.
Sargent-Baur, Barbara N. Brothers of Dragons: Job dolens and
François Villon. New York: Garland, 1990.
Siciliano, Italo. François Villon et les thèmes poétiques du moyen
âge. Paris: Nizet, 1934.
Sturm, Rudolf. François Villon, bibliographie et matériaux lit-
téraires (1489–1988). Munich: Saur, 1990.
Vitz, Evelyn Birge. The Crossroad of Intentions: A Study of
Symbolic Expressions in the Poetry of François Villon. The
Hague: Mouton, 1974.
Ziwès, Armand, and Anne de Bercy. Le jargon de maître François
Villon interprété. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Paris: Puget, 1960.
Barbara N. Sargent-Baur
VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS
(ca. 1190–ca. 1264)
The author of a most spectacular encyclopedia of me-
dieval 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 as-
sociation, mediated by Abbot Ralph, won the favor of
the king and ultimately the support of the royal purse
for his scholarly projects.
The fi rst half of the 13th century was a time of intel-
lectual “consolidation,” when several scholars, Vincent
among them, felt the need to integrate the results of the
intellectual explosion of the 12th century with the tradi-
tional 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 Specu-
lum 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 consider-
ation of the Fall, Redemption, and the sacraments of the
church, and concludes with a summation of natural phi-
losophy, 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 transla-
tions 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 fi elds 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 fi rst 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 fi lii. Within the next year or so, he published at the
request of Queen Marguerite a tract on the education of
princes, De eruditione fi liorum 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 fi rst part, De morali principis institutione, to his
patron. But as with his Speculum, Vincent never fi nished
this work: the second part was only supplied at a later
date by a fellow Dominican, William Peraldus.
See also Aquinas, Thomas; Louis IXVINCENT DE BEAUVAIS