PHILIPPE DE THAÜN
(fl. late 11th-early 12th c.). Author of the earliest surviving scientific works in French.
Philippe’s Anglo-Norman dialect, which he helped establish as a literary medium,
probably indicates that he was born in England, but he was of continental parentage
originating in Thaon in lower Normandy, 13 miles northwest of Caen. His Cumpoz
(probably 1113) is dedicated to an uncle, Humphrey (Honfroi) of Thaon, chaplain to
Eudo Fitz-Hubert, also known as Eudo Dapifer, steward of Henry I of England, whose
royal court was a center of learned activity. Philippe’s two signed works, the Cumpoz and
the Bestiaire, are in hexasyllabic rhymed, occasionally assonanced, couplets, but the
Bestiaire ends with an octosyllabic lapidary. Several anonymous works have also been
attributed to him.
The Cumpoz (“computus”) is a practical treatise on the calendar that tells how to
predict the dates of Easter and the movable feasts governed by Easter. The problem is
reconciliation of the lunar calendar, which determines the date of Easter by its association
with Passover, with the Julian solar calendar. Along with accurately detailed
computational material, Philippe gives free rein to an allegorical bent in discussions of
the zodiac and the names of the days and the months. He twice uses the year 1113 as an
example for computing, once implying that it is the current year; in any case, the Cumpoz
was dedicated before Eudo’s death in 1120, for he is referred to as though still alive.
The Bestiaire (ca. 1125) is a “Book of Nature” divided into three sections: land
animals and sea creatures, birds, and precious gems; it draws on traditional bestiary
material from ancient myth and biblical sources. An article on a creature or stone
generally opens with a physical description, often incorporating drawings with the text,
followed by discussion of specific properties or habits. Allegorical commentary derived
from the descriptive material then demonstrates the revelation of God in the natural
world. The articles in the first two sections are arranged hierarchically, from the “kings”
of each species (the lion, the eagle), which signify Christ, to the “lower” (land-bound
birds, and fish), which refer to Satan; precious gems, beginning with their “king,” the
diamond, are associated with the powers of good. The Bestiaire is dedicated to Adeliza
(Aaliz de Louvain), whom Henry I married in 1121; she retained the title of queen four
years after Henry’s death in 1135. Scholars tend to date the Bestiaire from early in
Adeliza’s marriage because of the date of the Cumpoz. One manuscript of the Bestiaire
bears a rededication to Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II’s queen, written after 1154.
The anonymous Livre de Sibile (1135–54), dedicated to the empress Matilda, Henry
I’s daughter, is a book of prophecies. Authorship has been ascribed to Philippe primarily
because the text bears striking linguistic and stylistic resemblances to the signed works;
in addition, personal content in the dedication parallels information found in the
rededication of the Bestiaire to Eleanor of Aquitaine. On the basis of less convincing
evidence, two early Anglo-Norman lapidaries, the Alphabetical and the Apocalyptic, an
Anglo-Norman allegorical Desputeisun del cors e de l’arme, and a geographical treatise,
Les Divisiuns del mund, have also been attributed to Philippe.
Rupert T.Pickens
[See also: BESTIARY; COMPUTUS; LAPIDARY]
Philippe de Thaün. Le bestiaire de Philippe de Thaün, ed. Emanuel Walberg. Paris: Plon, 1900.
The Encyclopedia 1381