ROBERT DE GRETHAM
(fl. first half of the 13th c.). An English cleric, Robert de Gretham wrote two didactic
works. The Corset is a treatise of 2,400 octosyllabic lines on the sacraments of penance,
marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction, presumably incomplete. The Miroir, or
Évangiles des domnées, is a sermon cycle of some 19,000 lines, each sermon consisting
of a translation of the day’s gospel, a doctrinal explanation, and an exemplum.
Maureen B.M.Boulton
[See also: MORAL TREATISES; PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONAL MATERIALS;
SERMONS IN VERSE]
Robert de Gretham. Miroir ou Les évangiles des domnées, ed. S. Panunzio. Bari: Adriatica, 1974.
Aitken, M.Y.H. Étude sur Le miroir ou Les évangiles des domnées de Robert de Gretham. Paris:
Champion, 1922.
ROBERT DE LUZARCHES
(fl. early 13th c.). The labyrinth set into the nave pavement of Amiens cathedral states
that Robert de Luzarches was the first master mason, succeeded by Thomas de Cormont
and his son Renaud. Robert began his work at Amiens ca. 1220. He was responsible for
the plan and construction of the lower level of the nave and western bays of the chevet.
Robert’s origins and early work are obscure, but details at Amiens are close to such
earlier Picard churches as Laon, Soissons, and Longpont. Although he probably died
before the upper levels at Amiens were begun in the 1230s, his architectural design
formed the basic characteristics of this great Gothic cathedral.
Karen Gould
[See also: AMIENS; CORMONT; LAON; LONGPONT; SOISSONS]
Murray, Stephen. “Looking for Robert de Luzarches: The Early Work at Amiens Cathedral.” Gesta
29 (1990):111–31.
ROBERT OF TORIGNY
(d. 1186). Robert entered the Benedictine abbey of Bec in 1128. He became prior of
Mont-Saint-Michel in 1149, and in 1154 he was elected abbot. Robert was both an able
administrator and enthusiastic bibliophile. Among his collected works is a revision and
continuation of the Gesta Normannorum ducum of Guillaume de Jumièges; Robert added
material that pertained to the reigns of Henry I and Henry II. His principal work,
however, is the continuation of the chronicle of Sigebert de Gembloux for the years 1100
to 1182. Contemporaries praised the work for its literary style, and despite its suspect
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