Robert de Beaufeu (died in or before 1219) (Latinised to de Bello Fago or de Bello Foco, meaning "from a beautiful fireplace") was a secular canon of Salisbury and a minor poet.
Robert de Beaufeu | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | probably English |
| Occupation | secular canon |
| Known for | poet |
Life
editEducated at the University of Oxford, he gained, at an early age, a reputation for learning, and became the friend of Gerald of Wales, Walter Map, and other scholars. He was granted the prebend of Horton, near Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, where he built a hall house, part of which survives in the structure of the present 16th century Horton Court.
Works
editHe is said have written a work entitled Encomium topographiae, after hearing the Topographia Hiberniae (c.1188) of Gerald of Wales read by the author at a festival at Oxford.[1] His authorship of this piece depends on Gerald of Wales's self-serving story reporting the praise that Robert gave to Gerald's Topographia Hiberniae.[2]
A poem in praise of ale, Versus de commendatione cervisiae, in a manuscript in the Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.6.42, bears his name.[3][4] It has been argued as suggesting ("according to stereotypes established by Alcuin, Reginald of Canterbury, and Henry of Avranches") that he was an Englishman.[2]
References
edit- ^ Thorpe, Lewis (1 July 1978). "Gerald of Wales: A public reading in Oxford in 1188 or 1189". Neophilologus. 62 (3): 455–458. doi:10.1007/BF01511649. ISSN 1572-8668.
- ^ a b Rigg, A. G. (2004). "Beaufeu, Robert de (d. in or before 1219)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1850.
- ^ Braunholtz, E. (1927). "Die Streitgedichte Peters von Blois und Roberts von Beaufeu über den Wert des Weines und Bieres". Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (in German). 47: 30–38. doi:10.1515/zrph.1927.47.1.30. ISSN 1865-9063.
- ^ Wilmart, A. (1938). "Une suite au poème de Robert de Beaufeu pour l'éloge de la cervoise". Revue Bénédictine (in French). 50 (1–4): 136–140. doi:10.1484/J.RB.4.02078. ISSN 0035-0893.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Thompson, Edward Maunde (1885). "Beaufeu, Robert de". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 04. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 36.