Pierre de Blois

He received his primary education at the school at the Cathedral of Tours . He studied law with Baldwin Ford and Umberto Crivelli at the University of Bologna . He continued his education (starting from 1155) at the University of Paris , where he specialized as a theologian. In 1166-68 he was a teacher of William II in Palermo . He worked as a clerk and performed diplomatic missions at the courts of the archbishops of Rouen (c. 1172-74), Canterbury (c. 1174-1209, intermittently), York (1201-02), King Henry II (1184-89), Alienora of Aquitaine (1191 -95) and other houses of secular and spiritual aristocracy.

The most extensive part of the heritage of Pierre de Blois is formed by his letters (about 300 in total, dated 1184-1202), composed mainly on duty to secular and church hierarchs. The topics of many letters go, however, beyond the framework of “official duty”, including preaching calling for the Crusades ( 3rd and 4th ), descriptions and thoughts about the modern author of the education system, valuable information about the device and mechanism the functioning of church authority of the XII century, etc. In addition to letters, Pierre de Blois is the author of theological treatises, including the De duodecim utilitatibus tribulationis (“12 arguments in favor of [human] suffering”), Compendium in Job (written for the English king brief Commentary on the Book of Job ), De amicitia Christiana / De caritate Dei et p roximi (“double” treatise on Christian friendship and love for one’s neighbor), Contra perfidiam Judaeorum (“Against the treachery of the Jews”, 1190s).

53 poems in Latin are attributed to Pierre de Blois. Some of them (in the "Vagant" style) were probably composed during the years of training in Paris and later entered the famous anthology of Carmina Burana (Nos. 29, 30, 31, 33, 63, 67, 72, 83, 84, 108) . Six poems by Pierre de Blois formed the basis of conducts (the most famous is “Olim sudor Herculis”), and about a dozen poems preserved with musical notation are attributed to him ^[1] . The authorship of the lyric and satirical poems by Pierre de Blois was called into question in the 1990s. on the grounds that during that period his full namesake lived and worked in France ^[2] .

The collected works of Pierre de Blois were published in the Latin Patrology by J. P. Minh (v. 207) and in the Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae series edited by J. A. Giles (see bibliographic description below). The epistolary was repeatedly reprinted (in parts) until the end of the 20th century.

• You cannot rise from the darkness of ignorance to the light of science, as long as you do not cross the works of ancient authors with lively love.
• Let the dogs bark, let the pigs grunt! From this I will not become a smaller supporter of the ancients. From them all my thoughts, the dawn of every day will find me behind their study ^[3] .

• Petri Blesensis Bathoniensis archidiaconi opera omnia <...>, ed. IA Giles. Oxford, 1846-47:

• Volume I: Epistolae (1847)
• Volume II: Epistolae & c. (1847)
• Volume III: Opuscula (1846)
• Volume IV: Sermones & c. (1847; some poems are also included in the 4th volume)

• Braunholtz E. Die Streitgedichte Peters von Blois und Roberts von Beaufeu über den Wert des Weines und des Bieres // Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 47 (1927), SS. 30-38.
• Southern R. Peter of Blois: a twelfth-century humanist? // Medieval humanism and other studies. Oxford, 1970), pp. 104-132.
• Dronke P. Peter of Blois and poetry at the court of Henry II // Medieval Studies 38 (1976), pp. 185-235; 2nd ed. Dronke's article was published in his collection The medieval poet and his world (Rome, 1984, pp. 281–339).
• Köhn R. Petrus von Blois // Lexikon des Mittelalters. Bd. 6. München, 1993, Sp. 1963-1964.
• Southern R. The necessity for two Peter of Blois // Intellectual life in the Middle Ages. Essays presented to Margaret Gibson, ed. L. Smith and B. Ward. London, 1992), pp. 103-118.
• Later letters of Peter of Blois, ed. by E. Revell. Oxford, 1993.
• Wahlgren L. The letter collections of Peter of Blois. Studies in the manuscript tradition. Göteborg, 1993.
• Payne th. Peter of Blois // The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. L., NY, 2001.
• Le Goff J. Intellectuals in the Middle Ages. Translation from French by A. M. Rutkevich. 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg University, 2003. - 160 p.
• Cotts JD The Clerical dilemma: Peter of Blois and literate culture in the twelfth century. Washington, DC 2009.

• De duodecim utilitatibus tribulationis (theological treatise of Pierre de Blois)