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Peter Comestor (Latin : Petrus Comestor, "Peter the Eater"; French : Pierre le Mangeur; died 22 October 1178) was a 12th-century French theological writer and university teacher.
Peter Comestor was born in Troyes. Although the surname Comestor (Latin for "Eater") was popularly attributed to his habit of devouring books and learning, it was more probably simply a family name. [1] [2] It did, however, give Peter a nice pun for his epitaph (supposed to have been composed by him): Petrus eram quem petra tegit, dictusque Comestor nunc comedor ("I whom this stone covers was Peter, called the 'Devourer', now I am devoured").
As a young man, Peter studied at the Troyes Cathedral school, where he might have come into contact with Peter Abelard. [3] Sometime later, he was a student in Paris under, amongst others, Peter Lombard. [4] By 1147, he was back in Troyes, having been appointed dean of Troyes Cathedral. By 1160, Peter had returned to Paris to teach, holding the chair of theology at the university, from which he retired in 1169. He was made chancellor of Notre Dame in Paris around 1164, which put him, among other things, in charge of the cathedral school. He held the post until his death in 1178. [5] Peter's reputation as an academic was such that Pope Alexander III specifically exempted Peter from his ban on charging fees for giving licences to teach. [6]
Peter was buried in the Abbey of Saint Victor. He may have retired and become a canon there, as he was celebrated thus by the canons in their necrology. [7]
Peter's most famous work was his Historia Scholastica : as Beryl Smalley called it, a 'great study of biblical history'. [8] The Historia was completed by 1173, Peter having spent some time writing it at the Abbey of Saint Victor. Peter dedicated it to William, bishop of Sens. The Historia was a core text during the following centuries, even being a source, perhaps, for The Canterbury Tales. [9]
Many of Peter's works are still unpublished. Among his works are:
Layamon or Laghamon – spelled Laȝamon or Laȝamonn in his time, occasionally written Lawman – was an English poet of the late 12th/early 13th century and author of the Brut, a notable work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in English poetry.
The Golden Legend is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was probably compiled around 1259 to 1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.
The Flores Historiarum is the name of two different Latin chronicles by medieval English historians that were created in the 13th century, associated originally with the Abbey of St Albans.
Peter Lombard was an Italian scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of Four Books of Sentences which became the standard textbook of theology, for which he earned the accolade Magister Sententiarum.
The Four Books of Sentences is a compendium of theology written by Peter Lombard around 1150.
Hugh of Saint-Cher, O.P. was a French Dominican friar who became a cardinal and noted biblical commentator.
Baldwin of Forde or Ford was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1185 and 1190. The son of a clergyman, he studied canon law and theology at Bologna and was tutor to Pope Eugene III's nephew before returning to England to serve successive bishops of Exeter. After becoming a Cistercian monk he was named abbot of his monastery at Forde and subsequently elected to the episcopate at Worcester. Before becoming a bishop, he wrote theological works and sermons, some of which have survived.
Rudolf von Ems was a Middle High German narrative poet.
The Diocese of Troyes is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Troyes, France. The diocese now comprises the département of Aube. Erected in the 4th century, the diocese is currently a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Reims. It was re-established in 1802 as a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Paris, when it comprised the départements of Aube and Yonne and its bishop had the titles of Troyes, Auxerre, and Châlons-sur-Marne. In 1822, the See of Châlons was created and the Bishop of Troyes lost that title. When Sens was made an archdiocese, the episcopal title of Auxerre went to it and Troyes lost also the département of Yonne, which became the Archdiocese of Sens. The Diocese of Troyes covers, besides the ancient diocesan limits, 116 parishes of the ancient Diocese of Langres and 20 belonging to the ancient diocese of Sens. On 8 December 2002, the Diocese of Troyes was returned to its ancient metropolitan, the Archbishop of Reims. As of 2022, there was one priest for every 4,320 Catholics.
Peter of Poitiers was a French scholastic theologian, born in Poitiers around 1125-1130. He died in Paris on September 3, 1205.
The medieval popular Bible is a term used especially in literary studies, but also in art history and other disciplines, to encompass the wide variety of presentations of biblical material in medieval culture not directly recorded in the exegetical tradition.
The Bible Historiale was the predominant medieval translation of the Bible into French. It translates from the Latin Vulgate significant portions from the Bible accompanied by selections from the Historia Scholastica by Peter Comestor, a literal-historical commentary that summarizes and interprets episodes from the historical books of the Bible and situates them chronologically with respect to events from pagan history and mythology.
Peter of Vaux de Cernay was a Cistercian monk of Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, in what is now Yvelines, northern France, and a chronicler of the Albigensian Crusade. His Historia Albigensis is one of the primary sources for the events of that crusade.
Stjórn is the name given to a collection of Old Norse translations of Old Testament historical material dating from the 14th century, which together cover Jewish history from Genesis through to II Kings. Despite the collective title, Stjórn is not a homogeneous work. Rather, it consists of three separate works which vary in date and context, labelled Stjórn I, II and III by scholar I.J. Kirby.
The Historia Scholastica is a Biblical paraphrase written in Medieval Latin by Petrus Comestor. Completed around 1173, he wrote it for the cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris. Sometimes called the "Medieval Popular Bible", it draws on the Bible and other sources, including the works of classical scholars and the Fathers of the Church, to present an overview of sacred history.
Guyart des Moulins was a medieval monk. He is famous for being the author of the first Bible translation in French, the Bible Historiale.
Robert of Cricklade was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote several theological works as well as a lost biography of Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury.
Historien der alden E is a Middle High German summary of the Old Testament in verse form. The text was preserved in a single manuscript, written in East Central German dialect, dated to the first half of the 14th century, The Central German dialect of the text shows a certain influence of Upper German forms, which may indicate an author of South German, perhaps Bavarian origin. The work was edited by Gerhard (1927). The manuscript, formerly Königsberg University Library ms. 907, has since been lost.
Petrus is the Latin form of the Greek name Πέτρος (pétros) meaning "rock", and is the common English prefix "petro-" used to describe rock-based substances, like petros-oleum or "rock oil." As the source of Peter, it is a common name for people from antiquity through the medieval era. In the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa it remained a very common given name, though in daily life, many use less formal forms like Peter, Pierre, Piet and Pieter.
The anonymous poem Pascon agan Arluth is the oldest complete literary work in the Cornish language, dating from the 14th century. The modern title means "The Passion of Our Lord", but the poem has also been published as Mount Calvary.
