| Robert de Beaufeu | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | probably English |
| Occupation | secular canon |
| Known for | poet |
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.
Life
Educated 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
He 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. 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.
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. It has been argued as suggesting ("according to stereotypes established by Alcuin, Reginald of Canterbury, and Henry of Avranches") that he was an Englishman.
References
- 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.
- ^ 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.