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De eruditione filiorum nobilium

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On the education of noble children

In the De eruditione filiorum nobilium Vincent provides advice for instructing the royal children, male and female, in sound patterns of intellectual and moral life. Their tutor is to instill in his pupils a love of learning; teach them specific knowledge and skills, i.e., reading, writing and disputation; and motivate them to acquire intellectual discipline and sound moral habits, especially in relations with parents and friends. An extensive portion is devoted to the education of young women, emphasizing moral character and preparation for marital life.

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Source: Vincentii Belvacensis, De morali principis institutione, R.J. Schneider, ed. Turnhout, 1995, XXIII, XXIV.

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List of surviving manuscripts

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Key

 

Siglum - The siglum assigned to the manuscript in the critical edition by Arpad Steiner (1938); I - Additional information on the speculum text as present in the manuscript, or on other texts present in the manuscript, or on material damage; D - Date of the manuscript; P - Country, region or place of production; if available, information on the scribe(s) of the manuscript; O - Medieval and pre-modern owners of the manuscript; L - Hyperlink to digital facsimiles of the manuscript; R - Reference to manuscripts listed in other parts of the inventory, with which this manuscript at the time of its production constituted a set of volumes. Manuscripts that have been collected into a set by a single medieval collector (library) within several decades, are indicated with cf.

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18 surviving manuscripts of the De eruditione filiorum nobilium are known today:

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  • Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, B.VI.2 (Msc. Patr. 154), ff. 35v-95v

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: 15th century.

    • P:

    • O: Carmelite monastery of Bamberg.

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  • Basel, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität, B.VIII.31, ff. 77r-155r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii and two of his theological works, the Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis and the Liber de laudibus sancti Johannis Evangeliste. The ms. was possibly used as a source to the Basel 1481 incunabulum edition by Amerbach.

    • D: Early 14th century.

    • P:

    • O: Dominicans at Basel.

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  • Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, II 943, ff. 45v-128v

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: 14th century.

    • P:

    • O:

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  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library, 325, ff. 1r-100r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: First quarter of 14th century (before 1325).

    • P: Possibly written for John of Stratton, camerarius of Norwich Cathedral.

    • O: John of Stratton, camerarius of Norwich Cathedral; given by him to Norwich Cathedral Priory before 1325; Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (1559-1575); bequeathed to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1574.

    • L: Digital facsimile.

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  • Cambridge, Trinity College, 347 (B.15.11), ff. 93r-144v

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione.

    • D: 1430.

    • P: Written in England, by Cornelius Oesterwick, at Blackfriars Oxford for John Courteys, master and regent of Oxford University.

    • O: John Courteys, master and regent of Oxford University; acquired by Trinity College, Cambridge, before 1702.

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  • Eton College Library, 119, ff. 201v-235r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: 15th century.

    • P:

    • O:

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  • Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ashburnham 947, ff. 105r-144r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: First half of 14th century.

    • P: Italy.

    • O: Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore O.S.B.; an anonymous doctor utriusque iuris; Count Boutourlin; Marchese Giuseppe Pucci of Florence, early nineteenth century; purchased by Guglielmo Libri in 1840; sold to Lord Ashburnham of London in 1847; acquired by the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in 1844.

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  • The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 72 J 53, ff. 33r-85r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: Middle of 15th century.

    • P: England (Oxford?).

    • O: Acquired by Bernard Scheurleer in 1818; purchased from him by the Royal Library.

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  • Madrid, Biblioteca nacional de España, 10254 (olim Plut. II. Lt. N, no 7), ff. 64r-118v

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii. The ms. was formerly joined to another manuscript of 130 folios containing Aegidius Romanus’ De regimine principum, now ms. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, Houghton Library, f.MS Typ. 195H.

    • D: First half of 14th century.

    • P: Southern France or Catalonia, possibly by a German scribe.

    • O: Acquired by Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana (1398-1458) or his son Don Diego Hurtaldo de Mendoza, Duque de Infantado († 1479); obtained by the Duque de Osuña in 1841; purchased by the Spanish Ministry of Education in 1884 and given to the Biblioteca Nacional in 1886.

    • L: Digital facsimile.

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  • Magdeburg, Domgymnasium, 240, ff. 260r-267r

    • D: 15th century.

    • P:

    • O:

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  • München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 469, ff. 1r-173r

    • Siglum: M

    • D: 14th century.

    • P:

    • O:

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  • Oxford, Merton College, 110, ff. 275r-327r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: First half of 15th century.

    • P: England, possibly written by a scribe of German origin.

    • O: Acquired by Merton College after 1450 and before 1697.

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  • Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 7605, ff. 104r-145r

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent's Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis and Liber de laudibus sancti Johannis Evangeliste.

    • D: 13th century.

    • P:

    • O: Colbert.

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  • Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 16390, ff. 55r-134r

    • Siglum: P

    • I: Part of a miscellany volume. The ms. also contains Vincent’s Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: 13th century.

    • P: France.

    • O: Pierre de Limoges, member of the Collège de Sorbonne (2nd half of 13th century); Sorbonne library?

    • L: A digital copy of a monochrome microfilm is available in the Gallica database.

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  • Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 16606, ff. 1r-111v

    • Siglum: R

    • D: 15th century.

    • P:

    • O: Paris, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne.

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  • Uppsala, Carolinabiblioteket, C-53, ff. 20r-70r

    • D: 14th century.

    • P:

    • O:

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  • Uppsala, Carolinabiblioteket, C-616, ff. 25v-71v

    • I: The ms. also contains Vincent’s De morali principis institutione and Epistola consolatoria ad Ludovicum regem de morte filii.

    • D: Second half of 14th century (ca. 1383).

    • P: Northern Germany.

    • O: Dominican priory of Lübeck; sold to the Dominican priory in Stockholm after 1407; property of the Swedish crown by the end of the sixteenth century; given to the University of Uppsala in 1620.

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  • Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Chigi B. IV. 51, ff. 1r-83r

    • D: ca. 1300.

    • P:

    • O:​

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Lost manuscripts

4 further manuscripts are known that are lost today. They belonged to libraries at:

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  • Lincoln, Carmelite Priory;

  • London, Black Friars (before 1339);

  • Oxford, Greyfriars Priory (before 1360);

  • York, Cathedral.

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Editions before 1700

  • Rostock, Fratres Domus Horti Viridis ad Sanctum Michaelem, [1477]
    [Vincentius Bellovacensis], De liberali ingenuorum institutione pariter ac educatione.
    1a-34a: De morali principis institutione
    34a-104b: De eruditione filiorum nobilium
    104b-147b: Epistola consolatoria de morte amici
    Digital facsimile of a copy kept by the Staatsbibliothek Preußisscher Kulturbesitz at Berlin: 4° Inc 1990.5

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Modern editions and translations

 

Latin text

  • Steiner, A., Vincent of Beauvais, De eruditione filiorum nobilium, Cambridge (Mass.) 1938, reprint New York 1970 (The Mediaeval Academy of America, Publication 32).

  • Vicente de Beauvais. Tratado sobre la formación de los hijos de los nobles (1246). De eruditione filiorum nobilium. Introducción, estudio preliminar, traducción y notas de I. Adeva y J. Vergara. Madrid 2011 (UNED, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 699 / Collectio scriptorum mediaevalium et renascentium), 918 pp.
    [Latin text with Spanish translation]

  • digital edition of the prologue is available in the Bases Textuelles of the former Atelier Vincent de Beauvais at Nancy (Prologues du Speculum Maius).

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Translations

  • Schlosser, F., Vincent von Beauvais. Hand- und Lehrbuch für Königliche Prinzen und ihre Lehrer, 2 vols., Frankfurt/Main 1819.
    [German translation]
    Digital facsimile of vol. 1 and vol. 2.

  • Millauer, A., Vincent von Beauvais über die Erziehung, aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt und mit biographischen Anhang versehen von —, Ellwangen 1887.
    [German translation]

  • Craig, W.E., Vincent of Beauvais, "On the Education of Noble Children",'Translated from Medieval Latin with Notes and an Historical Introduction. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1949.
    [English translation]

  • Bourne, J. E., The educational thought of Vincent of Beauvais, Diss., Harvard 1960.
    [English translation]

  • Vicente de Beauvais. Tratado sobre la formación de los hijos de los nobles (1246). De eruditione filiorum nobilium. Introducción, estudio preliminar, traducción y notas de I. Adeva y J. Vergara. Madrid 2011 (UNED, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 699 / Collectio scriptorum mediaevalium et renascentium), 918 pp.
    [Latin text with Spanish translation]

  • Vincent of Beauvais: The Education of Noble Children Translated by P. Throop. [S.l.] (MedievalMS) 2011, 266 pp.
    [English translation]

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For studies on the De eruditione filiorum nobilium

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