Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday 16 June 2023

The autobiography of a fourteenth century Italian priest


Medievalists.net has an interesting article about the autobiography of Opicino de Canastris,1296-1353, which survives in a Vatican MS. This is a text I was unaware of, and although its very spare and staccato style is far less literary than other medieval autobiographies, such as the Confessions of St Augustine or the Book of Margery Kempe, or biographies such as that by Jocelyn of Brakelond of Abbot Samson or by Joinville of St Louis, it still offers fascinating insights into the life, and inner thoughts, of an official in the Papal Curia in Avignon.

The article, which links to a modern edition of Canastris’ book and to the manuscript itself online, can be seen at A Medieval Autobiography


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