Richard de Fournival

Richard de Fournival or Richart de Fornival (1201- ?1260) was a medieval philosopher and trouvère perhaps best known for the "Bestiaire d'amour" ("The Bestiary of Love"). ["Master Richard's Bestiary of Love and Response," trans. Jeanette Beer (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986; reprinted West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2000).]

Life

Richard de Fournival was born in Amiens on October 10 1201. He was the son of Roger de Fournival (a personal physician to King Philip Augustus) and Élisabeth de la Pierre. He was also half-brother of Arnoul, bishop of Amiens (1236-46). ["L'Oeuvre lyrique de Richard de Fournival", ed. Yvan G. Lepage (Ottawa: Éditions de l'Université d'Ottawa, 1981), p. 9.] Richard was successively canon, deacon, and chancellor of the cathedral chapter of Notre Dame d'Amiens. He was also a licensed surgeon, by the authority of Pope Gregory IX and this privilege was confirmed a second time in 1246 by Pope Innocent IV. [Lepage, p. 10.] He died on March 1, either 1260 or 1259. [Lepage, p. 11.]

Writings

Richard also wrote several other lyrical poems besides the "Bestiaire d'amour": the "Commens d'amours", "Censes d’amore", "Poissance d’amore", "De vetula" and "Amistié de vraie amour". As well he composed his list of books entitled the "Biblionomia", the "Nativitas" (an astrological autobiography), and the "De arte alchemica". [Lepage, pp. 12-14.]

The "Biblionomia"

The "Biblionomia" is a list of 162 volumes (some containing more than one work), divided into grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geometry and arithmetic, music and astronomy, philosophy, and poetry. [The Latin transcription was printed by Léopold Delisle, "Le cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale" (Paris, 1874), vol. 2, pp. 518-535. This was reprinted, along with a facsimile of the manuscript from the Sorbonne, in H. J. De Vleeschauwer, “La Biblionomia de Richard de Fournival”, "Mousaion" (Pretoria: University of South Africa), vol. 62 (1965).] Whether this was an ideal library or a real one is uncertain. But we can say, however, that at least 35 volumes have been identified as items in medieval libraries (e.g., the Sorbonne) and still existing in various modern libraries (e.g., the Bibliothèque nationale de France), [For instance, BnF, ms lat 6602 (Fournival’s no. 31), ms lat 16646 (no. 37), ms lat 16647 (no. 38), and ms lat 16648 (no 40). See Aleksander Birkenmajer, “'La Bibliothèque de Richard de Fournival”, in "Études d’histoire des sciences et de la philosophie au moyen âge", Studia Copernicana 1 (Warsaw, 1970), pp. 117-210, esp. p. 167; also p. 214.] so it cannot be entirely made up. The list (and its latest possible date of 1260) does allow us to date certain medieval writings. For instance, the inclusion of various works by Jordanus de Nemore – his "Liber philotegni" (Fournival no. 43), the "De ratione ponderis" (no. 43), an "Algorismus" (no. 45), his "Arithmetic" (no. 47), the "De numeris datis" (no. 48) and the "De plana spera" (no. 59) – is our only information on when Jordanus must have lived, i.e., before 1260.

His library

Richard’s library (of which the "Biblionomia" must be in part a catalogue) passed to Gérard d'Abbeville, an archdeacon at Amiens, who then left many of them to the recently established Collège de Sorbonne. Some of these volumes then passed to the Royal Library (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) in the 18th century. [Birkenmajer, pp. 167 and 214.]

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