Alan of Lille – författare

A product of the cathedral schools that played a foundational role in the so-called Twelfth-Century Renaissance, Alan of Lille was renowned for the vast learning which earned him the title of Doctor Universalis. His writings include many significant contributions to the development of systematic theology, but he was also the most important Latin poet of his time, the great age of Medieval Latin poetry. The works included in this volume aim to give imaginative expression to the main tenets of Alan’s theology, but the forms in which his vision is embodied are strikingly original and informed by a rich awareness of poetic tradition.The “Sermon on the Intelligible Sphere” translates Platonist cosmology into the terms of a visionary psychology. In the Boethian dialogue of the De planctu Naturae the goddess Nature inveighs against sodomy and “unnatural” behavior generally. The Anticlaudianus, viewed as virtually a classic in its own day, is at once a summa of the scholastic achievement of the Twelfth-Century schools and an allegory of spiritual pilgrimage that anticipates the Divine Comedy.

2026 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Spirituality ClassicalTranslated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan of Lille’s Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum provides a measure for the originality of his Mariology.  Fifty years after the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, Alan of Lille died in 1202 or 1203 among the Cistercians at Cîteaux. Celebrated in his own time as doctor universalis, Alan made pioneering contributions in a variety of genres. Best known today for his influential epic poems, the Anticlaudianus and the Complaint of Nature, Alan also composed a theological dictionary, a handbook for preachers, a defense of the catholic faith against the Cathars, and one of the first Marian commentaries on the Song of Songs. Translated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan’s Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum illumines his other writings and provides a measure for the originality of his Mariology.

2026 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Spirituality ClassicalTranslated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan of Lille'sElucidatio in Cantica Canticorumprovides a measure for the originality of his Mariology. Fifty years after the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, Alan of Lille died in 1202 or 1203 among the Cistercians at Citeaux. Celebrated in his own time as doctor universalis, Alan made pioneering contributions in a variety of genres. Best known today for his influential epic poems, theAnticlaudianusand theComplaint of Nature, Alan also composed a theological dictionary, a handbook for preachers, a defense of the catholic faith against the Cathars, and one of the first Marian commentaries on the Song of Songs. Translated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan'sElucidatio in Cantica Canticorumillumines his other writings and provides a measure for the originality of his Mariology.

The art of preaching had become a highly formal science by the late twelfth century. Taught at universities of western Europe, the meticulous construction of sermons satisfied a scholastic desire for order and exactness. Alan of Lille, the Doctor Universalis, was acknowledged by his contemporaries to be an exceptionally learned man. His manual on the Art of Preaching is an explanation of the theory of sermon composition as it was developing in the schools of his day. A handbook for future preachers, it gives moderns an insight into the techniques and the contents of medieval sermons.