- Pierre Bersuire
Pierre Bersuire (ca. 1290-1362), also known as Pierre Bercheure and Pierre Berchoire (in
Latin , Petrus Berchorius or Petrus Bercorius), was a French author of theMiddle Ages . A Benedictine, he was a translator, encyclopaedist, and the author of several works, including the "Ovidius Moralizatus" ("Ovide Moralise") (1340), a work ofmythography . The "Gesta Romanorum ", a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, is sometimes attributed to him.Born at
Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin , in the area ofVendée inPoitou , he entered monastic orders in his youth rather than take a university degree. He first became a Franciscan but subsequently joined the Order of St. Benedict atMaillezais Abbey .In 1320 he accompanied his abbot to
Avignon , at the time the seat of thepapacy . He remained in Avignon for 12 years as a protégé of the papal vice-chancellor CardinalPierre des Prés (Peter de Pratis),bishop of Praeneste . He steadily accumulated offices of various monasteries and priories (he was not required to reside at any of them). He metPetrarch at Avignon; both men mention the other in terms of high praise.In the 1340s, Bersuire became a student at the
University of Paris and met Petrarch there again. The Italian poet was on an embassy to the French court. Bersuire translated into French Petrarch's reassembly (in Latin) of Livy's history of Rome. This translation was performed at the command ofJohn II of France in the 1350s. Around 1400,Pero López de Ayala later translated Livy's "Decades" (only books 1, 2 and 4) forHenry III of Castile , working from a French version by Bersuire. [http://www.tinet.org/~apym/on-line/chronology/15.html] It was published at Paris in 1514 in three volumes.Bersuire spent the last dozen years of his life as Prior of St. Eligius (Saint-Éloi) (from 1354), on the
Île de la Cité , close to Notre-Dame.Works
Bersuire was an eloquent preacher and a voluminous homiletical writer. His most important work is the "Repertorium morale", for the use of preachers, a kind of Biblico-moral
dictionary , in which the principal words ofScripture are arranged alphabetically and moral reflections attached thereto.It appeared some time before 1355 and was dedicated to Cardinal de Pratis. The "Repertorium" proved to be one of the most popular books of its kind and was frequently printed first at
Cologne in 1477, and again atNuremberg (1489),Lyon (1517),Paris (1521),Venice (1589),Antwerp (1609), etc.Other works by Bersuire include:
*"Ovidius Moralizatus" ("Ovide Moralisé"), a work of mythography completed in 1340. In some way, Bersuire legitimized the pagan, classical work of
Ovid by transforming it into a literature of "moralization". Bersuire's "moralization" of Ovid in turn influencedGeoffrey Chaucer , who drew on many of its stories for his "Canterbury Tales ". [http://www.chilit.org/Ruxin2.htm]*"Reductorium morale" to the Sacred Scriptures in thirty-four books, embracing all the books of the Bible, printed at
Strasburg in 1474,Basle (1515),Lyon (1536).*"Inductorium morale biblicum"; sixteen books on God and the world.
ources
* [http://www.polybiblio.com/quaritch/C340.html Polybiblio: BERCHORIUS, Petrus. Liber bibliae moralis]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02486c.htm Pierre Bersuire] at theCatholic Encyclopedia
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