Editing Alexander Neckam

{{short description|English magnetician, poet, theologian and Abbot of Cirencester Abbey}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL|suppressfields=alma_mater|occupation={{hlist|magnetician|poet|theologian}}}}

'''Alexander Neckam'''{{efn|Also spelled '''Necham''' or '''Nequam'''.}} (8 September 1157{{snd}}31 March 1217) was an English [[poet]], [[theologian]], and [[writer]]. He was an abbot of [[Cirencester Abbey]] from 1213 until his death.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia
| publisher = Routledge
| isbn = 978-0415969307
| pages = 366–67
|editor= Thomas F. Glick |editor2=Steven John Livesey |editor3=Faith Wallis
| title = Alexander Neckam
| encyclopedia = Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia
| location = New York
| series = Routledge encyclopedias of the Middle Ages
| date = 2005
}}</ref>

==Early life==
Born on 8 September 1157 in [[St Albans]], Alexander shared his birthday with [[Richard I of England|King Richard I]]. For this reason, his mother, [[Hodierna of St Albans]], was hired by the royal household under [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] to serve as a [[wet nurse]] for the future monarch. As a result, Alexander was raised as Richard's foster-brother in their early years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |title=Eleanor of Aquitaine, By the Wrath of God, Queen of England |year=2000 |publisher=[[Random House|Pimlico Books]] |isbn=978-0-7126-7317-4 |page=153}}</ref>

==Works==

===''Speculum speculation''===

The ''Speculum speculationum'' (edited by Rodney M. Thomson, 1988) is Neckam's major surviving contribution to the science of theology. It is unfinished in its current form, but covers a fairly standard range of theological topics derived from [[Peter Lombard]]'s ''Sentences'' and [[Augustine]]. Neckam is not regarded as an especially innovative or profound theologian, although he is notable for his early interest in the ideas of [[St. Anselm of Canterbury]]. His outlook in the ''Speculum'', a work written very late in his life, probably in 1215, and perhaps drawing heavily on his teaching notes from the past decades, combines an interest in the [[Platonism|Platonic]] writings of earlier 12th-century thinkers such as [[Thierry of Chartres]] and [[William of Conches]], with an early appreciation of the [[Transmission of the Classics|newly translated writings]] of [[Aristotle]] and [[Avicenna]]. Neckam was a firm admirer of Aristotle as an authority in natural science as well as in the logical arts, one of the first Latin thinkers since antiquity to credit this aspect of the Stagirite's output.

In the ''Speculum speculationum'' Alexander identifies one of his key purposes as combating the [[Catharism|Cathar heresy]], particularly its belief in [[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]]. He spends a large part of Book 1 on this, and thereafter passes on to focus on his other key purpose, the application of [[dialectic|dialectic logic]] to the study of theology.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0-19-726067-8| others = Rodney M. Thomson (ed.)| title = Alexander Nequam. Speculum speculationum| location = Oxford| series = Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi| date = 1988}}</ref>

===''De utensilibus'' and ''De naturis rerum''===

Besides [[theology]], Neckam was interested in the study of [[grammar]] and [[natural history]], but his name is chiefly associated with nautical science. In his ''De utensilibus'' and ''De naturis rerum'' (both written at about 1190), Neckam has preserved to us the earliest European notices of the magnetized needle as a guide to seamen and the earliest European description of the [[compass]].<ref>{{cite book | last= Lanza | first=Roberto | last2=Meloni | first2=Antonio | title=The earth's magnetism an introduction for geologists | url= https://archive.org/details/earthsmagnetismi00lanz | url-access= registration | year=2006 | publisher=Springer | location=Berlin | page=[https://archive.org/details/earthsmagnetismi00lanz/page/n264 255] | isbn=978-3-540-27979-2}}</ref> Outside [[China]], these seem to be the earliest records.{{efn|The Chinese encyclopaedist [[Shen Kuo]] gave the first clear account of suspended magnetic compasses a hundred years earlier, in 1088 AD, in his book ''Mengxibitan'', or ''[[Dream Pool Essays]]''.}} It was probably in Paris that Neckam heard how a ship, among its other stores, must have a magnetised needle, mounted on a pivot, which would rotate until it pointed north and thus guide sailors in murky weather or on starless nights. Neckam does not seem to think of this as a startling novelty: he merely records what had apparently become the regular practice of many seamen of the Catholic world.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Neckam, Alexander|volume=19|pages=336–337|first=Charles Raymond|last=Beazley|authorlink=Raymond Beazley}} This has an extended footnote listing several sources.</ref>

However, ''De naturis rerum'' itself was written as a preface to Neckam's commentary on the book of [[Ecclesiastes]], itself a part of a wider programme of biblical commentary encompassing the [[Song of Solomon]] and the [[Psalms]], representing the three branches of [[wisdom literature]]. It was not intended as an independent and free-standing encyclopedic work in its own right, and indeed it is mostly filled with fanciful moralising allegories rather than a detailed natural philosophy.

See [[Thomas Wright (antiquarian)|Thomas Wright]]'s edition of Neckam's ''De naturis rerum'' and ''De laudibus divinae sapientiae'' in the [[Rolls Series]] (1863), and of the ''De utensilibus'' in his ''Volume of Vocabularies''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Out of all Neckam's writings on natural history, the ''De naturis rerum'', a sort of manual of the scientific knowledge of the 12th century, is by far the most important: the magnet passage referred to above is in Book 2, Chapter 98 (''De vi attractiva''), p.&nbsp;183 of Wright's edition. The corresponding section in the ''De utensilibus'' is on p.&nbsp;114 of the ''Volume of Vocabularies''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Other works===

Neckam also displays a keen interest in contemporary medical science. In particular he draws many ideas from the philosophical writings of the [[Schola Medica Salernitana|Salernitan]] medical master [[Urso of Calabria]], particularly ''De commixtionibus elementorum'' on humoral theory.

Neckam also wrote ''Corrogationes Promethei'', a scriptural commentary prefaced by a treatise on grammatical criticism; a translation of [[Aesop]] into Latin [[elegiac]]s (six [[fable]]s from this version, as given in a Paris manuscript, are printed in Robert's ''Fables inedites''); commentaries, on portions of Aristotle and [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'', which remain unprinted, and on [[Martianus Minneus Felix Capella|Martianus Capella]], which has recently received an edition, and on other works.<ref name="EB1911"/>

His version of Aesop's fables in [[elegiac verse]],<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10734a.htm CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Alexander of Neckam<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> called ''Novus Aesopus'', is a collection of 42 fables taken from the prose ''Romulus''. He also composed a shorter ''Novus Avianus'', taken from [[Avianus]].<ref>Daniel T. Kline, ''Medieval Literature for Children'' (2003), p. 17.</ref> A supplementary poem to ''De laudibus divinae sapientiae'', called simply the ''Suppletio defectuum'', covers further material on animals and the natural world, as well as cosmology, free will, astrology and the human soul. An edition of this and several of Neckam's minor poems, edited by P. Hochgurtel, was published as a part of the Brepols Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis series in 2008.

It has been speculated (Spargo, ''Virgil the Necromancer'', 1934) that Neckam might also have been unwittingly responsible for starting the late medieval legends about [[Virgil]]'s alleged magical powers. In commenting on Virgil, Neckam used the phrase "Vergilius fecit Culicem" to describe the writing of one of Virgil's earlier poems, ''[[Culex (Poem)|Culex]]'' ("The Gnat"). This may have been misinterpreted by later readers as "Virgil made a gnat" and formed the basis for the legend of Virgil's magic fly which killed all other flies it came across and thus preserved civic hygiene.

==Selected publications==
* {{Cite book| publisher = Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green| others = Thomas Wright (ed.)| title = De naturis rerum libri duo. With the poem of the same author, De laudibus divinæ sapientiæ| location = London| series = Rolls Series| date = 1863| doi =  10.1017/CBO9781139208239 | url = https://archive.org/details/alexandrineckamd00neck| last1 = Neckam| first1 = Alexander| editor1-first = Thomas| editor1-last = Wright| isbn = 9781139208239}}
* {{Cite book| publisher = Brepols| isbn = 978-2-503-05211-3| others = Peter Hochgürtel (ed.)| title = Suppletio defectuum, Carmina minora| location = Turnhout| series = Corpus Christianorum, continuatio mediaevalis| date = 2008| volume = 221| last1 = Neckam| first1 = Alexander}}
* {{Cite book| publisher = Brepols| isbn = 978-2-503-53349-0| others = Christopher J. McDonough (ed.)| title = Sacerdos ad altare| location = Turnhout| series = Corpus Christianorum, continuatio mediaevalis| date = 2010| volume = 227| last1 = Neckam| first1 = Alexander}}

==Further reading==
*[[C. Raymond Beazley]], ''Dawn of Modern Geography'', iii. pp.&nbsp;508–509.
*[[Roger Bacon]]'s reference to Neckam as a grammatical writer (''in multis vera et utitia scripsit: sed ... inter auctores non potest numerari'') may be found in [[Ebenezer Cobham Brewer]]'s (Rolls Series) edition of Bacon's ''Opera inedita'', p.&nbsp;457.<ref name="EB1911"/>
*R. W. Hunt, Margaret Gibson, ''The Schools and the Cloister: The Life and Writings of Alexander Nequam (1157–1217)'' (1984)
*[[Thomas Wright (antiquarian)|Thomas Wright]], ''Biographia Britannica literaria, Anglo-Norman Period'', pp.&nbsp;449–459 (1846) (some points in this are modified in the 1863 edition of ''De naturis rerum'')
*Andrew Dunning, 'Alexander Neckam's manuscripts and the Augustinian canons of Oxford and Cirencester' (unpublished PhD., Toronto, 2016), URI http://hdl.handle.net/1807/72968

==See also==
*[[Alexander le Pargiter]], also called Alexander of St Albans, a contemporary abbot and writer.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Russell |first1=Josiah C. |title=Alexander Neckam in England |journal=The English Historical Review |date=April 1932 |volume=47 |issue=186 |page=264 |jstor=553364 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Russel |first1=Josiah Cox |last2=Hieronimus |first2=John Paul |title=The Shorter Latin Poems of Master Henry of Avranches Relating to England |journal=The Mediaeval Academy of America, Studies and Documents |date=1935 |issue=1 |url=https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.medievalacademy.org/resource/resmgr/maa_books_online/russell_0021_bkmrkdpdf.pdf |access-date=17 March 2020}}</ref>
*[[History of geomagnetism]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://arlima.net/no/695 ARLIMA biography and bibliography]
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10734a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia entry for Alexander of Neckham] (newadvent.org)
* {{librivox author | id=13531}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neckam, Alexander}}
[[Category:Augustinian canons]]
[[Category:1157 births]]
[[Category:1217 deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century English writers]]
[[Category:12th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:13th-century English writers]]
[[Category:13th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:English Christian theologians]]
[[Category:Medieval Latin-language poets]]
[[Category:Magneticians]]
[[Category:People from St Albans]]
[[Category:People educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire]]
[[Category:Canonical Augustinian scholars]]
[[Category:Canonical Augustinian theologians]]
[[Category:Canonical Augustinian abbots and priors]]