title: "Alexander Neckam's Manuscripts and the Augustinian Canons of Oxford and Cirencester" author: Andrew Nelson Judd Dunning date: 2016 lang: en-GB department: Centre for Medieval Studies institution: University of Toronto degree: Doctor of Philosophy abstract: | Alexander Neckam (Nequam, Neckham; also known as Alexander of St Albans; 1157–1217) was a teacher and Augustinian canon, leading St Mary's Abbey in Cirencester as abbot from 1213 to 1217, where he took part in royal and papal operations. His extensive writings are typically studied according to genre (grammatical treatises, commentaries, sermons, poetry) and assumed to be directed to two separate audiences, scholastic and monastic. This dissertation shows that Alexander's works form a more coherent whole by considering them within the historical circumstances of his career and the intellectual context of the Augustinian order.
While past scholarship has assumed that Alexander only became a regular canon *c.*1197 at Cirencester, he more likely had already joined the Augustinians in Oxford, where he moved *c.*1190 and was associated with the Priory of St Frideswide (now Christ Church). The order's influence shaped Alexander's largest body of writings: his commentaries on the biblical wisdom books, often thought of as encyclopedias but better understood using his own label of meditationes. These reify the idea of meditation as a natural step in the progression of learning, as promoted by figures such as Hugh of St Victor. Alexander viewed this as a means of caring for souls, promoting female figures as universal models of holy living and seeking closer cooperation between religious orders.
Alexander's fellow canon Walter de Melida directed a campaign to preserve and promulgate these writings. Walter's work is reconstructed here from cartularies, letters, and palaeographical analysis of manuscripts. His efforts were outwardly focused, using books to pursue closer relationships with Cirencester's neighbours.
Sol meldunensis, the miscellany in Cambridge, University Library, Gg.6.42, is here identified as having been created by Geoffrey Brito, who as Alexander's nephew and a canon at Cirencester personally benefited from the preservation of the abbot's memory. He presented the collection to Geoffrey, abbot of Malmesbury from 1246 to 1260, and the two houses exchanged the book with successive additions, continuing a literary relationship dating to the time of Robert of Cricklade and William of Malmesbury, and providing a fitting monument to the abbot. acknowledgements: | This dissertation has benefited from years of ongoing advice from Joseph Goering – who unwittingly triggered the enterprise through a 962-word entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [@goering:2004neckam] – as well as that of Alexander Andrée and Alexandra Gillespie. Countless others at the University of Toronto and abroad have offered support and guidance; I am especially grateful for the criticism of Faith Wallis of McGill University, and of James Ginther, who served as examiners. Research was facilitated by the collection of the library of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. The examination of manuscripts was made possible through a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and I am grateful to the institutions who allowed me access to their books: Cambridge University Library; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Pembroke College, Cambridge; Trinity College, Cambridge; the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; All Souls' College, Oxford; Balliol College, Oxford; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Jesus College, Oxford; Lincoln College, Oxford; Magdalen College, Oxford; Merton College, Oxford; New College, Oxford; St John's College, Oxford; the British Library, London; and the Lambeth Palace Library. I owe particular gratitude to the institutions who allowed photography of their manuscripts and their reproduction here, enabling much more detailed examination than would otherwise have been possible. Above all, this dissertation owes its existence to Susan, a constant source of encouragement and wise counsel. nocite: "@green:1988medieval; @halsey:198812thcentury; @heslop:1988late; @hinton:1968bicester; @munby:1988christ; @blair:1987saint; @blair:1988frideswides; @blair:1988thornbury; @beecham:1887history; @breeze:2010gildas; @brown:1904gloucestershire; @dietz:2001englische; @evans:1976collegiate; @evans:1989cirencesters; @evans:1991cirencester; @evans:1993cirencester; @fuller:1932medieval; @fuller:1892cirencester; @fuller:1884cirencester; @fuller:1892parish; @fuller:1893register; @gullick:1990twelfthcentury; @gullick:1996scribe; @davray:2005medieval; @brundage:1986marriage; @brooke:1994medieval; @dickinson:1951english; @dickinson:1962canonici; @dickinson:1967constructions" ...