Alexander of Neckam (sometimes spelled "Necham" or "Nequam") (September 8, 1157 – 1217), was an English scholar and teacher. is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events Births September 8 - King Richard I of England (died 1199) Leopold V of Austria (died 1194) Hojo Masako, wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo (died 1225) Deaths August 21 - King Alfonso VII of Castile (born 1105) Agnes of Babenberg, daughter of Leopold III of Austria Sweyn III of Denmark Yury... April 9 - Peter of Courtenay crowned emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople at Rome, by Pope Honorius III May 20 - First Barons War, royalist victory at Lincoln. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...

Born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, on the same night as King Richard I, Neckam's mother nursed the prince with her own son, who thus became Richard's foster-brother. He was educated at the St Albans Abbey school (now St Albans School), and began to teach as schoolmaster of Dunstable, dependent on St Albans Abbey. He later spent several years at Petit Pons in Paris (c. 1175 - 1182). By 1180 he had become a distinguished lecturer on the arts at the University of Paris. , St Albans is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35. ... For the similarly named county in the West Midlands region, see Herefordshire. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 6 July 1189 to 6 April 1199. ... The Abbey Gateway, now home to the schools History, Economics and Classics departments. ... Dunstable is a town in the county of Bedfordshire, England, with a population of 33,805 (2001 census). ... Abbey gateway St Albans Abbey was an abbey at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, dissolved in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. ... It has been suggested that List of visitor attractions in Paris be merged into this article or section. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: ) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganised as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ...

By 1186 he was back in England, where he again held the place of schoolmaster, first at Dunstable in Bedfordshire and then as Master of St Albans School until about 1195. He is said to have visited Italy with the Bishop of Worcester, but this statement has been doubted; the assertion that he was ever prior of St Nicolas's Priory, Exeter, seems a mistake; on the other hand, he was certainly much at court during some part of his life. Having become an Augustinian canon, he was appointed abbot of the abbey at Cirencester in 1213. He died at Kempsey in Worcestershire, and was buried at Worcester. Dunstable is a town in the county of Bedfordshire. ... Bedfordshire (abbreviated Beds) is a county in England that forms part of the East of England region. ... The Bishop of Worcester is the ordinary in the see of Worcester and has his seat in Worcester Cathedral. ... A number of other places have taken their names from Exeter The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in England, UK. It is located at 50° 43 25 N, 3° 31 39 W. In the 2001 census its population was recorded at 111,066. ... The Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo (died AD 430), are several Roman Catholic monastic orders and congregations of both men and women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of Saint Augustine. ... Abbots coat of arms The word abbot, meaning father, has been used as a Christian clerical title in various, mainly monastic, meanings. ... Cirencester is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles (150 km) west northwest of London. ... Kempsey is a town on the North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. ... Worcestershire (pronounced ; abbreviated Worcs) is a county located in the West Midlands region of central England. ...

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 naturis rerum and De utensilibus (the former of which, at any rate, had become well known at the end of the 12th century, and was probably written about 1180) Neckam has preserved to us the earliest European notices of the magnet as a guide to seamen, the early compass. Outside China, these seem to be the earliest records (the Chinese encylopaedist Shen Kuo gave the first clear account of suspended magnetic compasses a hundred years earlier in 1088 AD with 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 needle placed above a magnet (the De utensilibus assumes a needle mounted on a pivot), which would revolve until its point looked north, and 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. Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... For the topic in theoretical computer science, see Formal grammar Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now often viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines of integrative organismal biology. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... For other uses, see Magnet (disambiguation). ... This article is about the navigational instrument. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Shen Shen Kuo or Shen Kua (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (1031–1095 AD) was a polymath Chinese scientist of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). ... Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031-1095 AD) The Dream Pool Essays (Pinyin: Meng Xi Bi Tan; Wade-Giles: Meng Chi Pi Tan Chinese: 梦溪笔谈) was an extensive book written by the polymath Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031-1095) by 1088 AD, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) of China. ...

See 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. Neckam also wrote Corrogationes Promethei, a scriptural commentary prefaced by a treatise on grammatical criticism; a translation of Aesop into Latin elegiacs (six fables from this version, as given in a Paris manuscript, are printed in Robert's Fables inedites); commentaries, still unprinted, on portions of Aristotle, Martianus Capella and Ovid's Metamorphoses, and other works. Of all these 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 ii. chap. xcviii. (De vi attractiva), p. 183 of Wright's edition. The corresponding section in the De utensilibus is on p. 114 of the Volume of Vocabularies. For other persons named Thomas Wright, see Thomas Wright (disambiguation). ... The Rolls Series, official title The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, is a major collection of Britich and Irish historical materials and primary sources, published in the second half of the nineteenth century. ... Aesop, as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel in 1493. ... Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. ... For a comparison of fable with other kinds of stories, see Myth, legend, fairy tale, and fable. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a writer of the late Latin period, whose career flourished some time during the 5th century, before the year 439. ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... // Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of Ovids Metamorphosis Englished The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms according to Greek and Roman points of view. ...

See also

• List of writers
• Medieval literature
• Monastic order

The following are lists of authors and writers: By name A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T &#8211... Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (encompassing the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. ... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ...

References

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. 457. For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician). ... Dr. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810-1897), was the compiler of Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, a Victorian reference work. ...

See also

• Thomas Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 449-459 (1846) (some points in this are modified in the 1863 edition of De naturis rerum)
• C. Raymond Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, iii. pp. 508-509.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Thomas Wright (April 21, 1810 - December 23, 1877) was an English antiquarian and writer. ... Charles Raymond Beazley (1868-1955) was a British historian. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External link

• Catholic Encyclopedia entry for Alexander of Neckham (newadvent.org)