ALEXANDER NECKHAM BIOGRAPHY

ALEXANDER NECKHAM BIOGRAPHY from the Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John Cousin.

NECKHAM, ALEXANDER (1157-1217). —Scholar, born at St. Albans, was foster-brother to Richard Cœur de Lion. He went to Paris in 1180, where he became a distinguished teacher. Returning, to England in 1186 he became an Augustinian Canon, and in 1213 Abbot of Cirencester. He is one of our earliest men of learning, and wrote a scientific work in Latin verse. De Naturis Rerum ( c. 1180-94) in 10 books. Other works are De Laudibus Divinæ Sapientiæ (in Praise of the Divine Wisdom), and De Contemptu Mundi (on Despising the World), and some grammatical treatises.