All About The Medieval Author

By Mattie Knight


Medieval literature has been extremely influential to the literature the world has today. For those who do not know, literature of this kind came from the continent of Europe and developed sometime in the middle ages which was one thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire. A medieval author was extremely respected during that age as writers were often seen as very intellectual individuals who possessed much knowledge.

During that time, the most popular type of literature that the authors would often work on would be religious works. The reason for this is simply because the church was the biggest entity of influence that the land of Europe. Naturally majority of authors during that time incorporated a lot of religious themes and concepts into their works.

Now if one would read some religious texts, then he would probably find the names of Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abelard, or Anselm of Canterbury. Specifically Saint Thomas Aquinas was known to be the most noteworthy religious writers because not only was he a good writer but he also had a very good understanding of the Bible. He was an extremely intelligent and wise man that had a lot of knowledge when it came to the scriptures.

Of course it was not only the theological works that were popular but also the secular ones as well. Sir John Mandeville was an example of an author who wrote in the secular genre with his book the Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The themes of most of these works focused on fiction and some focused on history too.

Now another genre that was extremely popular among the people would be the allegories that were written by poets. If one knows about the famous William Shakespeare, then he should know about Geoffrey Chaucer as well as Chaucer was the predecessor of the very famous William Shakespeare. He was one of the most famous and influential poets of that time.

Although it was rare for females to be authors, there were a few who were mentioned. Most women during that time concentrated on theological works since that was the most popular kind. There were also a few that excelled in other genres as well.

Now if one would look at some of the most notable authors of that time, he would probably see Julian of Norwich at the top of the list. She was actually the very first woman to have published a book in the whole of England. What made her works pretty interesting was that they were based on visions she had when she was having a terminal illness.

So for those who are interested in medieval literature, take a look at some of these bits of information. It is good to know about the classics of that era because many modern day books were actually inspired by those old classics. Those old classics are timeless and can be seen even in modern works.




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