Vincent of Beauvais: The Education of Noble Children

Vincent of Beauvais’s thirteenth century educational treatise, De Eruditione Filiorum Nobilium, was written at the request of Margaret of Provence, wife of Louis IX, as an aid in bringing up her children. Organized by topics, this florilegium cites (along with Biblical passages) classical writings, patristic literature, Christian-Latin poets, scholastic and Arabic writings, and miscellaneous Medieval literature. Meant to be the fourth part of a longer work, an 'opus universale' (of which only one other part, 'The Moral Instruction of a Prince' is extant), it is a valuable mirror for the education of children today.