Hugh Primas of Orléans was a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

lyric poet of the 12th century, a scholar from

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. He was probably born in the 1090s and may have died about 1160. Along with his younger contemporary known as the

Archpoet The Archpoet ( 1130 – c. 1165), or (in Latin and German), Jeep 2001: 21. is the name given to an anonymous 12th-century author of ten medieval Latin poems, the most famous being his "Confession" found in the manuscript (under CB 191). Along ...

, he marks the opening of a new period in Latin literature.

Biography

The earliest and best-known source for Hugh Primas's life is in a passage added to the text of the ''Chronica'' of

Richard of Poitiers Richard of Poitiers (died c. 1174), also known as Richard of Cluny, was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, and author of a small number of historical works (including a universal chronicle), treatises and poems. Life Little is known about ...

for the year 1142: Hugh is also mentioned in the ''Chronicle'' by Francesco Pippino, and he may be "Primasso", the subject of a story in

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

's ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...

'' (1.7). Other medieval writers say very little about his life: they knew "Primas" for his poems. Yet they rarely quoted them under his name. Modern scholars were therefore able to attribute no work to Hugh Primas until Wilhelm Meyer observed, in 1906, that one poem actually contains the name "Primas". Meyer then realised that the

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

manuscript containing this one poem includes a collection of twenty-two others that are probably by the same author, including another seven containing the internal signature "Primas". The twenty-three poems identified by Meyer, and edited by him in 1907, are now generally accepted as the work of Hugh Primas, though A. G. Rigg has expressed doubts about some attributions.

Bibliography

Fleur Adcock Fleur Adcock (born 10 February 1934) is a New Zealand poet and editor, of English and Northern Irish ancestry, who has lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doc ...

(ed. and tr.), ''Hugh Primas and the Archpoet''. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

, Cambridge Medieval Classics 2, 1994, 152 pp., Editor's page
*Francis Cairns, "The addition to the ''Chronica'' of Richard of Poitiers" in ''Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch'' vol. 19 (1984) pp. 159–161. *Christopher J. McDonough (ed. and tr.), ''The Arundel Lyrics. The Poems of Hugh Primas''. Cambridge and London:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 2010, 288 pp., *F. J. E. Raby, ''A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934. ) vol. 2 pp. 82–83. *A. G. Rigg, "Golias and other pseudonyms" in ''Studi medievali'' 3rd series vol. 18 (1977) pp. 65–109.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Primas, Hugh 12th-century Latin writers 1090s births 1160 deaths Medieval Latin poets Writers from Orléans University of Paris alumni French male poets 12th-century French writers 12th-century French poets