John of Howden OFM (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1268/9–1275), also known as John of Hoveden, was a 13th-century English

Franciscan friar The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest contem ...

from the north of England, and for a time was chaplain to Queen

Eleanor of Provence Eleanor of Provence ( 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a Provence, Provençal noblewoman who became List of English royal consorts, Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III of England, Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served ...

, wife of King Henry III of England.

Works

John is known only by the various spiritual writings attributed to him. There are certain texts in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, including ''Philomena'' (''The Nightingale'') (the influence of which may be seen in

Richard Rolle Richard Rolle ( – 30 September 1349) was an English hermit, mystic, and religious writer. He is also known as Richard Rolle of Hampole or de Hampole, since at the end of his life he lived near a Cistercian nunnery in Hampole, now in S ...

's ''Incendium amoris'' and ''Melos amoris''); ''Canticum amoris'' (''Song of Love''); ''Cythara'' (''Cittern''); ''Quinquaginta cantica'', ''Quinquaginta salutationes'' (''Fifty Songs; Fifty Salutations''), and several other shorter Latin poems. There are also works written in Anglo-Norman. One, ''Li Rossignos'' (''The Nightingale'') is a re-working of Howden's own Latin ''Philomena'', with borrowings from the anonymous ''Desere iam anima'' (''Abandon Now O Soul''). Internal evidence suggests the poem was written before 1282. For a long time, it has been assumed that he was the John of Howden who was prebendary of the church of Howden in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. Recently, however, this has been questioned. The prebendary has been identified with Master John of London, canon of Auckland and sometime master of Kepier Hospital in Durham and a noted student of astrology, who was appointed first (or senior) prebendary of Howden minster before 1268. He died in 1272. ''Victoria County History of Yorkshire East Riding'', vol. 10, pt 2, 80-81

References

* ''Poems of John of Hoveden'', ed. F. J. E. Raby, Publications of the Surtees Society, no. 154 (1939). * ''Johannis de Hovedene Philomena'', ed. C. Blume (Leipzig, 1930) he Latin text of the ''Philomena'' * Denis Renevey, '1215–1349: texts', in Samuel Fanous and Vincent Gillespie, eds, ''The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Mysticism'', (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). * A. G. Rigg, "Howden, John of (fl. 1268/9–1275)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', (Oxford University Press, 2004). {{authority control 1275 deaths 13th-century English Roman Catholic priests People from Howden Year of birth unknown English Friars Minor English male non-fiction writers English Roman Catholic writers Place of death unknown English religious writers Franciscan writers

Works

References

Further reading