John of Wales

John of Wales, OFM (Wales, 13th century – Paris 1285), a.k.a. John Waleys and Johannes Guallensis, was a Franciscan theologian who wrote several well-received Latin works, primarily preaching aids, in Oxford and Paris in the late-thirteenth century.

Life

Born between 1210–1230, almost certainly in Wales, he joined the Franciscan order, and incepted in theology at Oxford University sometime before 1258. After this, he taught there until 1270 when he moved to Paris, where he remained until his death around 1285. He was a moral theologian and a great admirer of the ancient world, incorporating many classical authors into his works.

Works

He wrote several works in Latin, with a great success. The most important ones are the following:

• Breviloquium de philosophia, sive sapientia sanctorum (Short treatise about philosophy, or wisdom of the saints), translated into Catalan in the 15th century.
• Compendiloquium, which is a summary of the history of philosophy.
• Communiloquium or Summa collationum, which is a kind of manual for priests and preachers, and which was also translated into Catalan in the 14th century.
  • Digital edition of the incunabulum edition of Cologne 1472
  • Digital edition of the incunabulum edition of Ulm 1481
  • Digital edition of the incunabulum edition of Strasbourg 1489

External links

• Article about John of Wales in the Catalan Encyclopaedia (in Catalan)
• Article about John of Wales in www.kirchenlexikon.de (in German)
• The Auxiliary Resources page on The Electronic Manipulus florum Project website (www.manipulusflorum.com) provides a digital transcription of the long recension of the Communiloquium from the 1475 Augsburg edition, as well as digital transcriptions of the Compendiloquium and the Breviloquium from the 1655 Rome edition.

Bibliography

• Swanson, Jenny. John of Wales: A Study of the Works and Ideas of a Thirteenth-Century Friar. Cambridge, 1989.