Walter of Châtillon {Gualterus de Castellione} was one of the most brilliant and influential theologian-poets of twelfth-century Europe. He was born about 1135 in Lille, France. He studied under Stephen at Beauvais, law at the University of Bologna, and probably theology at the University of Paris. Walter then joined the learned court of King Henry II in England. After Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1169, Walter left England for the continent. He died from leprosy in Amiens in northern France about 1200.
In the 1170s, Walter authored the Alexandreis, a medieval Latin epic of the life of Alexander the Great. Drawing considerably on classical Greco-Roman literature, the Alexandreis addressed men’s self-understanding and men’s personal dilemmas. Walter also wrote vibrant and dynamic poems of men’s sexed protest, as well as many other learned compositions.
At the core of the world in the Inferno, Dante perceived Satan-Lucifer-Leviathan, Alexander the Great, and eternal death. … Read the post Dante’s eternal death evokes Alexander’s quest for glory
The Alexandreis shows that Alexander the Great lacked big understanding of his own nature. Just being a man is sufficiently great for anyone. … Read the post Alexander the Great’s lesson for men: do less, value being more
Addressing Alexander the Great and Thalestris, the medieval Latin epic Alexandreis finally provided a humane solution to the problem of men-hating Amazons. … Read the post Alexandreis solved ancient, poetic problem of men-hating Amazons
In sixteenth-century Europe, the Theodore de Bry sold to elite readers expensive books describing foreign lands and peoples. De Bry himself never left Europe. His books were reprints, but he added to his sources many intricate, copper-plate engravings and fold-out maps that he created from secondary sources. He produced the books in the large, prestigious … Continue reading the New / Old World in early elite books