Baldric of Dol

Balderich of Bourgueil (lat. also Baldericus Burgulianus or Baldericus Burguliensis, fr Baudri de Bourgueil, rare Balderich of Dol; . * 1046, † January 7, 1130 in Préaux ) was a French abbot, bishop, writers and poets in the 11th and 12. century.

Life

Balderich was established in 1046 in Meung -sur -Loire, a few kilometers downstream of Orléans, was born. He came from a family of medium provenance is known about which little.

After initial studies in Angers at a certain champion Hubert themselves Soon Eric's talent became the Muses, especially for poetry in the classical tradition, out. His other teachers include a Rainald, Maroboduus and Frodo and possibly also the famous Berengar of Tours.

Balderich was a Benedictine monk and was promoted in 1079 to the prior of the monastery of Saint- Pierre in Bourgueil. The Convention was opposite the mouth of Vienne on the right bank of the Loire - between Tours and Saumur.

In 1089, he was elected by the local chapter on the abbot of the monastery.

In the years of his Abbaziates 1089-1107 the richest literary creative period of the abbot falls. In many poems, the abbot friends gave. Balderich u was a also a skin close eyewitness to the founding of the monastery of Fontevraud, which he founded in just a short distance on the opposite bank of the Loire in 1100.

With its founder Robert of Arbrissel, whom he later made ​​to order Petronillas of Chemillé, the first abbess of Fontevraud, a literary prose work, namely his biography, devoted, he may have been personally known.

Balderich but remained also frequently in Tours, Blois, Angers, Saumur and the other centers of the Loire Valley and perverse with various figures of his time, most notably Countess Adele of Blois, which he dedicated to a longer, panegyrisch effusive ode.

Especially famous is his places amorous poem to a nun named Constance, which he adored glowing.

In 1095 he took part in the famous Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II on which King Philip I of France and Bertrada of Montfort for bigamy labeled with the excommunication and called for the first crusade.

Balderich was not free from vanity and pushiness. Bishop Ivo of Chartres even accused him of simony genetic practices because he had tried in 1095, with the support of ill repute Bertrada of Montfort to acquire the see of Orléans. In this election Balderich came away empty.

In 1107 he was elected at the Council of Troyes at the instigation of Pope Paschal II as Metropolitan of Dol in Brittany. Balderich was not satisfied with this choice in the sequence. With the mentality of britokeltisch speaking population in northern Brittany, he did not get along, he called the Bretons " Scorpiones ".

The life story Balderich has survived only in fragments. He often left his episcopal seat on which he did not feel safe, and sought neighboring regions, such as Normandy or England. In addition, three trips to Rome are attested ( 1108, 1116, 1123). In 1120 he was removed by the papal legate of his office. He retired to Saint -Samson- sur- groove.

On January 7, 1130 Balderich died in Préaux.

Work

Balderich of Bourgueil was a gifted poet who left several prose works and numerous lyric poems. With his work, he was after a period of monastic contempt of the world on the verge of rediscovery of ancient authors. For this re-orientation, which is also provided with the slogan " Renaissance of the 12th century," Soon, Eric's work is exemplary.

The diversity of the 256 Carmina, which are mostly about coming in hexameters or elegiac couplets in a single codex, ranging from small poetic forms such as puzzles, titles and epigrams to over 1000 verses comprehensive Oden, including issues of cosmology and mythology. But the majority of the collection is on rhyme letters to real or fictional people. What dominates here is the Ovid reception.

In an attempt to give his works shine and beauty, went Balderich elegant word choice and perfect metric and Reimung about everything. He himself said, " a song would unsightly, when the rhythm is missing, not unlike a distinguished history that loses value when it is recited is not maintained, and their nobility is forfeited if it is not decorated with a sophisticated style ".

In an attempt possible to artfully stylized, he did not always meticulously to his literary works. Sometimes he was prone to tiring width. Nevertheless, his poems are the best things it has to offer the literature of the so-called Loire school in the 11th and 12th centuries. In them you can learn many details of life at that time, which would remain undetected due to the other source material.

Soon Eric's prose work, which he dedicated himself especially in later years, including, " The four books of the History of Jerusalem " ( Historiae Hierosolymitanae libri IV ), a chronicle of the First Crusade because of the portrayal of eyewitnesses, several hagiographies (among about Robert of Arbrissel, the Saints Valerian and Hugo of Rouen, and finally a letter to the monks of Fécamp and further letters to English and Norman monasteries.