Editing Anselm of Laon

{{Short description|French biblical scholar, d. 1117}}
{{distinguish|Anselm of Canterbury}}
{{Infobox philosopher|name=Anselm of Laon|native_name=Anselme de Laon|birth_date={{circa|1050}}|birth_place=[[Laon]]|death_date=15 July 1117|death_place=[[Laon]]|region=[[Western philosophy]]|era=[[Medieval philosophy]]|school_tradition=[[Scholasticism]]}}
'''Anselm of Laon''' ({{langx|la|Anselmus}}; {{abbr|d.|died}} 1117), properly '''Ansel''' (''{{lang|la|Ansellus}}''), was a French [[theology|theologian]] and founder of a school of scholars who helped to pioneer [[biblical hermeneutics]].

{{anchor|Life|History}}

==Biography==
Born of very humble parents at [[Laon]] before the middle of the 11th century, he is said to have studied under [[Anselm of Canterbury|Saint Anselm]] at [[Bec Abbey|Bec]],<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Anselm of Laon|volume=2|page=83}}</ref> though this is almost certainly incorrect. Other potential teachers of Anselm have been identified, including [[Bruno of Cologne]] and [[Manegold of Lautenbach]]. By around 1080, he had moved back to his place of birth and was teaching at the [[cathedral school]] of Laon, with his brother Ralph. Around 1109, he became dean and chancellor of the cathedral, and in 1115 he was one of Laon's two archdeacons.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} His school for theology and [[exegesis]] rapidly became the most well known in Europe.<ref name="EB1911"/> Famously, in 1113, he expelled [[Peter Abelard]] from his school.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

The ''Liber Pancrisi'' ({{circa|lk=no|1120}}) names him, with his brother Ralph, [[Ivo of Chartres]], and [[William of Champeaux]], as one of the four modern masters.

== Works ==
[[Image:Anselm Sentences.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Systematic Sentences attributed to St. Anselm of Laon.]][[File:The Rebdorf Psalter Gloss by Anselm.jpg|thumb|250px|The Rebdorf Psalter: Book of Psalms with Gloss by Anselm of Laon.]]

Anselm's greatest work, an interlinear and marginal [[Gloss (annotation)|gloss]] on the 'Scriptures', the [[Glossa ordinaria]], now attributed to him and his followers,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lindberg |first=David |year=1978 |title=Science in the Middle Ages |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226482324 }}</ref> was one of the great intellectual achievements of the [[Middle Ages]]. It has been frequently reprinted.<ref name="EB1911"/> The significance of the gloss, which was most likely assembled after Anselm's death by his students, such as [[Gilbert de la Porrée]], and based on Anselm's teaching, is that it marked a new way of learning&nbsp;— it represented the birth of efforts to present discrete [[patristic]] and earlier medieval interpretations of individual verses of Scripture in a readily accessible, easily referenced way. This theme was subsequently adopted and extended by the likes of [[Hugh of St. Victor]], [[Peter Lombard]] and later [[Thomas Aquinas]], who gave us 'handbooks' for what we would now call [[theology]].

Other commentaries apparently by Anselm have been ascribed to various writers, principally to Anselm of Canterbury.{{refn|A list of them, with notice of Anselm's life, is contained in the ''[[Histoire littéraire de la France]]'', x. 170-189.}}<ref name="EB1911"/>

The works are collected in [[Jacques Paul Migne|Migne]].<ref>{{citation |last=Migne |first=Jacques Paul |title=Patrologiae Cursus Completus, [[Patrologia Latina]], ''Vol. CLXII'' }}. {{in lang|la}}</ref> Some of his ''Sententiae'' were edited at Milan by G. Lefevre in 1894.<ref>{{citation |last=Hauréau |first=Barthélemy |author-link=Barthélemy Hauréau |title=Journal des savants |date=1895 }}.</ref><ref name="EB1911"/> The commentary on the Psalms attributed to [[Haymo of Halberstadt]] by Migne<ref>''PL'', Vol. CXVI.</ref> has also been identified as possibly being the work of Anselm.

== References ==
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{{Medieval Philosophy}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anselm of Laon}}
[[Category:11th-century births]]
[[Category:1117 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:People from Laon]]
[[Category:12th-century French Catholic theologians]]
[[Category:Scholastic philosophers]]
[[Category:Medieval French theologians]]
[[Category:French male writers]]
[[Category:12th-century French writers]]
[[Category:12th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:12th-century French philosophers]]
[[Category:French writers in Latin]]