Osbern Bokenam (c. 1393 – c. 1464, also spelt Bokenham) was an English
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
(Austin) friar and poet. He was a follower of
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
.
Life
Osbern Bokenam was born, according to his own account, on 6 October 1393. His name suggests he may have been a native of Bokeham, now Bookham, in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, or of Buckenham in
Norfolk. In a concluding note to his ''Lives of the Saints'', Bokenam is described as a "Suffolke man, frere Austyn of
Stoke Clare" (friar at
Clare Priory in Suffolk).
[Macpherson, Ewan. "Osbern Bokenham." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. Retrieved 28 March 2013]
Bokenam travelled in
Italy on at least two occasions, possibly living for a time in Venice and Rome. In 1445 he was a
pilgrim to
Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Writings
Bokenam wrote a series of 13 legends of holy maidens and women, chiefly in seven and eight-lined
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s. Nine of these have
prologues. Bokenam was a follower of
Chaucer and
Lydgate, and doubtless had in mind Chaucer's ''Legend of Good Women''. His chief, but by no means only source was the ''Legenda Aurea'' of
Jacobus de Voragine,
Archbishop of Genoa
The Archdiocese of Genoa ( la, Archidioecesis Ianuensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Italy. Erected in the 3rd century, it was elevated to an archdiocese on 20 March 1133. The archdiocese of Gen ...
, whom he cites as "Januence". The first of the legends, ''Vita S
n e Margaretae, virginis et martyris'' (Life of St Margaret, Virgin and Martyr), was written for a friend, Thomas Burgh, a
Cambridge monk. Others are dedicated to pious ladies who desired the history of the patron saints after whom they had been named.
The ''Arundel MS. 327'' (in the
British Museum) is a unique copy of Bokenam's work. It was finished, according to the concluding note, in 1447, and presented by the scribe, Thomas Burgh, to an unnamed
convent "that the nuns may remember him and his sister, Dame Betrice Burgh."
The poems were edited in 1835 for the
Roxburghe Club with the title ''Lyvys of Seyntys...'', and by Dr Carl Horstmann as ''Osbern Bokenams Legenden'' (Heilbronn, 1883), in
Eugen Kölbing Eugen Kölbing (1846-1899) was a German philologist, a specialist in the study of Nordic, English, and French language and literature and comparative linguistics and literature.
Academic career
Eugen Kölbing studied Philosophy, Classical Philolo ...
's ''Altengl. Bibliothek'', vol. i. Both editions include a dialogue written in Latin and English, taken from
William Dugdale's ''Monasticon Anglicanum'' (ed. 1846, vol. vi, p. 1600), between a "Secular asking and a Frere answerynge at the grave of Dame Johan of Acres
hoshewith the lyneal descent of the lordis of the honore of Clare fro... MCCXLVIII to... MCCCLVI". Bokenam wrote, as he tells us plainly, in the
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
speech. He explains his lack of decoration on the plea that the finest flowers had been already plucked by Chaucer,
Gower and Lydgate.
In 2004 a manuscript copy of Bokenam's version of ''Legenda Aurea'' was found in the library of
Abbotsford House, Scotland. It had been bought in 1809 by
Sir Walter Scott and then forgotten.
References
*
* Watt, Diane, ''Medieval Women's Writing'' (Polity, 2008)
External links
Catholic Encyclopedia articleBokenam on Augustinian web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bokenam, Osbern
1393 births
15th-century deaths
English biographers
Augustinian friars
English male poets
English male non-fiction writers
Male biographers