Thomas of Ireland ( 1295before 1338), also known as Thomas Hibernicus, was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...

and indexer.Clarke (2004), "Hibernicus, Thomas (c. 1270 – c.1340)", ''ODNB''.

Life

Thomas was a Fellow of the

College of Sorbonne The College of Sorbonne (french: Collège de Sorbonne) was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1253 (confirmed in 1257) by Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), after whom it was named. With the rest of the Paris colleges, ...

and a Master of Arts by 1295, and referred to as a former fellow in the first manuscripts of his ''Manipulus'' in 1306. He is believed to have died before 1338.

Works

''Manipulus florum''

Thomas was the author of three short works on theology and biblical

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

, and the compiler of the ''Manipulus florum'' ('A Handful of Flowers'). The latter, a Latin

florilegium In medieval Latin, a ' (plural ') was a compilation of excerpts or sententia from other writings and is an offshoot of the commonplacing tradition. The word is from the Latin ''flos'' (flower) and '' legere'' (to gather): literally a gathering of ...

, has been described as a "collection of some 6,000 extracts from patristic and a few classical authors". Thomas compiled this collection from books in the library of the Sorbonne, "and at his death he bequeathed his books and sixteen pounds Parisian to the college". The ''Manipulus florum'' survives in over one hundred ninety manuscripts, and was first printed in 1483. It was printed twenty-six times in the 16th century, eleven times in the 17th. As late as the 19th century editions were published in Vienna and Turin. Although Thomas was apparently a member of the

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

, his anthology was highly successful because it was "well suited to the needs of the new mendicant preaching orders ... o... locate quotations ... relevant to any subject they might wish to touch on in their sermons."Rouses, Preachers Indeed, Boyer has demonstrated that very soon after the ''Manipulus'' was completed a French Dominican used it to compose a series of surviving sermons. However, Nighman has argued that, although it was surely used by preachers, Thomas did not actually intend his anthology as a reference tool for sermon composition, as argued by the Rouses, but rather as a learning aid for university students, especially those intending on a clerical career involving pastoral care. Nighman has also demonstrated its reception in several non-sermon texts, including Walter Bower's Scotichronicon. Thomas was also among the earliest pioneers of medieval information technology that included alphabetical subject indices and

cross-reference The term cross-reference (abbreviation: xref) can refer to either: * An instance within a document which refers to related information elsewhere in the same document. In both printed and online dictionaries cross-references are important because ...

s. "In his selection, and in the various indexing techniques he invented or improved on, he revealed true originality and inventiveness." Those finding tools are preserved, and electronically enhanced, in Nighman's online critical edition of the ''Manipulus florum''.

Other works

Thomas was also the author of three other works: # ''De tribus punctis religionis Christiane'' ('On the three main points of the Christian religion'), on the duties of secular clergy; # ''De tribus hierarchiis'' ('On the three hierarchies'), which develops ideas about hierarchy expressed at the end of ''De tribus punctis''; and # ''De tribus sensibus sacre scripture'' ('On the three senses of holy scripture'), on the four senses of

Scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...

. The last two works survive in three and eight manuscripts respectively.A recent study on these three minor works is Declan Lawell, "Thomas of Ireland, the Pseudo-Dionysius and the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy: A Study of the Three ''Opuscula''", chp. 5, p. 74-87, in J. McEvoy & M. Dunne (eds), ''The Irish Contribution to European Scholastic Thought'' (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009). See also James McEvoy, "Flowers from Ancient Gardens: The Lemma 'Amicitia' in the ''Manipulus florum'' of Thomas of Ireland", chp. 4, p. 60-73 in the same volume.

References and further reading

* Hauréau, B., "Thomas d’Irlande." In ''

Histoire littéraire de la France ''Histoire littéraire de la France'' is an enormous history of French literature initiated in 1733 by Dom Rivet and the Benedictines of St. Maur. It was abandoned in 1763 after the publication of volume XII. In 1814, members of the Académie de ...

'' 30. Paris, 1888. pp. 398–408. * * J. Hamesse, M.J. Jiménez, C. Nighman (eds.), ''New perspectives on Thomas of Ireland's Manipulus florum/Nouvelles perspectives sur le Manipulus florum de Thomas d'Irlande'', Papers in Mediaeval Studies 32, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2019. https://pims.ca/publication/isbn-978-0-88844-832-3/

External links

* The Electronic ''Manipulus Florum'' Project. http://www.manipulusflorum.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas of Ireland 13th-century Irish people 14th-century Irish people 13th-century births 14th-century deaths 14th-century books Irish Roman Catholic theologians Roman Catholic writers University of Paris alumni Medieval Irish writers Medieval literature Irish expatriates in France