Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Joseph of Exeter
JOSEPH of Exeter, in Latin Joseph Iscanus (fl. 1190), mediæval Latin poet, was, as he tells us himself, a native of Exeter, being the fellow-townsman and lifelong friend of Baldwin [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury. About 1180 he went to study abroad at Gueldres, and while there became a friend of the learned Guibert, who was abbot of Florennes from 1188 to 1194, and afterwards of Gemblou; with Guibert, Joseph carried on a friendly correspondence, of which a portion has been preserved (Martène, Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum Nova Collectio, i. 936–9). In 1188 Archbishop Baldwin, when passing through France on his way to the Holy Land, induced Joseph to accompany him on the crusade; after the archbishop's death in 1190 Joseph returned home. Nothing further is known of his life, though he appears to have resumed his correspondence with Guibert. The statement that Joseph survived till the reign of Henry III is due to a misapprehension; the king whom he alludes to under this name in a passage of the ‘De Bello Trojano’ is undoubtedly the young King Henry, son of Henry II (Jusserand, p. 97). Pits absurdly makes him archbishop of Bordeaux.
Joseph has been very justly praised as one of the best of mediæval Latin poets. Warton calls him ‘a miracle of the age in classical composition.’ His chief poem, however, was long current under the names of Dares Phrygius and Cornelius Nepos. Leland was the first to recognise its real merit and author. The poems ascribed to Joseph are: 1. ‘De Bello Trojano,’ in six books; this would appear from the reference to the young King Henry to have been written before 1183, in which year the prince died; and since the poem was dedicated to Baldwin when archbishop, it must have been completed after 1184. There seems to be no reason to suppose that Joseph had made use of the ‘Roman de Troie’ of Benoît de Sainte More, which appeared in 1184. Joseph took for the foundation of his poem the works which pass under the names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis. In his style he approaches most nearly to Statius, but he shows acquaintance with Virgil (e.g. lib. i. ll. 179, 290; cf. Jusserand, pp. 68–9). There is a manuscript at Westminster Abbey; others are Digby 157 in Bodleian Library; Magdalen College, Oxford, 50; Bibl. Nationale 15015. The last named is doubtless one of two which Leland says he had seen at Paris; it contains some notes in a thirteenth-century hand, which are probably Joseph's own. The ‘De Bello Trojano’ was first printed at Basle in 1558, 8vo, as ‘Daretis Phrygii … de Bello Trojano … libri sex a Cornelio Nepote in Latinum conversi,’ and again at Basle in 1583 with the ‘Iliad,’ in folio, Antwerp, 1608, 8vo, and Milan, 1669, 12mo, all under the name of Cornelius Nepos. It was published under Joseph's name with notes by Samuel Dresemius, Frankfort, 1620 and 1623, 4to; by J. More, London, 1675; with Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius, ‘in usum serenissimi Delphini,’ Amsterdam, 1702, and London, 1825. None of these editions are a great advance on the first, which Leland described as ‘so corrupt an offspring that its father would scarce know it;’ but Dresemius restored the passages which palpably showed the poem to be mediæval, and which had been omitted by his predecessors. M. Jusserand has edited the first book from the Paris manuscript, together with the notes given there (De Josepho Exoniensi, ad fin.) 2. ‘Antiocheis,’ a poem in which Joseph celebrated the first crusade; Leland says that he long sought for a manuscript without success, but at length discovered a dust-covered fragment at Abingdon, from which one could ‘estimate the remainder as a lion from its claws.’ Warton says that he had been told that there was a copy in the library of the Duke of Chandos at Canons. All trace of it has, however, disappeared, and the only known fragment of the poem is preserved by Camden in his ‘Remaines’ (ed. 1870, pp. 338–9; see also Warton, Hist. Engl. Poetry, i. 226–9). Leland says that in the fragment which he found at Abingdon Joseph celebrated his native town. 3. ‘Panegyricus ad Henricum;’ this is probably simply a passage of the ‘De Bello Trojano’ in praise of Henry II. 4. ‘De Institutione Cyri.’ 5. ‘Nugæ Amatoriæ.’ 6. ‘Epigrammata.’ 7. ‘Diversi generis Carmina.’ The last four have disappeared, if, indeed, they ever existed.
[Leland's Commentt. de Scriptt. Brit. pp. 224, 236–9, ed. 1709; Bale, iii. 60; Pits, p. 275; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 445–6; Warton's Hist. English Poetry, i. 226–9, ed. 1871; Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. Anglo-Norman, pp. 402–6, and Literature and Superstitions of the Middle Ages, i. 198–201; Hist. Litt. de la France, ix. 88; Jusserand, De Josepho Exoniensi Thesis, Paris, 1877.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.170
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 206 | i | 25 | Joseph of Exeter: for Oxford; 50 read Oxford 50; |
| 10 f.e. | for third crusade read first crusade |