born in Normandy in the latter half of the twelfth century. He studied at Paris, and in course of time was summoned by the Bishop of Dol to instruct his nepotes in grammar. While acting as their tutor, he appears to have helped their memory by setting his rules in rhyme; and the bishop asked him to write a Summa of grammar in some such fashion. Complying, he composed the Doctrinale in the year 1199, putting his work into leonine or rhyming hexameter, to make it easier to memorize. Rarely has a school-book met with such success. It soon came into use in Paris and elsewhere, and for some three hundred years was the common manual of grammatical teaching throughout western Europe. It was then attacked and apparently driven from the field by the so-called Humanists, who, however, failed to offer anything better in its place, and plagiarized from the work which they professed to execrate.[1]
The etymological portions of the Doctrinale follow the teachings of the Priscianus major; the part devoted to syntax, or constructio, shows traces of the influence of the Priscianus minor. But Alexander's treatment of syntax is more systematic and elaborate than Priscian's; and he did not hesitate to defer to the Vulgate and other Christian Latin writings. Thus he made his work conform to contemporary usage, which its purpose was to set forth. He did the same in the section on Prosody, in which he says that the ancient metricians distinguished a number of feet no longer used, and he will confine himself to six—the dactyl, spondee, trochee, anapaest, iambus, and tribrach.[2] In contradiction to classical usage he condemns elision;[3] and in his chapter on accent he throws over the ancient rules:
"Accentus normas legitur posuisse vetustas;
Non tamen has credo servandas tempore nostro.[4]
Alexander was not really an innovator. He followed
- ↑ See the Einleitung to Reichling's edition of the Doctrinale already referred to; also Thurot, De Alexandra de Villa-Dei doctrinali (Paris, 1850). The chief mediaeval rival of the Doctrinale was the Graecismus of Eberhard of Bethune, written a little later. See Paetow, o.c. p. 38.
- ↑ Doctrinale, line 1561 sqq.
- ↑ Doctrinale, 1603 sqq.
- ↑ Doctrinale, 2330-2331.
