Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard (fl.1190)
RICHARD (fl. 1190), called the Premonstratensian, was abbot of an unknown English house of that order (Bale, Scriptt, Illustr. Brit … Cat. p. 232). About 1180 he seems to have left England, visited Cologne, and spent some time in writing at the abbey of Arnsberg (Oudin, Comment. de Scriptt. Eccles. ii. 1521). Here, about 1183, he is said to have written his `Life of St. Ursula,' containing a history of the passion of the eleven thousand virgins (ib. 1522). This is extant in Capgrave's `Nova Legenda Angliæ' (f. 316, ed. 1516), and was published in Cologne by Crombach in two volumes in 1667. Some theological treatises attributed to Richard are still extant, such as the `De Canone Missæ,' called also `De Officiis Missæ,' in Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge, and in the Bodleian Library. The `Carmen de Expositione Missæ' in University College, Oxford, is more probably attributed to Hildebert, called Cenomanensis (cf. Leyser, Hist. Poet. Med. Æv. p. 50, ed. 1721, and elsewhere). Richard is also said to have written `De Computo Ecclesiastico,' but Hardy does not seem correct (Descript. Cat. of MSS. iii. 222, Rolls Ser.) when he follows Tanner (Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 627) in attributing to him a chronicle from 1064 to so late a date as 1284.
[See, in addition to authorities cited in the text, Pits's Illustr. Angl. Script, i. 255-6; Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. Med. Æt. vi. 83; Chevalier's Répertoire des Sources Hist. du Moyen Age, i. 1944; Wright's Biogr.Brit. Lit. ii. 471.]