Enciclopedia Cattolica

BARBOUR, JOHN

Volume II · p. 497 · 1949

English translation · Testo originale italiano

BARBOUR, JOHN. - Poeta scozzese, arcidiacono di Aberdeen, n. ca. il 1316, m. nel 1395. Studiò forse a Oxford e a Parigi.
BARBOUR, JOHN. - Poeta scozzese, arcidiacono di Aberdeen, n. ca. il 1316, m. nel 1395. Studiò forse a Oxford e a Parigi.

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

In 1375 he wrote the patriotic poem *The Brus*, in couplets, on the Scottish war of independence and the deeds of King Robert and Douglas.

Similarities in meter and style to *The Brus*, as well as the inclusion of two Scottish saints, St. Machar and St. Ninian, seem to confirm for B. the attribution of the other poem *The Legend of the Saints*, drawn from the *Legenda Aurea*, which narrates the lives of 50 saints of the Western Church; and of another unknown work that expounds the events of the Gospel and the subsequent life of the Virgin Mary. Also controversial is his authorship of a book *The Legend of Troy*, of which two fragments remain, translated from Guido delle Colonne’s *Historia Destructionis Troiae*.

B. is a simple, natural writer, often detailed, but animated by sincere religious feeling and a spirit of freedom. He merits the distinction of having fixed the dialect of Northern England.

BIBL.: Works: *The Brus*, ed. W. W. Skeat, 5 vols., Oxford 1870–89; C. Horstmann, *Barbours... Legendesammlung nebst den Fragmenten seines Trojanerkrieges*, Heilbronn 1881–82. Studies: J. T. T. Drown, *The Wallace and The Bruce restudied*, Bonn 1900; G. Neilson, *J. B. Poet and Translator*, Cambridge 1900.
Cite this article

“BARBOUR, JOHN.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 497. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/barbour-john.