Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Philip de Thaun
PHILIP de Thaun (fl. 1120), Anglo-Norman writer, probably belonged to a Norman family of Thaun or Than, near Caen, but had come to England, perhaps with his uncle Hunfrei de Thaun,
li chapelein Yhan
E Seneschal lu rei.
The Abbé de la Rue identified Yhan with Hugh Bigod (d. 1107), but this is linguistically impossible, and Mr. Wright is no doubt correct in taking it to mean the Eudo or Odo Dapifer who died on 29 Feb. 1120 (Dugdale, Monast. Angl. iv. 607). Philip wrote: 1. ‘Li Cumpoz’ or ‘Computus,’ less correctly styled by Wright ‘Li Livre des Creatures.’ This is a treatise on the ecclesiastical calendar in six-syllabled verse, compiled from Bæda, Gerland, and other writers on the ‘Computus,’ for the use of clerks. The probable date of its composition was between 1113 and 1119. There are seven manuscripts, viz., Cotton, Nero A. v., Arundel 230, and Sloane 1580 in the British Museum, MS. C. 3. 3. in the Lincoln Cathedral Library, and three in the Vatican. 2. ‘Li Bestiaire’ or ‘Physiologus,’ which is dedicated to Adelaide of Louvain as queen of Henry I, and must therefore have been written between 1121 and 1135, perhaps in 1125. Like the ‘Computus,’ the ‘Physiologus’ is based on Latin originals, and is for the most part written in six-syllabled verse, though in the latter portion an octosyllabic metre is employed. Manuscripts of Philip's Bestiaire are: Cotton MS. Nero A. v.; Royal Library, Copenhagen, 3466; Merton College, Oxford, 249. The Latin ‘Bestiarius’ in Cotton, Vespasian, G. x. is not Philip's work. Philip is the first Anglo-Norman writer as to whom we have any distinct information, and is, perhaps, the earliest poet in the langue d'oïl whose work has survived. Though his writings, and especially the ‘Computus,’ have little poetical merit, they are of great value for the history of Anglo-Norman literature. Both the ‘Computus’ and the ‘Physiologus’ were edited by Wright in his ‘Popular Treatises on Science during the Middle Ages,’ pp. 20–131, with translations. The ‘Physiologus’ has also been edited by Dr. M. F. Mann, and the ‘Computus’ by Dr. E. Mall.
[Histoire Littéraire de France, ix. 173, 190, x. pp. lxxi–ii, xiii. 60–2; Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt. Anglo-Norman. pp. 86–7; De la Rue's Bardes; Archæologia, xii. 301–6; Gaston Paris's Littérature Française au Moyen Age, § 100; Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, v. 358–60, vii. 38–43 (on the Computus and its manuscripts); Romanische Forschung, v. 399.]