Godfrey of Saint-Victor

Godfrey of Saint-Victor

(born c. 1125—died 1194, Paris) French monk, philosopher, theologian, and poet. About 1160 Godfrey entered the monastery of Saint-Victor in Paris. He left after 20 years for a rural priory, where he wrote his principal work, Microcosmus, an attempt to systematize history and knowledge into a rational structure. Recalling Classical philosophy and that of the early Church Fathers, it asserts that mankind is a microcosm containing the material and spiritual elements of reality. In his other notable work, The Fount of Philosophy (c. 1176), he proposed a classification of learning. His writings are considered prime examples of 12th-century humanism.