"While investigating Robert Biket's use of the hexasyllable, I was inevitably led to analyse Philippe de Thaun's handling of the same medium. I soon became struck by certain features of the Norman's allegorical expositions, particularly in those excurses which he makes beyond the traditional allegorical explanations into the formulation of doctrine concerning the person of Christ, his birth and death, baptism and the importance of the Church as a corporate body. I wish to return here to consider in more detail the nature of Philippe's formulations and their possible import. ...as we will see, some of the most extended expositions in Philippe's work have no counterpart, either in the most immediately adduceable Latin sources, or in later vernacular authors. It will therefore be appropriate to consider Philippe's relationship to his sources, and to try to determine the extent of his personal contribution, in terms of style and rhetoric as well as content, before considering the implications of that content." - Bennett

Language: English