As is too often the case in our medieval studies, we often know the texts better than their authors. The case of Pierre de Beauvais is no exception: in many aspects of his life and work he still eludes us. What we know of Pierre de Beauvais is largely based on the conjectures of scholars and on the information that can be gleaned from the work; it is altogether a very modest piece of luggage. Pierre, in fact, never identified himself other than by the name of Pierre, Pierres or Perron, according to the manuscripts. As this name was already well known in the middle 4th century, the first researchers who looked into the person and the works of our author added to the name of Pierre the qualifier of Picard. - [Author]

Language: French