Capgrave, John

(1393–1464)

   John Capgrave was a 15th-century English Augustinian friar who wrote theological texts, saints’ lives (see SAINT’S LIFE), poetry, and historical works in both Latin and English. He had a wide reputation throughout Europe as a learned scholar in his own day, and rose to the position of provincial (that is, the ecclesiastical governor) of his order in England. Capgrave was born at Lynn in Norfolk, and most likely entered the Augustinian order at a young age. He was probably university educated, and there is reason to believe that he received a doctorate degree from Oxford. He was ordained a priest in 1417 or 1418, and at some point before 1456 he was made provincial of his order.He went on pilgrimage to Rome at least once, but he spent most of his life in the King’s Lynn friary, and died there in 1464 at the age of 71.

   Capgrave’s Latin writings include theological texts, biblical commentary, historical texts, and lives of saints. Among his Latin works are the Vita Humfredi Ducis Glaucestriae, a life of Humphrey, the duke of Gloucester, who was Capgrave’s patron and to whom he dedicated a number of his works; the Liber de Illustribus Henriciis (Book of the illustrious Henries), a book on the lives of English kings, German rulers, and other famous men named Henry; and the Nova Legenda Angliae, perhaps his most significant Latin text, a collection of the lives of English saints, which is a revision of an earlier collection by John of Tinmouth called the Sanctilogium.

   In English, Capgrave wrote a few poems, a guide to the pilgrimage sites of Rome, a life of the English saint Gilbert of Sempringham, and a verse biography of St. Catherine of Alexandria. But Capgrave’s best-known English work is his Chronicle of England from the Creation to AD 1417. The Chron-icle is a compilation of many earlier sources and of Capgrave’s own perceptions. The history is admired for its lucid style as well as its concrete details, especially in the later sections concerned with Capgrave’s own lifetime. The Chronicle is still an important source for historical information about the reign of Henry IV.

   Bibliography

   ■ Lucas, Peter J., ed. John Capgrave’s Abbreuiacion of Cronicles. Oxford: Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1983.

   ■ Munro, J. J., ed. John Capgrave’s Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert of Sempringham, and a Sermon. 1910. Reprint,Milwood, N.Y.: Kraus Reprint, 1987.

   ■ Nova Legenda Anglie: As Collected by John of Tynemouth, John Capgrave, Others, and First Printed, with New Lives. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901.

   ■ Winstead, Karen A., ed. The Life of Saint Katherine. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999.