The Medieval Church · c. 1182–1184
Anticlaudianus
Alan of Lille · c. 1128–1202
What it is
Nature convenes the virtues to make a perfect man; Prudence rides a chariot built by the liberal arts to heaven to fetch a soul for him.
Why it lasted
The most ambitious allegorical poem before Dante, and a summary of twelfth-century learning in verse.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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