Gervase of Melkley

Gervase of Melkley or Gervase of Melkeley (born c. 1185, fl. 1200–1219) was an Anglo-Norman scholar and poet.

Biography Gervais was born in England c. 1185. Paris also describes him as the author of the epitaph on William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219.

In his work, he refers to himself as Gervasius de Saltu Lacteo.

Ars versificaria He wrote Ars versificaria (The Art of Versifying) c. 1208–1216 (possibly, in 1215–1216), using both classical and medieval sources. Targeted at young students of rhetoric, it includes a list of recommended reading and mainly discusses rhetorical and grammatical figures, with examples, and gives some notes on word formation.

The book consists of three parts. The first part discusses basic principles common to all types of discourse. The second part is devoted to composition, discussing proverbs, elegance of style, arguments, rules of verse and prose composition. The third part deals with letter-writing.

Among his sources are ancient authors Horace (Ars Poetica), Cicero (De Inventione), Aelius Donatus (Barbarismus) and Juvenal, as well as Bernard Silvestris's Cosmographia, Alain of Lille's Anticlaudianus, John of Hauville's Architrenius, and Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova.

The book is dedicated to a certain Johannes Albus.

The manuscript is conserved in Balliol College, Oxford (MS. Balliol, 276).

Poems As well as in Ars versificaria, his poems also survive in an early thirteenth-century collection of poetry known as Hunterian Anthology. Apart from works by Gervase, the anthology also includes works by Matthew of Vendôme, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and some poems of unknown authorship. "In honorem matris Dei", to Virgin Mary, his only known rhythmical poem.