Vincent, Of Beauvais

, a Dominican of the thirteenth century, was reader to St. Louis, king of France, and tutor to his children. He compiled a summary of varions knowledge, called the “Speculum Majus,” containing matters of a natural, doctrinal, moral, and historical kind, which contains the opinions of authors that are not now extant, and on that account is an object of some curiosity. In other respects it serves only to shew the ignorance and superstition of the age. It was first printed at Strasburgh in 1476, and has often been reprinted, as low as the beginning of the seventeenth century. Vincent died in 1264, as some assert, but, according to Dupin, this is a matter of great doubt. He left some other works. ²