Gervase of Melkley

Gervase of Melkley or Gervase of Melkeley (born c. 1185, fl. 1200–1219) was a French scholar and poet.

Gervais was born in England c. 1185.

Around 1200, he studied in France, probably in Rouen, under poet John of Hauville.

He spent his adult life in England, where he is last attested in 1219.

English chronicler Matthew Paris mentions him as an astrologer and an authority for the life of Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Paris also describes him as the author of the epitath on William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219.

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

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. It is also known as Ars poetica and De arte versificatoria et modo dictandi.

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. He also quotes the Book of Psalms and some of his own short poems.

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