Jacques de Vitry (1175/1180–1240) entre l’Orient et l’Occident: L’évêque aux trois visages by Jean Donnadieu (review)

Jacques de Vitry was an exceptional figure within the medieval Church. Born in the late 1170s, Jacques spent his formative years at the University of Paris under the influence of Peter the Chanter and his circle, which included many leading churchmen and theologians of the time, such as the later Pope Innocent III. After Paris, he became a canon at St. Nicholas at Oignies, where he met Marie de Nivelles, and later became a preacher for the Albigensian Crusade and the Fifth Crusade, which he also accompanied to Egypt. By then, he had been elected bishop of Acre (1216–29) and finally crowned his career as cardinal of Tusculum (1229–40), spending his final years as a key member of the papal curia under Pope Gregory IX.

Jean Donnadieu is particularly well suited to tell Jacques’s life, having previously edited his Historia Orientalis(Turnhout, Belgium, 2008). He is well aware that we are not in a position to write a proper biography of Jacques. We primarily know him through his own writings, and there is very little outside information about his life or personality. Jacques left a great number of writings: two grand chronicles, a number of letters, a large collection of sermons, and a life of Marie (de Nivelles) of Oignies. In them, directly or serendipitously, Jacques describes and comments on the great changes occurring—particularly in the Church—during his lifetime. What Donnadieu does is to look at Jacques through his writings, using them as commentaries on the historical contexts that ruled Jacques’s life. The subtitle, “l’éveque aux trois visages,” refers to Jacques’s roles as preacher, prelate, and writer, as these were the key aspects of his impact as a historical figure.

Donnadieu starts off with a survey of Jacques’s œuvre followed by a short summary of previous biographies and a bibliography containing editions of Jacques’s writings, medieval sources about his life and times, and a selection of modern studies. For scholars interested in Jacques, this is an extremely useful section, even though minor mistakes have crept into the bibliographical details. After the introductory section, Donnadieu follows Jacques’s life chronologically with individual chapters devoted to the stages of his life and career from his youth to his final years as a cardinal. Although the story of Jacques’s life cannot really be told in any detail because of a lack of information, Donnadieu still manages to paint a fascinating picture of one man’s world and his endeavors through quoting and commenting on numerous passages from his writings. This format is not only entertaining because it provides particular windows into Jacques’s works but also proves highly rewarding because it focusses the text on Jacques’s individual voice, thus creating a sense of immediacy of the historical context.

The richness of the historical portrait accruing from Donnadieu’s technique is pleasing also because he has a fine sensorium for the issues and concerns that mattered to Jacques and the people around him. What is perhaps missing is a more systematic engagement with other research. Even if Donnadieu provides the points of departure, the reader has to make his or her own connections to current scholarly discourses that are concerned with the wider history of the period. Nevertheless, anyone interested in Jacques and his times is well advised to read this book.