PETER COMESTOR

Theologian and exegete; b. Troyes, c. 1100; d. Paris, c. 1180. He was dean of the cathedral of Troyes (1145–67?) and chancellor of the cathedral school in Paris (1164–68; 1178–80); he taught theology there (1164–68) and became a canon regular of Saint-Victor (1169). He wrote the Historia scholastica (Patrologia Latina, 198:1053–1644), a Bible history supplemented from the Fathers and profane historians (1169–73), Sententiae de sacramentis (ed. R. M. Martin, Pierre le Mangeur, De sacramentis, Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, 17, Appendix [Louvain 1937]), some 150 sermons (13 scattered in Patrologia Latina, 171:339–964), commentaries on the Gospels and on Peter Lombard's Commentary on the Psalms, and perhaps a commentary on the Lombard's Sentences, and on Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians. Unauthentic are commentaries on the other Pauline Epistles and the Liber pancrisis (compiled 1220–25). G. Raciti suggests his authorship of Pseudo-Augustine's De spiritu et anima (Patrologia Latina, 40: 779–832).

Bibliography: n. iung, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 12.2:1918–22. r. m. martin, "Notes sur l'oeuvre littéraire de Pierre le Mangeur," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 3 (1931) 54–66. a. landgraf, "Recherches sur Pierre le Mangeur," ibid., 292–306, 341–373. f. stegmÜller, Repertorium commentariorum in Sententias Petri Lombardi, 2 v. (Würzburg 1947) 1:669–673. f. stegmÜller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi, 7 v. (Madrid 1949–61) 4:6543–92. b. smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (2d ed. New York 1952). m. m. lebreton, "Recherches sur les manuscrits contenant des sermons de Pierre le Mangeur," Bulletin d'information de l'Institut de Recherches et d'Histoire des Textes, 2 (1953) 25–44; 4 (1955) 35–36. o. lottin, "À propos de la date de deux florilèges concernant Anselmo de Laon," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 26 (1959) 307–314. g. raciti, "L'autore del De spiritu et animo, " Rivista di filosofia neoscolastica 53 (1961) 385–401. l. hÖdl, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 8:357–358.

[j. n. garvin]