(b ?Cologne, c1130; d shortly after 1165). Latin lyric poet. His real name is unknown. He was a German or French clerk of knightly birth whose patronage by Reinald of Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne and Archchancellor to Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa may have given rise to his pseudonym. He travelled throughout Germany and to Austria and Italy, where he was desperately ill in 1165. He must have written many Latin poems, but only ten survive; additions to his corpus present problems of ascription, since his name was sometimes conferred honorarily on later poets. His poetic technique follows that of his older contemporary Hugh Primas, but with less spite and more wit. The Confessio, written at Pavia, is his greatest achievement and illustrates his best characteristics: a keen knowledge of biblical and classical authors, ingenious rhythm and supreme rhyming skill, great wit and genial humour, cunning word-play and melodious cadence. No melodies are known for his poems. His poetic style is mirrored in a number of Notre Dame conductus texts.
MGG1 (F. Gennrich)
W. Heckenbach and others: Mittellateinisches Jb, iv (1967–8), 145–70 [4 essays on Archipoeta]
W.H.T. Jackson: ‘The Politics of a Poet: the Archpoet as Revealed by his Imagery’, Philosophy and Humanism: Essays in Honor of Paul Oscar Kristeller, ed. E.P. Mahoney (New York, 1976), 320–38
P. Dronke: ‘The Archpoet and the Classics’, Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition, ed. P. Goodman and O. Murray (Oxford, 1990), 57–72
F. Adcock, ed. and trans.: Hugh Primas and the Archpoet (Cambridge, 1994)
For further bibliography see Early Latin secular song.
GORDON A. ANDERSON/THOMAS B. PAYNE