The Roman de la Rose was the most famous of these works four handmade copies made in Paris in the 1490s still exist.ġ6th Century – Rabelais and Ronsard The first lnon-religious literary works, most romances, began to appear at about the same time, and were collected by the nobles and wealthy of Paris.
One notable example is the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, made by Jean Pucelle for the third wife of Charles IV between 13, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. As the Middle Ages progressed and the illuminated works became more valuable, they began to be produced by noted artists in workshops for the court and for the wealthy merchants. At first they were created by monks in the Abbeys, particularly Saint-Denis, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Notre-Dame and Saint-Germain-des-Prés the first recognized artist of the period was the monk Ingelard, who painted miniatures at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 10. The first illuminated manuscripts began to be produced by Paris workshops in the 11th century. Erasmus also taught and wrote at the university, as did the religious reformer John Calvin, before he was forced to flee to Switzerland because his writings were considered heretical. The teachings of the scholars, in Latin, were circulated widely, not only in France but throughout Europe. From the 13th to the 15th century, the University of Paris was the most important school of catholic theology in Western Europe, whose teachers included Roger Bacon from England, Saint Thomas Aquinas from Italy, and Saint Bonaventure from Germany. In 1257, the chaplain of Louis IX, Robert de Sorbon, opened the most famous College of the University, which was later named after him, the Sorbonne. The number grew to about four thousand in the 14th century. In the 13th century there were between two and three thousand students living in the Left Bank, which became known as the Latin Quarter, because Latin was the language of instruction at the university. The schools trained not only clerics for the church, but also clerks who could read and write for the growing administration of the Kingdom. Abelard was forced to leave the university because of the scandal caused by his romance with the nun Eloise. One of the most important new schools was established on the left bank at the Abbey of Sainte-Genevieve its teachers included the scholar Pierre Abelard (1079–1142), who taught five thousand students.
The primary centers of literary and intellectual activity in Paris in the Middle Ages were the schools attached to the major monasteries, and, beginning in the 12th century, the University of Paris, which made Paris one of the great learning centers of Europe. The Humanist scholar Erasmus taught and wrote at the University of Paris at the end of the 15th century