author

active 1279 d'Orléans Laurent

A 13th-century Dominican friar linked to the French royal court, this medieval writer is best known for Somme le Roi, a moral and religious guide that traveled widely in manuscript form. His work helped shape later devotional writing well beyond his own lifetime.

1 Audiobook

The Ayenbite of Inwyt (Remorse of Conscience)

The Ayenbite of Inwyt (Remorse of Conscience)

by active 14th century Dan Michel, active 1279 d'Orléans Laurent

About the author

Active in the late 1200s, Laurent d'Orléans was a Dominican friar associated with the court of King Philip III of France. Sources describe him as the king's confessor, and one museum source also notes that he served as tutor to the king's children.

He is best known as the author of Somme le Roi, a moral treatise written in 1279. The work was designed to teach Christian ethics in clear, practical terms, and its survival in many manuscripts suggests it was widely read and copied in the Middle Ages.

Very little personal detail seems to be firmly documented today, and even broad life dates are given only approximately in catalog records. Still, Laurent d'Orléans stands out as an important medieval religious writer whose book reached both courtly and devotional readers for generations.