Bernard of Chartres

Bernard of Chartres a celebrated philosopher and theologian of the 12th century. Little is known of his life except that he was the head of the school of Chartres at the same time that Guillaume de Chartres was the head of the school of St. Victor. His writings and his philosophical views were likewise unknown until Mr. Cousin discovered in the Imperial Library one of his manuscripts, a kind of poem, followed by verse and prose, and divided into two parts, the one called Megacosmus (great world), and the other Microcosmus (little world; a treatise on man). The system of Bernard was a Platonism, sometimes interpreted according to the genius of the Alexandrines. — Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 5, 572; Cousin, Introduction aux fragments inedits d'Abailard.