Alain de Lille (Alanus ab Insulis)

Alain de Lille (Alanus ab Insulis, c. 1128–1203) was a French theologian and poet, educated at the Cathedral School of Chartres and active in Paris and Montpellier. He was called Doctor Universalis for the encyclopedic breadth of his learning.

The Infinite Sphere and the Liber XXIV

Alain's key role in the Hermetic tradition is as the primary transmitter of the Liber XXIV Philosophorum's central definition of God: "Deus est sphaera intelligibilis cuius centrum est ubique, circumferentia nusquam." This appears in his De Maximis Theologiae (134 theological maxims), first printed in Basel, 1492. By incorporating the phrase into his orthodox theological commentary, Alain provided the Hermetic aphorism with full scholastic legitimacy, ensuring it would be read by Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Cusanus, and eventually Bruno.

Works

His major works include the allegorical poem De Planctu Naturae (The Complaint of Nature), where Lady Nature laments human sin — a text that gave Renaissance Hermeticists their vocabulary of Nature as God's secondary creative force — and Anticlaudianus, an allegory of the soul's perfection that influenced Dante's Commedia.