GEOFFREY of Coldingham (fl. 1214), historian of Durham. [See Coldingham.]
GEOFFREY (d. 1235?), prior of Coventry, was a monk of Coventry elected prior in 1216. In Wharton's 'Anglia Sacra' (i. 464) the exact date is given as 17 July, but it must have been earlier, for the royal assent was granted to his election, and the sheriff of Leicester was ordered to give him seizin on 8 July (Lit. Claus. 18 Joh. p. 276). In 1223, on the death of William of Cornhill [q. v.], a quarrel arose between the monks of Coventry and canons of Lichfield about the election of a new bishop. Both parties petitioned the king for leave to elect, Geoffrey appearing as proctor for his own church. Leave was granted in ambiguous terms 'to those who were accustomed and ought to elect;' the monks thereupon chose Geoffrey, and presented him to Stephen Langton for confirmation. The archbishop refused, and after hearing the canons quashed the election; this sentence was on appeal confirmed by Pope Honorius III, who with the assent of all parties appointed Alexander de Stavenby bishop in 1224. In 1232 Geoffrey resisted the visitation of Bishop Alexander, on the ground that he was not bound to accept a visitor not of his own order; he was suspended, and went to Rome, where the case was decided against him. In 1234 he was engaged in a quarrel with the abbot of St. Augustine's, Bristol. He is the author of a chronicle quoted in Dugdale's 'Antiquities of Warwick' (pp. 100, 105) as by an approved writer. The royal assent to the election of his successor was given on 19 Sept. 1235 (Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, cited in Monasticon, iii. 183).
[Annales Monastici, 'Tewkesbury' and 'Dunstable; 'Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 437-8; Dugdale's Antiq. Warwick.]
GEOFFREY the Grammarian, alias
Starkey (fl. 1440), compiler of the ‘Promptorium Parvulorum,’ is said by himself in the preamble to the ‘Promptorium’ (Way's edition, pp. 1–3) to have been a friar-preacher at Lynn. He was bred, if not born, in Norfolk, for he says that he had followed only the manner of speech of the county of Norfolk, which he had learnt from infancy and of which alone he had perfect knowledge. To this he adds that he was ‘reclusus,’ which word he probably uses in its strict sense of ‘ankyr,’ one who was shut up in a building specially appropriated to the purpose, and with a solemn service, by episcopal sanction; after which he could not leave his cell except in case of necessity or with the leave of the bishop; he himself explains ‘ankyr’ as ‘recluse, Anachorita’ (p. 12). The name of the author is given in Hearne's edition of Langtoft (ii. 624) as Richard Fraunces, on the strength of a manuscript note in a copy of Pynson's edition of 1499, but a similar note in another copy of the same edition gives the author as ‘Galfredus Grammaticus dictus,’ and with this Bale, himself an East-Anglian, and writing about a century after the author's time, agrees (p. 631). Bishop Tanner, finding as a note in the margin of the Lincoln MS. ‘Galfredus Starkey,’ conjectured this to be the full name of the author, but it is equally likely to be that of a former owner of the volume. Geoffrey speaks of himself as ignorant and unskilled, but, pitying the destitution of young clerks, he had drawn up for their use a slight compendium. This is the English-Latin dictionary known as the ‘Promptorium Parvulorum,’ also called ‘Promptorius Parvulorum,’ ‘Promptorius Puerorum,’ and ‘Promptuarium Parvulorum Clericorum.’ This last title is doubtless the most correct. The promptuarium of a monastery was a store-room, and the word is similarly used by other writers, e.g. ‘Promptuarium Vocabulorum,’ published at Antwerp in 1516. The author arranges the English words in alphabetical order, first placing under every letter the nouns and other parts of speech except the verbs, and then the verbs by themselves. Each English word is interpreted by one or more Latin words, whose gender, declension, &c., are noted, and in many cases English synonyms or paraphrases are added. The work is valuable as an authentic record of the English of the fifteenth century, as illustrative of the East-Anglian dialect, and explanatory of much debased Latin. Geoffrey himself gives his sources of information, chiefly consisting of the writings of previous grammarians, and especially of John Garland [q. v.] The ‘Promptorium’ was printed by Pynson 1499, by W. de Worde 1510, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1519 (?), 1522, and 1528, and by Julian Notary 1508. It has been edited for the Camden Society in 3 vols., by Albert Way, in whose third volume there is a very full account and discussion. The most important manuscript of the
