Medieval literature has been extremely influential to the literature the world has today. For those who do not know, literature of this kind came from the continent of Europe and developed sometime in the middle ages which was one thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire. A
medieval author was extremely respected during that age as writers were often seen as very intellectual individuals who possessed much knowledge.
Of course the first one would be the philosophical or theological works since these types of works were the most popular types of works during that time. Now the church was the single most influential body that existed in the entire region. Now because of this, it was very common for famous authors to incorporate a lot of theological themes into their books.
Some of the most famous theological or religious authors are Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abelard, and Anselm of Canterbury among many others. Saint Thomas Aquinas in particular was extremely famous as a theological author as he had an extremely deep understanding of the Bible and was also a very good writer. Theological works were written mostly by monks and other religious leaders but a few other authors also wrote some religious works as well.
Now aside from the theological works, there would be the secular books from secular authors. A lot of authors of this particular genre would revolve around some fictional material as well as historical material. Two very famous secular authors that existed during that time were of course John Mallory and John Mandeville.
Now many people during that time also enjoyed reading allegories that were written by the brilliant poets who lived during the era. Now one would probably know about the very famous William Shakespeare but there was someone who was also as important and as skilled as Shakespeare during that time who went by the name of Geoffrey Chaucer. This man was known to be one of the most influential poets of that time with works like Book of the Duchess.
Now the works of the women were actually put into a separate genre since women were not regarded as equal to men so it was rare to have a woman author during that time. Of course in order for their works to be recognized, they rode along with the most popular type of genre which was theological works. They used this medium so that they could spread their ideas.
Now one of the most famous of all female authors was Julian of Norwich. Julian of Norwich was actually a psychic who had visions of certain places, people, and events that would become the inspiration of her books. She was probably the most famous author in all of England because she was the first woman in England that had a book published.
So for those who are interested in medieval literature, take a look at some of these bits of information. It is good to know about the classics of that era because many modern day books were actually inspired by those old classics. Those old classics are timeless and can be seen even in modern works.