John of Howden


John of Howden OFM, also known as John of Hoveden, was a 13th-century English Franciscan friar from the north of England, and for a time was chaplain to Queen Eleanor of Provence, wife of King Henry III of England.

Works

John is known only by the various spiritual writings attributed to him. There are certain texts in Latin, including Philomela ; Canticum amoris ; Cythara ; Quinquaginta cantica, Quinquaginta salutationes, and several other shorter Latin poems.
There are also works written in Anglo-Norman. One, Li Rossignos is a re-working of Howden's own Latin Philomena, with borrowings from the anonymous Desere iam anima. Internal evidence suggests the poem was written before 1282.
For a long time, it has been assumed that he was the John of Howden who was prebendary of the church of Howden in Yorkshire. Recently, however, this has been questioned.