WHEN it became apparent that the Ancients were losing the battle of the curriculum, which had been raging since the early years of the twelfth century, their supporters cut their losses, abandoned the traditional strongholds of the humanities to the enemy, Logic, and retreated to well defended fortresses. The strongest of these was Orleans, where a certain Magister Arnulfus Rufus was working actively to strengthen the classics.' Henri d'Andeli describes this action in La bataille des sept arts and, in the army of Grammar, names Primas the poet as captain of the rearguard along with Ovid.2 In the period of consolidation that follows, these two men, Arnulf and Primas, were strong supporters of the party of the authors. Their names, for the term Aurelianensis was generally appended to both, shed luster upon the town and schools of Orleans long after their works had become the common property of poets and scholars and ceased to be recognized as their own. The connection of Primas with Orleans is well attested, although he was, until comparatively recent times, one of the least known famous writers of the Middle Ages. While mentioned repeatedly as the outstanding poet of his day, he was often confused with his German counterpart of a generation later, the Archpoet of Cologne. And since almost nothing could be ascribed to him with any certainty, scholars tended to credit him with a variety of verses transmitted anonymously. This shadowy, will of-the-wisp, rhymester eluded even the diligent research of Leopold Delisle, who could ferret out only a few facts and anecdotes about him.3 Two texts contributed most of the slender evidence. One came from Richard of Poitiers, who described Primas as a scholasticus named Hugo, who lived in Paris around the year 11492, a poet, physically misshapen and ugly, but cultured, witty and famous for his verses.4 The other text was found in the early fourteenthcentury chronicle of Francesco Pipino, who stated that Primas lived when Frederic Barbarossa was emperor and Lucius III was pope.' He quoted a brief satire which the poet had written against Lucius III: