ABSTRACT
In the course of the thirteenth century, the grammar teachers Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Gervase of Melkley, John of Garland, and Eberhard the German composed similar treatises, one of which, Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova, was among the most versatile and influential textbooks of the late Middle Ages. If the Tria sunt is an authentic work by Geoffrey of Vinsauf, it must have been composed in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The Tria sunt's many connections with Geoffrey of Vinsauf's more reliably attested rhetorical works, whether in the form of acknowledged quotation or shared wording and content, will be of primary importance in proving or disproving Geoffrey's authorship. The copies of the Tria sunt whose provenance is known were all either produced at Oxford or belonged to persons who are known to have studied at Oxford, and many of the other copies show signs of an Oxford connection as well.
