Book of Wisdom
Modern interest in Holcot has been limited. His influence in the late Middle Ages, however, was clearly great, as is evidenced by the number of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts of his work that have survived. For example, there exist 48 manuscripts of Holcot’s "Questions on the Sentences" (compared to 36 manuscripts of William of Ockham’s "Sentences" commentary). More impressive are the 175 manuscripts of his commentary on the "Book of Wisdom" ("Lectiones super librum Sapientiae"), a work that has been identified as a prime literary source for Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale". Holcot was still read in the sixteenth-century when the Parisian theologian, Jacques Almain, wrote a work engaging Holcot's opinions. The commentary on the "Book of Wisdom" was printed in 1480, and, subsequently, went through many editions.