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Necham, Neckham, or Nequam, Alexander

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an English monk, noted as a universal scholar, a proficient in the whole circle of science, including canon law, medicine, and theology, was born at St. Albans in 1157; lived and studied at Paris, and after his return to his native country was made abbot of Cirencester, and died in 1217. He is the author of a great variety of works remaining in MS. But the most important of all his productions, including many theological and philosophical works, is his De Natunis Rerum, which is believed to have had quite a large circulation towards the close of the 12th century. It has recently been edited and published by the noted English antiquarian, Thomas Wright, who has written much about Necham in the Biog. Brit. Lit. (Anglo-Norman Period), pages 449-50. The De Naturis Rerum (Lond. 1863) aims to interest the student of nature in the Author of nature. It is iconoclastic in tendency, and rejects the aid of art in religious ceremonies. See, besides Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit., Piper, Einleitung in die Monumentale Theologie, pages 557-59; Cave, Historia Literaria, s.v.