[MARBODE], fl. 1067-1101. Chaucer does not mention Marbode of Rennes, author of De lapidibus, a very popular work during the medieval period. Chaucer shows that he had knowledge of this work in an Anglo-Norman translation when he refers to Lapidaire, HF III.1350-1352. Marbode of Rennes was born in Angers, France, where he became master of the cathedral school c. 1067 and chancellor of the diocese of Angers c. 1069. In 1096 he became archbishop of Rennes in Britanny. His work, De lapidibus (On Stones), written in hexameters, is based on Isidore of Seville and Solinus and describes some sixty stones, their real and symbolic qualities. It was translated into Provençal, Italian, French, Irish, Danish, Hebrew, Spanish, and Anglo-Norman.

Chaucer also seems to have been indebted to Marbode's work for the name Thopas, derived from the stone topazius, which had chivalric and courtly associations. [Thopas]