Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his Encyclopedia

The present volume offers a systematic investigation of the encyclopedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, prepared by the Anglo-American team of scholars who previously published the edition of John Trevisa's English translation of the text. The encyclopedia, "De proprietatibus rerum", was written by the Englishman Bartholomaeus in about 1245, while "lector" in the Franciscan "stadium" of Magdeburg. His aim was to provide a synthesis of current knowledge, in a form that could be used for novice friars and university students, in order to promote a greater understanding of the Bible by explaining all its references to the phenomena of natural science. The encyclopedia opens with a survey of the nature of God, then proceeds to treat the spiritual and physical nature of man, the heavens and time, the four elements of the physical world, its geography and all the minerals and beasts contained within it, ending with the accidentals of colours, numbers and music. The work achieved a popularity far beyond its intended audience (as can be seen from the quantities of copies that survive) especially in England where it remained the most popular work of its kind into the 16th century. Trevisa's translation was one of the first books to be printed in English, by De Worde in about 1495. In its final form, edited by Stephen Batman in 1582, and known as "Batman upon Bartholomew", the work is often known as "Shakespeare's encyclopedia". The introductory chapters of the present volume establish what is known about Bartholomaeus, his career as a Franciscan, and the circumstances in which he wrote his encyclopedia. They also analyze how he used his source material and which versions of which works he had at his disposal. The commentary discusses the range of sources employed for each book, and identifies line by line, with reference to the author's edition of Trevisa's translation, the passages Bartholomaeus cited or used as the basis for his text: the Bible, classical, patristic and Arabic authors (in Latin translation) as well as the scholars of his own day - from Augustine, Isidore or John of Damascus, to Peter Lombard and William Auxerre, from Aristotle and Galen to Isaac and Avicenna. The final section lists the extant manuscripts of Bartholomaeus' work and the early printed editions. Taken together, the work and this commentary provide a remarkable insight into what an educated religious of the Latin West of the early 13th century knew about the world in which he lived, an achievement that is important not just for the intellectual history of medieval Europe, but also, thanks to Trevisa's translation, to the history of English literature.