Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum

[Dallas Querry]

Littleis known of Bartholomew's early life. He is believed to have been born around the turn of the 13th century to unknown parents. The first record of him was in 1224 in Paris as a teacher, although he is also believed to have studied at Oxford University.[1]

The work De proprietatibus rerum was written at the school of Magdeburg in Saxonia and intended for the use of students and the general public.[1] Bartholomew carefully notes the sources for the material included, although, at present, it is sometimes impossible to identify or locate some of them. His annotations give a good idea of the wide variety of works available to a medieval scholar.

The original Latin work was translated into French in 1372 and a number of manuscripts of the Latin and French versions survive. The work was later printed in numerous editions. John Trevisa produced an English translation in 1397. Extracts were compiled by Robert Steele under the title Medieval Lore: an Epitome (1893).[4] A critical edition of Trevisa's translation appeared in 1975.[5]

The work was organized in 19 books. The subjects of the books, in order, are God, angels (including demons), the human mind or soul, physiology, of ages (family and domestic life), medicine, the universe and celestial bodies, time, form and matter (elements), air and its forms, water and its forms, earth and its forms including geography, gems, minerals and metals, animals, and color, odor, taste and liquids.

Bartholomew was elected as Minister of Austria in 1247 and was then elected as Minister of Bohemia in 1255. This appointment included Poland where he resolved a dispute between Duke Boleslaw and the Cathedral Chapter at Krakw. Pope Alexander IV appointed him as Papal legate north of the Carpathians in 1256 and appointed him as the Bishop of Łukw. However, he was probably not consecrated in that position due to the second Mongol invasion of Poland in 1259. Bartholomew was appointed as Minister at Saxonia in 1262 and served in that position until his death in 1272.

Bartholomaeus (or Bartholomeus) Anglicus, or Bartholomew the Englishman, was a Franciscan monk of the thirteenth century. He is sometimes confused with another Franciscan and Englishman, Bartholomaeus of Glanville, Glanvilla, or Glaunvilla, who died about 1360. Bartholomaeus Anglicus was born in Suffolk, England in the late twelfth century; the exact date is unknown. He studied natural sciences and theology at Oxford under Robert Grosseteste, then went to Paris to study and teach at the university there. He joined the newly-established Franciscan Order around 1224 or 1225, but continued to teach in Paris. In 1231 he went to Magdenburg in Germany to be a lecturer at the studium. It was there that he wrote his encyclopedia, De proprietatibus rerum (On the nature of things, or On the properties of things), some time before 1260 (probably between 1242 and 1247).

In his encyclopedia Bartholomaeus covered all the sciences as known at that time, including theology, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, chronology, zoology, botany, geography, and mineralogy. The work was to serve as instruction for his fellow Franciscans, who were expected to be educated but did not have the time or means to study each discipline individually. Only one bestiary, Cambridge, University Library MS. Gg.6.5, quotes extensively from De proprietatibus rerum, but others were influenced by it. The work is in nineteen books (19 being 12 + 7, the 12 signs of the zodiac plus the seven planets, so meaning universality), titled in Latin:

Bartholomaeus quotes extensively from a wide variety of authors, referring to the works of Greek, Arabian, and Jewish naturalists and medical writers, which had been translated into Latin shortly before. He cites such authorities as Aristotle, Hippocrates, Pliny, Augustine, Boethius, Rabanus Maurus, Avicenna, Solinus, and Isidore of Seville among others.

The De proprietatibus rerum was an immediate success, and continued to be popular for centuries. It was translated into several languages, including French (translated by Jean Corbechon as Livre des Proprits des Choses), English (translated by John Trevisa as On the properties of thinges), Spanish (translated by Vicente de Burgos as El libro de las propiedades de las cosas - printed), Middle Dutch (Van de proprieteiten der dingen - printed), and Italian (translated by Vivaldo Belcazer as Trattato di scienza universale). The translations do not always exactly match the Latin text; chapters are sometimes omitted or reordered, and the text is sometimes modified, condensed or expanded.

The bird, fish and animal sections in most of the Latin De proprietatibus rerum manuscripts are not illustrated; more of the French ones are. Some have a single composite image for the start of the bird and animal sections, showing several birds and animals together; some of these illustrations show the animals in a rectangular grid, but there are some manuscripts where they are shown in naturalistic scenes. Several of the French manuscripts have very similar illustrations for the bird and animal group images. A few manuscripts have individual illustrations for some or all of the birds, but fully illustrated manuscripts, where every bird and animal has an illustration, are very rare. Bibliothque Nationale de France, fr. 22532 (French version) appears to have been intended to be fully illustrated, and most chapters do have small images, but there are framed and unframed spaces where illustrations were never completed.

The De proprietatibus rerum now exists in over 200 manuscripts and several early printed editions. At least three of the manuscripts were destroyed by fire during World War II (e.g. Bibliothque Municipale de Tours, MS. 701 and 702), and several contain only fragments of the text; these are not included here. Some of the manuscripts in the various languages are shown below, generally the ones with a digital facsimile online; a more extensive list can be found under the Manuscripts tab above. The Middle Dutch and Spanish translations, both of the late fifteenth centuries, were only issued in printed form.

Some chapters have descriptions of other animals embedded in them, in addition to the description of the animal the chapter is mainly about. In the lists below such animals are shown under the main animal as indented bullet lists.

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A blogpost can hardly aspire to being encyclopaedic. This one discusses just such a book, however: a 1495 copy of De proprietatibus rerum, the oldest printed item in the Royal Society Library in English, rather than Latin or German. It was given to the Royal Society in 1683 by John Mellin, a craftsman noted for his expertise in making tiny microscope lenses.

The work was by Bartholomaeus Anglicus (or Bartholomew the Englishman), a Franciscan friar who in 1240 set out to create an encyclopaedia that would endeavour to explain all the words, concepts and ideas found within the Bible. De proprietatibus rerum (On the properties of things) contained 19 sections, starting with God, angels, demons and the soul, and continuing with a huge range of material in nature, from medicine to meteorology, and from animals to astronomy.

Bartholomaeus Anglicus: De proprietatibus rerum (French). Lyon: Johannes Siber, [ca. 1484]. Page of text (n1r) at the beginning of Book 9, with a woodcut illustration depicting time (the signs of the zodiac and the different labours of each month). Sp Coll Ferguson Ag-x.13.

Bartholomaeus, Anglicus. Batman vppon Bartholome, his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended, translated by John Trevisa, edited and revised by Stephen Batman, double column, black letter, title within woodcut decorative border and with woodcut arms of the dedicatee Sir Henry Cary verso, final leaf with woodcut arms at foot verso, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and historiated and decorative initials, lacking A2 (dedicatory letter), title torn and trimmed at head with loss to border, 3Z6 with short tear at foot without loss of text, final f. torn at upper corner, not affecting text, some marginal fraying, mostly at beginning and end, a few unobstrusive wormholes in text, occasional spotting or staining, lightly browned throughout, later reversed calf, sympathetically rebacked, corners worn, a few scuffs, rubbed, [STC 1538], small folio, Imprinted by Thomas East, dwelling by Paules wharfe, 1582.

Bartholomaeus Anglicus (c. 1496) from the Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, SMU. This edition is illustrated with woodcuts introducing each of the 19 books. The woodcut for Book Nine, relates to the properties of time: the months, and the ecclesiastical calendar. It shows the twelve months and the labors associated with them, proceeding counter-clockwise from January (just to the right of the bottom roundel). Personifications of the warm (female) and cold (male) seasons are at the center of the image.

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