First Koberger edition of the most important encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages, compiled by the English Franciscan Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1272), first published in Cologne for William Caxton c. 1471/72.
The encyclopaedia was immensely popular for over three centuries. Divided into 19 books, the contents include: (1) God (2) angels and demons (3) psychology (7) medicine (8) cosmology, astrology (9) time (11) air, meteorology (12) flying creatures (13) waters and fishes, dolphins, whales (14) physical geography (15) political geography (16) gems, minerals, metals (17) trees and herbs (18) animals (19) food and drink, eggs, weights and measures, musical instruments.
Bartholomaeus clearly states in both prologue and epilogue his purpose in the encyclopaedia to provide for student friars and others a gloss on things and places mentioned in the Bible. These glosses are progressively arranged in nineteen books, based on the premise that a knowledge of the parts comprehends the whole and on the Augustinian belief that ‘faith describes the universe insofar as it is useful to know it for salvation’. The primary references exceed 200 (from patristic and Neoplatonic writings to contemporary Parisian scholars, including much of the newly translated Aristotle), and many others are cited at second hand. Yet much of it was dated by 1245. Bartholomaeus never fully understood the science of his authorities (for instance, Ptolemy) or the higher speculations of his confrères (Blund on the soul, Grosseteste on light for example), and only in the geography of eastern Europe was he abreast of current knowledge. None the less, the encyclopaedic coverage and clear presentation of the work ensured its rapid and international circulation. It became a textbook at Paris in 1284, a source for preachers, and a very common reference in ecclesiastical libraries, and Bartholomaeus enjoyed a wide reputation as ‘the Master of Properties’. The work was translated into French in 1372 and into English in 1398 by John Trevisa and was first printed at Cologne in 1472. (Seymour).
M.C. Seymour in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records his lengthy career, "Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1272), Franciscan friar and encyclopaedist, is of unknown parentage, and there is no information about his early years. The first record of Bartholomaeus puts him in Paris in 1224. Before then he may have studied at Oxford when Grosseteste was master of the schools, and he certainly incepted at Paris as a regent master, the statutory age for teaching within the faculty of arts being twenty-one. From 1224 to 1231 Bartholomaeus lectured on the whole Bible at the St Denis Convent. In 1231 Bartholomaeus was sent as lector of the newly formed Franciscan province of Saxonia (northern and eastern Germany and north-eastern Europe). The academic year at Paris ended on 31 August, and on the feast of the Assumption (15 August) an unknown Franciscan preached a sermon that included a description of the camel similar to that of De proprietatibus rerum (‘On the properties of things’), the Franciscan encyclopaedia compiled by Bartholomaeus. The preacher was possibly Bartholomaeus making a farewell gesture to the city he praised above all others. In Saxonia the school at Magdeburg, established by Simon of Sandwich in 1228, became the provincial school, and there Bartholomaeus taught theology to all student friars and prepared some for higher studies at St Denis. Its library (of which only four books survive) was probably similar in size and content to the Dominican convent at Magdeburg (285 books) and was sufficient for Bartholomaeus to be able to compile his encyclopaedia there c.1245. The latest datable authority that he used was the first version of Summa fratris Alexandri (c.1242) and pointedly he did not incorporate the Franciscan records of Carpini's mission to the khans, available from 1247. The first attested use of the encyclopaedia is in Germany by the Franciscan Berthold von Regensburg c.1250. In 1247 Bartholomaeus was elected minister of Austria, split off from Saxonia between 1232 and 1237, and is recorded in that office in December 1249. Before 1255 he was elected minister of Bohemia, which included the custody of Poland. In 1256 he was succeeded by Brother Daniel and appointed papal legate north of the Carpathians by Alexander IV and directed to preach the cross in Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and Austria. In February 1257, when he was in Rome, the bull Dilectus filius nobis established a cathedral at Lukow (165 miles north-east of Crakow) and Bartholomaeus as its bishop. It is unlikely that he was ever consecrated. In 1259 the Mongols sacked Sandomierz, Lublin, and Crakow, and devastated northern Poland, and the pope proclaimed a crusade against them. Bartholomaeus's whereabouts during these troubled years are unrecorded; possibly he remained at Rome. In 1262, in his absence, Bartholomaeus was elected minister of Saxonia at the chapter held at Halberstadt (29 April), and returning to Magdeburg he remained in office until his death in 1272, holding nine provincial chapters. His fame rightly rests on his encyclopaedia, which spread throughout Europe, but his service as teacher and administrator in the emerging Franciscan provinces of central Europe was perhaps at the time more important."
The once chained binding is decorated in a typical style found in Nuremberg, Augsburg and the surrounding area but we have not been able to trace the distinctive stamps in Kyriss Verzierte Gotische Einbände im alten Deutschen Sprachgebie nor EDBD.
A large copy with original manuscript quiring occasionally visible at lower outer corner. Some leaves a little toned but generally a good, clean copy.
ISTC ib00137000. GW 3409. Hain-C 2506. Goff B137. BMC II, 425. Stillwell Awakening IV, 595. Ref: M.C. Seymour, *Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his Encyclopaedia (*1992).
