BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS.

Liber de proprietatibus rerum.

      [Colophon:] Strassburg: [printer of the 14883 Jordanus de Quedlinburg,] 1491. - Small folio, 258 leaves, including the final blank R6. Printed in double columns, 52 lines plus headline, initial spaces with guide letters rubricated throughout. Contemporary goatskin roll-tooled in blind over beech boards, brass clasps, title written on lower edges, small paper label on upper cover (clasps repaired, spine cracked and restored). Single wormhole through text of first 25 leaves, a few other small wormholes in margin, minor dampstain in lower margin. A superb copy. The first important encyclopedia of all the sciences of the Middle Ages, which by its wide dissemination over three centuries had a profound influence of medieval thought. It is "still important for its information on political geography and its accounts of natural history" (Stillwell). Divided into nineteen books, the contents are as follows: "(1) God; (2) angels and demons; (3) psychology; (4–5) physiology; (6) family life, domestic economy; (7) medicine; (8) cosmology, astrology; (9) time divisions; (10) form and matter, elements; (11) air, meteorology; (12) flying creatures; (13) waters and fishes, dolphins, whales; (14) physical geography; (15) political geography, (in 175 chapters; this contains a number of interesting remarks, notes on economic geography, etc.); (16) gems, minerals, metals; (17) trees and herbs; (18) animals; (19) color, odor, savor; food and drink, eggs; weights and measures; musical instruments" (Sarton, II, p. 586). "Book 16 contains 104 short chapters on as many mineral substances as earths, stone, ores, metals, salts, etc., as well as gemstones, the latter often given names that now defy identification of the materials concerned. Gemstones are alabaster, adamante, amethyst, agate, alabandina, beryl, carbuncle, chrysoprase, chalcedony, chrysolite, rock crystal, coral carnelian, hematite, heliotrope, jet, jasper, hyacinth, pearl, marble, onyx, opal, prase, sapphire, emerald, sard, sardonyx, topaz, turquoise; very brief descriptions with comments on curious or medicinal lore associated with each" (Sinkankas, Gemology, p. 70). This is the second of two editions from this press. This copy has extensive marginalia in a calligraphic hand in Books III–V and occasionally elsewhere by the writer who recorded his ownership on the inside front cover at Beyharting in 1551. BMC, I, 142. GKW 3412. Goff B-410. Klebs 149.11. Stillwell, The Awakening Interest in Science during the First Century of Printing 1450-1550, p. 186. Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica, 19b. Simon, Bibliotheca Gastronomica, 173. Thorndike, II, pp. 401–435. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, II, pp. 586–587. [Attributes: Hard Cover]