BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS

Encyclopedist (known as Bartholomew the Englishman); b. late 12th century in Oldengland, England, possibly

of the noble Norfolk family of Glanville. He studied at oxford before going to Paris (c. 1225–31), where he seems to have entered the French province of francis cans. He was a baccalaureus biblicus at the University of Paris in 1231 when Franciscan Minister General john parenti sent him as lecturer to the Order's house of studies at Magdeburg (Salimbene, Chronical, ad an. 1237 ). Bartholomaeus' reputation as one of the great medieval encyclopedists rests on his De proprietatibus rerum (On the Properties of Things ), a work devoted to the natural sciences, and intended as a tool for Biblical and theological students and preachers. It reflects the principles, methods, and scope of Oxford, where it was probably begun. Bartholomaeus, however, continued his work at Paris and finished it at Magdeburg (c. 1240–50). The encyclopedia is divided into 19 books: books 1–2, the spiritual substances, God and the angels; books 3–7, the mixed substances, man—the soul, the body, the members, his ages and infirmities; books 8–18, the corporeal substances; and book 19, the accidents—color, odor, taste, and liquidness. An appendix treats of numbers, weights, measures, and sounds. The books on medicine, geography, and ethnography are especially valuable. The encyclopedia has often been attributed to a mythical Bartholomaeus de Glanvilla of the 14th century.

Not always unoriginal but at times naive, the encyclopedia was largely a compilation of available scientific information, borrowed from the Etymologies of isidore of seville, robert grosseteste, alfred of sareshel and others. The great diffusion of its manuscripts (F. Stegmüller Repertorium biblicum medii aevi n. 1564), early editions, and translations into French (e.g., by John Corbichon in 1372), into English (by John de trevisa,1495), and into Dutch and Spanish testifies to its wide usage. It also circulated in several abridged versions. The best Latin text is the Frankfurt edition of 1601. A critical edition is needed.

Other works attributed to Bartholomaeus are several scriptural writings (F. Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi nn. 1561–63) and a Sermonum liber. He is not the author of Tractatus septiformis de moralitate rerum.

Bibliography: m. c. seymour, Bartholomaeus Anglicus and His Encyclopedia (Brookfield, Vt. 1992).

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