Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus | Page 4

no reason for
stopping there, or a century earlier. At some point, of course, the
number of obsolete words becomes so great that the text cannot be read
without a dictionary: then the limit has been reached. But Caxton,
Trevisa, and many others are well within it, and it is good to remove all
obstacles which prevent the ordinary reader from feeling the continuity

of his mother tongue.
THE AUTHOR.--The facts known of our author's life have been
summarised by Miss Toulmin Smith in her article in the Dictionary of
National Biography. In the sixteenth century he was generally believed
to date from about 1360, and to have belonged to the Glanvilles--an
honourable Suffolk family in the Middle Ages; but there seems to be no
authority whatever for the statement. We first hear of him in a letter
from the provincial of the Franciscans of Saxony to the provincial of
France, asking that Bartholomew Anglicus and another friar should be
sent to assist him in his newly-created province. Next year (1231) a MS.
chronicle reports that two were sent, and that Bartholomew Anglicus
was appointed teacher of holy theology to the brethren in the province.
We learn from Salimbene, who wrote the Chronicles of Parma (1283),
that he had been a professor of theology in the University of Paris,
where he had lectured on the whole Bible. The subject in treating of
which he is referred to was an elephant belonging to the Emperor; and
Salimbene quotes a passage on the elephant from his De Proprietatibus
Rerum. What may be a quotation from the De Proprietatibus can be
found in Roger Bacon's Opus Tertium (1267).
THE DATE OF THE WORK.--The date of the work seems fairly easy
to fix. It cannot, as we have above seen, be later than 1267, and Amable
Jourdain fixes it before 1260 by the fact that the particular translations
of Aristotle from which Bartholomew quotes (Latin through the
Arabic), went almost universally out of use by 1260. On the other hand,
quotations are made from Albertus Magnus, who was in Paris in 1248.
And that it was written near this year is evident from the fact that no
quotations are made from Vincent of Beauvais, Thomas Aquinas,
Roger Bacon, or Egidius Colonna, all of whom were in Paris during the
second half of the thirteenth century. The earliest known MS. is in the
Ashmole Collection, and was written in 1296. Two French MSS. are
dated 1297 and 1329 respectively.
As we said in the beginning of this chapter, the work had an immediate
and lasting success. Bartholomew Anglicus became known as
"Magister de Proprietatibus Rerum," and his book was on the list of
those which students could borrow from the University chest. It is
probable that much of this popularity was due to the fact that he was a
teacher for many years of the Grey Friars, and that these, the most

popular and the most human preachers of the day, carried his book and
his stories with them wherever they went.
SOURCES.--The chief sources of our author's inspiration are notable.
He relies on St. Dionysius the Areopagite for heaven and the angels,
Aristotle for Physics and Natural History, Pliny's Natural History,
Isidore of Seville's Etymology, Albumazar, Al Faragus, and other Arab
writers for Astronomy, Constantinus Afer's Pantegna for Medical
Science, and Physiologus, the Bestiarium, and the Lapidarium for the
properties of gems, animals, etc. Besides these he quotes many other
writers (a list of whom is given in an appendix) little known to modern
readers.
THE TRANSLATION AND PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION.--The
translation from which we quote was made for Sir Thomas lord of
Berkeley in 1397 by John Trevisa, his chaplain. We owe this good
Englishman something for the works in English prose he called into
existence--some not yet printed; may we not see in him another proof
of what we owe to Chaucer--a language stamped with the seal of a
great poet, henceforth sufficient for the people who speak it, ample for
the expression of their thoughts or needs?
In selecting from such a book, the principles which have guided the
editor are these: To the general reader he desires to offer a fair
representation of the work of Bartholomew Anglicus, preserving the
language and style. To be fair, the work must be sometimes dull--in the
whole book there are many very dull passages. He has desired to select
passages of interest for their quaint language, and their views of things,
often for their very misrepresentations of matters of common
knowledge to-day, and for their bearing upon the literature of the
country. The student of literature and science will find in it the
materials in which the history of their growth is read. In conclusion, the
editor ventures to hope that the work will not