Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus | Page 9

it perfect; and accordeth therewith to
the perfection of some thing. And when form is had, then the thing hath
its being, and when form is destroyed nothing of the substance of the
thing is found. And form accidental is not the perfection of things, nor
giveth them being. But each form accidental needeth a form substantial.
And each form is more simple and more actual and noble than matter.
And so the form asketh that shall be printed in the matter, the matter
ought to be disposed and also arrayed. For if fire shall be made of
matter of earth, it needeth that the matter of earth be made subtle and
pured and more simple. Form maketh matter known. Matter is cause

that we see things that are made, and so nothing is more common and
general than matter. And natheless nothing is more unknown than is
matter; for matter is never seen without form, nor form may not be seen
in deed, but joined to matter.
Elements are simple, and the least particles of a body that is compound.
And it is called least touching us, for it is not perceived by wits of
feeling. For it is the least part and last in undoing of the body, as it is
first in composition. And is called simple, not for an element is simple
without any composition, but for it hath no parts that compound it, that
be diverse in kind and in number as some medlied bodies have: as it
fareth in metals of the which some parts be diverse; for some part is air,
and some is earth. But each part of fire is fire, and so of others.
Elements are four, and so there are four qualities of elements, of the
which every body is composed and made as of matter. The four
elements are Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, of the which each hath his
proper qualities. Four be called the first and principal qualities, that is,
hot, cold, dry, and moist: they are called the first qualities because they
slide first from the elements into the things that be made of elements.
Two of these qualities are called Active--heat and coldness. The others
are dry and wetness and are called Passive.
The Rainbow is impression gendered in an hollow cloud and dewy,
disposed to rain in endless many gutters, as it were shining in a mirror,
and is shapen as a bow, and sheweth divers colours, and is gendered by
the beams of the sun or of the moon. And is but seldom gendered by
beams of the moon, no more but twice in fifty years, as Aristotle saith.
In the rainbow by cause of its clearness be seen divers forms, kinds,
and shapes that be contrary. Therefore the bow seemeth coloured, for,
as Bede saith, it taketh colour of the four elements. For therein, as it
were in any mirror, shineth figures and shapes and kinds of elements.
For of fire he taketh red colour in the overmost part, and of earth green
in the nethermost, and of the air a manner of brown colour, and of
water somedeal blue in the middle. And first is red colour, that cometh
out of a light beam, that touches the outer part of the roundness of the
cloud: then is a middle colour somedeal blue, as the quality asketh, that
hath mastery in the vapour, that is in the middle of the cloud. Then the
nethermost seemeth a green colour in the nether part of a cloud; there
the vapour is more earthly. And these colours are more principal than

others.
As Beda saith, and the master of stories, forty years tofore the doom,
the rainbow shall not be seen, and that shall be token of drying, and of
default of elements.
And though dew be a manner of airy substance, and most subtle
outward, natheless in a wonder manner it is strong in working and
virtue. For it besprinkleth the earth, and maketh it plenteous, and
maketh flour, pith, and marrow increase in corn and grains: and fatteth
and bringeth forth broad oysters and other shell fish in the sea, and
namely dew of spring time. For by night in spring time oysters open
themselves against dew, and receive dew that cometh in between the
two shells, and hold and keep it; and that dew so holden and kept
feedeth the flesh, and maketh it fat; and by its incorporation with the
inner parts of the fish breedeth a full precious gem, a stone that is called
Margarita. Also the birds of ravens, while they are whitish in feathers,
ere they are black, dew feedeth and sustaineth them, as Gregory saith.
Fumosities that are drawn out of the waters and off the earth by
strength