THE MOST ANCIENT WORKS The most ancient encyclopaedia extant is Pliny's Natural His tory in 37 books (including the preface) and 2,493 chapters, which treat of cosmography, astronomy and meteorology, geog raphy, zoology (including man), the invention of the arts, botany, medicines, vegetable and animal remedies, medical authors and magic, metals, fine arts, mineralogy and mineral remedies. Pliny, who died A.D. 79, was not a naturalist, a physician or an artist, and collected his work in his leisure intervals while engaged in public affairs. He says it contains 20,000 facts (too small a num ber by half, says Lemaire), collected from 2,000 books by Ioo authors. Hardouin has given a list of 464 authors quoted by him. His work was a very high authority in the middle ages, and 43 editions of it were printed before 1536.
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella, an African, wrote (early in the 5th century), in verse and prose, a sort of encyclopaedia, which is important from having been regarded in the middle ages as a model storehouse of learning, and used in the schools, where the scholars had to learn the verses by heart, as a text-book of high-class education in the arts. It is sometimes entitled Satyra, or Satyricon, but is usually known as De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, though this title is sometimes confined to the first two books, a rather confused allegory ending with the apotheosis of Philologia and the celebration of her marriage in the Milky Way, where Apollo presents to her the seven liberal arts, who, in the succeeding seven books, describe their respective branches of knowledge from grammar to music (including poetry). The style is that of an African of the 5th century, full of grandiloquence, metaphors and strange words.
Isidore, bishop of Seville from 600 to 63o, wrote Etymolog iarum libri XX. (often also entitled his Origines) at the request of his friend Braulio, bishop of Saragossa, who after Isidore's death divided the work into books, dealing with a great variety of sub jects, from grammar to war and games, from angel to animal, from mathematics to ships, buildings and garments. Isidore ap pears to have known Hebrew and Greek, and to have been familiar with the Latin classical poets, but he is a mere collector and his derivations are often absurd. He seldom mentions his authorities except when he quotes the poets or historians. Yet his work was a great one for the time, and for many centuries was a much valued authority and a rich source of material for other works, and he had a high reputation for learning both in his own time and in subsequent ages.
Hrabanus Maurus, whose family name was Magnentius, was educated in the abbey of Fulda, ordained deacon in 802, sent to the school of St. Martin of Tours, then directed by Alcuin, where he seems to have learned Greek, and is said by Trithemius to have been taught Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldee by Theophilus an Ephesian. He was ordained archbishop of Mainz in 847, and died in 856. He compiled an encyclopaedia De universo (also called De universali nature, De nature rerum, and De origine rerum) in 22 books. It is chiefly a rearrangement of Isidore's Etymologies, omitting a considerable part of it, and adding the meanings given in the Bible to the subject matter of the chapter; while things not mentioned in Scripture, especially such as belong to classical antiquity, are omitted, so that his work seems to be formed of two alternating parts. His arrangement of beginning with God and the angels long prevailed in methodical encyclopaedias. His omissions are characteristic of the diminished literary activity and more contracted knowledge of his time. His work was pre sented to Louis the German, king of Bavaria, at Hersfeld in Oct.
847, and was printed in 1473, probably at Venice, and again at Strasbourg by Mentelin about Michael Constantine Psellus, the younger, wrote DsBaoKaXia xavro8a1r), dedicated to the emperor Michael Ducas, who reigned It was printed by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Graeca (1712), vol. v., in 193 chapters, each containing a question and answer. Beginning with divinity, it goes on through natural history and astronomy, and ends with chapters on excessive hunger, and why flesh hung from a fig-tree becomes tender.
Brunetto Latini of Florence, the master of Dante and Guido Cavalcanti, while an exile in France between 126o and 1267, wrote in French Li Livres dou Tresor. The Bible, natural history, ethics and politics, astronomy and geography are among the sub jects covered. The last part, the most original and interesting of all, treats of the government of the Italian republics of the time. Brunetto's work was translated into Italian in the latter part of the 13th century by Bono Giamboni. Napoleon I. had in tended to have the French text of the Tesoro printed with com mentaries, and appointed a commission for the purpose. It was at last published in the Collection des documents inedits (1863), edited by Chabaille from 42 mss.
Bartholomew de Glanville, an English Franciscan friar, wrote about 136o a most popular work, De proprietatibus rerum, in 19 books, beginning with God and the angels and ending with colours, scents, flavours and liquors, with a list of 36 eggs. There were 15 editions before 15oo. An English translation was completed on Feb. 11, 1398, by John Trevisa, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde (? Pierre Bersuire (Berchorius), a Benedictine, prior of the abbey of St. Eloi in Paris, where he died in 1362, wrote a kind of en cyclopaedia, chiefly relating to divinity, in three parts. The three parts were printed together as Petri Berchorii opera omnia (an incorrect title, for he wrote much besides).
A very popular small encyclopaedia, Margarita philosophica (1496), in 1 2 books, was written by Georg Reisch, a German, prior of the Carthusians of Freiburg, and confessor of the emperor Maximilian I. Books 1-7 treat of the seven liberal arts; 8, 9, principles and origin of natural things; so, II, the soul, vegetative, sensitive and intellectual ; 12, moral philosophy.
Raphael Maffei (1451-1522), called Volaterranus, being a native of Volterra, wrote Commentarii Urbani 0506), so called because written at Rome. This encyclopaedia, printed eight times up to 1603, is remarkable for the great importance given to geography, and also to biography, a subject not included in previous encyclo paedias. The books are not divided into short chapters in the an cient manner, like those of its predecessors. The edition of 1603 contains 814 folio pages.
Giorgio Valla, born about 143o at Placentia, and therefore called Placentinus, died at Venice in 1499 while lecturing on the immortality of the soul. Aldus published his book, edited by his son Giovanni Pietro Valla, De expetendis et fugiendis rebus, an encyclopaedic work containing 49 books and 2,119 chapters.
Antonio Zara, born ,1574, made bishop of Petina in Istria i600, finished in 1614 a work published as Anatomia ingeniorum et scientiarum. The first section, on the dignity and excellence of man, considers him in all his bodily and mental aspects. The first membrum describes his structure and his soul, and in the latter part contains the author's preface, the deeds of his ancestors, an account of himself, and the dedication of his book to Ferdinand, archduke of Austria. Four membra treat of the discovery of character by chiromancy, physiognomy, dreams and astrology. The rest of the work treats of 16 "sciences of the imagination," 8 "sciences of intellect," and 12 "sciences of memory." The book, now very rare, is well arranged, with a copious index, and is full of curious learning.