Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/202

Rh 192 ENCYCLOPEDIA king of Bavaria, at Hersfeld in October 847, and was printed in 1473, foL, probably at Venice, and again at Strasburg by Mentelin about 1472-75, fol., 334 pages. Michael Constantine Psellus, the younger, wrote Ai8ao-/caA.ta TravToBaTrr/, dedicated to the emperor Michael Ducas, who reigned 1071-78. It was printed by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Grceca, 1712, vol. v., in 186 pages 4to and 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 Sg-tree becomes tender. As collation with a Turin MS. showed that 35 chapters were wanting, Harles has omitted the text in his edition of Fabricius, and gives only the titles of the chapters (x. 84-88). The author of the greatest encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages, Yincentius Bellovacensis, or Belvacensis, most pro bably a native of Beauvais or of the Beauvaisis, was a Dominican friar, called by Louis IX. of France, on his found ing Royaumont, a Cistercian monastery, in 1228, to fill the office of lector. He seems also to have been royal librarian, and Louis IX. paid for copying and buying many books for him. Fifteen different dates from 1240 to 1334 have been proposed for his death, but the most probable and the best supported by evidence seems to be 1264. His great work, called Bibliotheca mundi, or Speculum majus, quadriiplex, or triplex, is only the third part of what he had prepared and abridged &quot; ad fratrum preces et consilium prelati.&quot; The edition of 1624 contains 4327 folio pages of very small type. That the work excited great attention, and was much used at all times, is proved by the great number of MSS. in all libraries, of which nearly 80 have been described, though no general notice of them has been published. In his pro logue or general preface, which is prefixed to each of the three genuine parts, he says it is called Speculum bocause it briefly contains almost everything he could collect from innumerable books which is worthy of speculation, that is, of admiration or imitation, done or said in the visible and invisible world from the beginning to the end, and even future things. He was so anxious that the names of the authors quoted should not be lost or transposed in copying that he wrote them, not on the margin, but in the text itself, &quot; inter lineas ipsas sicut in decretis ; &quot; therefore Thomasius (De Plagio, 542-75) acquits him of plagiarism, because he represents his w.ork as a callection, and acknow ledges all quotations. The Speculum Majus describes first, natural things ; secondly, human doctrines, grammatical, literary, moral and political, includ ing jurisprudence, mathematics, and physics: thirdly, ancienthistory, sacred and profane, with modern history, civil, literary, and, above all, ecclesiastical. To these three genuine parts a fourth was added, called Speculum morale. The first part, Speculum natural e, finished in 1250, called in some MSS. Speculum in Hexameron, because arranged according to the order of the creation, contains 32 books and 3718 chapters. Book 1 treats of the creator and the angels ; 2 the sensible world and the work of the first day, including light, colours, and demons ; 3, second day, the firmament ; 5 to 14, the third day, book 5 waters, 6 the earth, 7 minerals and metals, 9-14 botany, containing eight alphabetical lists, aromatic plants (Absin thium to Erigeron) 198 names, cultivated plants (Abrotanum to Zinziber) 112 names, the others much shorter ; book 15, fourth day, astronomy and technical chronology ; book 16, fifth day, birds ; book 17 fishes (list of 98 names, including sepia, spongia), and marine monsters (45 names) ; books 18 to 22, sixth day, animals; 23 to 28, man ; 29, de universe, relating to the operations of the Creator since the creation, miracles, original sin, &c. The last three books form a sort of appendix : book 30, nature of things ; 31, natural history of human life; 32, places and times. The second part, Speculum doctrinnlc, contains 17 books and 2374 chapters ; book 1, the fall, studies, doctors, words, with an alphabetical dictionary of about 2300 words, Abavus to Zodia ; book 2, a very full gram mar, with 45 chapters on verbs ; book 3, logic, rhetoric, and poetry (with 29 fables) ; 4, 5, monastic science ; 6, economic science ; 7, politics ; 8, legal actions ; 9, 10, crimes ; 11, mechanical arts ; 12, practical medicine ; 13, 14, theoretic medicine ; 15, physics ; 16, mathematics, including metaphysics; 17, theology. Vincent had an accurate knowledge of Arabic figures and of the decimal nota tion, and his book was probably the.first written in France in which they were explained. He does not mention mechanics or optics by name. The third part, Speculum morale, is undoubtedly not by Vincent de Beauvais. It was written, according to Quetif, between 1310 and 1325, and is not mentioned in the prologue in any MS. written before 1310, in which the division of the work is said to be threefold, and the Speculum historiale is called the third part, and not the fourth, as it is in the later MSS. No MS. of the Speculum morale contains the prologue. It is divided into 3 books and 347 distinctions, subdivided into articles. Scholastic arguments are more frequent, authors rarely &quot;named, and contradictory doctrines placed together. It is chiefly taken from Peter de Tarentasia on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Stephen de Borbone on the Seven Gifts of the Spirit, Richard de Middleton, the anonymous De con- sideratione novissimorum, and, above all, from the Summa Thco- logia of Thomas Aquinas. The fourth part, Speculum historiale, in 31 books and 3793 chapters, contains a history of the world from the creation to 1254, with 24 chapters on the deatli of men, the end of the world, which he places with St Hildegard in 2376 A.D., the reign of Antichrist, the last judgment, and the renewal of the universe. In more ancient times his chief guides are Peter Comes- tor (died 1178) and the Cistercian Helinand (died 1223). He men tions Turpin as the principal historian of Charlemagne. No one, says Quetif, has written the history of his time with more accuracy and truth, and greater freedom from all flattery. Jacob Van Maer- lant translated this Speculum into Flemish verse, and continued it to 1273. A French translation was made by Jean de Vignay (a canon hospitaller of St Jacques du Hautpas, who died in 1341), at the request of Joanna of Burgundy, queen of Philip VI. of France, and printed by Verard, Paris, 1495-6, fol. 5 vols. Vincent de Beauvais has preserved several works of the Middle Ages, and gives extracts from many lost classics and valuable readings of others, and has done more than any other mediaeval writer to awaken a taste for classical literature. Fabricius (Bibl.^Grwca, 1728, xiv. pp. 107-25) has given a list of 328 authors, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Latin, quoted in the Speculum naturale. To these should be added about 100 more for the doctrinale and historiale. As he did not know Greek or Arabic, he used Latin translations. The best edition of the Speculum majus is the first, printed at Strasburg, by Mentelin, 14G9 ? to 1473, fol. 10 vols. The three Venice editions of 1484, 1493-4, and 1591, fol. 4 vols., are very imperfect and in correct. The last edition, Duaci, 1624, fol. 4 vois., by the Benedictines of St Vaast of Arras, is equally incorrect, and Vincent s readings of ancient texts are replaced by the current readings of the time. Brunette Latini of Florence (born 1230, died 1294), the master of Dante and Guido Cavalcanti, while an exile in France between 1260 and 1267, wrote in French Li Livres dou Tresor, in 3 books and 413 chapters. Book i. contains the origin of the world, the history of the Bible and of the foundation of governments, astronomy, geography, and lastly natural history, taken from Aristotle, Pliny, and the old French Bestiaries. The first part of Book ii., on morality, is from the Ethics of Aristotle, which Brunetto had translated into Italian. The second part is little more than a copy of the well-known collection of extracts from ancient and modern moralists, called the Moralities of the Philosophers, of which there are many MSS. in prose and verse. Book iii., on politics, begins with a treatise on rhetoric, chiefly from Cicero De Invention?., with many ex tracts from other writers and Brunetto s remarks. The last part, the most original and interesting of all, treats of the government of the Italian republics of the time. Like many of his contemporaries, Brunetto revised his work, so that there are two editions, the second made after liis return from exile. MSS. are singularly numerous, and exist in all the dialects then used in France. Others were written in Italy. It was translated into Italian in the latter part of the 13th century by Bono Giamboni, and was printed at Trevigi, 1474, fol. , Venice, 1528 and 1533. The Tesoro of Brunetto must not be confounded with his Tesoretto, an Italian poem of 2937 short lines. Napoleon I. had in-