Vincentius Bellovacensis | Second edition of the first printed encyclopedia of natural history, summarizing medieval knowledge of the natural world

Vincentius Bellovacensis

Speculum naturale. Part I. [Strassburg: Printer of the Legenda aurea, not after December 1481]

Imperial Folio (468 x 326 mm). Gothic and roman type, 69 lines plus headline, text in double columns. Collation: [1–4¹⁰ 5–23⁸ 24–25¹⁰ 26–35⁸ 36¹⁰ 37⁸ 38¹⁰ 39⁸] (1/1 blank, 1/2r–23/6v Books 1 [comprising prologue and chapter headings of all books]—11, 24/1r Book 12, 26/1r–36/10r Books 13–17, 36/10v blank, 37/1r Book 18, 37/6v blank, 39/2r–8v Book 19 headings): 326 leaves (of 602, without blank 1/1 and 39/1, and lacking part II, containing Books 19 text 33, quires 40–74). Contemporary South-German decoration, 12-line magenta initial with white modelling on punched gold ground within a green fictive frame with foliate extensions, 10-line initial in blue with red Maiblumen decoration and extensions opening Book II; initials to Books 9–18 in red (initial spaces in Books 3–8 left blank), 3-line chapter initials alternating red and blue, red paragraph marks; small wormholes in text in first 18 quires, slightly heavier at end, illuminated initial rubbed. Contemporary German blind-stamped calf over wooden boards, two brass catchplates preserved; restored, rebacked.

Second edition of the Speculum naturale, the first printed encyclopedia of natural history. Compiled by the Dominican scholar Vincent of Beauvais (c.1190–1264) in the mid-thirteenth century, the Speculum sought to encompass all knowledge of the natural world as understood in Western Europe, treating cosmology, the four elements, plants, animals, and the anatomy and psychology of man. The Speculum was truly vast, encompassing thirty-two books and 3,718 chapters. Drawing on classical, Arabic, and scholastic sources, it participates in the long encyclopedic tradition rooted in Pliny’s Natural History, whose printed editions form a particular strength of the Yampol Library.

REFERENCES

BMC I, 880; Goff V-293; ISTC iv00293000

PROVENANCE

?Grey[...]-Issensis monastery (16th/17th-century inscription) — Christie’s London, 26 March 2003, lot 109