Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 13th cent

De proprietatibus rerum

1482

1482

HC 2502*; BMC VIII 268; Goff B134; Kaplan 67; ISTC ib00134000; GW 3406

Shoults Special Collections) Fc/ 1482/ B

[Lyons]: Petrus Ungarus (Pierre Hongre), 21 November 1482, 'die vero nouembris XXI, 1482

Covers detached; spine cracked and broken.
Spine title reads: Barth Angl/ de/ Proprietat-/ rerum.

First page of text proper (Incipit), binding, colophon

Petrus Ungarus, a Hungarian, known in the vernacular as Pierre Hongre. The first known books signed by this printer are the Vocabularius Breviloquus (1482) and the above work, a possible reprint of the Philippi and Reinhardt 1480 edition. Between 1483 and 1491, Petrus disappears, and then reappears in Toulouse in the latter year. He is printing up to and including the year 1500. In the colophon of his books Petrus credits himself as 'a man greatly skilled in the printing art' ('magister'), yet by 1500 he was excused payment of taxes on the ground of poverty. (BMC VIII: li). Given this, he was somewhat enterprising. He supplied Greek type where it was required, instead of leaving spaces to be filled in by hand.

Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Bartholomew the Englishman) was a Franciscan friar who compiled Liber de proprietatibus rerum ('Over the Order of Things') around 1240. Its purpose was to help preachers and mendicant orders prepare sermons. It was translated into six languages and printed several times; the last edition in 1601. This work in nineteen books is an early forerunner of the encyclopedia and is one of the first reference books of the Middle Ages.

Paper. 256 (first and last blank), both wanting.
Gothic type; double columns; 275 x 185 mm (fol.).
F.2a - 'Incipit prohemiu de proprietatibus rerum fratris Bartholomei anglici d'ordine fratrum minorum'.
F. 255a - Colophon: 'Impressus per Petrum ongar. Sub anno domini. Millesimoqua dringentesimooctuagesimosecundo. die vero nouembris. xxi.'
Guide letters unpainted.

1. Previous owners blacked out on f.2a and f.3a.
2. Canon William Ardene Shoults
3. Selwyn College; Otago University Library