De Proprietatibus Rerum (On the Properties of Things) by Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

The manuscript is apparently of French provenance, of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, written on vellum in a small, but very clear and well formed book hand. It is a small copy (145 X 205 cm.), and originally consisted of eighty-one leaves bound together in eight gatherings (110, 2-612, 716, 83) . Unfortunately, the first two gatherings are now imperfect : the first has lost its first nine leaves, and the second its middle four leaves (i.e. there is a gap following f. 14 of the present text). There is very little decoration. Rubrics and headings are in red; and the initial letter or each chapter is either red or blue. It does not present a complete text of Bartholomeus. Rather, it contains selections from particular books. In its present, somewhat imperfect state, the manuscript includes selections from Books Three to Six inclusive, Books Eight to Fourteen inclusive, and Books Sixteen to Eighteen inclusive. And within particular books the material is usually rigorously selective. Such a selected text, whilst not unique, is not particularly common among surviving manuscripts of the De Proprietatibus Rerum. Clearly the intention of the scribe was to produce a compact, concise version of Bartholomeus, upon principles which are no longer clear. - [A.S.G. Edwards, University of Victoria]

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University of Victoria McPherson Library