Medieval Encyclopedias, Bestiaries, Lapidaries, and Herbals

I. Encyclopedias

II. Bestiaries and Treatises on Animals

III. Lapidaries and Treatises on Stones

IV. Herbals and Treatises on Plants

I. Encyclopedias

Bibliographies and Surveys

Bibliographie générale courante sur l’encyclopédisme et le naturalisme médiévaux

Bibliographie sur l’encyclopédies médiéval (Atelier Vincent de Beauvais)

Jacques Berlioz, Identifier sources et citations, pp. 239-46.

Robert Collison, Encyclopedias: Their History throughout the Ages: A Bibliographical Guide … (New York, 1966). WorldCat 

Michel de Boüard, “Encyclopédies médiévales: Sur la ‘connaissance de la nature et du monde’ au moyen âge,” Revue des questions historiques 112 (1930), 258-304. WorldCat 

Benoît Beyer De Ryke, “Le miroir du monde: un parcours dans l’encyclopédisme médiéval,” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 81 (2003), 1243-75.

Forschungsliteratur zur Enzyclopädik (Allgemeinwissen und Gesellschaft)

John B. Friedman and Jessica M. Wegmann, Medieval Iconography: A Research Guide (New York, 1998), pp. 101-9. WorldCat 

Gregory G. Guzman, “Encyclopedias,” in Medieval Latin Studies, ed. Mantello and Rigg, pp. 702-7.

Christian Hünemörder, “Antike und mittelalterliche Enzyklopädien und die Popularisierung naturkundlichen Wissens,” Sudhoffs Archiv 65 (1981), 339-65. WorldCat 

Peter Jones, “The Medieval Encyclopedia: Science and Practice,” in The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London, 2005), pp. 297-303. WorldCat 

Pierre Michaud-Quantin, “Les petites encyclopédies du XIIIe siècle,” in La pensée encyclopédique au Moyen Âge(Neuchatel, 1966), pp 105-20. WorldCat 

Nadia Margolis, “Encyclopedias,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies, ed. Classen, 1767-74.

Christel Meier, “Encyclopedias,” in Transforming the Medieval World, ed. Franz J. Arlinghaus et al. (Turnhout, 2006), pp. 151-69. WorldCat 

Christel Meier, “Grundzüge der mittelalterlichen Enzyklopädik. Zu Inhalten, Formen und Funktionen einer problematischen Gattung,” in Literatur und Laienbildung im Spätmittelalter und in der Reformationszeit, ed. Ludger Grenzmann and Karl Stackmann (Stuttgart 1984), pp. 467-500. WorldCat 

Bernard Ribémont, “Repères bibliographiques sur les encyclopédies médiévales de l’Occident latin (XIIe-XVe s.),” Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 6 (1999) WorldCat 

M. W. Twomey, “Medieval Encyclopedias,” in Kaske, Medieval Christian Literary Imagery, pp. 182-215.

M. W. Twomey, “Encyclopedias,” in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. II: 1100-1400, ed. Nigel Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 244-49. WorldCat 

M. W. Twomey, “Towards a Reception History of Western Mediaeval Encyclopedias in England Before 1500,” in Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1-4 July 1996, ed. Peter Binkley (Leiden, 1997), pp. 329-62.

M. W. Twomey, “Medieval Encyclopedias in England Before 1500: A Preliminary List,” in Die Ezyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter zur Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Christel Meier, Münstersche Mittelalter-Forschungen (Munich, 2002), pp. 317-42. WorldCat 

M. W. Twomey, “Inventing the Encyclopedia,” in Alasdair A. McDonald and Michael W. Twomey, Schooling and Society: The Ordering and Reordering of Knowledge in the Western Middle Age (Leuven, 2004), pp. 73-92. WorldCat  Historiographical survey of the reception and publication history of medieval encyclopedias.  “No medieval encyclopedia is called an encyclopedia” (p. 74).

Bibliographies of Scholars

Isabelle Draelants

Christel Meier

Bernard Ribémont; see also Silvère Menegaldo, “Bernard Ribémont, Littérature et encyclopédies du Moyen Âge,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes (2002) 

Michael Twomey

Faith Wallis

Websites

Enzyklothek: Historische Nachschlagwerke.

SourcEncyMe (SOURCes des ENCYclopédies MEdiévales)

Spicae: Cahiers de l’Atelier Vincent de Beauvais

Encyclopédie (Arlima)

Medieval Encyclopedias (Ménestrel)

Allgemeinwissen und Gesellschaft: Enzyklopädien als Indikatoren für Veränderung der gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung von Wissen, Bildung und Information

Atelier Vincent de Beauvais: Encyclopédisme médiéval et Transmission des connaissances

Littératures savantes: Didactiques, Sciences, et techniques au Moyen Âge

Monographs

Bernard Ribémont, Littérature et encyclopédies du Moyen Age (Orléans, 2002). WorldCat 

Bernard Ribémont, Les origines des encyclopédies médiévales d’Isidore de Séville aux Carolingiens (Paris, 2001). WorldCat 

Mary Franklin-Brown, Reading the World: Encyclopedic Writing in the Scholastic Age (Chicago, 2012). WorldCat 

Olga Weijers, Dictionnaires et répertoires au moyen âge: une étude du vocabulaire (Turnhout, 1991). WorldCat 

Collections of Essays

Foundations of Learning: The Transfer of Encyclopaedic Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr. and Kees Dekker, Medievalia Groningana n.s. 9 (Leuven, 2007). WorldCat 

Practice in Learning: The Transfer of Encyclopaedic Knowledge in the Early Middle Age, ed. Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr. and Kees Dekker, Medievalia Groningana n.s. 16 (Leuven, 2010). WorldCat 

Fruits of Learning: The Transfer of Encyclopaedic Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr. and Kees Dekker, Medievalia Groningana n.s. 21 (Leuven, 2016). WorldCat 

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics and Objects, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Washington, D.C., 2012). WorldCat 

La Pensée encyclopédique au Moyen âge, ed. Maurice de Gandillac et al. (Neuchâtel, 1966). WorldCat 

L’enciclopedismo dall’Antichità al Rinascimento, ed. Clara Fossati (Genova, 2011). WorldCat 

The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy: Proceedings of the Bar-Ilan University Conference, ed. Steven Harvey (Dodrecht, 2000). WorldCat 

Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. Jason König and Greg Woolf (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 301-24. WorldCat 

Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1-4 July 1996, ed. Peter Binkley  (Leiden, 1997). WorldCat 

Schooling and Society: The Ordering and Reordering of Knowledge in the Western Middle Age, ed. Alasdair A. McDonald and Michael W. Twomey (Leuven, 2004). WorldCat 

Christel Meier, Die Enzyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter bis zur frühen Neuzeit, Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 78 (Munich, 2002). WorldCat 

La Compilación del saber en la Edad Media / La Compilation du savoir au Moyen Âge / The Compilation of Knowledge in the Middle Ages, ed. María José Muñoz, Patricia Cañizares, and Cristina Martín, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge 69 (Turnhout, 2013). WorldCat 

L’enciclopedismo medioevale, ed. Michelangelo Picone (Ravenna, 1994). WorldCat 

Wissenssicherung, Wissensordnung und Wissensverarbeitung: Das europäische Modell der Enzyklopädien, ed. Theo Stammen and Wolfgang E. J. Weber (Berlin, 2004). WorldCat 

 

Some Basic Reference Works on Medieval Science and Medicine

History of Science, Technology and Medicine (EBSCO database). Incorporates the Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science, theCurrent Bibliography in the History of Technology, the Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza and the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.

ISIS Cumulative Bibliography 1913-1975.  See esp. Volume 4: Civilizations and Periods: Prehistory to Middle Ages; Volume 5: Civilizations and Periods: 15th to 19th Centuries.

ISIS: A Journal of the History of Science Society

Claudia Kren, Medieval Science and Technology: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1985). WorldCat 

Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, ed. Thomas F. Glick, Steven J. Livesey, and Faith Wallis (New York, 2005). WorldCat 

The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 2: Medieval Science, ed. David C. Lindberg and Michael H. Shank(Cambridge, 2013). WorldCat 

Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols. (New York, 1935-58). WorldCat 

Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, Medieval Academy Publications 29, rev. ed. (Cambridge MA, 1963). WorldCat  Searchable via the online Voigts-Kurz Search Program.

Theodore Silverstein, Medieval Latin Scientific Writings in the Barberini Collection: A Provisional Catalogue (Chicago, 1957). WorldCat  Indicates which incipits are not in Thorndike-Kibre.

Jordanus: An International Catalogue of Scientific Manuscripts.  Can be browsed and searched by author, title, incipit, explicit, contents.

Edward Grant, “Medieval Science and Natural Philosophy,” in Medieval Studies: An Introduction., 2nd. ed., ed. James M. Powell (Syracuse NY, 1992), pp. 353-75.

Edward Grant, A Sourcebook in Medieval Science (Cambridge MA, 1974). Table of Contents. WorldCat 

Edward Grant, Physical Sciences in the Middle Ages (Cambridge MA, 1977). WorldCat 

Science in Western and Eastern Civilisation in Carolingian Times, ed. P. Butzer and D. Lohrmann (Basel, 1993). WorldCat 

Charlemagne and His Heritage: 1200 Years of Civilisation and Science in Europe, 2 vols., ed. P. Butzer, M. Kernerand W. Oberschelp (Turnhout, 1997). WorldCat 

Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA 1963). WorldCat Searchable via the online Voigts-Kurz Search Program.

Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (Ann Arbor MI, 2000). WorldCat 

Bibliography of Charles Burnett

For catalogues of medieval scientific manuscripts, see the separate bibliography on Medieval and Modern Manuscript Catalogues.

Medicine:

Peter Murray Jones, “Medieval Medicine,” Oxford Bibliographies: The Middle Ages

Corpus Medicorum Latinorum

Sabbah de Guy, Pierre-Paul Corsetti and Klaus-Dietrich Fischer, Bibliographie des textes medicaux latins: antiquité et haut moyen âge, (Saint-Etienne, 1987). WorldCat .  With a Second Supplement by Klaus-Dietrich Fischer (2000).

Galeno: Catalogo delle traduzioni latine di Galeno

D. Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages (London, 1926). WorldCat 

Some Major Latin Encyclopedists and Encyclopedias

Direct links to online manuscripts of these and many other medieval encyclopedias can be found at Enzyklothek: Historische Nachschlagwerke.

Albertus Magnus

I. M. Resnick and K. F. Kitchell, Jr., Albert the Great: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (1900-2000), Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 269 (Tempe AZ, 2004).

Bruno Tremblay, “Modern Scholarship (1900-2000) on Albertus Magnus: A Complement,” Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter 11 (2006), 159-94.

Jörgen Vijgen, Albertus Magnus: A Selective Bibliography (2012)

Winfridus Fauser, Codices manuscripti operum Alberti Magni, pars 1. Opera genuina, Alberti Magni Opera omnia. Tomus subsidiarius 1 (Münster i. W., 1982).

Jörgen Vijgen, “Albertus Magnus: A Selective Bibliography”

Albertus Magnus (Arlima)

Alberts Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays 1980, ed. James A. Weisheipl (Toronto, 1980). WorldCat 

Opera:

James A. Weisheipl, “Appendix I: Albert’s Works on Natural Sciences (libri naturales) in Probable Chronological Order,” in Albertus Magnus and the Sciences, ed. Weisheipl, pp. 565-77.

Alberti Magni e-Corpus. See “Downloading .pdfs of Albertus Mangus’ Works”; “Searching the Alberti Magni e-Corpus”

Alberti Magni ordinis fratrum praedicatorum episcopi, Opera omnia, 40 vols., ed. Bernhardo Geyer et al. (Münster, 1951- ).

Winfried Fauser, Die Werke des Albertus Magnus in ihrer handschriftlichen Überlieferung, Codices manuscripti operum Alberti Magni, Tomas subsidiarius 1: Teil 1. Die echten Werke = Pars I. Opera genuina (Münster, 1982).

Beati Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, ed. Auguste Borgnet (Paris, 1890-99). WorldCat 

De animalibus:

Albertus Magnus, De animalibus libri XXVI. Nach der Cölner Handschrift Urschrift, 2 vols., ed. Hermann Stadler, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters 15-16 (Münster, 1916-20). Libri I-XII; Libri XIII-XXVI. WorldCat 

On Animals: A Medieval Summa Zoologica, 2 vols., trans. Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr. and Irven Michael Resnick(Baltimore MD, 1999). WorldCat 

Quaestiones super de animalibus:

Albert the Great, Questions concerning Aristotle’s On Animals, trans. Irven M. Resnick and Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., Fathers of the Church, Medieval Continuation 9 (Washington, D.C., 2008). WorldCat 

Baudoin van den Abeele, “Le ‘De animalibus’ d’Aristote dans le monde latin: modalités de sa réception médiévale,” Frühmittelalterliche Studien 33 (1999), 287-318. WorldCat 

Liber de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium (Liber aggregationis):

Isabelle Draelants, Le Liber de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium (Liber aggregationis): Un texte à succès attribué à Albert le Grand (Florence, 2007). WorldCat 

The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus: Of the Virtues of Herbs, Stones, and Certain Beasts, Also a Book of the Marvels of the World, ed. Michael R. Best and Frank H. Brightman (Boston, 1999). WorldCat 

De vegetabilibus, ed. E. Meyer and C. Jessen (Berlin, 1867). WorldCat 

Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, trans. Dorothy Wyckoff (Cambridge, 1967). WorldCat 

Liber de causis proprietatum elementorum:

Albert the Great, On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements (Liber de causis proprietatum elementorum) trans. Irven M. Resnick, Mediaeval Philosophical Texts in Translation 46 (Milwaukee, 2010). WorldCat 

De natura locorum:

Jean Paul Tilman, An Appraisal of the Geographical Works of Albertus Magnus and His Contributions to Geographical Thought, Michigan geographical publication no. 4 (Ann Arbor MI, 1971). Includes a translation of De natural locorum. WorldCat 

Alexander Neck(h)am
 
De naturis rerum:

Alexander Neckham. De naturis rerum, ed. Thomas Wright, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores [Rolls Series] 34 (London, 1863). WorldCat 

Alexander Neckam (1157-1217): The Natures of Things, ed. and trans. Faith Wallis, British Writers of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (forthcoming). WorldCat

Tomás Zahora, Nature, Virtue, and the Boundaries of Encyclopaedic Knowledge: The Tropological Universe of Alexander Neckam (1157-1217) (Turnhout, 2014). WorldCat 

Alexander Neckam (Arlima).

Suppletio defectuum:

Alexandri Neckam Suppletio defectuum: Carmina minora, ed. Peter Hochgürtel, CCCM 221 (Turnhout, 2008). WorldCat 

Suppletio defectuum, Book I: Alexander Neckam on Plants, Birds and Animals: A Supplement to the Laus sapientie divine, ed. and trans. Christopher James McDonough (Florence, 1999). WorldCat 

Arnoldus Saxo
De finibus rerum naturalium:

Arnoldus Saxo, De finibus rerum naturalium, ed. Emil Stange, Die Enzyklopädie des Arnoldus Saxo, (Erfurt, 1907).

Arnoldus Saxo presbyter, De finibus rerum naturalium (Repertorium “Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters”)

Isabelle Draelants, “Introduction à l’étude d’Arnoldus Saxo et aux sources du ‘De floribus rerum naturalium’,” in Die Enzyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter bis zur frühen Neuzeit. Akten des Kolloquiums (29.11.-01.12.1996), ed. Christel Meier (Münster, 2002), pp. 85-121. WorldCat 

Isabelle Draelants, “Arnolde de Saxe” (Atelier Vincent de Beauvais)

Arnoldus Saxo (Arlima).

Bartholomeus Anglicus
De proprietatibus rerum:

Bartholomäus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum.  Texte latin et recéption vernaculaire; Lateinischer Text und volkssprachige Rezeption, ed. Baudouin van den Abeele and Heinz Meyer (Turnhout, 2006). WorldCat 

Bartholomeus Anglicus, De rerum proprietatibus (1535); other early prints: (1495) WorldCat .

John Trevisa, On the Properties of Things: John Trevisa’s Translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum, 3 vols., ed. M. C. Seymour et al. (Oxford, 1975-88). WorldCat 

Batman Uppon Bartholome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum (London, 1582) WorldCat .  Under “View this document as” select “Full text” to get a complete transcription.

Medieval Lore from Bartholomaeus Anglicus, ed. Robert Steele

Bartholomeus Anglicus On the Properties of Soul and Body: De proprietatibus rerum libri III et IV, ed. R. James Long(Toronto, 1979), WorldCat 

Juris G. Lidaka, Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ De proprietatibus rerum, Book XIX, Chapters on Mathematics, Measures, and Music: A Critical Edition of the Latin Text in England (PhD diss., Northern Illinois Univ., 1987), WorldCat .

Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum, Vol. I: Introduction, Prologue, et Livres I-IV, ed. B. van den Abeele, H. Meyer, M. W. Twomey, B. Roling, and R. J. Long, De Diversis Artibus 78 (Turnhout, 2007), WorldCat .

Heinz Meyer, Die Enzyklopädie des Bartholomäus Angelicus: Untersuchungen zur Überlieferungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte von De proprietatibus rerum (Munich, 2000). WorldCat 

Elizabeth Keen, Journey of a Book: Bartholomew the Englishman and the Properties of Things (Canberra, 2007). WorldCat 

Michael C. Seymour, et al., Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his Encyclopedia (Aldershot, 1992), WorldCat .

Bartholelemy of England (Arlima)

Medieval Bestiary entry

Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum. Exploitation des notes marginales

Barthélemy l’Anglais, XIIIe siècle: Le premier des encyclopédistes

Bede
De natura rerum:

Bede, De natura rerum, ed. C. W. Jones, Bedae Venerabilis Opera Didascalica, CCSL 123A (Turnhout, 1975), pp. 173-234.  Also in PL 90, 187-278. WorldCat 

Bede: On the Nature of Things and On Times, trans. Calvin Kendall and Faith Wallis, Translated Texts for Historians 56 (Liverpool, 2010). WorldCat 

Faith Wallis, “Bede’s ‘Science’,” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede, ed. Scott DeGregorio (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 113-26. WorldCat 

Líam Benison, “Early Medieval Science: The Evidence of Bede,” Endeavour 24 (2000), 111-16.

Pseudo-Bede
De mundi celestis terrestrisque constitutione:

Pseudo-Bede, De mundi celestis terrestrisque constitutione: A Treatise on the Universe and the Soul, ed. Charles Burnett, Warburg Institute Studies and Texts 10 (London, 1985). WorldCat 

Brunetto Latini
Tresor:

Brunetto Latini, Tresor, ed. Pietro G. Beltrami et al. (Turin, 2007). WorldCat 

Li Livres dou Trésor, ed. Francis J. Carmody, University of California Publications in Modern Philology 22 (Berkeley CA, 1948). WorldCat 

Brunetto Latini, Li Livres dou Tresor, ed. Spurgeon Baldwin and Paul Barette (Tempe AZ, 2003). WorldCat  

The Book of the Treasure (Li Livres dou Trésor, trans. Spurgeon Baldwin and Paul Barette (New York, 1993). WorldCat 

P. A. Messelaar, Le vocabulaire des idées dans le Trésor de Brunet Latin (Assen, 1963). WorldCat 

Brunetto Latini (Arlima)

Compendium philosophiae

Michel de Boüard, Une nouvelle encyclopédie médiévale: le “Compendium philosophiae” (Paris, 1936). WorldCat 

Compendium philosophiae (Arlima)

Honorius Augustodunensis

Karl Kinsella and Lesley Smith, “Honorius Augustodunensis,” Oxford Bibliographies: The Middle Ages.

Honorius Augustodunensis (Arlima)

Imago Mundi:

Honorius Augustodunensis. Imago mundi, ed. Valerie Flint, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 49 (1982), 7-153. WorldCat 

Caxton’s Mirrour of the World, ed. Oliver H. Prior, Early English Text Society, e.s. 110 (London, 1913). WorldCat 

Honorius Augustodunensis, Imago mundi (Repertorium “Geschictsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters”)

Hrabanus Maurus

Susana Bullido del Barrio, “Hrabanus Maurus-Bibliographie (1979-2009),” in Hrabanus Maurus in Fulda, ed. Marc-Aeilko Aris and Susana Bullido del Barrio (Frankfurt a.M., 2010), pp. 255-332. WorldCat 

Raymund Kottje, Verzeichnis der Handschriften mit den Werken des Hrabanus Maurus, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Hilfsmittel 27 (Hannover, 2012). WorldCat 

De rerum naturis (De universo):

Hrabanus Maurus, De universo  [= De rerum naturis], PL 111, 9-614.

Hrabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis (William Schipper).  Book 8 (animals); Book 17 (minerals and stones); Book 19(plants);

Hrabanus Maurus, De universo: The Pecular Properties of Words and Their Mystical Significance, 2 vols., trans. Priscilla Throop (Charlotte VT, 2009). WorldCat 

Elisabeth Heyse, Hrabanus Maurus Enzyklopädie “De rerum naturis“: Untersuchungen zu den Quellen und zur Methode der Kompilation, Münchener Beiträge zur Mediävistik und Renaissance-Forschung 4 (Munich, 1969). WorldCat 

Diane O. le Berrurier, The Pictorial Sources of Mythological and Scientific Illustrations in Hrabanus Maurus’ De rerum naturis (New York. 1978). WorldCat 

Guglielmo Cavallo, L’universo medievale: il manoscritto cassinese del De rerum naturis di Rabano Mauro (Turin, 1996). WorldCat 

Mechthild Dreyer, “Enzyklopädie und Wissensraum: De rerum naturis des Hrabanus Maurus,” Archa Verbi 4 (2007), pp. 127-41. WorldCat 

William Schipper, “Rabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis: A Provisional Checklist of Manuscripts,” Manuscripta 33 (1989) 109-118. WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

“Hrabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis” (Repertorium “Geschictsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters”)

Isidore of Seville

J. N. Hillgarth, “The Position of Isidorian Studies, a Critical Review of the Literature since 1935,” in Isidoriana: colección de estudios sobre Isidoro de Sevilla, publicados con la ocasión del XIV centenario de su nacimiento, ed. Manuel Díaz y Díaz (León, 1961), pp. 11-74. WorldCat 

J. N. Hillgarth, “The Position of Isidorian Studies, a Critical Review of the Literature 1935-1975,” Studi medievali, 3rd ser. 24 (1983), 817-905. WorldCat 

Jacques Elfassi, Bibliographie sur Isidor de Séville (to 2011).

Jacques Elfassi, “Chronique Isisorienne,” Eruditio Antiqua 2 (2010), 165-87. WorldCat 

Jacques Elfassi, “Chronique isidorienne II (2010-2011),” Eruditio Antiqua 4 (2012), 19-63. WorldCat 

Jacques Elfassi, “Chronique isidorienne III (2012-2013),” Eruditio Antique 6 (2014), 39-87. WorldCat 

Isidore of Seville and His Reception in the Early Middle Ages: Transmitting and Transforming Knowledge, ed. Jamie Wood and Andrew Fear , Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia 2 (Amsterdam, 2016).

La réception d’Isidore de Séville durant le Moyen Âge tardif (XIIe-XVe s.), ed. Jacques Elfassi and Bernard Ribémont, Cahiers de recherches médiévales, 16 (Ouzouer-le-Marche, 2008). WorldCat 

Bernhard Bischoff, “Die europäische Verbreitung der Werke Isidors von Sevilla,” in Bischoff, Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte 1 (Stuttgart, 1966), pp. 171-94.

Jacques Verger, “Isidore de Séville dans les universités médiévales,” in L’Europe héritière de l’Espagne wisigothique. Colloque international du C.N.R.S. tenu à la Fondation Singer-Potignac (Paris, 14-16 mai 1990), ed. Jacques Fontaineand Christine Pellistrandi (Madrid, 1992), pp. 259-67.

Isabelle Draelants, “Encyclopédies et lapidaires médiévaux : la durable autorité d’Isidore de Séville et de ses Étymologies,” Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales 16 (2008), 39-91. WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Isidore of Seville (Arlima)

Etymologiae:

Isidore of Seville. Etymologiae, ed. W. M. Lindsay, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1911). WorldCat 

San Isidro de Sevilla, Etimologías, 2 vols., ed. J. O. Reta and M.-A. Marcos Casquero (Madrid, 1982-83). WorldCat 

Isidore de Séville, Etymologias, gen. ed. Jacques Fontaine and Yves Lefèvre, Auteurs latins du Moyen Âge (1981- ).

The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, trans. Stephen A. Barney (Cambridge, 2006). WorldCat 

De natura rerum:

Isidore of Seville. De natura rerum: Isidore de Séville, Traité de la nature, ed. Jacques Fontaine (Bordeaux, 1960; repr. 2002). WorldCat ; also in PL 83, 963-1018.

Isidore of Seville, On the Nature of Things, trans. Faith Wallis and Calvin Kendall, Translated Texts for Historians 56 (Liverpool, 2016). WorldCat 

Pseudo-Isidore
Liber de ordine creaturarum:

Liber De ordine creaturarum. Un anónimo irlandés del siglo VII, ed. Manuel Díaz y Díaz (Santiago de Compostela, 1972). WorldCat  Also in PL 83, 913-53.

Marina Smyth, “The Seventh-Century Hiberno-Latin Treatise Liber de ordine creaturarum. A Translation,” The Journal of Medieval Latin 21 (2011), 137-222. WorldCat 

James le Palmer
 
Omne bonum:

James le Palmer, Omne bonum: A Fourteenth-century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge: British Library MSS Royal 6 E VI, 2 vols., ed. Lucy Freeman Sandler (London, 1996). WorldCat 

James le Palmer (Arlima)

Lambert de St. Omer
 
Liber Floridus:

The Liber Floridus (Universiteitsbiblioteek Gent). Includes a Bibliography.

Lambert de St Omer, Liber Floridus (Wolfenbüttel manuscript)

Lamberti S. Audomari canonici, Liber Floridus codex autographus bibliothecae universitatis Gandavensis, red. A. Derolez (Gent, 1968).

Albert Derolez, The Autograph Manuscript of the Liber Floridus. A Key to the Encyclopedia of Lambert of Saint-Omer, Corpus Christianorum; Autographa medii aevi 4 (Turnhout, 1998). WorldCat 

Lambert de St. Omer (Arlima)

Medieval Bestiary entry

Liber glossarum

“Excerpta ex Libro glossarum,” in Placidus, Liber glossarum, Glossaria reliqua, ed. Georg Goetz, (Leipzig, 1894), pp. 159-255. [partial] WorldCat 

Glossarium Ansileubi sive Librum glossarum, ed. W. M. Lindsay et al., Glossaria Latina 1 (Paris, 1926). [partial] WorldCat 

The Liber glossarum, saec. VIII:  A Digital Edition.  Edition currently accessible only to project members, but links are provided to digital facsimiles of three manuscripts.

Le Liber glossarum (s. VII-VIII) : Composition, sources, réception: Actes du colloque “Libgloss2016 : Le Liber glossarum (s. VII-VIII). Sources, composition, réception” 25-27 mai 2016 (Paris), ed. Anne Grondeux, Dossier d’HEL 10.

David Ganz, “The Liber Glossarum: A Carolingian Encyclopedia,” in Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times, ed. D. Lohrmann et P. L. Butzer (Basel, 1993) pp. 127-38. WorldCat 

Paolo Gatti, “Liber glossarum,” in La trasmissione dei testi latini del medioevo. Mediaeval Latin Texts and their Transmission. TE.TRA. I (Florence, 2004), pp. 264-67. WorldCat 

Macrologus

Baudouin van den Abeele, “The Macrologus of Liège. An Encyclopedic Lexicon at the Dawn of Humanism,” in Schooling and Society. The Ordering and Reordering of Knowledge in the Western Middle Ages, ed. Alasdair MacDonald and Michael W. Twomey (Leuven, 2004), pp. 43-60. WorldCat 

Macrologus (Arlima)

Pliny the Elder
Historia naturalis:

Natural History, 10 vols., ed. and trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (London, l938). WorldCat 

La naturalis historia di Plinio nella tradizione medievale et umanistica, ed. Vanna Maraglino, Biblioteca della tradizione classica 3 (Bari, 2012).

Lilian Armstrong, “The Illustration of Pliny’s Historia naturalis: Manuscripts before 1430,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 46 (1983), 19-39. WorldCat 

L. D. Reynolds, “The Elder Pliny,” in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D. Reynolds(Oxford, 1983), pp. 307-16. WorldCat 

Marjorie Chibnall, “Pliny’s ‘Natural History’ and the Middle Ages,” in Empire and Aftermath: Silver Latin II, ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1973), pp. 57-78. WorldCat 

A. Doody, Pliny’s Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History (Cambridge, 2010). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Solinus
Collectanea rerum memorabilium:

Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. Theodor Mommsen, C. Iulii Solini Collectanea rerum memorabilium, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1895). WorldCat 

Solinus, Wunder der Welt: Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. and trans. Kai Brodersen (Darmstadt, 2014). WorldCat 

H. Walter, Die ‘Collectanea rerum memorabilium’ des C. Iulius Solinus, ihre Entstehung und die Echtheit ihre Zweitfassung (Wiesbaden, 1969). WorldCat 

R. H. Rouse, “Solinus,” in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D. Reynolds (Oxford, 1983), pp. 391-93. WorldCat 

Solinus: New Studies, ed. Kai Brodersen (Heidelberg, 2014). Includes Brodersen‘s “A Survey of the Contents of Solinus’ Work,” pp. 196-200 and “A Revised Handlist of Manuscripts transmitting Solinus’ Work,” pp. 201-8. WorldCat 

Thomas of Cantimpré
 
 
Liber de natura rerum:

Thomas of Cantimpré. Thomas Cantimpratensis, Liber de natura rerum (Munich, Clm 3206); vol. 1, ed. Helmut Boese(Berlin, 1973), WorldCat 

“Thomas of Cantimpré. De naturis rerum. Prologue, Book III and Book XIXX,” ed. John B. Friedman, Cahiers d’études médiévales II. La science de la nature: théories et pratiques (Montreal, 1974), pp. 107-54. WorldCat 

For Book XIV De lapidibus pretiosis see below under Lapidaries.

Thomas de Cantimpré (Arlima)

Vincent of Beauvais
 
Speculum quadruplex:

Vincent of Beauvais, Bibliotheca mundi (Speculum quadruplex) (Douai, 1624; repr. Graz, 1964); Speculum naturale(Strassburg, not after 1476), vol. 1, table of contents begins p. 12b; vol. 2 WorldCat ; Speculum doctrinale (Strassburg, ca. 1477); Speculum historiale, WorldCat , WorldCat , Speculum morale (Cologne, 1477) WorldCat .

Vincent of Beauvais (Arlima)

Atélier Vincent de Beauvais

A Viincent of Beauvais Website.  Includes an extensive Bibliography.

E. Albrecht, “The Organization of Vincent of Beauvais’ Speculum maius and of Some Other Latin Encyclopedias,” in The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy: Proceedings of the Bar-Ilan University Conference, ed. S. Harvey, Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought 7 (Dordrecht, 2000), pp. 46-57 and 71-74.  WorldCat 

J. B. Voorbij, “Purpose and Audience: Perspectives on the Thirteenth-Century Encyclopedias of Alexander Neckam, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Thomas of Cantimpré and Vincent of Beauvais,” in The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias, ed. Harvey, pp. 31-45. WorldCat 

Iolanda Ventura, “Die moralisierten Enzyklopädien des späteren Mittelalters: ein Überblick unter Berücksichtigung der Fallbeispiele des “Lumen Anime”, des “Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum” und des “Liber Similitudinum Naturalium”

II. Bestiaries and Treatises on Animals

Bibliographies

John B. Friedman and Jessica M. Wegmann, Medieval Iconography: A Research Guide (New York, 1998). WorldCat  See the sections “Animals in Bestiaries and the Physiologus as Sources of Imagery” (pp. 249-60); “Animals in General” (pp. 260-71); “Animals, Land / Marine” with citations for specific animals (pp. 271-302); “Birds” (pp. 302-14).

“animaliter” – Bibliographie-Datenbank des Projekts “Tiere in der Literatur des Mittelalters. Ein interdisziplinäres Lexikon”. Includes the following Bibliographies:  I: Tiere im Mittelalter; II:  Tiere in Tierallegorese und Tierkunde; III: Tierdichtung; IV: Tiere in nicht-tierebestimmter Literatur; V: Tiere; VI: Quellen.

Bestiary Bibliography (The Aberdeen Bestiary)

Medieval Animal-Data Network: Multidisciplinary Research on Medieval Animals

The Medieval Bestiary. Includes a list of bestiary manuscripts.

Renee Ward, “Bestiaries, Aviaries, Physiologus,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies, ed. Classen, II, 1634-42.

Some General Studies

David Badke, “Bestiary Families,” Medieval Bestiary:  Latin; French; Other.

Book of Beasts in the British Library: The Medieval Bestiary and its Contexts.  [Additional 11283; Additional 24097; Cotton Vitellius D. i; Harley 3244; Harley 4751; Royal 2 C. xii; Royal 10 A. vii; Royal 12 C. xix; Royal 12 F. xiii; Sloane 3544]

Willene Clark and Meradith T. McMunn, Birds and Beasts of the Middle Ages: the Bestiary and its Legacy(Philadelphia, 1989), WorldCat With an Appendix, “Manuscripts of Western Medieval Bestiary Versions,” pp. 197-203.

Florence McCulloch, Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries, rev. ed. (Chapel Hill NC, 1962). WorldCat  Includes extensive bibliography.

L’Animal exemplaire au moyen âge (Ve-XVe siècle), ed. Jacques Berlioz et Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu with Pascal Collomb (Rennes, 1999). WorldCat 

Animals in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, ed Nona C. Flores (New York, 1996). WorldCat 

Wilma B. George and Brunsdon Yapp, The Naming of the Beasts: Natural History in the Medieval Bestiary (London, 1991). WorldCat 

Robert M. Grant, Early Christians and Animals (New York, 1999). WorldCat 

Debra Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology (Cambridge, 1995). WorldCat 

Debra Hassig, The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature (New York, 2000). WorldCat 

Nikolaus Henkel, Studien zum Physiologus im Mittelalter (Tübingen, 1976). WorldCat 

Francis Klingender, Animals in Art and Thought to the End of the Middle Ages, ed. E Antal and J. Harthan (Cambridge MA, 1971). WorldCat 

Friedrich Lauchert, Geschichte der Physiologus (Strassburg, 1889). WorldCat 

Jill Mann, From Aesop to Reynard: Beast Literature in Medieval Britain (Oxford, 2009). WorldCat 

Kara L. McShane, An Arthurian Bestiary

Ann Payne, Medieval Beasts (London, 1990). WorldCat 

Ben E. Perry, “Physiologus,” Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 20/1 (Stuttgart, 1941), cols. 1074-1129. WorldCat 

Beryl Rowland, Animals with Human Faces: A Guide to Animal Symbolism (Knoxville TN, 1973). WorldCat 

Joyce E. Salisbury, Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (New York, 2011). WorldCat 

Bestiaires médiévaux: nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles: communications présentées au XVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne (Louvain-la-Neuve, 19-22.8.2003), ed. Baudouin van den Abeele (Louvain-la-Neuve, 2005). WorldCat 

Jan Ziolkowski, Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750-1150 (Philadelphia, 1993). WorldCat 

Critical Animal Studies

Susan Crane, Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain (Philadelphia, 2013). WorldCat 

Susan Crane, “Medieval Animal Studies: Dogs at Work,”

Animal Studies Bibliography

The Animal Turn, special issue, postmedieval 2/1 (2011). WorldCat 

“Symposium: Animal Methodologies,” New Medieval Literatures 12 (2010). WorldCat 

Linda Kalof and Brigitte Pohl-Resl, A Cultural History of Animals, vol. 2: The Medieval Age (Chicago, 2007). WorldCat 

The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings, ed. Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald (Oxford, 2007). WorldCat 

Karl Steel, How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages (Columbus OH, 2011). WorldCat 

Bruce Holsinger, “Of Pigs and Parchment: Medieval Studies and the Coming of the Animal,” PMLA 124 (2009), 616-23.

Some Major Bestiaries and Treatises on Animals

By Author/Title

Albertus Magnus

See above under “Some Major Encyclopedias and Encyclopedists”

 
Pseudo-Albertus Magnus
 
Libellus de natura animalium:

Libellus de natura animalium: A Fifteenth-century Bestiary Reproduced in Facsimile, introd. J. I. Davis (London, 1958). WorldCat 

Pseudo-Chrysostom
 
 
Dicta Chrysostomi:

“Dicta Joh. Crisostomi de naturis bestiarum,” ed. G. Heider, Archiv für Kunde Österreichischer Geschichts-Quellen 5 (1850), 523-82. WorldCat 

Samuel A. Ives and Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, An English 13th Century Bestiary: A New Discovery in the Technique of Medieval Illumination (New York, 1942). WorldCat  Harvard, Houghton Library MS Typ 101 or “Kraus Bestiary.”

Medieval Bestiary entry

Conradus de Mure/Konrad von Mure
 
Libellus de naturis animalium:

Konrad von Mure. De naturis animalium, ed. A. P. Orbán, Editiones Heidelbergenses 23 (Heidelberg, 1989). WorldCat 

Conradus de Mure, Libellus de naturis animalium (Repertorium “Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters”).

Guillaume le Clerc
 
Le bestiaire:

List of Manuscripts (Medieval Bestiary)

Das Thierbuch des normanischen Dichters Guillaume le Clerc, ed. Robert Reinsch (Leipzig, 1892) WorldCat 

Le Bestiaire divin de Guillaume Clerc de Normandie, trouvere du XIIIe siècle, ed. C. Hippeau, Collecitons de poetes français du Moyen Age 1 (Caen, 1852; rep. Geneva, 1970). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Hugh of Folieto

Medieval Bestiary entry

Aviarium:

List of Manuscripts (Medieval Bestiary)

The Medieval Book of Birds, ed. Willene B. Clark (Binghamton NY, 1992). WorldCat 

Samuel A. Ives and Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, An English 13th Century Bestiary: A New Discovery in the Technique of Medieval Illumination (New York, 1942). WorldCat  Harvard, Houghton Library MS Typ 101 or “Kraus Bestiary.”

Isidore of Seville
Etymologiae XII, De animalibus:

Isidore de Séville, Etymologies Livre XII: Des animaux, 2nd ed., ed. and trans. Jacques André, Auteurs latins du Moyen Âge (Paris, 2012). WorldCat 

Northumberland Bestiary (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 100; olim Alnwick Castle)

Digital Facsimile (partial). Getty site includes a bibliography.

A Thirteenth-Century Bestiary in the Library of Alnwick Castle, ed. Eric Millar, Roxburghe Club (Oxford, 1958). WorldCat 

Cynthia White, From the Ark to the Pulpit: An Edition and Translation of the “Transitional” Northumberland Bestiary (13th century) (Louvain-la-Neuve, 2009). WorldCat 

Physiologus

Physiologus Latinus, éditions préliminaires, versio B, ed. F. J. Carmody (Paris, 1939). WorldCat 

Physiologus: The Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants and Animals, trans. Francis J. Carmody (San Francisco, 1953). WorldCat 

“Physiologus Versio Y,” ed. Francis J. Carmody, Univ. of California Publications in Classical Philology 12/7 (1941), 95-134; trans. Michael J. Curley (Austin TX, 1979). WorldCat 

Physiologus Bernensis: Voll-Faksimile Ausgabe des Codex Bongarsianus 318 der Burgerbibliothek Bern, ed. Christoph Steiger and Otto Hamburger (Basel, 1964). WorldCat 

Novus phisiologus: nach Hs. Darmstadt 2780, ed. A. P. Orbán (Leiden, 1989). WorldCat 

Theobaldi “Physiologus,” ed. and trans. P. T. Eden (Leiden, 1972). WorldCat 

The Old English Physiologus, ed. Ann Squires, Durham Medieval Texts 5 (Durham, 1988). WorldCat 

The Middle English Physiologus, ed. Hanneke Wirtjes, EETS o.s. 209 (London, 1991). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

The Peterborough Bestiary

The Peterborough Bestiary, ed. Christopher de Hamel, Lucy Freeman Sandler (Luzern, 2001).

A Peterborough Psalter and Bestiary of the Fourteenth Century, ed. M. R. James, Roxburghe Club (Oxford, 1921). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Philippe de Thaun
Bestiaire:

List of Manuscripts (Medieval Bestiary)

Philippe de Thaun, Le bestiare de Philippe de Thaun, ed. Emmanuel Walberg (Lund, 1900). WorldCat 

Pierre de Beauvais
Bestiaire:

List of Manuscripts (Medieval Bestiary)

Pierre de Beauvais, Le bestiaire de Pierre de Beauvais, version courte, ed. Guy R. Mermier (Paris, 1977). WorldCat 

A Medieval Book of Beasts: Pierre de Beauvais’ Bestiary, trans. Guy R. Mermier (Lewiston, 1992). WorldCat 

Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Bodley 764, trans. Richard Barber (Cambridge, 1993). WorldCat 

Middle English version in An English Miscellany: Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred and Religious Poems of the Thirteenth Century, ed. Richard Morris, EETS o.s. 49 (London, 1872). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

By Manuscript

Medieval Bestiary, Manuscripts (by Location/Shelfmark; Shelfmark; City; Manuscript Family; Major Author)

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Ii 4. 26

Il Bestiario Di Cambridge: Il Manoscritto II, 4, 26 Della Cambridge University Library, ed. Silvia Ponzi, Morgana 6 (Parma, 1974). WorldCat 

The Bestiary: Being A Reproduction in Full of Ms. Ii 4. 26 in the University Library, Cambridge, ed. M. R. James,Roxburghe Club (Oxford, 1928), WorldCat 

The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts, trans. T. H. White (New York, 1954). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Medieval Bestiary, ed. J. L. Schrader (New York, 1986). WorldCat  From multiple manuscripts in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Oxford, Bodleian Library

Bestiary facsimiles at Digital Bodleian

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1511

Digital Facsimile (partial)

Bestiarium: Die Texte der Handschrift Ms. Ashmole 1511 der Bodleian Library Oxford in lateinischer und deutscher Sprache, ed. Franz Unterkircher (Graz, 1986). WorldCat 

Vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Originalformat der Handschrift Ms. Ashmole 1511–Bestiarium: aus dem Besitz der Bodleian Library, Oxford, Codices selecti phototypice impressi 76 (Graz, 1982) WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Oxford, Bodleian Library 764

Book of Beasts: A Facsimile of Bodley MS. 764, ed. Christoper De Hamel (Oxford, 2008). WorldCat 

Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Bodley 764, ed. Richard H. Barber(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1993). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary entry

Oxford, Bodleian Library 130

Bodley Herbal and Bestiary: MS. Bodley 130, intro. W. O. Hassall, Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts in Microform Series 1: the Bodleian Library 8 (Oxford, 1978). WorldCat 

Medieval Bestiary Entry

Yale University, British Art Center, Rare Bks & Mss Folio C 2014 4 / Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1504

Digital Facsimile of Yale C 2014 4

Two East Anglian Picture Books: A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian MS Ashmole 1504, ed. Nicholas Barker, Roxburghe Club (London, 1988). WorldCat 

III. Lapidaries

Bibliographies and General Studies

Claude Lecouteux, A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources(Rochester VT, 2012).  WorldCat Each entry includes a list of medieval sources that discuss the stone in question.

Isabelle Draelants, “Bibliographie sur les Lapidaires médiévaux,” Spicae: Cahiers de l’Atelier Vincent de Beauvais

Rosmarie Thee Morewedge, “Lapidaries,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies, ed. Classen, III, 1845-62.

John B. Friedman and Jessica M. Wegmann, Medieval Iconography: A Research Guide (New York, 1998), pp. 337-39.  WorldCat 

Christel Meier, Gemma spiritalis: Methode und Gebrauch der Edelsteinallegorese vom frühen Christentum bis ins 18. Jahrhundert, vol. 1 (Munich, 1977). WorldCat 

Fernand de Mély, Les lapidaires de l’antiquité et du moyen âge, 3 vols. (Paris, 1896-1902). WorldCat 

Joan Evans, Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly in England (Oxford, 1922). WorldCat 

Robert Halleux, “Damigéron, Evax et Marbode: l’héritage alexandrin dans les lapidaires médiévaux,” Studi medievali3rd ser. 15/1 (1974), 327-47. WorldCat 

Peter Kitson, “Lapidary Traditions in Anglo-Saxon England: Part 1, the Background,” Anglo-Saxon England 7 (1978) 9-60; “Lapidary Traditions in Anglo-Saxon England: Part II, Bede’s ‘Explanatio Apocalypsis’ and Related Works,” Anglo-Saxon England 12 (1983) 73-123. WorldCat 

A. Closs, “Die Steinbucher in kulturhistorischer Überschau,” Graz Landesmuseum Joanneum Mineralogisches Mitteilungsblatt 8 (1958), 1-34.

Robert Max Garrett, Precious Stones in Old English Literature (Munich, 1909). WorldCat 

Christopher J. Duffin, “Lithotherapeutical Research Sources from Antiquity to the Mid-Eighteenth Century,” in A History of Geology and Medicine, ed. C. J. Duffin et al., Geological Society, London, Special Publications 375, (London, 2013), pp. 7-43.  WorldCat 

Nicola Erin Harris, “The Idea of Lapidary Medicine: Its Circulation and Practical Applications in Medieval and Early Modern England, 1000-1750” (PhD diss., Rutgers Univ., 2009).

Julius Ruska Library.  Literature on Arabic lapidaries and their Latin translations.

Some Major Lapidaries:

Albertus Magnus
De mineralibus:

See above under “Some Major Encyclopedias and Encyclopedists.“

Alfonso el Sabio
Lapidario:

Alfonso el Sabio, Lapidario and Libro de las formas & ymagenes, ed. Roderic C. Diman and Lynn W. Winger(Madison WI, 1980). WorldCat 

Alfonso X. ‘Lapidario’ (Según el manuscrito escurialense h.I.15, ed. Sagario Rodríguez M. Montalvo (Madrid, 1981). WorldCat 

Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman Lapidaries, ed. Paul Studer and Joan Evans (Paris, 1924). WorldCat 

Aristotle

Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles, ed. Julius Ruska (Heidelberg, 1912). WorldCat 

F. Klein-Franke, “The Knowledge of Aristotle’s Lapidary during the Latin Middle Ages,” Ambix 17 (1970), 137-42. WorldCat 

Arnoldus Saxo

See above under “Some Major Encyclopedias and Encyclopedists.“

De virtutibus lapidum (= De floribus rerum naturalium cap. III)

Valentin Rose, “Aristoteles De lapidibus und Arnoldus Saxo,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 18 (1875), 321­-455 WorldCat 

Liber de coloribus gemmarum:

Arnoldi Saxonis Liber de coloribus gemmarum, ed. Claude Lecouteux.

De floribus rerum naturalium

Isabelle Draelants, “Introduction à l’étude d’Arnoldus Saxo et aux sources du ‘De floribus rerum naturalium’,” in Die Enzyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter bis zur frühen Neuzeit. Akten des Kolloquiums (29.11.-01.12.1996), ed. Christel Meier (Münster, 2002), pp. 85-121.WorldCat 

Damigeron-Evax
De lapidibus:

Ophei Lithica, accedit Damigeron de lapidibus, ed. E. Abel (Berlin, 1881), WorldCat 

Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense III, 324ff. WorldCat .

Joan Evans, Magical Jewels, pp. 195-213.

English
 

English Mediaeval Lapidaries, ed. Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson, EETS o.s. 190 (London, 1933). WorldCat 

The Middle English “Boke of Stones”: The Southern Version, ed. George R. Keiser, Scripta: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 13 (Brussels, 1984). WorldCat 

A Medieval Book of Magical Stones: The Peterborough Lapidary, ed. Francis Young (Cambridge, 2016). WorldCat

Epiphanius of Salamis
De duodecim lapidibus:

Les lapidaires de l’antiquité et du moyen âge, ed. F. de Mély, 2 vols. (Paris, 1898) II, 193. WorldCat 

French

Les lapidaires français du moyen âge des XIIe, XIIIe, et XIVe siècles, ed. Léopold Pannier (Paris, 1882). WorldCat 

Valérie Gontéro, Le Lapidaire chrétien, Transcription du manuscrit 164 (Res. Ms. 12) de la Bibliothèque municipale Méjanes d’Aix-en-Provence (sigle M).

Le lapidaire du quatorzième siècle: description des pierres précieuses et de leurs vertus magiques, ed. Isaac del Sotto (Vienna, 1862; rep. Geneva, 1974). WorldCat 

Greek

Les lapidaires grecs, ed. Robert Halleux and Jacques Schamp (Paris, 1985). WorldCat 

Hebrew

Berakhyah Ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, Sefer ko’ah? ha-avanim = On the Virtue of the Stones: Hebrew Text and English Translation: with a Lexicological Analysis of the Romance Terminology and Source Sudy, ed. and trans. Gerrit Bos and Julia Zwink (Leiden, 2010). WorldCat 

Henry of Huntingdon, De gemmis pretiosis and Anglicanus Ortus:

Winston Black, “Henry of Huntingdon’s Lapidary Rediscovered and His Anglicanus Ortus Reassembled,” Mediaeval Studies 68 (2006), 43-87.

Isidore of Seville

See above under “Some Major Encyclopedias and Encyclopedists.“

Etymologiae XVI, De lapidibus et metallis:

Etymologias Libro XVI, De las piedras y de los metales, ed. José Feáns Landeira, Auteurs latins du moyen âge 21 (Paris, 2011). WorldCat 

Marbode of Rennes
Liber de lapidibus:

Marbode de Rennes, Liber lapidum / Lapidario, ed. Maria Ester Herrera, Auteurs latins du moyen âge 16 (Paris, 2005). WorldCat 

Marbode of Rennes’s (1035-1123) De lapidibus, ed. J. M. Riddle, trans. C. W. King (Wiesbaden, 1977). WorldCat 

Emile Ernaut, Marbode, evèque de Rennes: sa vie et ses oeuvres (1035-1123) (Rennes, 1889). WorldCat 

Orites alius niger:

Ed. Joan Evans, Magical Jewels, pp. 220-23. WorldCat 

Philippe de Valois

Léon Baisier, The Lapidaire Chrétien: Its Composition, Its Influence, Its Sources (Washington, D.C., 1936). WorldCat 

Pliny the Elder
Historia naturalis XXXVII:
Scripta sunt hec de lapidibus:

Ed. Joan Evans, Magical Jewels, pp. 214-20.

Pretiosissimus liber sigillorum

Ed. Joan Evans, Magical Jewels, pp. 235-38.

Techel/Azareus

Kateyln Mesler, “The Medieval Lapidary of Techel/Azareus on Engraved Stones and Its Jewish Appropriations,” Aleph14.2 (2014), 75-143. WorldCat 

Theophrastus
De lapidibus:

Theophrastus, De lapidibus, trans. D. E. Eichholz (Oxford, 1965). WorldCat 

Theophrastus on Stones, trans. Earle R. Caley and John F. C. Richards (Columbus OH, 1956). WorldCat 

Steven A. Walton, “Theophrastus on Lyngurium : Medieval and Early Modern Lore from the Classical Lapidary Tradition,” Annals of Science 58 (2001), 357-79. WorldCat 

Thomas of Cantimpré, De natura rerum XIV, De lapidibus pretiosis

Ed. Joan Evans, Magical Jewels, pp. 223-34. WorldCat 

IV. Herbals

Plants in Medieval Culture/Critical Plant Studies

Portals der Pflanzen des Mittelalters

Friedman and Wegmann, Medieval Iconography, pp. 324-37, including entries for specific flowers, plants, and trees.

Le monde végétal. Médecine, botanique, symbolique, ed. Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Micrologus Library 30, (Florence, 2009).

Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, ed. Susan Francia and Anne Sobart (London, 2014). WorldCat 

Mauro Ambrosoli, The Wild and the Sown: Botany and Agriculture in Western Europe, 1350-1850 (Cambridge, 1997). WorldCat 

Helmut Birkhan, Pflänzen im Mittelalter: Eine Kulturgeschichte (Vienna, 2012). WorldCat 

Medieval Plant Studies Blog  Includes indices of plant names in multiple medieval languages.

Herbs and Healers from the Ancient Mediterranean through Medieval West. Essays in Honor of John M. Riddle, ed. Anne Van Arsdall and Timothy Graham (Burlington VT, 2012). WorldCat 

Lottlisa Behling, Die Planze in der Mittelalterlichen Taffelmalerei (Cologne, 1967). WorldCat 

Lottlisa Behling, Die Pflanzenwelt der Mittelalterlichen Kathedral (Cologne, 1964). WorldCat 

Celia Fisher, Flowers in Medieval Manuscripts (Toronto, 2004). WorldCat 

From Earth to Art. The Many Aspects of the Plant-World in Anglo-Saxon England. Proceedings of the First ASPNS Symposium, University of Glasgow, 5-7 April 2000, ed. Carole Biggam, Costerus Essays in English and American Language and Literature, n.s. 148 (Amsterdam, 2003). WorldCat 

Herbs, Herbals, and Pharmacy

Frank J. Anderson, An Illustrated History of the Herbals (New York, 1997). WorldCat 

Nicholas Everett, The Alphabet of Galen: Pharmacy from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Toronto, 2012). WorldCat 

Agnes Arber, Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, 2nd. ed. (Cambridge, 1953). WorldCat 

STANBIS (STannard’s ANnotated Bibliographical Information System), Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. Archives of Jerry Stannard covering “sources of information for ancient and medieval botany, pharmacy, and medicine.” Only for consultation on-site.

Jerry Stannard, Herbs and Herbalism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Katherine E. Stannard and Richard Kay (Aldershot, 1999). WorldCat 

Jerry Stannard, Pristina Medicamenta: Ancient and Medieval Medical Botany, ed. Katherine E. Stannard and Richard Kay (Aldershot, 1999). WorldCat 

Alain Touwaide, “Pharmaceutical Literature,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies, ed. Classen, III, 1979-2000; cf. also Touwaide, “Pharmacy,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies, ed. Classen, II, 1056-90.

Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, ed. Susan Francia and Ann Stobart (London, 2014).  Includes Anne Van Arsdall, “Evaluating the Content of Medieval Herbals.” WorldCat 

Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, ed. Peter Dendle and Alan Touwaide (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2008). WorldCat 

Alte Kräuterbücher und verwandte Themen / Old herbals, plant history etc. Bibliographische Notizen / bibliographical notes.

Wilfrid Blunt and Sandra Raphael, The Illustrated Herbal (New York, 1994). WorldCat 

Minta Collins, Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Tradition (London, 2000). WorldCat 

Jean A. Givens, Karen Reeds, and Alain Touwaide, Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art 5 (Aldershot, 2006). WorldCat 

Anne Van Arsdall, Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine (New York, 2002). WorldCat 

George R. Keiser, “Vernacular Herbals: A Growth Industry in Late Medieval England,” in Design and Distribution of Late Medieval Manuscripts in England, ed. Margaret Connolly and Linne R. Mooney (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 292-308.

Some Major Herbals and Treatises on Plants

Stephen Bax, Medieval Herbal Manuscripts (links to digital facsimiles)

Antonius Musa
De herba vettonica:

Antonii Musae de herba vettonica, Liber Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, Anonymi De taxone Liber, Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus etc., ed. Ernst Howald and Heinrich E. Sigerist, Corpus Medicorum Latinorum, 4 (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 1-11.  WorldCat 

The Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius: From the Ninth-Century Manuscript in the Abbey of Monte Cassino (Codex casinensis 97) together with the First Printed Editions of John Phil. De Lignamine (Editio princeps Romae 1481), ed. W. T. Hunger (Leiden, 1935). WorldCat 

Pseudo-Apuleius
Herbarius;

Antonii Musae de herba vettonica, Liber Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, … ed. Howald and Sigerist, pp. 13-225.  WorldCat 

Carrara Herbal (London, BL Egerton 2020)

Digital facsimile (partial).  Includes bibliography.

Felix Andreas Baumann, Das Erbario Carrarese und die Bildtradition des Tractatus de herbis, Berner Schriften zur Kunst 12 (Bern, 1974). WorldCat 

Sarah R. Kyle, Medicine and Humanism in Late Medieval Italy: The Carrara Herbal in Padua (New York, 2017). WorldCat 

 
Curae herbarum:

S. Mattei, “Curae herbarum” (PhD diss., Univ. of Macerata, 1995).

Dioscorides
De materia medica (Latin):

Dioscorides, De materia medica, ed. K. Hofmann and T. M. Auracher, Romanische Forschungen 1 (1882), 49-105 WorldCat ; H. Stadler, Romanische Forschungen 10 (1899), 181-247, 369-446; 11 (1899), 1-121; 13 (1902), 161-743; 14 (1903), 601-37. WorldCat 

John M. Riddle, “Dioscorides, in Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum 4 (1980), pp. 1-143. WorldCat 

Marie Cronier, “Le Dioscoride alphabétique latin et les traductions latines du De materia medica,” in Body, Disease and Treatment in a Changing World. Latin Texts and Contexts in Ancient and Medieval Medicine, ed. B. Marie and D. Langslow (Lausanne, 2010), pp. 189-200. WorldCat 

Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus, De materia medica, trans. [of Greek], Lilly Y. Beck (Hildesheim, 2005). WorldCat 

Pedants Dioscorides, De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials, trans. [of Greek] Tess Anne Osbaldeston and Robert P. A. Wood (Johannesburg, South Africa, 2000). WorldCat 

Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine, ed. John M. Riddle (Austin TX, 1985). WorldCat 

Jules Janick, Anna Whipkey, and John Stolarczyk, Herbal Images: Synteny of Images in Three Illustrated Dioscoridean Herbals

Pseudo-Dioscorides

De herbis feminis:

H. F. Kästner, “Pseudo-Dioscoridis De herbis feminis,” Hermes 31 (1896), 578-636; “Addendum ad Pseudo-Dioscoridis De herbis feminis ed. Hermae XXXI 578,” Hermes 32 (1897), 160. WorldCat 

Henry of Huntingdon
Anglicanus ortus:

Henry of Huntingdon, Anglicanus ortus: A Verse Herbal of the Twelfth Century, ed. and trans. Winston Black, Studies and Texts 180 (Toronto, 2012). WorldCat 

Isidore of Seville

See above under “Some Major Encyclopedias and Encyclopedists.“

Etymologiae XVII, De rebus rusticis:

Isidore de Séville, Étymologies Livre XVII De l’agriculture, ed. Jacques André (Paris, 2012). WorldCat 

London, British Library, Sloane 4016

Digital facsimile. Includes bibliography.

Tractatus de Herbis: Sloane MS. 4016, ed. Alain Touwaide (Barcelona, 2013). WorldCat 

Philadelphia, Univ. of Pennsylvania Rare Book & Manuscript Library LJS 419

Dot Porter, “Facsimile of [Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania] LJS 419, Erbario,” Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS): Ebooks, Book 84 (2015).

Nicolaus of Damascus
De plantis, interp. Alfred of Sareshel:

Nicolaus Damascenus, De plantis: Five Translations, ed. H. J. Drossaart Lulofs and E. L. J. Poortman (Leiden, 1989). WorldCat 

Raymond James Long, “Alfred of Sareshel’s Commentary on the Pseudo-Aristotelian ‘De plantis’,” Mediaeval Studies47 (1985), 125-67. WorldCat 

Rufinus

The Herbal of Rufinus, ed. Lynn Thorndike and Francis S. Benjamin, Corpus of Mediaeval Scientific Texts 1 (Chicago, 1946). WorldCat 

Tractatus de herbis

Tractatus de herbis: A Medieval Herbal: A Facsimile of British Library Egerton MS 747, introd. Minta Collins; list of plants by Sandra Raphael (London, 2003). WorldCat 

 

Charles D. Wright: cdwright@illinois.edu
last updated 5/19