Encyclopédie médiévale et langues européennes: réception et diffusion du ‘De proprietatibus rerum’ de Barthélemy l’Anglais dans les langues vernaculaires by Joëlle Ducos (review)

‘Plus un texte était aisément disponible pour les lecteurs du Moyen Âge’, writes Géraldine Veysseyre at the start of her contribution to this volume, ‘moins le chercheur contemporain a de chances de disposer d’une édition scientifique moderne’ (p. 15). Work is now at least underway to produce critical editions of two of the most successful encyclopaedic works of the Middle Ages: Bartholomew the Englishman’s mid-thirteenth-century De proprietatibus rerum, and the French adaptation of this text made by Jean Corbechon, c. 1372. In anticipation of the fruits of this labour, Joëlle Ducos has here brought together papers originally presented at a workshop held at the Sorbonne in 2008. The result is a useful overview of the current state of research into Corbechon’s Livre des propriétés des choses and adaptations of De proprietatibus rerum into other European vernaculars. Corbechon’s Livre des propriétés des choses is the focus of the four essays that make up Part One. In their attempts to pinpoint source manuscripts, analyse sumptuous illustrative programmes, and trace the evolution of the work in print, the contributors can hardly be faulted for their ambition and meticulousness. However, cross-referencing might have been helpful here in order to avoid overlap (for example, the lists of incunabula on pp. 50 and 91). Part Two examines renderings of De proprietatibus rerum in Anglo-Norman, Dutch, Occitan, Mantuan, and Castilian, the linguistic diversity here easily matched by the diversity of these contributions in terms of scope and methodology. In the two essays likely to be of greatest interest to French Studies readers, Brent A. Pitts compares the description of the ‘isles devers le northwest’ found in the thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Livre des Regions to that found in other medieval encyclopaedic works, and the late Peter Ricketts draws upon the botanical lexis of Book 17 of De proprietatibus rerum to assess the contribution of the fourteenth-century Occitan translator. The essay by Antonia Rísquez (the only contribution in Castilian rather than French) provides a useful reminder of the need for further work on the dissemination and reception of De proprietatibus rerum in Latin. Notably absent from this ‘parcours à travers les aires linguistiques’ (pp. 11–12), however, is an essay focusing on John Trevisa’s rendering of De proprietatibus rerum into English. Preceding lists of manuscripts and early editions (but not, alas, a comprehensive index) is a mise au point by Bernard Ribémont. This edited volume, he concludes, provides ample justification for extending the age of the medieval encyclopaedia beyond the thirteenth century; with each translation and adaptation, and with the advent of print, De proprietatibus rerum was granted a new lease of life. Indeed, these essays are a prelude to the renewed scholarly interest in Bartholomew and his encyclopaedia that the appearance of complete critical editions of De proprietatibus rerum and of the Livre des propriétés des choses will surely foster.