Petrus Berchorius

Petrus Berchorius (also Petrus Bercharius or Petrus Bercorius or Petrus Berthorius, French Pierre Bersuire or Pierre Bercheure or Pierre Berchoire) (* in Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin ; † 1362 ) was a French author of moral and encyclopedic works.

Life

Berchorius was born in Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin (Department of Vendée) and joined the Franciscans at a young age , but then switched to the Benedictine order in the Maillezais monastery (Vendée).

Around 1320 he accompanied his abbot to Avignon , the then seat of the Pope . During this time his encyclopedic works were created. Here he met Petrarch , whom he mentions with high praise in his works. Petrarch also does the same in his works.

From 1350 he was a student at the University of Paris , where he was prior of St. Eloi (St. Eligius, on the Ile de la Cité , near Notre Dame ) in 1354 .

Works

Illumination in a medieval manuscript of the historical work of Livy in the French translation by Berchorius. The manuscript belonged to King Charles V of France . Depicted are scenes of the founding of Rome and its prehistory. Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 777, fol. 7r (around 1370)

Opera omnia

Opera omnia: sive reductorium, repertorium et dictionarium morale utriusque testamenti; ... locorum instar communium, ordine alphabetico digestum

Reductorium morale

His main work is the Reductorium morale , which is dedicated to Cardinal Pierre des Prés. It contains:

• 1–13: Description of the entire visible and invisible world with moralizing interpretation. This part is a universal encyclopedia .
• 14: De nature mirabilibus (“On the wonders of nature”). Later addition to 1–13.
• 15: Ovidius moralizatus .
• 16: Interpretation of the Bible

Other works

• Le… volume des grans decades de titus liuius: Translatees de latin en françois… . Eustace, Paris.

Translation of the first and third decades as well as nine books of the fourth decade of history Ab Urbe condita des Titus Livius into French for King John the Good .

• Breviarium morale (not preserved)
• Cosmographia seu mappa mundi (not preserved)

expenditure

Opera omnia

• Antwerp 1609 and more
• Friessem, Cologne 1684-1712 (6 vols.); 2nd edition 1730–1731 (6 vols.)

Reductorium morale

• Total expenditure
  • Strasbourg 1474
  • Ulm 1474
  • Adam Petri, Basel 1515
  • J. Koberger, Basel 1517 ( VD 16 P 1819)
  • Josse Bade , Paris 1511
  • Venice 1583
• Liber XV: See Ovidius moralizatus
• German translation

The world's Tummel- and Schaw-Platz; Sampt of the bitter-sweet truth; In it, with the introduction of much beautiful and excellent discourses, not only the natural… eyes and secrets of the most prominent creatures… are… explained . Eight parts comprehended, colligated by Aegidium Albertinum , Bavarian Secretarium. Krüger, Augspurg u. a. 1612 and more often (1048 p.)

Liber bibliae moralis

• Liber bibliae moralis . Richard Paffraet, Deventer 1477 ( digitized )
• Liber bibliae moralis . Bartholomäus von Unckel, Cologne 17. III. 1477 ( digitized version )

literature

• The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 2, New York 1907
• Lexicon of the Middle Ages Vol. 1 Col. 2019
• Paul Michel, 'Thesaurierte Exegese' with Petrus Berchorius . In: Homo Medietas. Festschrift for Alois Haas on his 65th birthday, ed. Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde and Niklaus Largier. Lang, Bern 1999, pp. 97-116.
• Charles Samaran et al. a .: Pierre Bersuire . In: Histoire littéraire de la France t. 39 (1962) pp. 259-450