Trésor (encyclopedia)

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The Books of Treasures , Book I, bestiary page describing the monkey.

The Trésor (Li livres dou Trésor; German: "Treasure Books") is a work written in Old French by the Italian statesman, scholar and writer Brunetto Latini (approx. 1220 to 1294). It is a kind of encyclopedia which gives an overview of the extent of the scholarly education of its time.

history

The illuminated codex was written by the author during his exile in France and later expanded in Florence around 1275 . It is today in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg under the shelf mark Fr. F. v. III, 4 kept.

An Italian translation of the work has been wrongly attributed to Bono Giamboni († 1292?) And it was published as early as 1474 on Treviso (also Venice 1533); the work was reprinted in the French original in 1863 in Paris by Chabeille under the title Li livres dou trésor .

construction

The code consists of three books or different parts:

  1. The first begins with a "universal story" which includes the biblical story, the story of Troy , Rome, and the Middle Ages; it is followed by a natural history, where extensive information on astronomy and geography is gathered and a bestiary is included. It also covers some animal species and birds in detail.
  2. The second is about ethics: it takes up the ideas of the classical and modern moralists and studies the typical vices and virtues of people;
  3. The third, the most original part of this work deals with questions related to politics and the art of governance, which according to the author is "the noblest and highest science and the noblest trade that exists on earth" (...).

Although it is an old-style compendium, it possesses a number of characteristics that show the attempt to approach the new audiences for which it was intended (civil servants, citizens and nobility), such as the renunciation of religious subjects and the treatment of others (of rhetoric or ethics) which have never been covered in such detail in a work of this kind.

description

The work consists of 298 pages and 155 miniatures, bound in brown leather with mosaic motifs.

The miniatures of this codex are extremely magnificent and varied. The artist's imagination is inexhaustible: the edges of the 18 folios are full of numerous arabesques. They represent one of the most developed, most interesting and oldest series of this genre in the history of the European miniature. Often one also finds beasts, grotesque and strange persons, dwarfs; balancing and juggling acrobats and trumpet, flute, viola, tambourine, organ and bagpipes playing musicians; birds, hares, deer calves, lions and dogs also appear to hunt wild boar. Even the creation of Eve has been drawn.

The illustrations of natural history use traditional schemes that draw on the bestiars of Romanesque tradition.

Today's issues

The Spanish publisher M. Moleiro Editor published the first and only facsimile reproduction of the Book of Treasures in 1999 in an edition limited to 987 copies, which is supplemented by a commentary volume from 2000. This written by LI Kisseleva (Russian National Library, Saint Petersburg), IP Mokretsova (State Research Institute for Restoration (GosNIIR)), WB Clark (Marlboro College), IP Mokretsova, GZ Bykova and VN Kiréyeva (State Research Institute for Restoration (GosNIIR)) .

See also:


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  • Alvar Ezquerra, Carlos, y José Manuel Megías, La literatura en la época de Sancho IV: Actas del Congreso Internacional ... , Alcalá de Henares, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá, 1996. ISBN 84-8138-980-3 .
  • Deyermond, Alan D., Historia de la literatura española, vol. 1: La Edad Media , Barcelona, ​​Ariel, 2001 (1ª ed. 1973). ISBN 84-344-8305-X
  • Gómez Redondo, Fernando, Historia de la prosa medieval castellana, vol. I: La creación del discurso prosístico: el entramado cortesano , Madrid, Cátedra, 1998. ISBN 978-84-376-1638-4 .
  • Historia de la prosa medieval castellana. vol. II: El desarrollo de los géneros. La ficción caballeresca y el orden religioso , Madrid, Cátedra, 1999. ISBN 978-84-376-1730-5 .
  • Historia de la prosa medieval castellana. vol. III: Los orígenes del humanismo. El marco cultural de Enrique III y Juan II , Madrid, Cátedra, 2002. ISBN 978-84-376-2002-2 .
  • Haro Cortés, Marta, Los compendios de castigos del siglo XIII: técnicas narrativas y contenido ético , Valencia, Universitat de València, 1995. ISBN 84-370-2061-1 .
  • López Estrada, Francisco, y María Jesús Lacarra, Orígenes de la prosa , Madrid, Júcar, 1993. ISBN 84-334-8405-2 .
  • Rubio Tovar, Joaquín. La prosa medieval , Madrid, Playor, 1982. ISBN 84-359-0301-X .

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