Book of Treasures

The Book of Treasures (Old French: Li livres dou tresor), also referred to by its modern Italian and French titles Tesoro and Trésor, is a series of manuscripts written in Old French by Florentine politician, poet, historian and philosopher Brunetto Latini.

A copy of the Book of Treasures

A compendium of the knowledge of the time, it is regarded as the first encyclopedia written in a modern European language.

History

Detail of one of its pages.

The book was written in Langue d'oïl during the author's exile in France between years 1260 and 1267, because at the time, as the author explained, "it was the most enjoyable and most common spoken language" ("la parleure est plus delitable et plus comune a touz languaiges").

A contemporary 13th-century Italian translation exists, misattributed to Bono Giamboni. The original is currently held at the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg.

Description

The original publication included 298 pages and 155 miniatures. It was bound in brown leather with mosaic designs.

It consists of three books:

• the "universal history" knowledge of the time – beginning with Biblical history, followed by the history of Troy, Rome and the Middle Ages, it contains a natural history section and a comprehensive compilation of astronomy and geography, and addresses certain animal and bird species in-depth;
• ethics: the thinking of modern and classical moralists and considers the vices and virtues that characterize humanity;
• matters related to "politics and the art of governing", which according to the author "is the most honorable and the highest science, the noblest of professions on earth".

The artist's imagination fills the margin of 18 pages with one of the most highly developed and earliest series of arabesques in the history of European miniature. The illustration of natural history employs traditional layouts dating to Romanesque bestiary.

External links

• Facsimile edition by M.Moleiro Editor, 1999, ISBN 978-84-88526-52-6.