JF Ptak Science Books Post 2057
The beautifully-named book by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, All the Properytees of Thyings, which was published in Westminster in 1495 (and also known as De proprietatibus rerum, also translated as On the nature of things, or On the properties of things), was originally written around 1225. The book was a bestiary, a marvelous encyclopedia, a collection of all things as known in the 13th century--it would be interesting to represent all that is know today and compact it into a workable, logical, usable (printed !) book of a thousand pages. The question of organization of knowledge would be the key, of course, and how to make one flow to another complimentarily as practicable...it would be an interesting project (for someone else) to try and arrange the basis of human knowledge in a finite space like that.
The titles of the sections of Anglicus' work consist of the following, lovely, topics:
1. De deo (On God)
2. De angelis (On angels)
3. De anima (On the soul)
4. De elementis (On the elements - the four elements; humours of the human body)
5. De hominis corpore (On the human body - the limbs and organs)
6. De etate hominis (On the states of humans - the ages of man; the biblical categories of man and woman)
7. De infirmitatibus (On illness - the meaning and cause of sickness; diseases; medicine and doctors)
8. De mundo et celo (On the earth and the heavens - the matter of the world; the speres and circles of the heavens; the zodiac; the motion of the planets; sun and moon)
9. De temporibus (On time - divisions of the year and day; the seasons)
10. De materia et forma (On matter and form - the element of fire; materia prima)
11. De aere (On the air - the element of air; weather; wind, clouds, rain, snow, lightning)
12. De avibus (On birds - properties of flying things; descriptions of 38 inhabitants of the air)
13. De aqua (On water - nature of water and wells; pools and rivers; rivers and lakes in the Bible; the ocean)
14. De montibus (On mountains - the world and its mountains; biblical mountains)
15. De regionibus (On the regions of the world - geography)
16. De lapidibus (On stones and metals)
17. De herbis plantis (On herbs and plants - medicinal herbs)
18. De animalibus (On animals - biblical animals; beasts, serpents, domestic animals, insects)
19. De accidentalibus (On accidentals - the senses; colors; sounds; odors; taste; weight and measures; liquids)
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