L’Hortus sanitatis : transmission et réorganisation de la matière encyclopédique au xve siècle

Abstract

The Hortus sanitatis is an encyclopaedia of natural science from the last decade of the fifteenth century; its illustrations assured its success. Book 3, the Liber de piscibus et aquatilibus, is an unacknowledged abbreviation of Book 17 of the Speculum naturale by Vincent de Beauvais. Research on this book, in preparation for a critical edition, is the starting point for a larger project that aims to translate and analyse all the treatises on fish composed by medieval encyclopaedists, especially Book 17 of the Speculum naturale by Vincent de Beauvais, Book 24 of the De animalibus by Albertus Magnus, and books 6 and 7 of the Liber de natura rerum by Thomas de Cantimpré. The critical establishment and structuring of this ichthyologic corpus with the help of the T.E.I. is being carried out in collaboration with the Presses universitaires de Caen, led by D. Roux and P.-Y. Buard and in conjunction with the «Sourcencyme» project, which is directed by I. Draelants. The edition and annotation of these treatises is intended to aid comparative study. After presenting the history of the treatise, it will be shown how this is the work of a compiler who, with a first-hand knowledge of the Speculum naturale and De animalibus, has selected and reorganized the citations. His decision to include all of the fish described in these encyclopaedias obliged him to reduce considerably the discussion of each animal and he chose and copied extracts without attempting any synthesis of the material. Sometimes, however, he is exhaustive, consciously or unconsciously composing several entries on the same fish, which is known under several names, following the principles of collection and filing used for the Speculum naturale. The concluding paragraphs of the article present the choices that guide the elaboration of the critical edition, the establishment and presentation of the Latin text, the French text.