The "Experimentator": an anonymous Latin natural encyclopedia of the early thirteenth century

The subject of the dissertation was prompted by the quotations in the Liber de natura rerum by the Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré (ca.1201-ca.1270), which Thomas took from an anonymous work and which he attributed to a so-called Experimentator. In 1968, while researching Thomas in Stuttgart, Christian Hünemörder discovered a manuscript in which some of the quotes attributed to the “Experimentator” were found again. Further research unearthed other manuscripts (Sloane, Chambéry, and an abridged version of the same work). During his research on the work De proprietatibus rerum by the Franciscan Bartholomaeus Anglicus, with which the work of the "Experimentator" has fundamental similarities such as the almost identical prologue, the structure of the work and the material used, Heinz Meyer discovered further manuscripts of the "Experimentator". Due to the relationship of the "Experimentator" to the work of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, the anonymously transmitted "Experimentator" is also listed under the name of Bartholomaeus Anglicus and under the title De proprietatibus rerum in the indexes of manuscripts. Since the actual connection between the two works is still largely unclear, the previously ascribed title De proprietatibus rerum is not retained here. In this way, confusion between the two works can be avoided. The task of the dissertation is to present a body of work (i.e. there is a body of common material based on a common theological objective, which is processed differently) and to show its relationship to the two most important medieval encyclopedias of Thomas de Cantimpré and Bartholomaeus Anglicus. The dissertation sees itself as a basic overview of the various experimental versions and their reception. Detailed individual examinations must be reserved for a later date. When examining the individual manuscripts, it turned out that there are at least three different experiential versions, namely versions I and II as well as an abridged version, which differ in some respects in terms of structure, scope and the material used. - [Abstract]

Language: German