Of the great Dominican and Franciscan encyclopaediae, only that of Thomas of Cantimpré, the De Naturis Rerum in twenty books, completed, after fifteen years of work, in 1240, contains moralizations expressing the symbolism of certain animals, trees and hems, springs, planets, and elements. As Thomas notes in an elaborate prologue, often he will append to a given entry such moralizations, based on scripture and classical and patristic writers. "Hence I have briefly distinguished the moral meanings and significances of things in certain places from time to time, but not continuously because I would shun prolixity." Thomas aimed his work largely at an audience of preachers and parish priests, and he believed that the animal history portion of the encyclopaedia could offer them a valuable tool for the preparation of sermons. In this intention Thomas wrote in the tradition of near contemporaries like Robert of Basevom, whose forma praedicandi tells us that the preacher ought always to offer his listeners something subtle and curious, a device particularly efficacious when they begin to sleep. - [Author]

Language: English