Thomas of Cantimpré (c. 1201–c. 1270) completed his natural history encyclopedia, De natura rerum, around 1241, drawing on numerous sources. Barely more than a decade later, the work was recast in the Bavarian-Austrian region by an unknown editor into a shorter version containing about 40% of Thomas's material. This version, known as Thomas III, aroused considerable interest, as evidenced not only by the 111 surviving manuscripts but also by the numerous editorial revisions. Thomas himself, after completing his work, which initially comprised only 19 books had already created a new version that incorporated further material into the existing work and added an excerpt from the second book of William of Conches's 'Philosophia mundi' as book 20... In a third step, new information—primarily drawn from the Cyranides—was entered at the appropriate place. This version, which includes the .Cyranides, was probably only completed after the production and dissemination of 'Thomas III'; 'Thomas III' contains excerpts from the second layer ('Thomas II'), but no trace of the Cyranides insertions (which were not very significant in either scope or content). - [Author]

Language: German