Biography

Gossuin de Metz (or Gautier de Metz) lived in the Lorraine region of France in the thirteenth century. Almost nothing is known about his life. Even his name is uncertain; most manuscripts say Gossuin, but some say Gauthier. The dates of his birth and death are not known, but he wrote the Image du monde around 1245 CE.

Gossuin de Metz with an astrolabe; writing his encyclopedia

L'image du monde

The Image du monde (Image of the World or Mirror of the World) is an encyclopedia on multiple topics, including theology, philosophy, history, astronomy, astrology, physics, geography and zoology. It is in three parts, with multiple chapters in each part. The three parts can be broadly categorized:

1. The power of God, the seven liberal arts, the nature of the world and its creation, etc.
2. Geography (How the Earth was created and which parts are inhabited)
3. Cosmology/Astronomy

The Geography section has all of the animal descriptions. It also has several examples of the monstrous human races said to live in India.

The original version of the text (1245 CE) was written in a Norman-French dialect as a rhymed poem of 6594 octosyllabic lines. In 1247 a second verse version was produced, with an additional 4000 lines; it was divided into two parts instead of three. A prose version also exists, probably written around the same time as the first verse version. The prose version closely follows the first verse version in content and structure.

Gossuin's encyclopedia is a compilation taken from earlier authors, such Jacobus de Vitriaco, Honorius Augustodunensis, Alexander Neckam, Claudius Ptolemy, and several others. Gossuin was obviously well read, both in Greek and Roman classics and in texts closer to his own time. He does not appeared to have added much to the text himself; even the structure is based (perhaps loosely) on the Imago mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis. This "borrowing" from earlier authors was common in medieval encyclopedias.

Animals

There are about 50 animals described in the original verse version and the prose version of the encyclopedia, all in the Geography section. They are scattered across several chapters. The descriptions are usually brief, and mostly follow the description for the animal as found in bestiaries, though there are no moralizations or allegories.

The animals listed in the table below are based on two sources. [Prior] and [Caxton] are used to refer to these sources in the table. Both are the prose version of the text, though the original verse version of 1245 CE has the same animals in the same order. The second verse redaction has almost the same list of beasts with a few in a different order.

• [Prior] L'image du monde de Maitre Gossouin, Oliver H. Prior, ed. (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 574)
• [Caxton] Caxton's Mirrour of the World, Oliver H. Prior, ed. (British Library, Royal MS 19 A IX)

The first column gives the title of the chapter where the animal is described, from both [Prior] and [Caxton]. The Name column shows the animal name as used on this website; the Name: Prior column is the name as found in [Prior]; the Name: Caxton is the name as found in [Caxton]; and the Notes column provides further information. The animals are listed in order of appearance in the text.

Manuscripts

There are at least 68 manuscript copies of L'image du monde still existing. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France has about 30 copies, the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique about 7, and the British Library about 6. The rest are held in other European libraries, with one in the USA. Few of the manuscripts are illustrated, with Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Médecine, H. 437 being an exception. All three versions (two verse, one prose) are represented. The three manuscripts listed below serve as examples of each redaction.

• First verse version (1245 CE): Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 14964
• Second verse version (1247 CE): Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1444
• Prose version: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 574

Some of the 68 manuscripts are listed here (under the Manuscripts tab above); a more complete list can be found on the ARLIMA Gossouin de Metz page.

L'image du monde was also printed in various editions in the fifteenth and later centuries, most notably the Early English translation by William Caxton in 1480, based on British Library, Royal MS 19 A IX.