"On the Properties of Things" by Bartholomew English, summary Automatic translate

"De proprietatibus rerum" ("On the Properties of Things") is a medieval encyclopedia compiled around 1250 by the Franciscan monk Bartholomew Anglia (born c. 1190). The published fragments come from the fourteenth and fifteenth books of geography, dedicated to the description of the countries and peoples of the world. It is in this section that the encyclopedia contains original information about the Baltics, the Slavic lands, and Russia, not found in ancient sources.

The encyclopedia was distributed in almost 90 manuscripts throughout Europe and from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century it went through 75 printed editions in Latin, English, French and Spanish.

Structure and sources

The work consists of 19 books, covering theology, medicine, astronomy, and geography. Within each book, the material is arranged alphabetically. Bartholomew draws on Aristotle, Herodotus, Isidore of Seville, Paulus Orosius, Pliny the Elder, and Arabic astronomers. The published fragments are reproduced from Coburger’s 1492 Nuremberg edition, with variations based on the 1472 Cologne edition.

Mountains, Asia and Scythia

Bartholomew describes the Caucasus as an eastern mountain range stretching from India to the Taurus Mountains: he traces the word "Caucasus" to an eastern word meaning "whiteness." The Hyperborean Mountains are the mountains of Scythia, behind which the Boreas wind blows; they are home to vultures guarding gold and precious stones, as well as leopards, tigers, and panthers. Asia, according to Isidore, constitutes half the earth’s circumference and is bounded to the north by Lake Meotian (the Sea of Azov) and the Tanais River (the Don).

Peoples of Asia: Albania and Alania

Albania is a province of Asia Magna on the coast of the Caspian Sea. Its inhabitants are born with white hair and greenish eyes, giving them better night vision than daytime vision. Enormous dogs live there, which, according to Pliny, won fights with lions and elephants on the orders of Alexander the Great. Alania is the first part of Scythia, stretching to the Maeotian Lakes and Dacia; a vast, cold region inhabited by fierce barbarian peoples.

Amazonia

According to Isidore, the Amazons were the wives of Goths who emerged from Lower Scythia. After their husbands were treacherously murdered, the women slaughtered all the men, from the elderly to infants, and installed two queens, Marsepia and Lampeta, as rulers, ruling over most of Asia for about a hundred years. They allowed men only to conceive, killed their sons or sent them back to their fathers, and raised their daughters as warriors, burning their right breasts at the age of seven — hence the name "Amazons," meaning "breastless." Hercules and Achilles pacified them through friendship rather than force. When Alexander the Great demanded tribute from the Amazons, their queen responded with ambassadors: victory over women would bring him no glory, and defeat would cover him with shame. Delighted, Alexander granted them their freedom.

Europe and its provinces

Europe, according to Orosius, begins at the Riphean Mountains and the Maeotian Lakes and extends to Gaul and the Rhine River, then to the Danube. Its first part is lower Scythia, called Barbary because of the barbarian peoples; according to Orosius, there are 54 peoples in Europe.

Gallacia is a vast and fertile region, comprising most of Europe, which many call Ruthenia. Bartholomew identifies it with Galicia-Volhynia Rus’. Pannonia, also called Ungaria, is a province occupied by the Huns; it borders Gallacia to the east, Greece to the south, Dalmatia and Italy to the west, and Germany to the north.

Baltic lands

Lektonia (Lithuania) is a Scythian province with fertile, marshy, and wooded soils, protected by rivers and swamps. It can only be conquered in winter, when the rivers freeze over.

Livonia is separated from Germany by a long gulf. Before the arrival of the Germans, its inhabitants, the Livonians, worshiped many gods, resorted to divination, and cremated the dead along with servants, livestock, and belongings, believing that those cremated would thus enter the land of eternal life. Bartholomew approvingly notes that the Germans, "by the grace of God," freed this country from "devilish errors."

Rivalia (Rävala in northern Estonia) is a small province subject to the Kingdom of Denmark, covered in grass and forests, rich in fish and livestock; it is separated from the lands of the Nogards and Ruthenes by the Narva River. Sambia is a Prussian land with fertile soil; its people are handsome, courageous, and surpass their neighbors in crafts. Semigallia is located beyond the Baltic Sea near Osilia and Livonia; Bartholomew ascribes its name to the Galatians, who supposedly interbred with the local population.

Sclavija and Rutia

Sclavi is a part of Moesia that includes Bohemians, Polonians, Vandals, Ruthenians, Dalmatians, and Charinthians. They all understand each other but differ in faith: some adhere to pagan rites, others to Greek, and still others to Latin. Sclavi Major (Sclavonia) encompasses Dalmatia, Serbia, and Carinthia; its coastal inhabitants lead a piratical lifestyle. Sclavi Minor stretches from Saxony to the Prussians; its people, according to Bartholomew, are more pious and peace-loving, thanks to daily contact with the Germans.

Ruthia (Rus’) borders Gothia to the north, Pannonia to the west, and Greece to the south; its language is the same as that of the Bohemians and Slavs. Bartholomew identifies its inhabitants with the Galatians, to whom the Apostle Paul addressed his epistle — an identification based solely on the similarity of place names.