The Book of Treasures also referred to as Tesoro and Trésor, from its original title in old French "Li livres dou tresor", is a series of manuscripts written by Brunetto Latini, a Florentine politician, poet, historian and philosopher, teacher and friend of Dante Alighieri.
This production was written in Langues d'oïl, during the author's exile in France between years 1260 and 1267, because as the own author explains: "la parleure est plus delitable et plus comune a touz languaiges"[1] ("It was the most enjoyable and most common spoken language" back in 13th century).
It is a summary of the encyclopaedic knowledge of the day. In fact it is regarded as the first encyclopedia written in a modern European language.[2]
The Italian 13th-century translation was misattributed to Bono Giamboni.
The original work can be found nowadays at the National Library of Russia, based in Saint Petersburg.
The publication was made of 298 pages and 155 miniatures, and it was originally bound in brown leather with mosaic designs.
It consists of three books:
The artist's imagination fills the margin of 18 pages with countless arabesque which constitute one of the most highly developed and earliest series of this genre in the history of European Miniature. The illustration of natural history employ traditional layouts dating back to Romanesque bestiary.