Name Omne Bonum | ||
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Role Book by James le Palmer and Lucy Freeman Sandler Lucy Freeman Sandler books The Splendor of the Word, The Psalter of Robert de Lisle i, The Lichtenthal psalter an, Studies in Manuscript Illuminati, Illuminators and Patrons i | ||
Omne bonum desuper all good things come from above
Omne Bonum is a 14th-century encyclopedia compiled in London. It survives in four volumes in the manuscripts BL Royal 6 E VI and VII, written by James le Palmer (b. before 1327, d. c. 1375), identified on the basis of a colophon in the same hand in Bodleian Library Laud Misc. 165 (Iste liber est liber jacobi le palmere quem scripsit manu sua propria deo gratias, fol. 585), clerk of the Exchequer mentioned between 1357 and 1375. The MSS. had the inventory number 1226 in the English Royal Library. It was acquired by the Upper Library at Westminster between 1542 and 1666 and was presented to the British Museum in 1757.
The encyclopedia extends to 1100 folia and includes more than 650 illustrations. It is notable as the earliest work of this kind where the topics are arranged in alphabetical order. The work is unfinished, containing only one entry each under the letters N to Z. Royal 6 E VI contains entries for A to D, the first volume of Royal E VII contains E to H, and the final volume contains I to M plus the "single-entry" letters N to Z:
Sandler (1996) is an extensive treatise from the point of view of art history, but the full text of the encyclopedia remains unedited.