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THE NATURAL INGREDIENTS that Theophilus mentions include various plants, human urine, teeth and hair of very specific animals, and both human and animal blood. Dung was a key ingredient of one recipe. https://lnkd.in/d7yzXt5 View in LinkedIn

TOXIC SUBSTANCES. Reading Theophilus reminds one why life was, as Thomas Hobbes described, “nasty, brutish and short”. These artisans splashed around lead, mercury (quicksilver) and sulfur with abandon, heating them at length in open vessels. Indeed they were the ingredients for paints, and one or two still are. https://lnkd.in/d7yzXt5 View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT CRAFTSMEN were highly skilled and had to source almost everything by their own hand, tools, reagents, even the workshops. Theophilus did not merely compile recipes, but had a first hand working knowledge of each of the crafts he described. It is readily apparent on reading this work that ancient craftsmen were immensely skilled and knowledgeable, by necessity. There was no handy hardware store, Amazon, or knowledge but a click away. https://lnkd.in/d7yzXt5 View in LinkedIn

CRAFTS COVERED. Theophilus’s work covers the enormous range of craftsmanship of his time, ranging from the making of paints, glues, oils, varnishes, and metal work, often citing several methods. Glasswork required building four types of kiln and making numerous colored glasses and glass paints, as well as lead window assembling. The metal work includes building the workshop, making the kiln, all the tools, a church organ, methods of refining and plating metals, and church bells. And more. https://lnkd.in/d7yzXt5 View in LinkedIn

“THEOPHILUS Presbyter (fl. c. 1070–1125) is the pseudonymous author or compiler of a Latin text containing detailed descriptions of various medieval arts, a text commonly known as the Schedula diversarum artium ("List of various arts") or De diversis artibus ("On various arts"). 'Theophilus' was quite possibly a Benedictine monk. It has been suggested (particularly by Eckhard Freise) that Theophilus is the same person as the artisan monk Roger of Helmarshausen. Roger appears to have come from Stavelot Abbey in the Meuse River region, was active as an artist and author between 1100 and 1107 in St. Pantaleon's church in Cologne, and moved to Helmarshausen Abbey in 1107.” https://lnkd.in/dKA6i-T View in LinkedIn

“PROFESSOR C. R. DODWELL was universally recognised as one of the leading historians of medieval art with a galaxy of publications, covering the period 800-1200, to his name.” https://lnkd.in/dxs_vBP View in LinkedIn

THEOPHILUS, The Various Arts, De Diversis Artibus (medieval text, written between 1110 and 1140 AD) translated from the Latin with Introduction by C.R. Dodwell, then Fellow and Librarian, Trinity College, Cambridge, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd (1961). This remarkable text illustrates in detail how mediaeval craftsmen worked. I quote both the excellent Introduction and the text. https://lnkd.in/dmDMw8U View in LinkedIn