Ms.Fr.9140 fol.102v. The Six Ages of Man (vellum) from 'Le Livre des Proprietes des...

Bartholomeus Anglicus (1203-72) was an early 13th century scholastic scholar of Paris, a member of the Franciscan order. He was the author of the compendium De proprietatibus rerum, dated at 1240, an early forerunner of the encyclopedia. Bartholomew the Englishman; Bartholomaeus; Les Six Ages de l'Homme; in the centre an old man and a child of about seven years holding hands in a symbolic union of two humans at the beginning and end of life; on the right two older boys in early and later teenage; on the left two mature men engaged in dialogue; the bed is alluding to their being at the age suitable for reproduction;