Theophilus Presbyter

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"), probably first compiled between 1100 and 1120. The oldest manuscript copies of the work are found in Vienna (Austrian National Library, Codex 2527) and in Wolfenbüttel (Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. Gud. Lat. 69 2°). Gotthold Ephraim Lessing rediscovered the document when he worked as librarian in Wolfenbüttel, and published excerpts in 1774. These aroused great interest as they disproved Vasari's myth of Jan van Eyck developing the technique of oil painting in the early 15th century, about which antiquaries had already become suspicious.

Theophilus' Schedula allows detailed insights into the techniques used in the applied arts in the high Middle Ages. The work is divided into three books. The first covers the production and use of painting and drawing materials (painting techniques, paints, and ink), especially for illumination of texts and painting of walls. The second deals with the production of stained glass and techniques of glass painting, while the last deals with various techniques of goldsmithing and other metalwork. It also includes an introduction into the building of organs. Theophilus contains perhaps the earliest reference to oil paint. The work has been translated into English, French, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, German, Italian, Japanese, Bulgarian, and Russian, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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