The prologues and illustrations that accompany these translations reveal a new and secular conception of the work among noble readers and patrons of the fourteenth century. Michel Salvat concludes that Belcalzer’s aims, stated in a prefatory dedication to his Italian patron, were both theological and political: the first was to put into the vernacular the writings of saints and philosophers in support of the doctrine of Aristotle, the Platonic doctrine being erroneous and contrary to the faith; his second was to transmit the treasury of wisdom to the rich and powerful who had to govern themselves as well as all their subjects. Jean Corbechon in the prologue to his translation of ‘Properties’, the Livre des propriétés des choses made for Charles V, stresses the notion of wisdom informed by knowledge as a necessary adjunct of government. Like Belcalzer, he states that among all human perfections that the royal heart ought to wish for, the desire for sapience ought to hold first place. Like the exemplars Solomon, Ptolemy, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Theodosius and the studious Charles himself, a sovereign must acquire science et sapience in order to rule with wisdom and justice. In both Italy and France there had come into existence the concept of a ruler who ought to make himself a `détenteur de la science’ to rule his subjects with authority, and that ‘Properties’ was seen as a means to that end.^[61] Donal Byrne concludes from the evidence of illustrations in the béarnais manuscripts that the provençal family of Foix valued knowledge about ‘all the matter of nature’, and that nature, wisdom and philosophy could form a unified concept for them.^[62] The original copy of Charles V’s Propriétés des choses is lost, but Byrne offers a reconstruction of its frontispiece which, with the textual additions of the translator, reveals, he says, ‘a new conception of the meaning and use of the encyclopedia, as well as a concerted attempt to draw this authoritative work into the orbit of royal aims and aspirations’. Byrne suggests that the works translated for Charles formed a systematic program of learning, in which Propriétés represented the world of nature, now knowable by Charles as it was by Solomon.^[63]

As Maurice Keen notes in his discussion of European chivalric culture, the historical sages referred to in the prologues, such as Solomon, and the Worthies, who included Charlemagne, Arthur, Alexander and Julius Caesar, `symbolised the significance of a story that was emphatically unconcluded, reminding men at once of the example of the past and that the history of chivalry was still a-making’. Keen adds that in order to understand that story and its immediate implications, an individual needed not only prowess and lineage but also acquaintance with a wide range of associated literature, religious, courtly and historical.^[64]

Belcalzer likens his patron to the Nine Worthies, one of whom was Alexander the Great, legendary pupil of Aristotle. This indicates that Bartholomew’s inclusion of many references to Alexander and to Aristotle made it a work that could support a materialistic and heroic image of the world as well as a symbolic and moralistic one, for patrons with chivalric interests. A fourteenth-century codex in the British Library, in which ‘Properties’ Book 15, on peoples and places, is bound together with extracts from the Alexander literature, illustrates such an association. It appears to be a personal and miniaturised compilation of wisdom literature that begins with a copy of Book 15, followed by an extract from Honorius of Autun’s imago mundi, and extracts from the Alexander literature then available.^[65]