The Book of Treasures (French, Old (842-ca.1400);: Li livres dou tresor), also referred to by its modern Italian and French titles Italian: '''Tesoro''' and French: '''Trésor''', is a series of manuscripts written in Old French by Florentine politician, poet, historian and philosopher Brunetto Latini.
A compendium of the knowledge of the time, it is regarded as the first encyclopedia written in a modern European language.[1]
The book was written in Langue d'oïl during the author's exile in France between years 1260 and 1267, because at the time, as the author explained, "it was the most enjoyable and most common spoken language" ("French, Old (842-ca.1400);: la parleure est plus delitable et plus comune a touz languaiges|i=no").[2]
A contemporary 13th-century Italian translation exists, misattributed to Bono Giamboni. The original is currently held at the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg.
The original publication included 298 pages and 155 miniatures. It was bound in brown leather with mosaic designs.
It consists of three books:
The artist's imagination fills the margin of 18 pages with one of the most highly developed and earliest series of arabesques in the history of European miniature. The illustration of natural history employs traditional layouts dating to Romanesque bestiary.