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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
Bartholomaeus Anglicus: donkey milk in the encyclopedia De proprietatibus rerum
Around 1240 the Franciscan Bartholomaeus Anglicus gathered in his encyclopedia what ancient and Arabic authors said about the things of the world. Ass’s milk appears twice: as a remedy against poisons after Pliny, and as a sweet, thin milk after Aristotle.
- Author
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1200 – after 1250), Franciscan
- Work
- De proprietatibus rerum; edition: De genuinis rerum coelestium, terrestrium et inferarum proprietatibus, Frankfurt 1601
- Passage
- Book XVIII “De animalibus”, chap. 7 “De asino”, pp. 994–995; book XIX, chap. 61 “De lacte”, pp. 1189–1190 (Frankfurt edition 1601)
- Time & place
- c. 1240; printed Frankfurt 1601 · Paris / Magdeburg (Franciscan school); printed in Frankfurt am Main
- Type of source
- Encyclopedia
In the original words
What the original says
Lac asinæ sicut & sanguis valet contra morsum scorpionis.
She-ass’s milk, like the blood, is effective [according to Pliny, whom Bartholomaeus cites here] against the sting of the scorpion.
Lac vero animalis habentis dentes in vtraque mandibula non, neque eius sepum, & lac huiusmodi animalis est dulce & tenue, vt lac cameli & equæ & post asinæ.
But the milk of an animal that has teeth in both jaws does not [curdle], nor does its tallow; the milk of such an animal is sweet and thin, like the milk of the camel and the mare, and after them that of the she-ass.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
A look at the original
What the passage looks like
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Frankfurt edition 1601, p. 995: continuation of the chapter “De asino” with the excerpts from Pliny on ass’s milk.
The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, Digitalisat über Google Books / Internet Archive; gemeinfrei
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, an English Franciscan, taught in Paris and from 1231 at his order’s school in Magdeburg. There or shortly before, around 1240, he wrote De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia in nineteen books on God and the angels, man, the heavens, the elements, lands, stones, plants and animals. It was meant as an aid for preaching and biblical interpretation and became one of the most widely read reference works of the Middle Ages.
The work was soon translated into French, English, Italian, Spanish and Dutch and was printed many times. The Frankfurt edition of 1601 used here sets apart the book on colours, smells, tastes and liquids as book XIX. Bartholomaeus always names his authorities; the passages on ass’s milk are expressly marked as excerpts from Pliny, Aristotle and Isaac.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
In the chapter on the ass, several sentences from Pliny’s twenty-eighth book follow Isidore, Aristotle and Avicenna. She-ass’s milk, like the blood, helps against the scorpion’s sting; ass’s milk also helps against poisonous gypsum, white lead and quicksilver. Bartholomaeus passes on these statements without judging them.
In the chapter on milk, Bartholomaeus first explains after Aristotle how milk is formed. The milk of animals with teeth in both jaws is sweet and thin, like that of the camel and the mare and after them that of the she-ass. He then quotes Isaac Israeli at length on the three components of milk and their uses.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
Each dot is a source from our knowledge archive – from Greek antiquity to the present day.
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
The 1601 print can be checked page by page, but it was made some 360 years after the work was written and arranges it partly differently from the manuscripts. The quotation follows the print; the long s is rendered as s.
Compilation
Bartholomaeus offers no observation of his own on ass’s milk. His value lies in placing Pliny, Aristotle and Isaac Israeli side by side, showing the sources from which thirteenth-century knowledge was drawn.
Today’s assessment
The statements on poison and the scorpion’s sting are ancient tradition and medically untenable. Classing ass’s milk as sweet and thin, by contrast, matches its high lactose and low fat content as known today.
Our assessment
Through Bartholomaeus, ancient and Arabic knowledge about donkey milk reached the vernaculars of Europe. Readers of English, French or Dutch in the late Middle Ages found here the same sentences from Pliny, already more than a thousand years old.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceBartholomaeus Anglicus, De genuinis rerum coelestium, terrestrium et inferarum proprietatibus, ed. Georg Bartholdus Pontanus a Braitenberg, Frankfurt: Wolfgang Richter for Nikolaus Stein 1601, book XVIII, chap. 7 “De asino”, p. 995 (archive.org, copy of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma)
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_dSwYHS99POwC/page/n1071/mode/1up - Further passageSame edition, book XIX, chap. 61 “De lacte”, pp. 1189–1190: classification of ass’s milk after Aristotle, followed by a long quotation from Isaac
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_dSwYHS99POwC/page/n1261/mode/1up
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.