SOURCE: Baldwin, Spurgeon. “Brunetto Latini's Tresor: Approaching the End of an Era.” Corónica 14, no. 2 (spring 1986): 177-93.

In the following essay, Baldwin discusses the tradition of medieval encyclopedic writing, summarizing the structure and textual history of Brunetto's The Book of the Treasure—a pivotal late work of this genre.

Dante's teacher, immortalized in Canto 15 of the Inferno, was born in Florence around the year 1220. Notwithstanding the moral cloud which hangs over him, he achieved public prominence in his native city, figuring in documents from as early as the year 1254. Of central importance for our purposes was his participation in an embassy to the court of Alfonso X to request aid in the conflict against the Ghibellines: this journey to Spain took place in the year 1260. As we read in the Tesoretto, he was on his way back to Florence when in the vicinity of the Roncesvalles mountain pass...