Several compilations of knowledge of the 13^th century have benefited, from the end of the 1970s onwards, from numerous studies and gained a recognition that has made them part of the canon of "encyclopedias", in particular those of Alexander Nequam, Thomas of Cantimpré, Bartholomaeus Anglicus and Vincent of Beauvais. Some derivatives works, recompiled or moralized in the last centuries of the Middle Ages, are now quite well known as well. The works of Honorius Augustodunensis, Daniel de Morley, Grégoire de Montesacro, etc. are yet seen as the early days of the « Golden Age of encyclopedias". This issue of RursuSpicae would like to open the field to less known aspects of these encyclopaedia or to other encyclopaedic works, less studied or more confidential. For the gaze of researchers has recently moved beyond this first restricted circle of widely distributed encyclopedias and their replicas, to focus on compilations on Nature that are sometimes less typical, which were the immediate sources of the encyclopaedias of the "Golden Age"; various naturalistic, philosophical or lexical compilations gradually emerged from the dust of the manuscripts; an unsuspected type of source —if not a neglected prototype—, namely the “collections of properties", was brought to light; series of organized glosses were unearthed that constituted the first commentaries to the philosophi moderni and nourished the encyclopaedic knowledge of the first circle. In order to make new discoveries about the birth of a medieval genre and its contribution to the diffusion of the science of its time, it is necessary to deepen all these new avenues, to extend the investigations to encyclopaedias of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, partly or completely unpublished, sometimes preserved in a single copy, or to compilations hybridized with exegetical commentaries or lexicological works.

Contributions for this issue sent to the editorial staff of RursuSpicae will be peer-reviewed.