Otia Imperialia ("Recreation for an Emperor") is an early 13th-century encyclopedic work, the best known work of Gervase of Tilbury. It is an example of speculum literature. Also known as the "Book of Marvels", it primarily concerns the three fields of history, geography, and physics, but its credibility has been questioned by numerous scholars including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, who was alerted to the fact that it contains many mythical stories. Its manner of writing is perhaps because the work was written to provide entertainment to Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. However, many scholars consider it a very important work in that it "recognizes the correctness of the papal claims in the conflict between Church and Empire." It was written between 1210 and 1214, although some give the dates as between 1209 and 1214 and numerous authors state it was published c.1211. These earlier dates must be questioned, however, as the Otia contains stories that take place in 1211 and later. S. E. Banks and James W. Binns, editors and translators of what is considered to be the definitive version of the Otia, suggest that the work was completed in the last years of Otto IV's life, saying "it seems most likely [...] that the work was sent to Otto sometime in 1215", due to the inclusion of the death of William the Lion, King of Scotland, which took place in 1214, and the fact that King John was still living while it was written; John died in 1216.
Background
Of English origin, Gervase was born in Essex but had family ties to Wiltshire. He travelled widely, studied and taught canon law at Bologna, was in Venice in 1177, and at the reconciliation of Pope Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa.
He spent some time in the service of Henry II of England, and of his son, Henry the Young King. For the latter, he composed a Liber facetiarum (‘Book of entertainment’), now lost, as well as the basis for what would become the Otia Imperialia. After 1189, Gervase moved to Arles, where he became a Judge. Gervase accompanied Otto of Brunswick to Rome in 1209 for his imperial coronation and was enmeshed in the papacy's struggle with his patron Otto, who was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III.
Gervase employed the next years, from 1210 to 1214, writing the Otia Imperialia for his patron. The Otia was written at a time when other encyclopedic descriptions of the world were being produced and translated, such as the Summarium Heinrici, the Hortus deliciarum (Herrad of Landsberg), the Liber exceptionum (Richard de Saint-Victor, Jean Châtillon), the De proprietatibus rerum (Bartholomeus Anglicus), and the Speculum naturale (Vincent of Beauvais).
Content
Gervase's Otia imperialia is an encyclopedic work concerning history, geography, physics, and folklore, in the manner of speculum literature. It is sometimes associated with the Ebstorf Map, to the extent that some claim the map was meant to accompany the text, but this is a subject of continued debate.
The text is divided into three parts (decisiones). The first is a history of the world from the Creation to the Flood. The second is a geographic treatise on the regions of the known world, as divided between Noah’s three sons. The third section, parts of which have been reprinted separately from the rest of the book, is a compendium of marvels.