Fons memorabilium universi

[1][2] Planned to inform and edify educated men who lack other books, the work covered God and the natural world, as was common for encyclopedias of the time, but also added a voluminous last part dealing with man and historical figures, philosophy and history, theology, ethics, heretics and women.

[3] Bandini, a teacher of grammar and rhetoric who lived in Florence, Bologna, Città di Castello and Arezzo, worked on the encyclopedia from before 1374 until his death in 1418.

In Florence he was influenced by Coluccio Salutati, causing him to emphasize topics related to the classical antiquity in his work.

It was never printed, unlike the very successful 13th century encyclopedia De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomeus Anglicus, from which Bandini had borrowed heavily.

He also frequently cited the earlier works of Marcus Terentius Varro, Pliny the Elder, Gaius Julius Solinus, Isidore of Seville and Hrabanus Maurus.

The first page of the first of five volumes of an illuminated manuscript copy of this text, commissioned by Bishop William Grey , created c. 1444–1448, and given by Grey to Balliol College .