The _De imagine mundi_ became an important source for later writings. It was a standard authority during the closing years of the Middle Ages for those who deliberately undertook to give a geographical description of the earth. The _Lucidarius_ (or _Aurea gemma_) was a popular encyclopedia written in German towards the end of the twelfth century at the order of Henry the Lion. Though embodying the peculiar and fabulous features of the _De imagine mundi_, it omitted the drier but more correct geographical and topographical details.[450] The principal source of much of the natural science in the _Lucidarius_ was William of Conches’ _De philosophia mundi_. The _Lucidarius_ was translated at a later date into Danish, Dutch, and Bohemian,[451] and from it were derived the geographical portions of the famous _Hortus deliciarum_ of the abbess Herrad of Landsperg.[452] GERVASE OF TILBURY Another widely read book that came under the influence of the _De imagine mundi_ was the _Otia imperialia_ of Gervase of Tilbury,[453] a protégé of Otto IV and by him appointed marshal of the kingdom of Arles. The _Otia_, composed to entertain the emperor during the leisure moments of his struggle with Frederick II, is in large measure a compilation of facts, fables, and theories borrowed from earlier works. The cosmological chapters are drawn from Peter Comestor’s _Historia scholastica_, the geographical ones from Orosius, Isidore, and, more particularly, the _De imagine mundi_, which furnished a framework into which the statements of the other writers were made to fit.[454] The large number of manuscripts of the _Otia_ bears witness to its great popularity. JACQUES DE VITRY Jacques de Vitry, bishop of St. John of Acre until 1220, in his _Historia hierosolymitana_[455] also borrowed from the _De imagine mundi_, especially in describing Palestine and Asia. His interest in the remarkable caused him to include, as had been done by the authors of the German _Lucidarius_, most of the fabulous elements of the earlier book as well as to add fabulous stories from other sources. It was these stories, derived in part from the _Historia hierosolymitana_ and in part directly from the _De imagine mundi_, that accounted for the great popularity of a poem to which we must now turn. “L’IMAGE DU MONDE”