STUDIA UBB. PHILOSOPHIA, Vol. 60 (2015), Sp. Issue, pp. 5-18 (RECOMMENDED CITATION) THE AB AURO PROLOGUE OF PELBARTUS OF THEMESWAR’S THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA * ALEXANDRA BANEU ** ABSTRACT. The Ab Auro Prologue of Pelbartus of Themeswar’s Theological Encyclopedia. Pelbartus of Themeswar is a 15 th century observant Franciscan best known for his collections of model sermons. This article, however, treats one of the two prologues which accompany his work of systematic theology, the Aureum sacrae theologiae rosarium. The Ab auro prologue, which is discussed in detail in the present study, introduces the reader to the main intent of the work. It has a rich metaphoric style and is tacitly inspired by the “Primum principium” of William of Vaurouillon’s commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Keywords: Pelbartus of Themeswar, William of Vaurouillon, the Ab auro prologue, the Sentences of Peter Lombard, exempla In the 15 th century there was an increased demand, in comparison with the previous two centuries, for encyclopedias 1 á texts which would incorporate almost all the information necessary for a science, ordered in such a manner that would make it easy to access. Such texts were compiled especially in the natural sciences, 2 but theology made no exception. * This research was financed through the project “Minerva – Cooperation for an elite career in PhD and post-doctoral research”, the code of the contract: POSDRU/159/1.5/S/137832; the project is co-financed from the European Social Fond through the Operational Regional Program for the Development of Human Resources 2007-2013. ** PhD student at the Doctoral School in Philosophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Romanian Academy Cluj-Napoca Branch. E-mail: alexandra.baneu@yahoo.com 1 When establishing the difference between dictionaries, repertoires and encyclopedias, Olga Weijers mentions the fact that the dictionaries and repertoires only send to other books whereas encyclopedias resume the knowledge of a period and are actually meant to be read. See: Olga Weijers, Dictionnaires et repertoires au moyen age, Brepols, Turnhout, 1991, p. 12. 2 Stefan Swieżawski states that the need to have more and more compendiums and manuals that make study easier is a characteristic tendency of the époque. See: Stefan Swieżawski, L’Univers- la philosophie de la nature au XV e siècle en Europe, Editions de la Société des Sciences et des Lettres de Varsovie, Varsovie, 1999, p. 8‒9.