Manipulus florum Thomas was the author of three short works on theology and biblical
exegesis, and the compiler of the
Manipulus florum ('A Handful of Flowers'). The latter, a Latin
florilegium, has been described as a "collection of some 6,000 extracts from patristic and a few classical authors". Thomas compiled this collection from books in the library of the Sorbonne, "and at his death he bequeathed his books and sixteen pounds Parisian to the college". The
Manipulus florum survives in over one hundred and ninety manuscripts, and was first printed in 1483. It was printed twenty-six times in the 16th century, eleven times in the 17th. As late as the 19th century, editions were published in Vienna and Turin. Although Thomas was apparently a member of the
secular clergy, his anthology was highly successful because it was "well suited to the needs of the new mendicant preaching orders ... [to] ... locate quotations ... relevant to any subject they might wish to touch on in their sermons." Indeed, Boyer has demonstrated that very soon after the
Manipulus was completed a French
Dominican used it to compose a series of surviving sermons. However, Nighman has argued that, although it was surely used by preachers, Thomas did not actually intend his anthology as a reference tool for sermon composition, as argued by the Rouses, but rather as a learning aid for university students, especially those intending on a clerical career involving pastoral care. Nighman has also demonstrated its reception in several non-sermon texts, including Walter Bower's Scotichronicon. Thomas was also among the earliest pioneers of medieval information technology that included alphabetical
subject indices and
cross-references. "In his selection, and in the various indexing techniques he invented or improved on, he revealed true originality and inventiveness." ==References and further reading==