The Medieval Natural World

Description

How did medieval people make sense of their surroundings, and how did this change over the years as understanding and knowledge expanded? This new "Seminar Study" is designed to familiarise students of medieval history with the ways in which medieval people interpreted the world around them – how they rationalised their observations, and why they developed the models for understanding that they did. Most importantly, it shows how ideas changed over the medieval period, and why. With extensive primary source material, this book builds up a picture using medieval encyclopedias, prose literature and poetry, records of estate management, agricultural treatises, scientific works, annals and chronicles, as well as the evidence from art, architecture, archaeology and the landscape itself. An excellent introduction for undergraduate students of Medieval history, or for anyone with an interest in the medieval natural world. Publisher’s acknowledgements x Abbreviations and editorial notes xii Chronology xiii Who’s who xvii Glossary xxii PART ONE. ANALYSIS 1 1. The Nature of Things 3 2. Universal Models 12 3. On the Heavens 25 4. Meteorology 37 5. Image of the World 48 6. Man and Nature 62 7. On Animals 73 8. On Plants 85 9. On Minerals 96 10. The Book of Nature 106 PART TWO. DOCUMENTS 115 1. Psalm 104 (Vulgate Psalm 103) (c. 1000–300 bc) 116 2. Extracts from Plato’s 'Timaeus' (c. 360 bc) 117 3. Aristotle’s 'Metaphysics', Bk 5, Ch. 4 on the various meanings of 'nature' (a. 322 bc) 119 4. 'Physiologus' on the partridge (second–fourth century) 120 5. St Augustine of Hippo, 'De Genesi ad litteram' on the relationship between Christian and non-Christian conceptions of the cosmos (a. 430) 120 6. Isidore of Seville, 'De natura rerum', Ch. 11, 'The elements of the world' (c. 612) 121 7. Extracts from the 'Qur’an' (610–632) 122 8. Al-Jahiz, 'Kitāb al-Hayawan' on differences between scholarly and popular questioning of natural phenomena (c. 800–850) 123 9. Al-Jahiz, 'Kitāb al-Hayawan' on the nuisance of flies (c. 800–850) 124 10. Dicuil, 'Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae' on Iceland (825) 124 11. John Scotus Eriugena, 'Periphyseon' or 'De divisione naturae', Bk 3, ll. 3257–77, on the structure of the universe (860) 125 12. Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriya of Ramhormuz, 'Ajaib al-Hind' on the hermaphroditic hare (c. 950–1000) 126 13. Avicenna, 'Danishnama-i ’ala’i' on the senses (a. 1037) 126 14. Al-Birunī, 'Kitāb-al-Saydanah fi’t-Tibb' on barley (a. 1048) 127 15. 'Physiologus' ascribed to Theobald, abbot of Monte Cassino, 'Concerning the ant' (1022–1085) 128 16. Baudri of Bourgueil, 'To Countess Adela', ll. 1042–1064 on astronomy (a. 1130) 129 17. 'Bestiary' on the partridge (twelfth century) 130 18. William of Conches, 'Dragmaticon', Bk 6, Ch. 22 on smell (1147–1149) 131 19. Hildegard of Bingen, 'Physica' on gemstones (1151–1158) 132 20. Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon, 'Travels' on the flying camel (1170–1187) 132 21 Extracts from the Anglo-Norman and French bestiaries of Philippe de Thaon, ll. 307–48 (c. 1120) and Gervaise, ll. 282–304 (c. 1200) concerning the Idrus and the Crocodile 133 22. The Owl: Hugh de Fouilloy’s 'De avibus' (c. 1132–1152) and the anonymous 'The Owl and the Nightingale', ll. 56–100 (late twelfth century) 135 23. Farid al-din ’Attar, 'Mantiq al-tair' on the spider (c. 1130–c. 1229) 137 24. Bartholomew the Englishman, 'De proprietatibus rerum', Bk 14, Chs 9 and 10 on the mountains of Ethiopia and Mount Etna (a. 1240) 138 25. Gauthier de Metz, 'The Myrrour of the World', Pt 2, Ch. 4 on Inde (c. 1245) 139 26. Matthew Paris, 'Historia Anglorum' on unseasonable weather (c. 1274) 139 27. 'Seneschaucy', Ch. 7 on the duties of the cowherd (a. 1276) 140 28. Albertus Magnus, 'De natura locorum', ll. 43–62 on planetary influence (a. 1280) 141 29. Albertus Magnus, 'De mineralibus' on silver (a. 1280) 141 30. Meteorological observations attributed to Roger Bacon for February 1270 142 31. Marco Polo, 'Divisament dou monde', Bk 3, Ch. 9 concerning pygmies (1298) 143 32. Meteorological observations of William Merle (1344) 143 33. 'Mandeville’s Travels' on monstrous races (c. 1360) 144 34. Edward of Norwich, 'The Master of Game' on greyhounds (1406–1413) 145 35. 'The Secrete of Secretes', 'On the condition of Man' (fifteenth century version) 145 References 147 Index 165 Plates