Jones Richard. The Medieval Natural World

Routledge, 2013. — 214 p. — ISBN: 1408248891, 9781408248898, 113883520X, 9781138835207.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
Abbreviations and editorial notes
Chronology
Who’s whoAnalysis
The Nature of Things
Universal Models
On the Heavens
Meteorology
Image of the World
Man and Nature
On Animals
On Plants
On Minerals
The Book of Nature
Documents
Psalm 104 (Vulgate Psalm 103) (c. 1000–300 bc)
Extracts from Plato’s 'Timaeus' (c. 360 bc)
Aristotle’s 'Metaphysics', Bk 5, Ch. 4 on the various meanings of 'nature' (a. 322 bc)
'Physiologus' on the partridge (second–fourth century)
St Augustine of Hippo, 'De Genesi ad litteram' on the relationship between Christian and non-Christian conceptions of the cosmos (a. 430)
Isidore of Seville, 'De natura rerum', Ch. 11, 'The elements of the world' (c. 612)
Extracts from the 'Qur’an' (610–632)
Al-Jahiz, 'Kitāb al-Hayawan' on differences between scholarly and popular questioning of natural phenomena (c. 800–850)
Al-Jahiz, 'Kitāb al-Hayawan' on the nuisance of flies (c. 800–850)
Dicuil, 'Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae' on Iceland (825)
John Scotus Eriugena, 'Periphyseon' or 'De divisione naturae', Bk 3, ll. 3257–77, on the structure of the universe (860)
Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriya of Ramhormuz, 'Ajaib al-Hind' on the hermaphroditic hare (c. 950–1000)
Avicenna, 'Danishnama-i ’ala’i' on the senses (a. 1037)
Al-Birunī, 'Kitāb-al-Saydanah fi’t-Tibb' on barley (a. 1048)
'Physiologus' ascribed to Theobald, abbot of Monte Cassino, 'Concerning the ant' (1022–1085)
Baudri of Bourgueil, 'To Countess Adela', ll. 1042–1064 on astronomy (a. 1130)
'Bestiary' on the partridge (twelfth century)
William of Conches, 'Dragmaticon', Bk 6, Ch. 22 on smell (1147–1149)
Hildegard of Bingen, 'Physica' on gemstones (1151–1158)
Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon, 'Travels' on the flying camel (1170–1187)
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
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)
Farid al-din ’Attar, 'Mantiq al-tair' on the spider (c. 1130–c. 1229)
Bartholomew the Englishman, 'De proprietatibus rerum', Bk 14, Chs 9 and 10 on the mountains of Ethiopia and Mount Etna (a. 1240)
Gauthier de Metz, 'The Myrrour of the World', Pt 2, Ch. 4 on Inde (c. 1245)
Matthew Paris, 'Historia Anglorum' on unseasonable weather (c. 1274)
'Seneschaucy', Ch. 7 on the duties of the cowherd (a. 1276)
Albertus Magnus, 'De natura locorum', ll. 43–62 on planetary influence (a. 1280)
Albertus Magnus, 'De mineralibus' on silver (a. 1280)
Meteorological observations attributed to Roger Bacon for February 1270
Marco Polo, 'Divisament dou monde', Bk 3, Ch. 9 concerning pygmies (1298)
Meteorological observations of William Merle (1344)
'Mandeville’s Travels' on monstrous races (c. 1360)
Edward of Norwich, 'The Master of Game' on greyhounds (1406–1413)
'The Secrete of Secretes', 'On the condition of Man' (fifteenth century version)Plates