De natura rerum (Cantimpré)

De natura rerum (or Liber de natura rerum) is a thirteenth century work of natural history, written by Flemish Roman Catholic friar and medieval writer. Thomas of Cantimpré. De natura rerum may be Thomas' most significant work, as it's both the one he dedicated more time to (almost twenty years of work, between 1225 and 1244) and the one that had the largest posthumous fortune, as witnessed by the large number of codes that contain this work, but also by the many authors that took inspiration from it.

De natura rerum
A page from De natura rerum, ms. 411, Bruges Public Library, fol. 4r.
AuthorThomas of Cantimpré
CountryFlanders
SubjectNatural history, anatomy, biology, mineralogy, medicine

Contents

De natura rerum is an encyclopedic work – thus belonging to the encyclopedic genre, largely widespread on the Latin Late Middle Ages – that wants to represent a complete and exhaustive compendium of the previous scientific history, specifically for clergy.[1]

A first 'stable' redaction of the work is dated between 1237 and 1240 (as to say, in the period when Thomas is located at the Dominica studium in Paris) and it's structured into nineteen books. Later, anyway, the author himself deeply revises the text, adding many interpolations[2] to it: this second redaction of De natura rerum, dated 1244, is organized into twenty book, of different topics:

Outline
  • Book I: on human body's anatomy;
  • Book II: on the soul;
  • Book III: on the "monstrous men" of the East;
  • Book IV: on quadrupeds animals;
  • Book V: on birds;
  • Book VI: on sea monsters;
  • Book VII: on sea creatures;
  • Book VIII: on snakes;
  • Book IX: on worms;
  • Book X: on common trees;
  • Book XI: on aromatic and medicinal trees;
  • Book XII: on aromatica and medicinal's trees properties;
  • Book XIII: on sources;
  • Book XIV: on precious stones;
  • Book XV: on the seven metals;
  • Book XVI: on the seven celestial regions;
  • Book XVII: on the sphere and the seven planets;
  • Book XVIII: on air motions;
  • Book XIX: on the four elements;
  • Book XX: on eclipses and sidereal motions.

Sources

Thomas of Cantimpré's De natura rerum depends on several sources, that include in primis the great philosopher Aristotle (a fundamental authority in the Middle Ages, particularly starting from XIII century) and two Latin authors, Pliny the Elder and Gaius Julius Solinus, respectively of the I and the III century. Other names shall be added to these three, for instance St. Ambrose and – coming chronologically closer to Thomas – also the one of Jacques de Vitry. Furthermore, the twentieth book (added in a second moment, as previously said), majorly comes from William of Conches's De philosophia mundi. In this work, Thomas himself also indicates an anonymous 'experimenter'.[3] Apart from the few names easily identifiable, it's certain that Thomas of Cantimpré used a large number of different sources, that are not always easy to recognize.

Reception and textual tradition

As previously mentioned, the De natura rerum had a considerable fortune, especially during the Renaissance,[4] when the text was frequently plagiarized, mostly for catalogs of animals, but also for catalogs of stones and monsters.[5] Several vernacularizations and also a Dutch translation (Der Naturen Bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant) were realized. Furthermore, Conrad of Megenberg's Buch der Natur (1475) was also inspired by Thomas' De natura rerum.

Regarding the textual tradition, De natura rerum had a widespread diffusion, confirmed by the consistent number of codes that contain the text. However, to be more specific, between the hundred of manuscripts[6] of the work, only a few (just two manuscripts) contain the whole work in its integrity, while the largest part of them has a shortened version: thus, the shorter the version of the De natura rerum, the larger diffusion it had.[7]

References
  1. See Nicholas LOUIS, Essaimage et usages du «Bonum universale de apibus» de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Lecteurs, lectures et groupes sociaux au Moyen Age. Actes de la journée d’études organisée par le Centre de recherches «Pratiques médiévales de l’écrit» (PraME) de l’Université de Namur et le Département des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles, 18 mars 2010, curr. Xavier HERMAND – Etienne RENARD – Céline VAN HOOREBEECK, Turnhout, Brepols, 2014 (Texte, Codex et Contexte 17), pp. 29–56, p. 31.
  2. The rework can be noticed in particular in two manuscripts, one of which is partially autograph. About the text history, in his two editions, see Baudouin VAN DEN ABEELE, Diffusion et avatars d’une encyclopédie: le Liber de natura rerum de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Une lumière venue d’ailleurs, curr. G. DE CALLATAŸ e B. VAN DEN ABEELE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Brepols, 2008, pp. 141–176, pp. 143–144.
  3. On this experimenter's figure see Baudouin VAN DEN ABEELE, A la recherche de l'Experimentator de Thomas de Cantimpre, in Expertus sum, SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, Firenze, 2010, pp. 41–65.
  4. For further information on the text's medieval fortune, see Cynthia M. PYLE, The Art and Science of Renaissance Natural History: Thomas of Cantimpré, Candido Decembrio, Conrad Gessner, and Teodoro Ghisi in Vatican Library MS Urb. lat. 276, in «Viator», XXVII, 1996, pp. 265–321.
  5. See Baudouin VAN DEN ABEELE, Diffusion et avatars d’une encyclopédie, p. 158.
  6. A complete list of the manuscripts that transmits the De natura rerum can be found in Baudouin VAN DEN ABEELE, Diffusion et avatars d’une encyclopédie, pp. 161–174.
  7. Apparently, even the Conrad of Megenberg's Buch der Natur seems to be base on this shortened version.
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