Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’
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Albrecht Classen
Abstract
Postmodern readers tend to misunderstand most of medieval attempts to come to terms with nature, which was consistently viewed through allegorical lenses. Of course, in the daily context during the Middle Ages, nature was nature, and farmers and hunters, for instance, engaged with animals as they needed. Gardens and fields were set up and maintained, fishermen were regularly occupied, and woodcutters and foresters were busily at work in the forests. The philosophical and literary approach to nature, however, operated quite differently because animals and plants were all identified as the result of the Creator’s work. Hence, the intellectuals’ task was to gain a deeper understanding of the material dimension which certainly carried multiple meanings. This hence explains why so many medieval bestiaries and encyclopedias appear to represent reality in a rather imaginative manner and did not care about the accuracy of their observations. Only if we accept that the pre-modern age was in many respects deeply determined by an alternative epistemology, with which they operated quite successfully, will we be able to grasp the ultimate motivation behind the presentation and discussion of fanciful creatures, including monsters that decorate so many margins of manuscripts, capitals, eaves, and sculptures, all of which serving intricately for the illustration of God’s glory and infinite potentiality. However, we also have to discriminate between this allegory-driven discourse on nature and the emerging encyclopedic approach since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in which factuality eventually gained the upper hand. We thus face at least two competing discourses vis-à-vis the natural environment.
Abstract
Postmodern readers tend to misunderstand most of medieval attempts to come to terms with nature, which was consistently viewed through allegorical lenses. Of course, in the daily context during the Middle Ages, nature was nature, and farmers and hunters, for instance, engaged with animals as they needed. Gardens and fields were set up and maintained, fishermen were regularly occupied, and woodcutters and foresters were busily at work in the forests. The philosophical and literary approach to nature, however, operated quite differently because animals and plants were all identified as the result of the Creator’s work. Hence, the intellectuals’ task was to gain a deeper understanding of the material dimension which certainly carried multiple meanings. This hence explains why so many medieval bestiaries and encyclopedias appear to represent reality in a rather imaginative manner and did not care about the accuracy of their observations. Only if we accept that the pre-modern age was in many respects deeply determined by an alternative epistemology, with which they operated quite successfully, will we be able to grasp the ultimate motivation behind the presentation and discussion of fanciful creatures, including monsters that decorate so many margins of manuscripts, capitals, eaves, and sculptures, all of which serving intricately for the illustration of God’s glory and infinite potentiality. However, we also have to discriminate between this allegory-driven discourse on nature and the emerging encyclopedic approach since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in which factuality eventually gained the upper hand. We thus face at least two competing discourses vis-à-vis the natural environment.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
