Fragmented Nature: Medieval Latinate Reasoning on the Natural World and Its Order

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<P>The Latin Middle Ages were characterised by a vast array of different representations of nature. These conceptualisations of the natural world were developed according to the specific requirements of many different disciplines, with the consequent result of producing a fragmentation of images of nature. Despite this plurality, two main tendencies emerged. On the one hand, the natural world was seen as a reflection of God¿s perfection, teleologically ordered and structurally harmonious. On the other, it was also considered as a degraded version of the spiritual realm ¿ a world of impeccable ideas, separate substances, and celestial movers. </P><P>This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages. It provides a cutting-edge profile of the doctrinal and semantic richness of the medieval idea of nature, and also illustrates the structural interconnection among learned and scientific disciplines in the medieval perio