Thomas of Cantimpré’s On the Nature of Things and Natural Philosophy
Project Title: Thomas of Cantimpré’s On the Nature of Things and Natural Philosophy
Project Description:
Even though the English term “encyclopedia” did not appear until the sixteenth century, thirteenth-century authors interested in natural philosophy and science produced medieval equivalents to modern encyclopedias. Indeed, the thirteenth century has been described as a golden age for medieval encyclopedias, when a handful of large texts written in Latin or in the vernacular sought to assemble and systematize the sum of contemporary knowledge for a non-specialist audience. One of the most influential Latin encyclopedias is Thomas of Cantimpré’s On the Nature of Things (De natura rerum, ca. 1242-47; 2nd redaction ca. 1256), which summarized diverse fields of knowledge, such as theology, astronomy, mathematics, zoology, botany, and biology, to reveal both the things of nature and the nature of things. We propose to produce the first annotated complete English translation of Thomas of Cantimpré’s On the Nature of Things, making it accessible to general readers and scholars alike interested in the principal sources for natural philosophy and science.
Project Staff:
Irven M. Resnick(Ph.D., University of Virginia, 1983) is Professor and Chair of Excellence in the department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is the author, editor, or translator of nineteen volumes, including Power, Penance, and Possibility in St. Peter Damian's De divina omnipotentia (1992); Marks of Distinction: Christian Perceptions of Jews in the High Middle Ages (2012); and, with Kenneth Kitchell, Albertus Magnusand the World of Nature (in press). His published translations from Latin include: Two Theological Treatises of Odo of Tournai: On Original Sin, and a Debate with the Jew, Leo, Concerning the Advent of Christ, the Son of God (1994); The Letters of Peter Damian, 121-150 (2004); The Letters of Peter Damian, 151-180 (2005); Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogue Against the Jews (2006); Albert the Great’s On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements (Liber de causis proprietatum elementorum) (2010); Peter the Venerable’s Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews (2013); Peter the Venerable’s Writings Against the Saracens (2016); and, with Franklin Harkins, Albert the Great, On Resurrection (2020). In collaboration with Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. he has translated Albertus Magnus On Animals. A Medieval Summa Zoologica, 2 vols. (1999; 2nd rev. ed. 2018); and, Albert the Great’s Questions Concerning Aristotle’s ‘On Animals’ (2008) They also have published Albert the Great: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (1900-2000) (2004) and Albertus Magnus and the World of Nature (in press).
Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. (Ph.D., Loyola University, 1977) is a retired Professor of Classics from Louisiana State University (1976-1998) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1998-2014). In addition to the works and translations co-authored with Professor Resnick (above) his work centers on animals and animal lore from antiquity through the Middle Ages. He is the author of 79 scholarly articles and chapters and author or co-author of sixteen books, most notably for the matter at hand: The Other Middle Ages: An Alternative Medieval Latin Reader, (2016); Animals in the Ancient World A-Z (2014), chosen as a CHOICE Magazine Outstanding Academic Title for 2014; translation and annotation of A Trilogy on the Herpetology of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae X, with Prof. H. Dundee, Smithsonian Herpetological Service 100 (1994). He is co-founder of Zoa: Animals in Greco-Roman Antiquity, a Facebook-based discussion group with ca. 550 members.