The Venerable Bede composed On the Nature of Things (De natura rerum) and On Times (De temporibus) at the outset of his career, about AD 703. Bede fashioned himself as a teacher to his people and his age, and these two short works show him selecting, editing, and clarifying a mass of difficult and sometimes dangerous material. He insisted that his reader understand the mathematical and physical basis of time, and though he was dependent on his textual sources, he also included observations of his own. But Bede was also a Christian exegete who thought deeply and earnestly about how salvation-history connected to natural history and the history of the peoples of the earth. To comprehend his religious mentality, we have to take on board his views on “science” —— and vice versa. On the Nature of Things is a survey of cosmology. Starting with Creation and the universe as a whole, Bede reads the cosmos downwards from the heavens, through the atmosphere, to the oceans and rivers of earth. This order (recapitulating the four elements or fire, air, water and earth) was derived from his main source, Isidore of Seville’s On the Nature of Things. However, Bede separated out Isidore’s chapters on time, and dealt with them in On Times. On Times, like its “second, revised and enlarged edition” The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione), works upwards from the smallest units of time, through the day and night, the week, month and year, to the world-ages. Bede’s innovation is to introduce a practical manual of Easter reckoning, or computus, into this survey. Hidden beneath the matter-of-fact surface of the work is an intense polemic about the correct principles for determining the date of Easter —— principles which in Bede’s view are bound up with both the integrity of nature as God’s creation, and the theological significance of Christ’s death and resurrection. In these works Bede re-united cosmology and time-reckoning to form a unified science of computus that would become the framework for Carolingian and Scholastic basic scientific education.
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Translated here for the first time into English, Bede’s On the Nature of Things and On Times bring together cosmology and time-reckoning to form a unified science of computus —— the basis for the scientific education of the Middle Ages.
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IllustrationsAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroductionDate and Purpose of On the Nature of Things (ONT)and On Times (OT)Structure and Content of ONT and OTUnity of Conception of ONT and OTThe Place of ONT and OT in Bede’s ThoughtBede’s template: Isidore of Seville’s De natura rerum (DNR)Bede’s transformation of Isidore’s DNRBede’s Attitude Toward IsidoreThe Easter Controversy and the Pedagogy of ComputusThe Christian World-ChronicleBede’s Science: Continuities and New DirectionsThe Transmission of ONT and OTThe reception of ONT and OT: glosses and excerptsPrinciples Governing this TranslationInventory of Manuscripts and Editions of Bede’s ONT and OTBede: On the Nature of ThingsA Poem of Bede the PriestThe Chapters of On the Nature of Things1. The Fourfold Work of God2. The Formation of the World3. What the World Is4. The Elements5. The Firmament6. The Varied Height of Heaven7. Upper Heaven8. The Heavenly Waters9. The Five Circles of the World10. The Regions of the World11. The Stars12. The Course of the Planets13. Their Order14. Their Orbits15. Why Their Colours Change16. The Circle of the Zodiac17. The Twelve Signs18. The Milky Way19. The Course and Size of the Sun20. The Nature and Place of the Moon21. Method for Determining the Course of the Moon through the Signs of the Zodia22. The Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon23. Where there is No Eclipse and Why24. Comets25. The Air26. The Winds27. The Order of the Winds28. Thunder29. Lightning30. Where Lightning is Not and Why31. The Rainbow32. Clouds33. Rains34. Hail35. Snow36. Signs of Storms or Fair Weather37. Pestilence38. On the Dual Nature of the Waters39. The Ocean’s Tide40. Why the Sea does Not Grow in Size41. Why It is Bitter42. The Red Sea43. The Nile44. That the Earth is Bound by Waters45. The Position of the Earth46. That the Earth is Like a Globe47. The Circles of the Earth48. More on the Same Subject: the Art of Using Sundials49. Earthquake50. The Fire of Mount Etna51. The Division of the EarthBede: On TimesThe Chapters of On Times1. Moments and Hours2. The Day3. The Night4. The Week5. The Month6. The Months of the Romans7. Solstice and Equinox8. The Seasons9. Years10. The Leap-Year Day11. The Nineteen-Year Cycle12. The ‘Leap of the Moon’13. The Contents of the Paschal Cycle14. The Formulas for the Headings of the Pascal Tables15. The Sacrament of the Easter Season16. The Ages of the World17. The Sequence and Order of Times18. The Second Age19. The Third Age20. The Fourth Age21. The Fifth Age22. The Sixth AgeCommentary: On the Nature of ThingsCommentary: On TimesAppendix 1: Bede: A Hymn on the Work of theFirst Six Days and the Six Ages of the WorldAppendix 2: An Excursus on Bede’s Mathematical ReasoningAppendix 3: Bede’s Calculation of Tidal Periods and the Purported ‘Immaturity’ ofOn the Nature of ThingsAppendix 4: Bede and LucretiusSelect BibliographyIndex of SourcesGeneral Index
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The translation itself is extremely well produced: it stays close to the Latin yet employs the best in modern idioms; I could uncover no errors of any kind. Scholars of Bede and the early Middle Ages will read these works with great interest for the light they throw on the organization of Bede's thought and the larger trajectory of his biblical vision; historians of science, meanwhile, will enjoy having in so inviting a volume translations of two early medieval works that had a strong hold on understandings of chronology and cosmology up till modern times. Scott DeGregorio, ISIS, Volume 103, Number 2
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This is the first English translation of Bede's On the Nature of Things and On Times

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781846314964
Publisert
2010-10-14
Utgiver
Vendor
Liverpool University Press
Vekt
311 gr
Høyde
210 mm
Bredde
147 mm
Aldersnivå
UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
222

Forfatter
Translated with commentary by

Om bidragsyterne

Calvin B. Kendall is Emeritus Professor of English, University of Minnesota. His many books include The Allegory of the Church: Romanesque Portals and Their Verse Inscriptions (University of Toronto Press 1998) and (with Faith Wallis) Bede: On the Nature of Things and On Times (Liverpool University Press 2010). Faith Wallis is Professor Emerita at McGill University in Montreal. Her research focuses on the textual and manuscript transmission of medical and scientific knowledge in the Middle Ages. Her many books include Bede: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (with Calvin B. Kendall, 2024), Isidore of Seville: On the Nature of Things (2016), Bede: Commentary on Revelation (2013), all in the Liverpool University Press Translated Texts for Historians series.