De Mirabilibus Mundi

The Medieval WorldView and Ars Magica

This page grows out of a growing urge to document medieval science and beliefs on how their world existed. I cannot claim that all of the material on this page is complete. Instead, I can just present my research and that of others in the attempt to offer a worldview that will be of use to those who play Ars Magica.

I can but hope that this page will be of use to others interested in this subject matter. Currently the following material has been prepared:

A discussion of Paradigm and how it applies to Ars Magica.

• Forms and Universals are of great interest for Ars Magica.
  
  
• The Cosmos
  1. The Heavens
  2. The Astrolabe and its importance
  3. Inventing the Solar System: Early Greek Scientists Struggle to Explain How the Heavens Move by Ellen N. Brundige
  4. Thomas Aquinas: On the Eternity of the World (translated by Robert T. Miller, [rtm2@pipeline.com])
     
     
• The Terrestrial Regions
  1. Matter, Form and Substance
  2. Combination and Mixture
  3. Change and Motion
  4. Maps of the Middle Ages, by Berenger
     • The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes by Andrew J. Wiesner
       
       
• Natural History in the Middle Ages
  1. Pests and pest control
     
     
• The Human Condition
  1. The Concept of Evil
  2. The Soul
  3. The Human Mind
     • Augustine on the Illumination of the Human Mind
     • Aristotelian Epistemology and Its Arabic Developments
       
       
• The Social Context
  1. Ioachim de Flore - Spiritus Intelligentiae: by Berengar
  2. Philosophers of Interest and their theories
     
     
• General Bibliography

I really need to do more with Arabic Science, until then this page will have to supply some of the lack: Muslim Scientists, Mathematicians, and Astronomers: Before European Renaissance, 700 - 1500 C.E..

Secretum secretorum index

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Last modified: Sun Dec 27, 1998 / Jeremiah Genest

To reach the maintainer of this page, Jeremiah Genest. HTML queries: Sheila Thomas