Cosmographia is a Latin philosophical allegory

Allegory in the Middle Ages

Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of Biblical and Classical traditions into what would become recognizable as Medieval culture...

, dealing with the creation of the universe

Cosmogony

Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...

, by the twelfth-century author Bernard Silvestris

Bernard Silvestris

Bernard Silvestris, also known as Bernardus Silvestris, was a Medieval Platonist philosopher and poet of the 12th century.-Biography:Little is known about his life. André Vernet, who edited Bernard's Cosmographia, believed that he lived from 1085 to 1178; the only certain date in his life is 1147,...

. In form, it is a prosimetrum

Prosimetrum

A prosimetrum is a literary piece that is made up of alternating passages of prose and poetry.-Examples:*De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella*Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius*Cosmographia by Bernard Silvestris...

, in which passages of prose alternate with verse passages in various classical meters. The philosophical basis of the work is the Platonism

Platonism

Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...

 of contemporary philosophers associated with the cathedral school of Chartres

School of Chartres

During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated a famous and influential cathedral school, an important center of scholarship. It developed and reached its apex in the 11th and 12th centuries...

—one of whom, Thierry of Chartres

Thierry of Chartres

Thierry of Chartres or Theodoric the Breton was a twelfth-century philosopher working at Chartres and Paris, France....

, is the dedicatee of the work. According to a marginal note in one early manuscript, the Cosmographia was recited before Pope Eugene III

Pope Eugene III

Pope Blessed Eugene III , born Bernardo da Pisa, was Pope from 1145 to 1153. He was the first Cistercian to become Pope.-Early life:...

 when he was traveling in France (1147–48).

Synopsis

The work is divided into two parts: "Megacosmus", which describes the ordering of the physical universe, and "Microcosmus", which describes the creation of man.

Megacosmus

1 (verse): Natura (Nature) complains to Noys

Nous

Nous , also called intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, very close in meaning to intuition...

 (Divine Providence

Divine Providence

In Christian theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's activity in the world. " Providence" is also used as a title of God exercising His providence, and then the word are usually capitalized...

; Greek ) that Hyle

Hyle

In philosophy, hyle refers to matter or stuff. It can also be the material cause underlying a change in Aristotelian philosophy. The Greeks originally had no word for matter in general, as opposed to raw material suitable for some specific purpose or other, so Aristotle adapted the word for...

 (Primordial Matter; Greek ), although held in check by Silva (the Latin equivalent of hyle), is chaotic and unformed and asks that Noys impose order and form on the confused matter.

2 (prose): Noys reveals her status as the daughter of God and asserts that the time is right for Natura's plea to be granted. She then separates out the four elements of fire, earth, water, and air from primordial matter. Seeing that the results are good, she begets the World Soul

Anima mundi (spirit)

The world soul is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which relates to our world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body...

, or Endelechia, as a bride for Mundus (World). Their marriage is the source of life in the universe.

3 (verse): This long poem in elegiac couplet

Elegiac couplet

The elegiac couplet is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Ovid, adopted the same form in Latin many years later...

s presents the results of the ordering of the universe. Ether

Aether (classical element)

According to ancient and medieval science aether , also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.-Mythological origins:...

, the stars and sky

Celestial spheres

The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus and others...

, the earth, and the sea have become distinguished, and the nine orders of angels attend on the God who exists outside the universe. There follows a catalogue of the stars and constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

s, along with the planets and their natures. Then the earth and its creatures are described, with catalogues of mountains, beasts, rivers, plants (which are treated in particularly loving detail), fish, and birds.

4 (prose): The relationships between the powers operating in the universe are analyzed. All things under the heavens form part of a cosmic cycle, controlled by Natura, which will never cease, since its maker and cause are eternal. Hyle is the basis, whom the rational plan of God and Noys has ordered in an everlasting system, although subject to time: "For as Noys is forever pregnant of the divine will, she in turn informs Endelechia with the images she conceives of the eternal patterns, Endelechia impresses them upon Nature, and Nature imparts to Imarmene [Destiny; Greek ] what the well-being of the universe demands."

Microcosmus

1 (prose): Noys displays the created universe to Natura and points out its various features.

2 (verse): With the work of Noys, Silva has recovered her true beauty. Noys (still speaking to Natura) declares herself proud of the harmony she has brought to the universe.

3 (prose): Noys says that for the completion of the cosmic design, the creation of man is needed. For this it is necessary that Natura seek out Urania (the celestial principle) and Physis (the material principle). Natura sets forth and searches through various regions of the heavens. When she reaches the outermost limit of the heavens, she encounters the Genius

Genius (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, the genius was the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place or thing.-Nature of the genius:...

 whose responsibility it is to delineate the celestial forms

Theory of Forms

Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas asserts that non-material abstract forms , and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. When used in this sense, the word form is often capitalized...

 on the individual things of the universe. He greets Natura and points out Urania, whose brightness dazzles Natura.

4 (verse): Urania agrees to descend to Earth and collaborate in the creation of man. She will take with her the human soul, guiding it through all the heavens so that it may become acquainted with the laws of fate and learn the rules that govern its behavior.

5 (prose): To gain the sanction of the divine powers, Natura and Urania travel outside the cosmos, to the sanctuary of the supreme divinity, Tugaton (the Good; Greek ), whose favor they pray for. They then descend, one by one, through the planetary spheres

Celestial spheres

The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus and others...

.

6 (verse): Having reached the lower boundary of the sphere of the Moon, where the quintessence

Aether (classical element)

According to ancient and medieval science aether , also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.-Mythological origins:...

 meets the terrestrial elements

Classical element

Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...

, Natura pauses to look about her.

7 (prose): Natura and Urania see thousands of spirits. Urania tells Natura that, in addition to the angels who dwell beyond the created universe and in the heavenly spheres, there are spirits below the Moon—some good, some evil.

8 (verse): Urania bids Natura to review the totality of the universe and note the principles of divine concord that it manifests.

9 (prose): Natura and Urania descend to Earth and reach a secluded locus amoenus

Locus Amoenus

Latin for "pleasant place", locus amoenus is a literary term which generally refers to an idealized place of safety or comfort. A locus amoenus is usually a beautiful, shady lawn or open woodland, sometimes with connotations of Eden...

(called Gramision or Granusion—the readings of the manuscripts are disputed). There they meet Physis, accompanied by her daughters Theorica (Contemplative Knowledge) and Practica (Active Knowledge), who is rapt in contemplation of created life in all its aspects. Suddenly, Noys appears.

10 (verse): Noys explains that Natura, Urania, and Physis can collaborate to complete the creation by fashioning a creature who participates in both the divine and earthly realms.

11 (prose): Noys assigns Urania, Physis, and Natura specific tasks in the creation of man, providing a model for each. Urania, using the Mirror of Providence, is to provide him with a soul derived from Endelechia; Physis, using the Book of Memory, is to provide him with a body; and Natura, using the Table of Destiny, is to unite the soul and the body.

12 (verse): Natura summons her two companions to begin the work. Physis, however, is somewhat angry, since she sees that matter is ill suited for the fashioning of a being that requires intellect. Urania assists her by eliminating the evil taint from Silva and containing the matter within definite limits.

13 (prose): Physis—making use of the imperfect aspects of Silva that had (somewhat uncertainly) submitted to the will of God and had been left over from the rest of creation—fashions a body. The four humors

Humorism

Humorism, or humoralism, is a now discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct bodily fluids in a person directly influences their temperament and health...

 are described, along with the tripartite division of the body into the head (seat of the brain and the sensory organs), the breast (seat of the heart) and the loins (seat of the liver).

14 (verse): The powers of the senses and the brain, heart, and liver are detailed. The organs of generation will prevent human life from wholly passing away and the universe from returning to chaos.

Platonic background

The ultimate source for much of Bernard's allegory is the account of creation in Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

's Timaeus

Timaeus (dialogue)

Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...

, as transmitted in the incomplete Latin translation, with lengthy commentary, by Calcidius

Calcidius

Calcidius was a 4th century Christian who translated the first part of Plato's Timaeus from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was done for Bishop Hosius of Córdoba...

. This was the only work of Plato's that was widely known in western Europe during the Middle Ages, and it was central to the renewed interest in natural science among the philosophers associated with the school of Chartres:

Chartres … would long remain the fertile soil in which this conception [of man as microcosm] would grow, and this the more as the Timaeus, itself constructed upon the parallelism between microcosm and macrocosm, became a central preoccupation of teaching at Chartres. This was the first age, the golden age, of Platonism as such in the West, an age which found in the Timaeus an entire physics, an anthropology, a metaphysics, and even a lofty spiritual teaching.

From the Timaeus Bernard and the Chartrian thinkers, such as Thierry of Chartres

Thierry of Chartres

Thierry of Chartres or Theodoric the Breton was a twelfth-century philosopher working at Chartres and Paris, France....

 and William of Conches

William of Conches

William of Conches was a French scholastic philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism by studying secular works of the classics and fostering empirical science. He was a prominent member of the School of Chartres...

, adopted three fundamental assumptions: "that the visible universe is a unified whole, a 'cosmos'; that it is the copy of an ideal exemplar; and that its creation was the expression of the goodness of its creator". Thierry had written a Tractatus de sex dierum operibus, in which he had essayed to elucidate the biblical account of creation "iuxta physicas rationes tantum" ("purely in terms of physical causes"); and this perhaps accounts for Bernard's dedication of the Cosmographia to Thierry.

Along with the Timaeus and Calcidius's commentary, Bernard's work also draws on Platonic themes diffused throughout a variety of works of late antiquity, such as Apuleius

Apuleius

Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...

's philosophical treatises, Macrobius

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius was a Roman grammarian and Neoplatonist philosopher who flourished during the early fifth century. He is primarily known for his writings, which include the Saturnalia, a compendium of ancient Roman religious and antiquarian lore, the Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis...

's commentary on Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

's Dream of Scipio

Dream of Scipio

The Dream of Scipio , written by Cicero, is the sixth book of De re publica, and describes a fictional dream vision of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, set two years before he commanded at the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE.Upon his arrival in Africa, Scipio Aemilianus is visited by his...

, the Hermetic

Hermetica

The Hermetica are Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified with Hermes Trismegistus or "thrice-greatest Hermes", enlightens a disciple...

 Asclepius, the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella

Martianus Capella

Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a pagan writer of Late Antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education...

, and Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...

's Consolation of Philosophy

Consolation of Philosophy

Consolation of Philosophy is a philosophical work by Boethius, written around the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical.-...

. In addition to their Platonic elements, the latter two works would have provided models of the prosimetrum form; and Macrobius's commentary had authorized the use of allegorical (fabulosa) methods in philosophers' treatment of certain subjects, since "sciunt inimicam esse naturae apertam nudamque expositionem sui" ("they realize that a frank, open exposition of herself is distasteful to Nature").

Reception

That the Cosmographia survives, in whole or in part, in about fifty manuscripts indicates that it enjoyed a good deal of popularity in the Middle Ages. Scholars have traced its influence on "a wide variety of medieval and renaissance authors, including Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen

Blessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...

, Vincent of Beauvais

Vincent of Beauvais

The Dominican friar Vincent of Beauvais wrote the Speculum Maius, the main encyclopedia that was used in the Middle Ages.-Early life:...

, Dante

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

, Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

, Nicholas of Cusa

Nicholas of Cusa

Nicholas of Kues , also referred to as Nicolaus Cusanus and Nicholas of Cusa, was a cardinal of the Catholic Church from Germany , a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and an astronomer. He is widely considered one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century...

, and Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...

—whose annotated copy of the work we possess". In particular, Bernard's conceptions of Natura and Genius would be echoed and transformed in the works of Alain de Lille

Alain de Lille

Alain de Lille , French theologian and poet, was born, probably in Lille, some years before 1128.-Life:...

, in the Roman de la Rose

Roman de la Rose

The Roman de la rose, , is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the...

, in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules

Parlement of Foules

The "Parlement of Foules" is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer made up of approximately 700 lines. The poem is in the form of a dream vision in rhyme royal stanza and is interesting in that it is the first reference to the idea that St...

, and in Gower

John Gower

John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...

's Confessio Amantis

Confessio Amantis

Confessio Amantis is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. According to its prologue, it was composed at the request of Richard II...

.

Editions

• De mundi universitate libri duo sive megacosmus et microcosmus, ed. C. S. Barach and J. Wrobel (Innsbruck, 1876).
• Cosmographia, ed. André Vernet, in "Bernardus Silvestris: Recherches sur l'auteur et l'oeuvre, suivies d'une édition critique de la 'Cosmographia'" (unpublished dissertation, École nationale des chartes, 1938). This is the only critical edition of the Cosmographia produced to date.
• Cosmographia, ed. Peter Dronke (Leiden: Brill, 1978). ISBN 90-04-05767-6

Translations

• German: Über die allumfassende Einheit der Welt: Makrokosmos und Mikrokosmos, trans. Wilhelm Rath (Stuttgart: Mellinger, [1953]).
• English: The Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris, trans. Winthrop Wetherbee (New York: Columbia UP, 1973). ISBN 0-231-09625-9
• French: Cosmographie, trans. Michel Lemoine (Paris: Cerf, 1998). ISBN 2-204-05725-8