The Unheard Music: Astronomy and Astrology in Hermann of Carinthia’s De essentiis (1143)
The twelfth century witnessed both the rediscovery of Greek natural philosophy through Arabic-Latin and Greco-Latin translations, and the formative stage of its assimilation into the Latin West. De essentiis, the scientific treatise composed in 1143 by the translator and scholar Hermann of Carinthia, stands at the confluence of the seven liberal arts, Latin Platonism, and the heterogeneous Greco-Arabic scientific materials. An ambitious work outlining creation and generation from the outermost sphere of the heavens to creatures on the earth, De essentiis is a lens into the flourishing of science in the twelfth century. In my study of this text, I aim to synthesize Hermann’s quantitative, mythological, and philosophical search for celestial-terrestrial harmony. I trace the lineage of celestial-terrestrial harmony up to Hermann, illuminating how mathematical, physical, and metaphysical speculations in Greco-Arabic astronomy and astrology enriched the Latin quadrivium. By studying the ways in which Hermann incorporated authorities into his argument, I hope to shed light on how the twelfth-century translations encountered and altered the organization of knowledge in the Latin West. In addition, this study on the heterogeneity of scientific thought offers the hope of recasting linguistic boundaries and rethinking intellectual geography.
Musica mundana et humana: Cosmology and Astronomy in Hermann of Carinthia’s De essentiis (1143). A presentation deriving from Special Studies with Joshua Birk, Associate Professor of History