| The main objective of this thesis is, through the analysis of Vincent de Beauvais' Speculum maius, to bring to the fore the introduction and use of the concept of nature within the context of thirteenth century theological and philosophical thought. It seeks to understand the relationship of the notion of nature to the theological ideas on natural right and synderesis, and to the philosophical terms of generation, substance, and inner character. Equally, it investigates the semantic meaning of natura in expressions such as 'natural law', the 'rule of nature', and the 'natural order'. It studies the conceptualization of the universitas rerum to emphasise the efforts used in the thirteenth century to classify realities of the world, to link them to the exegesis of the Bible, to connect them to a hierarchy of the cosmic order, to label them in scientific discourse, and to integrate them into different systems of knowledge (such as, agriculture, medicine, and diet). Above all of these aspects, my thesis highlights the meaning of the successive modifications carried out by Beauvais and his team, from one version of the Speculum to another, the relations between the three parts of the Speculum (Naturale, Historiale, Doctrinale), the practices of the compilation, and the intertextuality between the compilations during the first half of the thirteenth century. Furthermore, my analysis stresses the importance assigned to the secular, Dominican, and Franciscan masters, in addition to the compilers writing in this period, whom Vincent de Beauvais gathered together into a textual community. |
