Man as Image of Nature in Magnus Hundt: The Perspective of a Thomist ca. 1500

Abstract

This paper draws on a late medieval example to show that images of nature can also be images of the human body. It presents the Anthropologium de hominis dignitate by the Leipzig magister Magnus Hundt (1449–1519). The Anthropologium is a text that prominently integrates the human body into its conception of man and its account of human dignity. The body is not presented as a prison of the soul, but as a perfectly balanced physical counterpart to the soul. The paper shows how Hundt’s reflections were influenced by his commitment to the Thomistic school. Moreover, it reveals how the elevated Imago Dei thesis provides a justification for the study of the human body. Hundt is shown to offer nothing less than a theological–philosophical legitimation for practising medicine. In doing so, he also incorporates images of nature in a literal sense, insofar as he includes images of the human body in his book.

Images of Nature: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…These (exclusively male) specialists were scholastic natural philosophers working in the context of small universities, using books based on Aristotle and the Bible for teaching and research and viewing their study of nature as truth-producing science. (Schneiter 2023;Engel 2023;Müller 2023) In our series of articles, the embedding of naturalists in Christian precepts ends at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. As Ruppel notes, God is not mentioned in the extensive writings of Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (died 1837).…”

“…In our sample of articles, the subject comes up several times. Magnus Hundt in 1501 put the body on a par with the soul and thus related to the divine sphere (Engel 2023). Daniel Sennert later spoke of ensouled atoms and of vegetative, sensitive, and rational souls for plants, animals and human beings, respectively (Müller 2023).…”