Microcosmus: From Anaximandros to Paracelsus

Abstract

The ideas expressed by the names of Microcosmus and Macrocosmus have never lost their attraction for speculative minds since the time they first made their appearance in early Greek philosophy. There have been ages in which these ideas receded more or less into the background, others in which they played a rather dominating rôle. It seems worth while to inquire into the nature of these ideas and to study the spirit of those ages which felt them congenial to their total mentality. One might also try to determine those notions and principles with which the idea of the microcosm came to be associated during its long history. Even a superficial survey of the ages to which the notion of microcosm particularly appealed, and of the ideas with which it entered into combinations, seems to show that this idea might be considered as a kind of “symptom”, a characteristic to be found mainly with a certain type of historical mentality.

On a Forgotten Manuscript Fragment of Calcidius’ Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus

“…85. On the macrocosmos and microcosmos in the Middle Ages, see Allers 1944, 319-407, D'Alverny 1953, 31-81, and Conger 1922 transcribed with minor changes precisely these two chapters Thus, it is not strange to fijind these chapters of Calcidius' commentary isolated in a manuscript of this period such as Tur2. It constitutes a new witness to the relevance and importance of this theme in the 13th century and its existence must no doubt be related to the well-known school of Chartres, to which William of Conches, Bernardus Silvester, John of Salisbury and Alan of Lille belong.22)…”

Modelo e imagem. O pensamento analógico medieval

“…Sem ser aqui nosso objeto examinar esses ambientes culturais, lembremos apenas que no greco-romano a modalidade analógica de raciocínio estava fortemente presente tanto na mitologia quanto na filosofia, manifestações que exerceram grande influência no cristianismo medieval. Havia analogias duais -em termos matemáticos, A : B -, como aquela que Anaximandro formulou -e que como veremos seria muito popular na cultura cristã a partir do século XII -entre microcosmo (homem) e macrocosmo (universo) 16 . Das analogias de três termos (A : B = B : C), a mais famosa é a que Platão estabeleceu no relato sobre a caverna, no interior da qual os ocupantes vêem apenas sombras, pálidos reflexos do mundo visível, por sua vez somente reflexo do mundo das idéias, a verdadeira realidade 17 .…”

Cities of God? Medieval urban forms and their Christian symbolism

“…Their shared forms – the circle and the square – pointing to shared meanings. That the microcosmic city was a pervasive motif in medieval Christian thinking has long been recognized (see Allers 1944), but only relatively recently has it received much specific attention, particularly by Dutton (1983, 80), who has demonstrated how Plato's idea of the city‐state as sketched in the prologue to the Timaeus came to be transmitted subsequently through medieval texts, culminating with the ‘fairly widespread circulation of the idea among learned men generally linked with [the School of] Chartres’ in the twelfth century, men such as William of Conches and Alan of Lille. This process was long and protracted, as Dutton (1983, 83, 84) shows, and hinged on Latin glosses and commentaries based on a translation of the Timaeus by Calcidius, writing in the fourth century, who had ‘followed the lead of Plato in employing terms derived from a city‐state to describe the parts and functions of the [human] body’, drawing ‘a comparison between the cosmos and the human body, since, of course, the parts of man [ sic ] follow the arrangement of the cosmic body’.…”