Giraldus Cambrensis Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert Bartlett

Critical Essay by Robert Bartlett

SOURCE: Bartlett, Robert. “Natural Science.” In Gerald of Wales: 1146-1223, pp. 123-53. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.

In the following excerpt, Bartlett contends that Gerald's Cosmographia and other scientific writings, although not of the Platonic tradition, nevertheless show dedication to detail, observation, and a systematic approach.

Discussion of the place of marvels and miracles in Gerald's work has shown how, in his view, the texture of the natural world might be disrupted by bubbles of strangely wonderful material or punched through by the sudden fist of divine punishment. It is now time to turn to the natural world itself; to investigate the sources of Gerald's knowledge of it, and the kinds of explanation he brought to bear on it. In so doing his place in the history of natural science should emerge.

The expansion of the Latin west which began in the eleventh century not only widened economic and political horizons,...
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