'On the Nature of Things' and 'On Times'

by Bede, Calvin B. Kendall (Translation), Faith Wallis

The Venerable Bede composed On the Nature of Things and On Times at the outset of his career in AD 703, shaping a mass of difficult and sometimes dangerous material on the mathematical and physical basis of time into a lucid and well-organized account that laid the framework for much of Carolingian and Scholastic scientific thought.

Available here for the first time in English-language translation for the first time, these two short works represent an attempt to show Christianity connecting coherently with natural history and vice versa. Building on insights found in Isidore of Seville’s earlier work of the same name, On the Nature of Things addresses creation and recapitulates the idea of the four elements. In On Times, Bede breaks from Seville’s structure, separating out and considering the chapters on time. This work also introduces Bede’s computus—the practical yet intensely polemical science for determining the dates of Easter. Bede’s views are bound up with the integrity of nature as God’s creation and the theological significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, and these extensively annotated translations mark an essential contribution to the ecclesiastical history that is crucial to an understanding of early medieval science.

 

 

Genres: History, Medieval, Philosophy, Christianity, Science

222 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2011

About the author

born perhaps 673

Saxon theologian Bede, also Baeda or Beda, known as "the Venerable Bede," wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation , a major work and an important ancient source, in 731 in Latin and introduced the method from the birth of Jesus of dating events.

People referred to Saint Bede, a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and at its companion of Saint Paul in modern Jarrow in the kingdom, for more than a millennium before canonization. Most fame of this well author and scholar gained him the title as "the father.”

In 1899, Leo XIII, pope, made Bede a doctor of the Church, a position of significance; only this native of Great Britain achieved this designation; from Italy, Saint Anselm of Canterbury originated.
Bede, a skilled linguist, moreover translated the Greek of the early Church Fathers, and his contributions made them significantly much more accessible to his fellow Christians. Monastery of Bede accessed a superb library, which included Eusebius and Orosius.

Reviews

[Erick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bede based his "On The Nature of Things" on Isidore's work of the same name. Bede was a little more dependent on Pliny's "Natural History". Like those previously mentioned works, Bede examines cosmological and natural phenomena and provides pretty standard observations and calculations for the time. Occasionally the calculations are surprisingly accurate when one considers the time that Bede wrote this. Not all of Bede's positions have stood the test of time though. Keeping in mind the preceding, this does serve as a great window into what constituted standard science (then known as natural philosophy) in the early middle ages.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is loads of fun. Bede's known more for his history writing than his scientific studies, but he was quite the mathematician and pretty fascinated with how the cosmos fit together. He's also a nice antidote to the idea (that won't seem to go away) that medieval people were anti-intellectual or hated science, or anything like that.

Bede's a big fan of a good synecdoche and he really likes finding ways in which the days of the week line up with Genesis story of Creation, and how they align with the different ages of human history, and how all of that can circle back around and be mirrored in a human lifetime. And if that's not your cup of tea, you can just read about Bede's guesses (wrong but pretty reasonable!) that thunder and earthquakes are caused by volatile trying to escape from clouds and mountains. Something for everybody.

The notes and introduction are fantastic, as well. I know it can be kind of annoying to flip back and forth between the actual text and endnotes, but it's definitely worth it in this case. Faith Wallis and Calvin Kendall know their stuff, and they take what could be a pretty inaccessible piece of writing and make it a lot of fun to read. Very clear and very insightful.

[JJS. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bede's two little works on the natural world and time have some historical interest, mainly seeing how 1300 years ago the most learned people understood and saw the world - not only in the ways they got it right, but also in the many intriguing (most obviously relating to astronomy) ways their observations were incorrrect.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought a copy for my father...read about the saturnian temperament.
Interesting to see how observant, intelligent and informed the monks were in the 700s.

[Brenda Vinall-Mogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to understand the times he lived in.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. A real joy to read earlier work in Bede's career, and see how his mind has evolved between then and the writing of the Ecclesiastical History.
Also incredible to see almost scientific writing; knowing Bede only as a clergyman, it was somewhat unexpected, and genuinely delightful. But then in the time Bede was writing, there was much less of a division between science and religion- in fact a large part of his aim in explaining the natural phenomena of his world was to highlight the glory of God's creation.
While it is distinctly frustrating to read him paroting without thought certain parts of older writers, this again can be attributed to him being very early in his career at this point in time, and there are also large parts where he does insert his own thoughts and computations. And he does have a genuinely impressive mathematical mind.
Kendall and Wallis do a fantastic job with the translation and commentaries here- they really have enriched the text and made it beautifully easy to follow.
A great read for anyone interested in historiography, Christian theology or early English scientific thought.