DeVun, Leah (Author)
To those of us living in the twenty-first century, the distinction between science and religion may appear to be clear. In recent debates over medical ethics and technological advance, science and religion have come to represent separate--and often contrary--approaches to truth. This project explores the historical context of this dichotomy by showing how religious concerns, particularly fears of an approaching apocalypse, led to intensified study of the natural world during the fourteenth century. I focus on the writings of John of Rupescissa (c.1310-c. 1364), a Franciscan friar whose work proved to be a major influence on later generations of physicians and natural philosophers. I argue that Rupescissa's apocalyptic fears led him to imagine alchemy, medicine, and astrology as means to counteract the apocalyptic disasters that he believed were imminent. Rupescissa used familiar religious terminology and imagery to illustrate chemical and biological processes; he also advocated the study of nature as a means to reform Christian society and prepare for a post- apocalyptic "state" of history, in which humans would enjoy a utopian paradise on earth. For Rupescissa, spirituality was embedded both in the mechanisms of natural processes and in the value of their study. Although historians of science have long noted Rupescissa's work as key to the development of medical pharmacology, they have not given adequate attention to his religious writings. As a result, no one has recognized the centrality of Rupescissa's apocalyptic and utopian concerns to his naturalist theories. This dissertation examines how religion and nature intersected in the late Middle Ages, and it furthermore argues that one must consider both spirituality and naturalism in order to understand the originality and the appeal of John of Rupescissa's ideas.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 65/01 (2004): 253. UMI pub. no. 3117910.
Book
DeVun, Leah;
(2009)
Prophecy, Alchemy and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB001020324/)
Book
De Vun, Leah;
(2009)
Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB000951056/)
Article
Ciola, Graziana;
(2013)
Giovanni di Rupescissa: autobiografia, profezia e leggenda
(/isis/citation/CBB001420842/)
Article
Peter Murray Jones;
(2018)
The Survival of the Frater Medicus? English Friars and Alchemy, ca. 1370–ca. 1425
(/isis/citation/CBB784265899/)
Book
Danielle Jacquart;
(2014)
Recherches médiévales sur la nature humaine: essais sur la réflexion médicale (XIIe-XVe s.)
(/isis/citation/CBB000852347/)
Essay Review
Smith, Pamela H.;
(2000)
Essay Review of Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park's Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750 (1998)
(/isis/citation/CBB000111024/)
Article
Harvey, Warren Zev;
(2012)
Gersonides and Spinoza on Conatus
(/isis/citation/CBB001211058/)
Article
Ritchey, Sara;
(2009)
Rethinking the Twelfth-Century Discovery of Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB001030661/)
Article
Wetherbee, Winthrop;
(2011)
Alan of Lille, De planctu Naturae: The Fall of Nature and the Survival of Poetry
(/isis/citation/CBB001201558/)
Book
Graziella Federici Vescovini;
(2020)
Pietro d'Abano tra storia e leggenda
(/isis/citation/CBB011405949/)
Article
Joseph Ziegler;
(2018)
Why Did the Patriarchs Live so Long? On the Role of the Bible in the Discourse on Longevity Around 1300
(/isis/citation/CBB421734385/)
Article
Zupko, Jack;
(2004)
On Buridan's Alleged Alexandrianism: Heterodoxy and Natural Philosophy in Fourteenth-Century Paris
(/isis/citation/CBB000641056/)
Article
Crisciani, Chiara;
(2006)
Tra Dio, intelletto ed esperienza: aspetti del secreto nell'alchimia latina (secoli XIII-XIV)
(/isis/citation/CBB001020530/)
Chapter
Cattaneo, Angelo;
(2009)
Cosmographie et prédication médiévale et renaissante
(/isis/citation/CBB001220755/)
Article
Leicht, Reimund;
(2013)
Miracles for the Sake of the Master of Reason Hillel. Ben Samuel of Verona's Legendary Account of the Maimonidean Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB001420843/)
Book
Federici-Vescovini, Graziella;
(2008)
Medioevo magico: la magia tra religione e scienza nei secoli XIII e XIV
(/isis/citation/CBB001020218/)
Chapter
Nederman, Cary;
(2005)
A Heretic Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret History of Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis and the Thought of Nicole Oresme
(/isis/citation/CBB001020150/)
Article
Cunningham, Andrew;
(2001)
Science and Religion in the Thirteenth Century Revisited: The Making of St. Francis the Proto-Ecologist. Part 2: Nature not Creature
(/isis/citation/CBB000100799/)
Article
Halfond, Gregory;
(2012)
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
(/isis/citation/CBB001200588/)
Book
Meer, Jitse M. van der;
Mandelbrote, Scott;
(2008)
Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up to 1700
(/isis/citation/CBB001031818/)
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