The Monstrous Birth of Alexander the Great: Thomas de Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie and Twelfth-Century Natural Science (2019)
Franklin-Brown, Mary (Author)
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Volume: 49
Issue: 3
Pages: 541-561
Alone among the French romances of Alexander the Great penned in the twelfth century, Thomas de Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie reproduces the story of Alexander’s illegitimate birth from the principal Latin source. According to this account, Alexander’s father was Nectanabus, a mage and astrologer who seduced Queen Olympias with an astronomy lesson, deceived her by using animal pelts to disguise himself as a god, and then used his magic arts to retard the child’s birth when his astrological calculations indicated the child would be born a hybrid man-beast. Thomas wrote his romance at the very moment when both astrology and paradoxography (the writing of marvels) were being reevaluated as means of understanding the world, and so Alexander’s odd birth offers a reflection — shaped by the romance genre — on the limitations and ethical implications of medieval natural science.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Mandosio, Jean-Marc;
(2013)
Les vies légendaires d'Apollonius de Tyane, mage et philosophe
Book
Alberto Alonso Guardo;
Stefano Rapisarda;
H. Darrel Rutkin;
Sebastià Giralt;
(2017)
De Frédéric II à Rodolphe II. Astrologie, divination et magie dans les cours (XIIIe-XVIIe siècle)
Article
Macías Villalobos, Cristóbal;
(2004)
Referencias a los astros en el Panegírico latino
Chapter
Michael Ruse;
(2014)
Atheism and Science
Book
Claire Trenery;
(2019)
Madness, Medicine and Miracle in Twelfth-Century England
Book
Ruth J. Salter;
(2021)
Saints, Cure-Seekers and Miraculous Healing in Twelfth-Century England
Book
Silvia Parigi;
(2022)
Magia e scienza nell'età moderna. Spiriti, effluvi e fenomeni occulti
Article
Fernández Fernández, Álvaro;
(2002)
El “Milagro de la lluvia”, los Julianos et alii
Article
Carreto, Carlos F. Clamote;
(2012)
Anatomie de la différence. Le corps déréglé et les outrances de l'écriture épique (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)
Article
Carter, Christopher;
(2012)
Meteors, Prodigies, and Signs: The Interpretation of the Unusual in Sixteenth-Century England
Article
Halfond, Gregory;
(2012)
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
Book
Rose A. Sawyer;
(2023)
The Medieval Changeling: Health, Childcare, and the Family Unit
Article
Paola Ricci Sindoni;
(2021)
Tradizioni ebraiche sul Golem. Il potere dell'uomo fra magia e scienza
Book
Gabriella Zuccolin;
(2019)
I gemelli nel Medioevo. Questioni filosofiche, mediche e teologiche
Book
Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu;
(2023)
The Ottoman Scientific Heritage: The Formation, development and issues
Book
Lindberg, David C.;
Shank, Michael H.;
(2013)
The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 2, Medieval Science
Chapter
Nicolas Weill-Parot;
(2016)
Devenirs de la magie astrale hermétique arabe dans le monde latin: signification "culturelle" d'une utilisation (XIIe-XVe siècle)
Article
van der Lugt, Maaike;
(2013)
The Learned Physician as a Charismatic Healer: Urso of Salerno (Flourished End of Twelfth Century) on Incantations in Medicine, Magic, and Religion
Article
Veronese, Julien;
(2013)
Virgile et la naissance de l'ars notoria
Book
Hedegard, Gosta;
(2002)
Liber Iuratus Honorii: A Critical Edition of the Latin Version of the Sworn Book of Honorius
MHNH (Revista Internacional de Investigación sobre Magia y Astrología Antiguas)
Archivio di Filosofia
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Parergon: Bulletin of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe
Be the first to comment!