Narratio Fabulosa

1. Myth, Model, and Science

BERNARDUS SILVESTRIS of Tours very probably wrote his Cosmographia sometime between 1143 and 1148. Some seven centuries later an edition based upon only two unreliable manuscripts was put into print by C. S. Barach and J. Wrobel. Both immediately after its appearance in the Middle Ages and after its publication in 1876, the encyclopedic myth made a considerable impact on the learned literary scene. The editor of the critical text, André Vernet, has counted dozens of manuscripts, and historians have been able to trace Bernard's influence on a wide variety of medieval and renaissance authors, including Hildegard of Bingen, Vincent of Beauvais, Dante, Chaucer, Nicolas of Cusa, and Boccaccio — whose annotated copy of the work we possess [Plate I], Yet critics have been unable to agree on an interpretation. Abbé Clerval, one of the earliest to study the myth, described it as "un des poemes philosophiques les plus curieux du XIIe siècle," while more recently Fr. Chenu has referred on more than one occasion to its "ambiguity." Perhaps more than any other work of the period, the Cosmographia has been capable of inspiring partisan interpretations. At the same time, all who have studied it agree that it is an important book: under the veil of allegory it presents a synthesis of central doctrines in the medieval and renaissance philosophy of nature, man, and the world.

Although we know little of Bernard's life, contemporary and later witnesses record his success as a teacher of the humanities [Plate II]. Typical of them is Matthew of Vendome, who recalls learning to compose Latin verse under Bernard's supervision at Tours, presumably between 1130 and 1140. Bernard refers to the region of Tours twice in the Cosmographia. He is therefore assumed to have taught there for a period of his life. His only other literary associations are with Chartres. Most medieval copies of the Cosmographia contain a letter of dedication to Thierry, who became Chancellor of Chartres in 1141. Yet, as Poole points out in his summary of the evidence, "there is nothing to suggest that he was ever connected with Chartres" as a student or teacher. Bernard's dedicatory epistle merely asks Thierry for his approval of the Cosmographia before he publishes it under his own name. Hermann of Carinthia, with whom Bernard may have collaborated in the Experimentarius, also sent to Thierry his translation of Ptolemy's Planisphere. Bernard's letter is really only evidence that he attempted to win the favor of a powerful yet liberal figure, widely known for his interest in science and for his occasional defense of unpopular theses. Whether Bernard is connected directly to Chartres or not, however, historians have been essentially correct in interpreting his humanism within its cultural ideals. Bernard belonged very much to the generation of Thierry, William of Conches, Gilbert Porreta, and John of Salisbury. In his mind, as in theirs, an interest in new ideas went hand in hand with a rediscovery and fresh reading of the classics.

The Cosmographia is possibly the most complex literary product of the early twelfth century. As it is clearly a composite form, it may be useful at the outset to isolate the individual elements in it and to discuss them separately. These may then be reunited and the work better appreciated as a whole. In general, two distinct structures are at work. There is both a dramatic myth, enacted by a group of allegorical personifications, and a resulting model of universal order, relating the macro- to the microcosm. In other words, there is both a story of the creation of the world and of man and a resulting design whose parts are analyzed in relation to each other. While it is not always possible or desirable to separate these elements — Noys, for instance, is both an actress in the drama and a principle in the model — a rough division between them allows one to perceive the interplay between form and content and to better comprehend Bernard's dexterity of composition.

First, then, the myth. Bernard prefaced the Cosmographia with an argumentum, but it must be followed with caution. It tells us that "in the first book, called Megacosmus, Natura complains in tears to Noys, God's providence, about the confusion of hyle or prime matter and implores that the worldly order be brought to a more attractive conclusion." The remainder of i.1, written in hexameters (an unusual verse form for Bernard), consists of Nature's complaint: it describes in vivid detail the turmoil of chaos before the harmonious stability of the four elements is established. In i.2, in prose, Noys continues the dialogue with Natura. She agrees in principle to fulfill the request, theorizes about her relation to God, then turns to the practical business of creation, separating the four elements and moulding them into a stable structure for the world's body. After a digression in which Noys, never modest, discourses on her own powers, the world-soul, endelichia, descends in emanation from the heavens. The union of body and soul takes place under Noys's guidance, completing i.2.

Once the body and soul of the universe are "married," its contents unfold before the reader in 1.3 in elegiacs. Noys, who is presumably presiding over this event as well, is nonetheless mentioned in the catalogue of all things in the world. The reader is thus given the impression — maintained throughout the Cosmographia — of astrological determinism operating in co-existence with a certain amount of free will. Bernard sets forth the nine orders of angels, the zodiac, the divisions of the earth, and its contents, including mountains, rivers, trees, fruit, spices, paradises, domestic vegetables, flowers, fish, and birds. When this little encyclopedia is finished, he presents, in i.4, an explanation of how the universe runs. The cosmic globe possesses an eternal source of life-giving power which flows down from the heavens in the form of heat and light. The cosmos itself is eternal, a notion which he defends by uniting, not altogether successfully, material from a number of different sources. In the hierarchy of genii or numina that transmit ideas, principles, and life-forces from above, primacy of place is given to Noys. Then follow mundus, the...