Medieval Universes in Disorder

Abstract

Plato's theory of primeval chaos marked much of the medieval discussion on cosmogenesis up to the 13th century. Many thinkers from the early Middle Ages agreed with the Timaeus in believing that the universe was originally in a state of chaos and later arranged in the beautiful order we now appreciate. Yet following the Latin translations of Aristotle's works, Scholastic philosophers would abruptly start to ignore or reject this influential theory. Curiously, instead of acknowledging its Platonic origin, they often referred it back to a different set of ancient authors such as Anaxagoras and Hesiod. My contribution examines this shift in the interpretation of primeval chaos and the systematic use of “authoritative coordinates” in the debate on the tenability of this theory. Firstly, I examine some influential sources of the theory of primeval chaos, with specific emphasis on Ovid and Calcidius. Secondly, I discuss some of the main features of the 12th century debate on primordial disorder in relation to the first reception of Aristotle's works in Latin Europe. Thirdly, I analyse three important case-studies from the 13th-century treatment of this topic: Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, and Albert the Great. Their refutations of primeval chaos and its traditional authoritative coordinates shed light on the extent of the interpretative reshaping of this theory in the 13th-century. Finally, I show that the main doctrinal reasons behind such a doctrinal restyling of primeval chaos proceed from Aristotelian hylomorphism. Nonetheless, other aspects of this process are still unclear, starting from the substitution of the “old” auctoritates (Plato, Ovid, Calcidius) with “new” authors (Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Hesiod) whose works were only partially and mediately known by medieval philosophers.