Sanctity, vision, science, ecology and the creativity of diagrams
Dennis: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Arthur: Be quiet!
Dennis: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
Arthur: Shut up!
Dennis: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
Or if some bint told me the universe was a cosmic egg in the womb of God, for that matter — even if Benedict XVI did just add her to the calendar of saints.
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Here you go, courtesy of YouTube:
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Frankly I appreciate both modes of thinking — the mythic and the scientific — and believe we’re in the sort of territory here that Nils Bohr was thinking of when he said:
The opposite of a true statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may be another profound truth.
For more on the story of diagrammatic and pictorial imagery in western civilization, see Ioan Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (University of Chicago, 1987). And for more diagrams from the renaissance, there’s nothing I know of better than SK Heninger, The Cosmographical Glass: Renaissance Diagrams Of The Universe (Huntington Library, 1977).
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J.ScottShipman:
May 12th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Hi Charles,
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Excellent post!
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In the three Hildegard images (particularly the first), I see an almost fractal quality in her work. Evans was right about an “organic and holistic” quality to her work—which is fascinating.
larrydunbar:
May 12th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
I don’t know, I see an almost anti-fractal quality in her work. The want I see in the first is offset by the need in the other two. The third is so decentralized as to give John Robb a wet dream.
Charles Cameron:
May 13th, 2012 at 8:40 am
Scott:
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organic and holistic: yes — and I’m glad you liked her work.
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Scott, Larry;
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almost fractal / almost anti-fractal: I’m not quite sure what either one of you is seeing that you’d describe in those terms. Would you care to expand on your thoughts?
michael robinson:
May 14th, 2012 at 4:38 am
Charles, you may find much to interest you in the illustrations on the site devoted to renaissance astronomy, Starry Messenger, prepared by the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge (UK),
J.ScottShipman:
May 14th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Hi Charles,
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On first glance of the first, I thought of a Mandelbrot graphic…strictly speaking, not fractal or terribly similar but that was a first impression—particularly the repeated elements in the circle.
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Hi Larry,
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Agree on your assessment of the third:))
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Hi Michael,
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Thanks for sharing the link!
Charles Cameron:
October 8th, 2012 at 3:06 am
Well, that was quick.
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On May 10, 2012, Hildegard of Bingen was named a Saint of the Catholic Church. Today, Oct 7th, St. Hildegard was formally named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI, at today’s Papal Mass [link is to .pdf of the ceremony].