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Darrera modificació: 2026-04-21
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Villey, Emilie, "La matière céleste chez les auteurs syriaques: des théories alternatives au 5 eélément", Technai, 16 [=The harmony of the elements: philosophical and technical perspectives from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, I] (2025), 131-188.
- Resum
- This study examines how Syriac authors conceptualized the material composition of the heaven and investigates the dissemination of Aristotle's theory of the fifth element in the Aramaic-speaking Christian East from the second to the thirteenth century. In a context where Aristotle's Organon formed the basis of scholarly training and philosophical reflection, the question arises : what became of Aristotelian cosmology ? To address this issue, thirteen testimonies drawn from philosophical, theological, scientific, and encyclopaedic writings dealing with the substance of the stars and the structure of the heaven have been assembled and analysed. The sources demonstrate that the Aristotelian theory of the fifth element never dominated Syriac cosmological thought, and that De Caelo and De Meteorologica most likely did not circulate in their complete form in Syriac contexts before the second half of the ninth century. Syriac-speaking theologians traditionally defended the idea that the heaven was composed of a perishable matter made of the same elements (ʾesṭūksē or ʾiṯyē) or natures (kyānē) as those found on earth. This study further identifies cosmological features characteristic of each ecclesiastical tradition. Among West Syrians (according to the testimony of Syriac Orthodox bishops), the heaven is divided into three layers of air, the stars are composed of the four elements, and the spherical model gains prominence under the influence of Alexandrian thinkers. Among East Syrians (Church of the East), the heaven of creation is conceived as a single structure topped by a second heaven reserved for the divine realm ; the cosmos is composed not of four elements but of seven natures ; darkness is treated as a real substance, and the alternation of day and night is conventionally explained by the Sun's passage behind the northern mountain as it travels above a flat earth.
- Matèries
- Astronomia i astrologia
Història de la ciència
- URL
- https://www.libraweb.net/articoli3.php?chiave=20251 ...
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