Thomas of Cantimpré

The text De natura rerum (or Liber de natura rerum) may be Thomas' most significant work, as it's both the one he dedicated more time to (almost twenty years of work, between 1225 and 1244) and the one that had the largest posthumous fortune, as witnessed by the large number of codes that contain this work, but also by the many authors that took inspiration from it.

De natura rerum is an encyclopedic work – thus belonging to the encyclopedic genre, largely widespread on the Latin Late Middle Ages – that wants to represent a complete and exhaustive compendium of the previous scientific history, specifically for clergy.[5]

A first 'stable' redaction of the work is dated between 1237 and 1240 (as to say, in the period when Thomas is located at the Dominica studium in Paris) and it's structured into nineteen books. Later, anyway, the author himself deeply revises the text, adding many interpolations[6] to it: this second redaction of De natura rerum, dated 1244, is organized into twenty book, of different topics:

• Book I: on human body's anatomy;
• Book II: on the soul;
• Book III: on the "monstrous men" of the East;
• Book IV: on quadrupeds animals;
• Book V: on birds;
• Book VI: on sea monsters;
• Book VII: on sea creatures;
• Book VIII: on snakes;
• Book IX: on worms;
• Book X: on common trees;
• Book XI: on aromatic and medicinal trees;
• Book XII: on aromatica and medicinal's trees properties;
• Book XIII: on sources;
• Book XIV: on precious stones;
• Book XV: on the seven metals;
• Book XVI: on the seven celestial regions;
• Book XVII: on the sphere and the seven planets;
• Book XVIII: on air motions;
• Book XIX: on the four elements;
• Book XX: on eclipses and sidereal motions.

Thomas of Cantimpré's De natura rerum depends on several sources, that include in primis the great philosopher Aristotle (a fundamental authority in the Middle Ages, particularly starting from XIII century) and two Latin authors, Pliny the Elder and Gaius Julius Solinus, respectively of the I and the III century. Other names shall be added to these three, for instance St. Ambrose and – coming chronologically closer to Thomas – also the one of Jacques de Vitry. Furthermore, the twentieth book (added in a second moment, as previously said), majorly comes from William of Conches's De philosophia mundi. In this work, Thomas himself also indicates an anonymous 'experimenter'.[7] Apart from the few names easily identifiable, it's certain that Thomas of Cantimpré used a large number of different sources, that are not always easy to recognize.

As previously mentioned, the De natura rerum had a considerable fortune, especially during the Renaissance,[8] when the text was frequently plagiarized, mostly for catalogs of animals, but also for catalogs of stones and monsters.[9] Several vernacularizations and also a Dutch translation (Der Naturen Bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant) were realized. Furthermore, Conrad of Megenberg's Buch der Natur (1475) was also inspired by Thomas' De natura rerum.

Regarding the textual tradition, De natura rerum had a widespread diffusion, confirmed by the consistent number of codes that contain the text. However, to be more specific, between the hundred of manuscripts[10] of the work, only a few (actually, just two manuscripts) contain the whole work in its integrity, while the largest part of them has a shortened version: thus, the shorter the version of the De natura rerum, the larger diffusion it had.[11]

Thomas of Cantimpré is also the author of the Bonum universale de apibus, a work of moral and spiritual edification[12] – composed between 1256/57 and 1263, but probably in 1259[13] – which is based on the allegory of life in a community of bees to deal with issues related to moral conduct and to the duties of superiors and subordinates.

The Bonum universale de apibus is organized in 2 books: the first one (De prelatis) deals with the "prelates" (bishops, abbots and lords), while the second one (De subditis) deals with subordinates (both monks and laity). Each chapter presents at the beginning the exposition of a property of bees, followed by an allegorical interpretation of the same – generally of moral kind – and then by a series of exempla. While the passages on bees and allegorical interpretations are taken (as the author himself says[14]) from 'other books', Thomas takes up the matter of each exemplum "from his own experience or from contemporary oral, religious or secular sources".[15] Overall, the text therefore represents "a treatise on practical theology and morals".[16]

Like the De natura rerum, the Bonum universale has had a great fortune: the manuscript tradition is indeed very wide, counting even in this case more than a hundred manuscripts.[17] There were made also several prints: a print in Deventer before 1478, then one in Paris and three more (1597, 1605, 1627) in Douai. The text has also inspired many writers during the centuries, including Johannes Nider, who took inspiration from the Bonum universale for the structure of his Formicarius (1436–1438).[18]

To date, a modern critical edition of the work is still missing.

The Bonum universale de apibus subsequently had wide resonance also because it contains (in the paragraph Cur Iudaei Christianum sanguinem effundant quotannis[19]) the first organic theorizing of the antisemitic question known as 'Blood Accusation': the Jews were accused of ritual murders of Christians. In an attempt to understand the reason behind these purported rituals, Thomas states[20] that since the killing of Christ the Jews suffered from bleeding, as per Pilate's statement "May his blood be on us and on our children" (Mt 27:25), thus the Jews supposedly killed Christians, and then used their blood in rituals, because, pacem Thomas, they believed that in this way they could heal themselves. In fact, they had supposedly (erroneously) interpreted to the letter the indication of one of their prophets that "only Christian blood could alleviate this sorrow", when in reality the prophecy figuratively referred to the blood of Christ (only sanguine Christiano), symbolically drunk during the Eucharist: the only good for the Jews would therefore have been conversion to the true faith. Thomas says he learned about this from an unspecified "converted Jew", probably[21] referring to Nicholas Donin.

Within the Bonum universale Thomas also mentions the blasphemous theory of the three impostors, according to which the founders of the three great religions – Moses, Muhammad and Jesus – would "subdue the world with their sects and their teachings: [...] Moses deceived the Jews, Jesus the Christians and Mohammed the Gentiles".[22] Thomas of Cantimpré attributes this idea to the theologian Simon de Tournai[23] (or Simon de Tornaco, as Thomas calls him), a master of theology at the University of Paris who, according to him, deserved (for having said that) an epileptic crisis that made him mute.

Thomas of Cantimpré is also the author of various hagiographic texts, for which he is considered one of the first great authors of mystical hagiography.

With the exception of Vita Joannis abbatis primi monasterii Cantimpratensis – composed between 1224 and 1228[24] and relating to the founder and first abbot of the abbey of Cantimpré – Thomas writes mystical biographies on holy females, all linked to the Belgian territory.

His mystic hagiographies therefore represent a corpus of texts, composed roughly between 1231 and 1248, which appears as "a florilegium of lifes of the holy women living in the folds of Liège":[25] through this set of hagiographic works, Thomas di Cantimpré offers "a mirror of the complexity and fluidity of the forms of religious life of the diocese of Liège".[26] It is also possible to analyze in detail the individual works that make up this hagiographic file.[27]

The first hagiographic work by Thomas is actually an addition, a Supplementum,[28] to the Life of Mary of Oignies, written in 1215 by Jacques de Vitry on the figure of Marie of Oignies.[29]

Thomas writes the Supplementum ad vitam Mariae Oigniacensis around 1230 at the specific request of the community of Oignies (or rather "forced by the prior of Oignies"[26]), who wanted to promote – thanks to the authorship of Thomas[30] – its image.

In addition to being Thomas's first work on a holy woman, the Supplementum is also one of the first written records of life in a Beguine community. Marie of Oignies is in fact one of the most famous beguines: she belonged to those "small republics of semi-religious women [...] protected but together controlled by the ecclesiastical authorities [...] for the creativity of their religious and devotional practices".[31]

Moreover, in the story that he tells of the life of Marie, Thomas shows that he was deeply impressed by her, so much so that he considered her as a teacher. With his first hagiographic work, Thomas of Cantimpré also wants to propose an ideal of Christianity: under the sign of Marie of Oignies, in fact, the author wants to indicate that "evil is not identifiable only in infidels and heretics, but it nestles in the hearts and in the very bosom of Christianitas".[26]

Thomas of Cantimpré writes his first 'autonomous' hagiography, even if it is already his second female portrait (after that of Marie of Oignies), on the life of Christina of St. Trond, a Belgian mystic (died 1224) known as Cristina the Astonishing:[32] Thomas writes the work around 1232[33] starting from direct testimonies of those who had known it. In the figure of Cristina, he again wants to represent an ideal, in this case an "extreme and rarefaction model of perfection, [which] reproposes, after a millennial pause, the mystical horizons of holy madness".[34]

The 'historical' value of this Life is profoundly doubtful (as can be seen also from the comparison with the information that Jacques de Vitry gives on Cristina in the Prologue of the aforementioned Vita B. Mariae Oigniensis[33]) but on the literary level for this type of texts does not count so much the 'historical' truth, but rather the model of sanctity that emerges from the work.[35]

The Vita preclare virginis Margarete de Ypris (or Vita Beatae Margaritae Iprensis) is the second "autonomous" mystical hagiography of Thomas, dedicated to the life of Margaret of Ypres,[36] a Belgian Blessed died in 1237.

The Vita Margaritae was composed – on commission[37] by the Dominican preacher Sigieri da Lilla – certainly before 1244,[38] but probably way before that year: in fact, the tone of the story gives a "feeling of proximity and immediacy".[39]

From the image that is given in the work, it is clear that through the figure of Margherita Thomas wants to propose an ideal of feminine devotion according to the Dominican vision; in the hagiography dedicated to her, in fact, Margherita represents the evidence that "feminine perfection is expressed in silence, in prayer and in submission".[34] We do not want to propose a need for isolation: the blessed is indeed – again coherently with the Dominican ideals – deeply "tied to the new reality of the citizen presence of the Preachers".[34]

Here Thomas of Cantimpré clearly expresses the Dominican conception of the centrality of the female presence, which "has an irreplaceable value for the success of the mission",[40] just as stated, in the same years, by the "general master of the Order Jordan of Saxony".[40]

The hagiographic masterpiece of Thomas, as a work "much more elaborate and complete than the previous texts",[41] is certainly the Vita Piae Lutgardiae (or Vita Lutgardis). It is the life of Lutgardis of Tongres,[42] who died in 1246 and later became the saint patron of Flanders. Thomas wrote the work in 1248, but later reworked it in 1254–1255.

Unlike the two previous Vitae, linked to figures of secular penitents, with the Vita Lutgardis Tommaso proposes the portrait of a Cistercian nun of Aywières: it is therefore "a cloistered portrait", that the author uses to explain "the mystical meaning of the enclosure, [...] atopic space in which it is possible to live the encounter with God in radical terms".[43]

For the De natura rerum: Boese HELMUT (ed.), Liber de natura rerum, Berlin-New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1973.

For the Bonum universale de apibus: George COLVENEER (ed.), Bonum universale de apibus, Bellerus, 1597. Available online (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HS5SAAAAcAAJ/page/n3).

For the Hymnus de beato Jordano: AA.SS., Hymnus de beato Jordano, Februarii tomus II, februarii XIII, Parigi-Roma, 1867, pp. 739–740.

For the Vita Joannis abbatis primi monasterii Cantimpratensis: Robert GODDING (ed.), Une œuvre inédite de Thomas de Cantimpré: la «Vita Ioannis Cantipratensis» in «Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique», LXXVI, 1981, pp. 241–316.

For the Supplementum ad vitam Mariae Oigniacensis: Robert B. C . HUYGENS (ed.), Iacobus de Vitriaco, Vita Marie de Oignies. Thomas Cantipratensis, Supplementum, Turnhout, Brepols, 2012 (Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis, 252).

For the Vita S. Christinae virginis Mirabilis dictae: AA.SS., Vita sanctae Christinae mirabilis, Iulii tomus V, iulii XXIV, Parigi-Roma, 1867, pp. 650–660.

For the Vita preclare virginis Margarete de Ypris: Giles MEERSSEMAN (ed.), Les frères Prêcheurs et le mouvement dévot en Flandre au XIII^e siècle, in «Archivium Fratrum Praedicatorum», XVIII, 1948, pp. 69–130, pp. 106–130.

For the Vita Piae Lutgardiae: AA.SS., Vita piae Lutgardis, Iunii tomus IV, Iunii XVI, Paris-Roma, 1867, pp. 187–210.

We indicate here some translations in modern languages:

• Margot H. KING, Thomas de Cantimpré. The Life of Christina the Astonishing, Toronto, Peregrina Publishing, 1999.
• Barbara NEWMAN (cur.), Thomas of Cantimpré: The Collected Saints’ Lives: Abbot John of Cantimpré, Christina the Astonishing, Margaret of Ypres, and Lutgard of Aywières, Turnhout, Brepols, 2008 (Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, 19).
• Henri PLATELLE (cur.), Thomas de Cantimpré. Les exemples du «Livre des abeilles». Une vision médiévale, Turnhout, Brepols, 1997.
• André WANKENNE (cur.), Thomas de Cantimpré. Vie de Sainte Ludgarde, Namur, Presses Universitaires de Namur, 1991.

• BARTOLOMEI ROMAGNOLI Alessandra – DEGL’INNOCENTI Antonella – SANTI Francesco, Scrittrici mistiche europee. Secoli XII-XIII, vol. I, Firenze, SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2015 (La mistica cristiana tra Oriente e Occidente, 24).
• BARTOLOMEI ROMAGNOLI Alessandra, Agiografia e mistica nel Duecento: le «Vitae matrum» di Tommaso da Cantimpré, in «Hagiographica. Rivista di agiografia e biografia della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», XVII, 2010, pp. 207–252.
• BARTOLOMEI ROMAGNOLI Alessandra, Lutgarda nella mistica femminile, in «Hagiographica. Rivista di agiografia e biografia della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», XIX, 2012, pp. 221–281.
• BARTOLOMEI ROMAGNOLI Alessandra, Mistici e mistica domenicana, in L’Ordine dei Predicatori. I Domenicani: storia, figure e istituzioni. 1216–2016, curr. Gianni FESTA e Marco RAININI, Bari, Laterza, 2016, pp. 351–388.
• Biografia universale antica e moderna, ossia storia per alfabeto della vita publica e privata di tutte le persone che si distinsero per opere, azioni, talenti, virtù e delitti, vol. LVIII, Venezia, Molinari, 1829, pp. 116–119 [Tommaso di Cantimpré].
• CHÊNE Catherine, Des fourmis et des hommes. Le «Formicarius» (1436–1438) de Jean Nider O.P., in «Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali. Rivista della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», VIII, tomo I, 2000, pp. 297–350.
• DE VOGÜÉ Adalbert, Une citation remarquable de Grégoire le Grand (In «I Reg.» 1,5) dans la «Vie de Jean de Cantimpré», in «Revue bénédictine», XCVIII, 1988, pp. 327–328.
• DONNADIEU Jean, Entre sentiment et ambition: les réseaux de Jacques de Vitry au miroir du «Supplementum ad Vitam Mariae Oignacensis» de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Vivre en société au Moyen Age. Occident chrétien, VIe-XVe siècle, curr. Claude CAROZZI – Daniel LE BLEVEC – Huguette TAVIANI-CAROZZI, Aix-en-Provence, Publications de l’Université de Provence, 2008, pp. 133–49.
• EHRMAN Albert, The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel, in «Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought», XV, n. 14, Rabbinical Council of America, 1976, pp. 83–90.
• FEISS Hugh (cur.), Thomas de Cantimpré. Supplement to The life of Marie d’Oignies, Saskatoon, Peregrina Publishing, 1987.
• FRIEDMAN John Block, Albert the Great’s Topoi of Direct Observation and His Debt to Thomas of Cantimpré, in Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts. Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1–4 July 1996, cur. Peter BINKLEY, Leiden-New York-Köln, Brill, 1997 (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 79), pp. 379–92.
• FULTON Rachel e HOLSINGER Bruce W., History in the comic mode medieval communities and the matter of person, New York, Columbia University Press, 2007.
• HEENE Katrien, Hagiography and Gender: A Tentative Case-Study on Thomas of Cantimpré, in «Scribere sanctorum gesta». Recueil d’études d’hagiographie médiévale offert à Guy Philippart, curr. Etienne RENARD – Michel TRIGALET – Xavier HERMAND – Paul BERTRAND, Turnhout, Brepols, 2005 (Hagiologia. Etudes sur la saintété en Occident. Studies on Western Sainthood 3), pp. 109–123.
• HERBERMANN Charles George (ed.), The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XIV, New York, The Encyclopedia Press, 1913, pp. 693–694 [Thomas of Cantimpré]. Consultabile online: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14693c.htm. [url consultato il 24-04-2019].
• KING Margot H., Jacques de Vitry. The life of Marie d’Oignies, Toronto, Peregrina Publishing, 1989.
• LANGLOIS Charles Victor et alii, Histoire littéraire de la France: ouvrage commencé par des religieux bénédictins de la Congrégation de Saint Maur, et continué par des membres de l’Institut, vol. XIX, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1838, pp. 177–184 [Thomas de Cantimpré] e pp. 388–394 [Simon, chanoine de Tournai].
• LOUIS Nicolas, Essaimage et usages du «Bonum universale de apibus» de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Lecteurs, lectures et groupes sociaux au Moyen Age. Actes de la journée d’études organisée par le Centre de recherches «Pratiques médiévales de l’écrit» (PraME) de l’Université de Namur et le Département des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles, 18 mars 2010, curr. Xavier HERMAND – Etienne RENARD – Céline VAN HOOREBEECK, Turnhout, Brepols, 2014 (Texte, Codex et Contexte 17), pp. 29–56.
• LUONGO Gennaro, Santi martiri, in Forme e modelli della santità in Occidente dal Tardo antico al Medioevo, curr. Massimiliano BASSETTI – Antonella DEGL’INNOCENTI – Enrico MENESTÒ, Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 2012, pp. 1–33.
• NEWMAN Barbara, Introduction, in Id., Thomas of Cantimpré: The Collected Saints’ Lives: Abbot John of Cantimpré, Christina the Astonishing, Margaret of Ypres, and Lutgard of Aywières, Turnhout, Brepols, 2008 (Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, 19), pp. 3–51.
• PLATELLE Henri, L’image des Juifs dans Thomas de Cantimpré: de l’attirance à la repulsion, in «Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France», LXIV, Paris, 1982, pp. 334–336.
• PLATELLE Henri, Une vision médiévale: les historiettes du Livre des abeilles de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Id., Présence de l’Au-delà. Une vision médiévale du monde, Paris, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2004, pp. 137–147.
• POLLINI Nadia, La nature dans le «Bonum universale de apibus» de Thomas de Cantimpré entre philosophie naturelle et instruction morale?, in «Exempla docent»: les exemples des philosophes de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance. Actes du colloque international 23–25 octobre 2003, Université de Neuchâtel, cur. Thomas RICKLIN, Paris, Vrin, 2006 (Etudes de philosophie médiévale 92), pp. 151–162.
• POLLINI Nadia, Les propriétés des abeilles dans le «Bonum universale de apibus» de Thomas de Cantimpré (1200–1270), in «Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali. Rivista della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», VIII, tomo I, 2000, pp. 261–296.
• PYLE Cynthia M., The Art and Science of Renaissance Natural History: Thomas of Cantimpré, Candido Decembrio, Conrad Gessner, and Teodoro Ghisi in Vatican Library MS Urb. lat. 276, in «Viator», XXVII, 1996, pp. 265–321.
• STRACK H. L., Blood Accusation, in The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. III, New York, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1902, pp. 260–267. Consultabile online: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3408-blood-accusation [url consultato il 24-04-2019].
• VAN DEN ABEELE Baudouin, A la recherche de l'Experimentator de Thomas de Cantimpre, in Expertus sum, SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, Firenze, 2010, pp. 41–65.
• VAN DEN ABEELE Baudouin, Diffusion et avatars d’une encyclopédie: le Liber de natura rerum de Thomas de Cantimpré, in Une lumière venue d’ailleurs, curr. G. DE CALLATAŸ e B. VAN DEN ABEELE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Brepols, 2008, pp. 141–176.
• VAN DEN ABEELE Baudouin, Encyclopédies en milieu de cour, in «Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali. Rivista della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», XVI, 2008, pp. 31–55.
• VAN DEN ABEELE Baudouin, Migrations médiévales de la grue, in «Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali. Rivista della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medio Evo Latino», VIII, tomo I, 2000, pp. 65–78.