Riscrivere la filosofia della natura di Alberto Magno nel XIV secolo. Il V libro della Catena aurea entium di Enrico di Herford e il commento di Alberto ai Meteorologica di Aristotele

Abstract

The Catena aurea entium of Henry of Herford is part of the work of re-elaboration of Aristotle’s natural-philosophical corpus, which characterised the European intellectual environment in the Late Middle Ages. In the central books of his encyclopaedia, Henry comments on the works of natural philosophy of Albert the Great, placing himself in continuity with the cultural project started by Albert in Cologne. The present article aims to compare the 5^th book of the Catena aurea entium, which consists of a comment per modum quaestionis on the Meteora of Albert the Great, with some meteorological quaestiones composed between the 13^th and 15^th centuries. This analysis will lead me to grasp the philosophical orientations and interpretation of Henry and also his reception of Albert the Great’s meteorology. In the 5^th book, Henry introduces an extensive medical section taken from the pseudo-Aristotelian Problemata, in which he applies the Galenic medical principles to meteorology. Besides, in the quaestio 105 (V 1 105), he interprets Albert through the theological-poetic explanation of ancient origins on the sacrality of the number three and an excerpt from the Liber proverbiorum.