Compendium Phi naturalis. De Elementis & oim reru naturaliu principiis, a Magistro Claudio Peronneo Viennensi primu Parisiis editum.
[Compendium Philosophiae naturalis. De Elementis & omnium rerum naturalium principiis, a Magistro Claudio Peronneo Viennensi primum Parisiis editum.]
Damian Hichman.
Printed in Paris on 31 October 1520, the eve of the Kalends of November, at the expense of the honest man Damien Hichman, dwelling at the sign of the Four Elements, rue Saint-Jacques. [Translation of the colophon]
4to, 209 x 157 mm, [3] blank ff., 70 ff. a1–s4, 1 blank f., 10 ff. Index + Privileges + 1 folding plate. Modern tan half sheep, smooth spine with title and author label.
Folios V to XII have been bound between folios XVI and XVIII. The folio following fo. XIX is fo. XX, although it is misnumbered XVI.
A treatise on natural philosophy (what we now call the natural sciences, and more particularly physics) written by Master Claude Péronne.
An interesting and scholarly compendium of early 16th-century knowledge, this text—contemporary with Luther and Copernicus—offers a true snapshot of the end of an era, just before the world was transformed by the other great minds of the time.
The author describes his era as an "iron age" marked by incessant wars, moral corruption and the greed of the powerful. He particularly attacks the Catholic hierarchy ("the princes of the Church militant"), who despoil the faithful in order to wage internecine wars instead of preaching peace.
These denunciations of the abuses of the Church were very much in the spirit of the age: they were voiced by the greatest preachers of the late Middle Ages, such as Geiler von Kaysersberg, at a time when the word "Reform" echoed everywhere. (L'art oratoire de Geiler de Kaysersberg : passion et savoir-faire. Francis Rapp. Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses. 2016.)
In this context of denunciation of the abuses of the clergy and the powerful, the passage on Luther (folio 13) is historically remarkable: (machine translation)
No one, truth be told, dares today to blame the powerful; all keep silent, laying a finger on their lips.
Who today, unless lacking in reason, would dare, like Hercules, to fight the lion?
Does not Luther succumb to it?
Surely, had John the Baptist not rebuked Herod, he would not have been beheaded: for many indeed have perished because of their duty to the truth.
Luther published his manifesto for reform in 1520, the same year as the publication of our book. We are thus at a moment in history when the great ideas of the Reformation were still supported by the intellectuals of the day: Claude Péronne admires Luther's boldness against the corruption of the Church, just before Luther's excommunication and before religious conflict began to break out across Europe.
The folding chart (f. 8) visually summarises all the natural philosophy expounded in the text, illustrating the geocentric model inherited from Aristotle and Ptolemy.
This fascinating chart is a representation of the established knowledge of the world.
It follows the geocentric model inherited from Aristotle and Ptolemy, with the Earth at the centre of the universe. Born of chaos, it is made up of the four elements, and around it are the known planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) with their astrological and medical properties, then the heavens beyond the planets, the terrestrial axes and poles, the Arctic poles, the cardinal points, and calculations of the planets' motions and periods of revolution.
This chart is therefore a compendium of religious, medical, astrological and astronomical knowledge. It is the IMAGE of natural philosophy, showing us that for a Renaissance scholar all these disciplines were interconnected.
This Compendium Phi naturalis is a book that synthesises a certain vision of the world, well ordered, structured, fixed and centred on man, which had prevailed for 2,000 years and now stood on the eve of a historic change.
The author writes at the dawn of a religious and astronomical revolution whose scale he could not possibly suspect.
To grasp the erudition of this text and its roots in the Renaissance, one need only consider the references and names we have been able to find in it, of which the following list is by no means exhaustive: Luther, François Villon, Josse Bade, Filippo Beroaldo, Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaximander, Zeno, Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder, Seneca, Ovid, Virgil, Aesop, Saint Augustine, Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Albertus Magnus, Haly, Pietro d'Abano, Averroes, Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus…
But this book is also a precious witness to the world of Parisian printing.
Damien Higman (Hichman, Ichmann, Hicqueman) lived at the heart of the great printing dynasties. Son of the printer Jean Higman (active 1484–1500) and of Guyonne Viart, he became the stepson of Henri Estienne and then of Simon de Colines when his mother remarried (she was widowed three times).
The beauty of the book, its beautifully balanced layout, the magnificent printer's device and the exquisitely fine initials all bear witness to great skill and a labour of love.
The last leaf is a fine example: in it Higman praises the invention of printing by the Germans, as well as the celebrated printer Jodocus Badius (Josse Bade).
(machine translation)
Have not these Germans recently brought to light, with skill and circumspect moderation, a certain new method of printing? Indeed, what benefit does not everyone derive from these types of Beroaldo and Badius?
https://frenchpostincunables.bibsoc.org.uk//index.php?title=P%C3%A9ronne,_Claude,_Compendium_philosophiae_naturalis._1520._4%C2%B0._Paris:_successors_of_Jean_Marchant,_for_Damien_Higman.
[1] Philippe Renouard. Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens : libraires, fondeurs de caractères et correcteurs d'imprimerie (via Cambridge University Press / Internet Archive).
Reader, here are the chapters you will find in this book:
On the three principles of all things.
On the world.
On the eternity of the world.
On the prime matter of all things.
On the nature of things.
On the form of the world.
On the 11 heavens.
On the quintessence.
On the intelligences.
On the elements.
On the four primary qualities.
On the secondary qualities.
On the symbols of the elements.
On the earth.
On the natural place of the earth.
On the shape of the earth.
On the motion of the earth.
On the nature of the earth.
On water.
On the uses of water.
On the dwelling places and nature of water.
On air.
On the natural place of air.
On the uses of air.
On the nature of air.
On fire.
On the properties of fire.
On the natural place and nature of fire.
On perfect and imperfect mixtures.
On the generation of man.
Condition: Modern binding, worn but sturdy. Small loss at the edge of the map, slightly affecting the image. Map remargined. Quire [d] bound between quires [a] and [b]. Very faint old water stain in the lower margin; some foxing.
