The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Leicht vergilbt, sonst guter Zustand. Mit Verfasserwidmung / Slighty yellowed, otherwise in good condition. With dedication of author. - Perhaps the most significant allegorical figure of medieval Latin and vernacular poetry was the goddess Natura. A more complex creature than the goddess Fortuna, she drew upon many strands of classical and Christian thought, from Plato's Timaeus to Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. George D. Economou includes in this first full-length study of Natura an examination of both her philosophical background and the literary traditions that contributed to her image. The major part of his work centers on the renaissance of the twelfth century, when a new kind of allegory appeared, especially in the writings of the Platonist scholar-poets of the school of Chartres. Free and often ingenious in plot, these poems both celebrated and explored the nature of the cosmos. Mr. Economou thoroughly analyzes Natura's central role in the philosophical poems of Bernard Silvestris and Alan of Lille. He provides as well a detailed examination of the guises in which she appears in Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose and in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules.