Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2009
Summary
For the whole sensible world is like a kind of book written by the finger of God – that is, created by divine power – and each particular creature is somewhat like a figure, not invented by human decision, but instituted by the divine will to manifest the invisible things of God's wisdom. But in the same way that some illiterate, if he saw an open book, would notice the figures, but would not comprehend the letters, so also the stupid and ‘animal man’ who ‘does not perceive the things of God’, may see the outward appearance of these visible creatures, but does not understand the reason within.
Hugh of St Victor, De tribus diebusPhilosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.
Galileo, The AssayerIn 1678, Cambridge naturalist John Ray published The Ornithology of F. Willughby, a tribute to his friend and colleague Francis Willughby, who had died unexpectedly at the age of thirty-seven, some six years previously. Ray and Willughby had collaborated on a number of projects involving the study and classification of flora and fauna in England and on the Continent, and before Willughby's untimely demise, they had together made pioneering contributions to natural history.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998