Thomas Le Gouge, Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne
The translation of numerous philosophical and scientific texts from Arabic into Latin during the 12th century brought about a profound change in the way the universe was represented. Astronomy was no longer dominated by the figures of Plato and Boethius, in whom the geometry of celestial movements was understood from the theory of musical harmonies, but by the physical model inherited from Ptolemy and Aristotle. This change in knowledge led to a change in the graphic paradigm.
Whereas the figures of the previous centuries aimed to relate the different elements of the universe, from the 13th century onwards, some of them claimed to represent the universe as we would be expected to observe it. The new type of schematisation and representation that appeared at this time seems to dominate three centuries of scientific approaches and popular interpretation, only to slowly lose its influence to another model at the end of the 16th century.
In this paper I will attempt to place the history of astronomical illustration between the 12th and 13th centuries within a history of the image, by comparing ‘Romanesque’ diagrams and ‘Gothic’ schemes. I will mainly rely on manuscripts of the Dragmaticon philosophiae by Guillaume de Conches and the Image du monde by Gossuin de Metz, the Timaeus commented by Calcidius and the De sphaera by Sacrobosco, presenting geometric figures and illuminations.