Oleg Voskoboynikov, École des Hautes Études économiques, Moscou, EHESS, Paris
Nature in the aesthetics of the Chartres school.
The role of the Chartres scholars in the revival of the natural sciences in the first half of the twelfth century is well known. Their re-reading of a number of ancient texts, including the Timaeus and the Asclepius, as well as their careful reception of Arabic translations, enabled them to renew the order of cosmological discourse. However, the very concept of the School of Chartres remains relatively vague, which means that the treatises, glosses and commentaries of thinkers such as Thierry de Chartres and Guillaume de Conches are often read and studied separately from Bernard Silvestre’s Cosmographie, a masterpiece of Latin literature, but less ‘philosophical’ at first glance. However, it is an aestheticisation of nature that explains its stakes and encyclopaedic aim, despite its discreet volume. This ability to aesthetise is found in Thierry and Guillaume, and has influenced writers of the calibre of Alain de Lille, Jean de Meung and Dante. But does it find parallels in the naturalist motifs emerging in Romanesque imagery?