118 RICHARD MCKEON 



of the sciences was so great that what seems new is often the 

 interpretation of an old text newly acquired. It is ambiguous 

 also because the focus of inquiry was turning from the elements 

 or natures of things to the principles of motions or functions. 

 In that transition, the physical sciences of Aristotle are them- 

 selves interpreted in terms of elements rather than of principles. 

 Gundissalinus distinguishes natural bodies into simple and com- 

 posite and then divides natural science into eight large parts: 

 the investigation (1) of what is common to natural bodies, 

 simple and composite, as in Aristotle's Physics; (2) of simple 

 bodies in heaven and earth, as in the De Caelo et Mundo; 

 (3) of the mixture and corruption of natural bodies and the 

 generation and corruption of elements, as in the De Generatione 

 et Corruptione; (4) of the principles of the accidents and 

 passions of elements and composites, as in the De hnpres- 

 sionihus Siiperioiibus; (5) of bodies compounded of elements 

 and of bodies of similar or of dissimilar parts, as in the De 

 hnpressionibus Supeiiorum; (6) of bodies compounded of simi- 

 lar parts which are not parts of a body compounded of diverse 

 parts, as in the De Mineris; (7) of what is common to the 

 species of vegetables and what is proper to each of them, as in 

 the De Vegetabilibus; and (8) of what is common to the 

 species of animals and what is proper to each of them, as in 

 the De Ajiimalibus, the De Anima, and the books included up 

 to the De NaturalibusJ^ It is worth observing that the fact 

 that the title by which Aristotle's De Caelo was known during 

 the Middle Ages was De Caelo et Mundo suggested analogies 

 to the opening lines of Genesis concerning the creation of 

 the heaven (caelum) and the earth (terra) . Aristotle con- 

 ceived the history of natural philosophy to be an evolution 

 from elements as principles used by early philosophers to his 

 own methodical use of causes as principles. This history is 

 repeated in the transition from the eleventh to the twelfth 

 century, but ironically Aristotle's natural philosophy enters 

 into that transition as a philosophy of elements. 



" Domingo Gundisalvo, De Scientiis, ed. P. Manuel Alonso Alonso (Madrid, 1954), 

 pp. 120-6. 



