#de natura rerum

[cuties-in-codices]

cyclopes

illustration from a copy of thomas of cantimpré's "de natura rerum", flanders, c. 1475

source: Bruges, Bruges Public Library, Ms. 411, fol. 4r

[a-book-of-creatures]

Hey tumblr we need to have a talk about something I noticed.

Specifically going by tags attached to images I’ve blogged or reblogged, there seems to be a misconception that marginalia means “any quirky medieval art”.

It’s not.

Marginalia is anything in the margins of a text.

The ones that will get posted on tumblr will more often than not be quirky drawings, but they also include notes, annotations, scribbles, and whatever else. The quirky drawings just happen to get a lot of press on here because, well. They’re quirky drawings.

For instance, see this image here of a platanista (river dolphin) chomping down on an elephant’s trunk?

This is not marginalia! This is a full-fledged illustration. It’s within the text (Liber natura rerum, Thomas de Cantimpré, Librairie de Valenciennes Ms 0320). It illustrates the entry on Platanista.

This is what it looks like in context.

But you know what are marginalia? Let me circle them for convenience.

Know the difference. It won’t save your life but it will make you more popular at a medievalist conference.

[meanbossart]

Well. @/barbatusart commissioned this.

[barbatusart]

vellioth the martinet from my take on him in DE RERUM NATURA, based on francis bacon's Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, inspired by @ittybittysword's vellioth fanart based on the original Portrait of Innocent X by diego velázquez

WHEW thats a mouthful!!!!

[catilinas]

can epicureanism explain ghosts

[latin-literature-tourney]

Latin Literature Tournament - Round 1

Propaganda under the cut!

Lucretius Propaganda:

His description of atomism is pretty damn accurate for an ancient Roman poet with literally no clue what the fuck he's talking

In this house we love Epicureanism

Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti / exitio terras cum dabit una dies

Petronius Propaganda

You really can't go wrong with the Cena Trimalchionis--crazy food, astrology, werewolves...there's really something for everyone

When Nero ordered him to commit suicide, threw a sumptuous party about it and broke all his expensive stuff so Nero couldn't take it. Queen Shit

Part Menippean satire, part Greek novel: a genuinely Wild fucking combo that makes one of the weirdest and coolest pieces of Latin prose out there

[ittybitsysword]

Ok I think I fucked up the crop on this but ah well. Mostly finished fan art of @barbatusart bg3 comic de rerum natura.

you can read it here or here or here

I'm still not 100% satisfied with this so I might come back to it at a later date.

[intotheclash]

Sono poche, dunque, le cose davvero necessarie per natura al nostro corpo, e sono quelle che, allontanando il dolore, ci procurano allo stesso tempo una sensazione di piacere. Tutti i fenomeni naturali che accadono in cielo e sulla terra e che lasciano sospesi e spaventati gli uomini, mortificando i loro animi per la paura del divino e schiacciandoli a terra, hanno una precisa spiegazione materiale. Ma l'ignoranza delle cause induce gli uomini a riferirli all'arbitrio delle divinità e a sottomettersi al loro potere. Tito Lucrezio Caro - De Rerum Natura

[quidam-sirenae]

I need to read something that will ruin me completely emotionally and leave me with a new understanding of the fragility of my own mortality. Send book recs that have the same vibes as the secret history, the Bacchae, the iliad, the starless sea, de profundis, or de rerum natura. Something that will gut me like a fish and leave me completely bloody and raw.

[cannellaeluce]

“Lavinia,” Ursula K. Le Guin

[fluentisonus]

epicurean clinamen you will always be famous

[cuties-in-codices]

giant ant attacking a young man

in thomas de cantiprato's "liber de natura rerum", bavaria, c. 1424

source: Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1066, fol. 140v

[a-book-of-creatures]

You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out...

A blemmy from the Liber de Natura Rerum (Valenciennes Ms 0320).

[classics-cassandra]

Born to read pastoral poetry sub ramis arboris altae, forced to read the theory of atoms

[barbatusart]

last hollering about this comic for a bit i promise BUT if anybody would like a pdf of this whole comic it's now up on itchio for your browsing pleasure! it's also FREE WOWZA but feel free to throw me some beer & smokes money if you feel so inclined hehe

suscomics.itch.io/dererumnatura

[lykeios]

oh maybe this one more latin classic will solve my existential crisis-