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VOCABULARY The language of science, technology, and medicine in the Western was almost exclusively . This article will be limited to the vocabulary of that language, although the influence of Greek and Arabic in these fields was also very strong. There were various names for the concept of science itself, the most important being ars (art) and scientia (science). The ancient distinction between ars on the one hand, for knowledge of a practical kind, and scientia or disciplina (discipline) on the other, for more theoretical knowledge, was often repeated, but in practice the terms became largely interchangeable. In the early Middle Ages, the sciences were classified according to the four disciplines of the *quadrivium: arithmetica (arithmetic), geometria (geometry), astronomia (astronomy; astrologia was sometimes used for the same science), and musica (music; sometimes called harmonia). The quadrivium Vincent of Beauvais reading in his study (painting dated c. formed, with the three disciplines of the trivium 1475–1500). (The /HIP) (grammar, dialectic, and ), the seven artes liberales (liberal arts). In later classifications of the sciences, the four disciplines were often grouped with the thus the most frequently cited version even though the theoretical sciences under the name mathematica (mathe- 1473–1476 Strasbourg edition of Johann Mentelin is matics) or scientia disciplinalis or doctrinalis. Other generally considered the most reliable text. The lack of a sciences were added as scientia subalternata (subalternate modern critical edition makes it difficult to study and science); these included perspectiva (optics), which was evaluate confidently the organization, sources, and considered a part of geometry. The sciences of natural content of Vincent’s . philosophy were called physica (physics) or scientia While Vincent’s masterful orchestration of divergent (philosophia) naturalis. From the discovery and translation sources reveals a very logical and rational mind, he is of the Aristotelian works onwards, this natural philosophy somewhat gullible at times, intermingling superstition, was divided according to these texts. Thus, meteora myth, fable, and miracles with verifiable factual data and (*meteorology) clearly indicated the science described by scientific knowledge. This master compiler is as good as in his book Meteora. The term physiologia was his sources (more than four hundred), which are cited sometimes used for the particular science of physics, but with amazing regularity and accuracy. Vincent’s master- after the entry of Aristotelian science into the university piece is a composite of quotations and excerpts from curriculum, and outside the classifications, physica was earlier pagan and Christian authors. He made no claims more usual in this sense. So, physica had at least three to originality (his few interjections are designated with meanings: first, it could be the general name for the the word “actor”), and he took pride in being the great natural sciences; second, it might indicate the discipline of organizer who collected, classified, and arranged his physics; and third, it could also be used for medicine. Some summary of human knowledge into a single unified of the Aristotelian books were designated by the common whole. Accordingly, Vincent’s Speculum maius is the best name parva naturalia (“small books on natural science”). and largest medieval encyclopedia. The three parts Among them were De sensu et sensato (On sense and sense together consist of over three million words in 9,885 perception), De somno et vigilia (On sleep and being chapters in eighty books. According to current estimates, awake), De memoria and reminiscentia (On memory and it would require over fifty modern octavo volumes to reminiscence), De longitudine et brevitate vite (On the print the entire Speculum text. length and shortness of life), which would all be within the modern notion of biology, along with Aristotle’s books on See also Astronomy, Latin; ; Music theory the animals and, partly, his De generatione et corruptione (On generation and corruption). *Cosmology was not Bibliography absent, of course. It was taught on the basis of Aristotle’s De caelo et mundo (On the heaven and the world). In Aerts, W.J., E.R. Smits and J.B. Voorbij, eds. Vincent of Beauvais and Alexander the Great: Studies on the Speculum earlier times, the science of describing (parts of) the world maius and its translations into medieval vernaculars. was known as cosmimetria or cosmigraphia. Groningen: E. Forsten, 1986. Magic was a very old art—in antiquity the magicae Tobin, Rosemary Barton. Vincent of Beauvais’ “De eruditione artes were mentioned by for instance Virgil—but it was filiorum nobilium”: The Education of Women. New York: for a long time excluded from the field of official science. P. Lang, 1984. In medieval classifications of the sciences it was often GREGORY G. GUZMAN treated at the very end, after the scheme of the other V 25/5/05 10:21 am Page 33

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sciences or given a place under the name of scientia illici- “astrolabe.” Horoscopum, another instrument that ta or scientia inutilis (illicit or useless science). permits clockreading, can also be synonymous with The technical terminology used by the various sciences astrolabe, but at the same time it kept its traditional is too large to be treated here. Some examples will be given astronomical meaning of “ascendant.” Some Arabic from the fields of mathematics and astronomy. The science words, through medieval Latin astrolabe treatises, have of mathematics itself was called (ars) mathematica (but this survived into modern times. These include “zenith,” a term can also designate all four disciplines of the quadriv- term of spherical astronomy, indicating the highest point ium, as described above) or (ars) arithmetica (*arithmetic). in the celestial sphere, and its antonym, “nadir.” The Latin tradition of the works of the Arab scholar *al-Khwarizimi led to the introduction of the word algorismus or alchorismus in the twelfth century. It was Technology used for mathematics in general and implies the “Indian” The modern concept of technology is roughly equivalent to art of calculation based on the nine ciphers and the zero, in the medieval artes mechanicae (mechanical arts). In the contrast to earlier, traditional systems such as digital calcu- early Middle Ages, the seven mechanical arts paralleled the lation. At the same time, the older terms mathematica and seven liberal arts, and the expression is first found in the arithmetica remained in use, not only for arithmetic with ninth century, but their rehabilitation as part of practical Roman ciphers, but also for arithmetic or calculation with science occurred only in the twelfth century, when *Hugh the decimal system. The abacus (calculatory table or of Saint-Victor included them in his classification of the reckoning board), used before the introduction of the sciences and defined them as follows: lanificium Indian-Arabic tradition, was not abandoned as an aid to (fabric-making), armatura (armament and architecture), the practical technique of calculating. Masters called navigatio (commerce), agricultura (agriculture), venatio abacisti or magistri abaci taught their art in specialized (hunting and food), medicina (medicine), and theatrica calculus schools. The term *algebra, also introduced in the (theatrics). This scheme was taken over by other authors, twelfth century, came from another work by the same Arab with some variations. For instance, commerce was also mathematician al-Khwarizimi, the “Compendious book on known as mercatura or negotiatoria, the art of hunting and calculation by completion (al-jabr) and balancing.” The food was referred to as ars cibativa or ars nutritiva. word became common only in the sixteenth century. It was Although the mechanical arts were sometimes given used for the technique of solution paradigms for different pejorative labels such as serviles (servile) or adulterinae types of problems, using equations in which the actual (adulterous), this does not reflect the general estimation numbers were replaced by symbols (for instance ax2 = bx). of manual labor or technological progress. Note that In Latin treatises on arithmetic all kinds of traditional alchemy was sometimes, during the thirteenth century, Latin words were used—examples include adulterinus considered a mechanical art and that the term mechanicus numerus for the difference between a true root and an was used for alchemists. approximate root—but new words were also introduced, such as cifra (zero), unitaliter (in a manner equal to a unity). The word *computus was used in the general Medicine meaning of reckoning or counting, but it had also the While medicina (medicine) was sometimes ranked as a specific technical meaning of computation of time and it mechanical art, generally it was considered a part of could name its products: a book containing its rules and natural science and was as such called physica terrestris methods, or a *calendar. (“physical science concerning terrestrial or corporeal The terms astronomia and astrologia were both used things”). In some contexts, the term physicus (natural for the science of the cosmos in general, including astron- philosopher) became the equivalent of medicus (medical omy, the science of dimensions and quantities of the doctor or physician). At university faculties of medicine celestial orbs and bodies, and *astrology, the study of the discipline was called scientia or facultas medicine, celestial powers and their effects on the terrestrial region. and also physice facultas. The modern distinction between the two concepts is also At an early stage, medicine was divided into theorica found in certain classical and medieval sources, but and practica (theoretical and practical), the first being generally the two terms were interchangeable throughout speculative, the second, sometimes called cirurgia the medieval period. One of the well-known instruments (surgery), based on the application of the theory to of astronomy, the astrolabe or flat disk reproducing the physical reality. The two branches were intimately linked, celestial sphere, was first called walzachora, but soon and the distinction was not always easily maintained. For afterwards the terms astrolapsus and astrolabium were example, the vocabulary of theoretical medicine was used introduced. These last two terms were synonymous, but to describe the parts of the body, but that of practical from the end of the eleventh century astrolabium imposed medicine was used to describe the treatment of illnesses. itself. The quadrant was first called quadra astrolabii After the introduction of the Greco-Latin version of before the word quadrans came into use. Other instru- *Galen’s treatise on the art of medicine, the term doctrina ments for measuring time were the horologium and the acquired a special meaning in medical vocabulary. It horoscopum. The word horologium usually indicates designated the teaching or organization of science in three the plate that enables the hour of the day to be read from steps: dissolutio or resolutio, dissolution by way of the position of the Sun, although it sometimes means analysis; compositio, orderly composition or synthesis of V 25/5/05 10:21 am Page 34

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the materials found through analysis; and dissolutio Craemer-Ruegenberg, I. and A. Speer, ed. “Scientia” und “ars” termini or definitionis, the dissolution or decomposition of im Hoch- und Spätmittelalter. 2 vols. Berlin and New York: the definition. This concept of doctrina was also applied to Walter de Gruyter, 1994. experimental science outside the field of medicine. Jacquart, D. “L’enseignement de la médecine. Quelques termes Another technical term is ingenium, which acquired a fondamentaux.” In Méthodes et instruments du travail special meaning from the thirteenth century onward. It intellectuel au moyen âge. Edited by O. Weijers. Turnhout: Brepols, 1990, pp. 104–120. originated in the Arabo-Latin translation of Galen’s Poulle, E. “Astrolabium,” “astrolapsus,” “horologium”: treatise and appears mainly in phrases such as ingenium enquête sur un vocabulaire. In Science antique, science sanitatis, ingenium sanativum, and ingenium curationis médiévale. Edited by L. Callebat and O. Desbordes. (“methods and tools to reach health”). Two Greek Hildesheim, Zürich and New York: Olms-Weidmann, 2000: concepts, that of method and that of artifice or device, 437–448. are expressed by the single Latin word ingenium. Teeuwen, Mariken. The Vocabulary of Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages. Turnhout: Brepols, 2003. See also Astrolabes and quadrants; Magic and the Weijers, O. L’appellation des disciplines dans les classifications occult; Optics and catoptrics; Scientia des sciences aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi (1986–1987) 46–47: 39–64. Weisheipl, J.A. Classification of the Sciences in Medieval Bibliography Thought. Mediaeval Studies (1965) 27: 54–90. Allard, A. “La formation du vocabulaire latin de Whitney, E. Paradise Restored. The Mechanical Arts from l’arithmétique médiévale.” In Méthodes et instruments Antiquity through the Thirteenth Century. Philadelphia: du travail intellectuel au moyen âge. Edited by O. Weijers. Transactions 80: 1, 1990. Turnhout: Brepols, 1990, pp. 137–181. OLGA WEIJERS Clagett, M. The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961.