Quotes from Authors of the Middle Ages and of the Modern Age

St. Bonaventure (1217-1274)

"Beauty" of things, according to the variety of light, figure, and color in bodies simple and mixed and even composite, as in the celestial bodies, minerals, stones and metals, plants and animals, obviously proclaims the three mentioned divine attributes [Power, Wisdom and Goodness]. "Plenitude" of things – according to which matter is full of forms because of the seminal reasons; form is full of power because of its activity; power is full of effects because of its efficiency – declares the same manifestly. "Operation," multiplex inasmuch as it is natural, artificial, and moral, by its very variety shows the immensity of that power, art, and goodness which indeed are in all things the cause of their being, the principle of their intelligibility, and the order of their living. "Order," by reason of duration, situation, and influence, as prior and posterior, upper and lower, nobler and less noble, indicates clearly in the book of creation the primacy, sublimity, and dignity of the First Principle in relation to its infinite power. The order of the divine laws, precepts, and judgments in the Book of Scripture indicates the immensity of His wisdom. The order of the divine sacraments, rewards, and punishments in the body of the Church indicates the immensity of His goodness. Hence order leads us most obviously into the first and highest, most powerful, wisest, and best.

Itinerarium mentis in Deum , I, 14

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Let no man upon a weak concept of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or to be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works, divinity or philosophy, but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both; only let them beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle, or confound these learnings together.”

The Advancement of Learning , I, I, 3, edited by W.A. Wright (Oxford: Clarendon, 1926), p. 10

Let it be observed, that there be two principal duties and services, besides ornament and illustration, which philosophy and human learning do perform to faith and religion. The one, because thay are an effectual inducement to the exaltation of the glory of God. For as the Psalms and other scriptures do often invite us to consider and magnify the great and wonderful works of God, so if we should rest only in the contamplation of the exterior of them as they first offer themselves to our senses, we should do a like injury unto the majesty of God, as if we shoul judge or construe of the store of some exellent jeweller, by that only which is set toward the street in his shop. the other, because they minister a singular help and preservative against unbilief and error. For our savior saith, You err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God ; laying before us two books or volumes to study, if we will be secured from error; first the scriptures, revealing the will of God, and then the creatures expressing his power; whereof the latter is a key unto the former: not only opening our understanding to conceive the true sense of teh scriptures, by the general notions of reason and rules of speech; but chiefly opening our belief, in drawing us into a due meditation of the omnipotency of God, which is chiefly signed and engraven upon his works. Thus much therefore for divine testimony and evidence concerning the true dignity and value of learning.”

The Advancement of Learning , I, VI, 16, edited by W.A. Wright (Oxford: Clarendon, 1926), pp. 50-51.

Federico Cesi (1585-1630)

Study for its part requires maestros that teach us with their live voices, requires books where all subjects are more fully discovered and which communicate to us the contemplation and labor of others; the former with various means, words, and signs accomodate things to our understanding, the latter allow us to hear the doctrine itself of the absent and elder and keep us at all hours in the midst of the conversation of the most eminent literati. Nor is this sufficient, since, in order to do something on our own, it is necessary to read this great, veracious and universal book of the world; it is necessary therefore to visit its parts and exercise oneself in observation and experimentation so as to ground in these two good means an acute and profound contemplation, the first representing to us things as they are and how they change by themselves, the other how we ourselves can alter and vary them; how many parts, therefore, it is necessary to see and how many difficulties there are in our peregrinations and gaining access to certain places and times, each may consider; nor should he be surprised by the death of Pliny» [ndr: Reference to the famous case of Pliny the Elder, who, due to his desire to study it at too close range, died during the celebrated eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BC].

Il natural desiderio di sapere. The Natural Desire for Knowledge , Testo bilingue italiano-inglese, Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum Extra Series 18, Vatican City 2003, pp. 107-109.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and others geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth.

Il Saggiatore (1623), in Opere, Edizione Nazionale a cura di A. Favaro, Giunti Barbera, Firenze 1968, vol. VI, p. 232; Eng. tr. by S. Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (New York: Doubleday, 1957), pp. 237-238.

The book of philosophy is that which stands perpetually open before our eyes, but because it is written in characters different from those of our alphabet it cannot be read by every body; and the characters of this book are triangles, squares, circles, spheres, cones, pyramids and other mathematical figures fittest for this sort of reading.

Lettera a Fortunio Liceti , gennaio 1641, Opere, XVIII, p. 295; Engl. tr. by A. Crombie, Styles of Scientific Thinking in the European Tradition , 3 vols. (London: Duckworth, 1994), vol. I, p. 585.