The Marvels of the World

"[A]n invaluable addition to the growing list of anthologies on this topic, not least because it offers an unusually expansive scope (Antiquity to 1700), but also because its contextual material is enormously readable and informative; each section provides a solid grounding in nature writing that situates the readings topically and with a sense of their position in time and place Bushnells anthology serves to rewrite natural history in important ways, shifting the usual narratives. It also demonstrates how the teleology of human interactions with the landscapes they inhabit is as uncertain, perhaps even as unpredictable, as the particulars of the seasons themselves; and it illustrates how that natural history was inscribed in the soil as well as on the page, by those who toiled as well as those who imagined." * Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment * "Rebecca Bushnells anthology offers its readers 112 excerpts of nature writing from antiquity through the late seventeenth century. The product of a seminar she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, this collection of sources immerses readers in a well-curated collection...[T]he very premise of the volume invites us to contemplate genres of writing about nature across the centuries. Bushnell has done a scholarly service by sharing her own work as a teacher of premodern nature writing." * Speculum *

Rebecca Bushnell is the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Overseers Emerita Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens among other books.

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1. Natural Philosophy and Natural Knowledge Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1 Aristotle, Physics Lucretius, De rerum natura, or On the Nature of Things Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, or Natural History, On the Nature of the Earth Avicenna, The Canon of Medicine, On the Elements Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, or Causes and Cures Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae, or The Complaint of Nature Roger Bacon, Opus majus, or Greater Work Saint Thomas Aquinas, Quaestiones disputatae de potentia dei, or Disputed Questions on the Power of God Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, The Book of the Secrets of Albertus Magnus Giambattista della Porta, Magia naturalis, or Natural Magic Guillaume du Bartas, La sepmaine ou creation du monde, or Divine Weeks and Works, On the Seventh Day Hugh Platt, Floraes Paradise Francis Bacon, Novum organum, or New Organon, and New Atlantis Hannah Wolley, The Ladies Directory Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz, "First Dream" Part 2. Plants Theophrastus, De causis plantarum, or On the Causes of Plants Aristotle, De anima, or Of the Soul Dioscorides, De materia medica, or Herbal Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, or Natural History, On Flowers Pseudo-Apuleius, The Old English Herbarium Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women Pierre de Ronsard, "Ode to Cassandra" Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium, or On the History of Plants William Turner, A New Herbal John Gerard, The Herbal or General History of Plants Guillaume Du Bartas, La sepmaine ou creation du monde, or Divine Weeks and Works, On Aconite William Lawson, A New Orchard and Garden, On the Cultivation of Trees John Parkinson, Paradisi in Sole: Paradisus Terrestris, On Auriculas George Herbert, "The Flower" Ralph Austen, A Treatise of Fruit Trees, and The Spiritual Use of an Orchard or Garden of Fruit Trees Johanna St. John, Manuscript Recipes Samuel Gilbert,Florist's Vade-Mecum, On Auriculas Part 3. Animals Aristotle, Historia animalium, or The History of Animals Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, or Natural History, On Animals Physiologus Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum, or On the Properties of Things Second-Family Bestiary Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls Marie de France, Fables John Lydgate, "The Debate of the Horse, Goose, and Sheep" Anselm Turmeda, The Disputation of the Donkey Michel de Montaigne, "An Apology for Raymond Sebond" John Caius, Of English Dogges Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae Edward Topsell, The History of Four-Footed Beasts Gervase Markham, Markham's Masterpiece Hester Pulter, "The Ugly Spider" Richard Lovelace, "The Snail" Margaret Cavendish, Grounds of Natural Philosophy Robert Hooke, Micrographia Part 4. Weather, Climate, and Seasons Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places Aristotle, Meteorologica, or Meteorology Virgil, Georgics, Book 1, On the Storm Pseudo-Aristotle, Secreta secretorum, or The Secret of Secrets Avicenna, The Canon of Medicine, On Climate Wandalbert of Prm, On the Names, Signs, Times of Planting, and Qualities of Weather of the Twelve Months William Ram, Rams Little Dodoen Thomas Tusser, An Hundredth Points of Good Husbandrie William Shakespeare, King Lear Amelia Lanyer, "The Description of Cookham" William Shakespeare, The Tempest Thomas Jackson, The Raging Tempest Stilled Thomas Sprat and Robert Hooke, History of the Royal Society, On Weather Samuel Gilbert, Florist's Vade-Mecum, Instructions for July Part 5. Inhabiting the Land Theocritus, Idyll 7 Virgil, Eclogue 1 Virgil, Georgics, On Farming Columella, Res rustica, or On Agriculture, On Farming Walter of Henley, Dite de hosbondrie, or Boke of Husbandry William Langland, Piers Plowman Second Shepherd's Play, from the W