Gregor Reisch's The Philosophical pearl (Margarita Philosophica), first published in 1503 and republished 11 times in the sixteenth century, was the first extensive printed text which discussed the disciplines taught at university to achieve widespread dissemination. This distinguishes it from printed editions of individual texts of Aristotle and other authorities. It is presented as a dialogue between master and pupil, covering the seven liberal arts, natural philosophy and moral philosophy, and with illustrations throughout. It has received remarkably little attention in its own right as a work of education which helped shape the world view of sixteenth-century educated men. Its author was a Carthusian monk. This volume presents an edited translation and an extensive introduction, of the four books which deal with natural philosophy - the predecessor of modern science. These books clearly show the extent to which for Reisch the study of nature was still primarily undertaken for Christian ends. Not only was nature studied as God's creation, but the study of the soul (a central part of natural philosophy pursued on Aristotelian lines) and its fate was here completely integrated with the salvation or damnation of the individual Christian, as taught in the Bible and by the church fathers, especially Augustine. Natural philosophy for Reisch was a discipline which was as concerned with God and the Bible as it was with Nature and Aristotle.

Natural philosophy encompassed all natural phenomena of the physical world. It sought to discover the physical causes of all natural effects and was little concerned with mathematics. By contrast, the exact mathematical sciences were narrowly confined to various computations that did not involve physical causes, functioning totally independently of natural philosophy. Although this began slowly to change in the late Middle Ages, a much more thoroughgoing union of natural philosophy and mathematics occurred in the seventeenth century and thereby made the Scientific Revolution possible. The title of Isaac Newton's great work, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, perfectly reflects the new relationship. Natural philosophy became the 'Great Mother of the Sciences', which by the nineteenth century had nourished the manifold chemical, physical, and biological sciences to maturity, thus enabling them to leave the 'Great Mother' and emerge as the multiplicity of independent sciences we know today.

This essential volume features John Locke's hand-corrected text with an outstanding introduction to Locke's life and role in intellectual history, his principal works, and their purpose. Written by the editor, Richard Cox, the introduction also outlines the course of both treatises of government and analyzes the problems of interpretation. Also included are a list of the principal dates in the life of John Locke as well as a selected bibliography.

HIBISCUS MASONIC REVIEW Vol. 4 / 2019 Editor: Peter J. Millheiser, MD, FACS AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MASONIC HISTORY AND CULTURE Freemasonry In Hungary Between The Eighteenth And Twentieth Centuries An Analysis Of The Draskovich Observance, A Masonic Document Of The Late Eighteenth Century From Croatia The Enigmatic “Code” Of The American South And The Cultural Genesis Of The Scottish Rite’s Mother Council Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography And Rabbi Mendel Lefin’s Book Of Spiritual Accounting In Late Eighteenth-Century Vienna And Philadelphia: A Study In Atlantic History The Impetus For The Grand Lodge Of 1717: The Anti-Apocalyptic “Masonic University” Of Kabbalah The Belgian Wagner Society And Their Link With Freemasonry Distinguished Ohio Freemasons & American Exceptionalism The Apotheosis Of Thomas Dunckerley John Theophilus Desaguliers And The Newtonian Revolution Masons At The Bailey A Hundred Years Of Craft Freemasonry In England This is the fourth volume of an international journal exploring the historical, sociological, literary, philosophical, and cultural backgrounds of Freemasonry. The authors in this collection include some of the leading Masonic researchers and historians and have published extensively on these aspects of Masonic culture

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.