Thomas de Chantimpre, Northern France or Flanders, ca. 1250-1270

Thomas (ca. 1201-ca. 1270), an Augustinian canon at Chantimpre in Flanders, later lived as a Dominican in LiParis, where Aristotle's writings were part of the university canon. The aptly titled "On the Nature of Things" served as a general introduction to the sciences for those to whom Aristotle was not accessible and influenced scientific writing for generations. This incomplete copy includes chapters on fish, insects and invertebrates, trees, cosmology and astronomy, herbs, springs, gems, winds and clouds, the elements, and the stars and eclipses. On the page shown here, Thomas describes and catalogues the appearance and habits of the locust and the centipede, among others.

Paper, 81 leaves, 311 x 225 (305 x 215) mm, in Italian, written in a cursive, contemporary hand.