Abstract

The De sex rerum principiis is a twelfth-century Latin cosmology written under the pseudonym of Hermes Mercurius Triplex. Besides representing the Platonic tradition of philosophical cosmology, it is one of the first texts of the Latin world to incorporate extensive material from Latin translations of Arabic philosophical and scientific texts. Moreover, it stands out among other encyclopedic texts of the period by its systematic character and theory of causality. ;The text is divided into five parts: the first part describes the emergence of the universe from its three first principles: causa, ratio, and natura. Causa is the highest generative principle and creates ratio, which is the principle of order and harmony in the universe. Natura proceeds from both causa and ratio and is the immanent principle of life and motion in all things. The other four parts of the De sex rerum principiis describe the way in which these three principles act upon and within the universe as a whole, bestowing motion and qualitative form to celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The final part of the text is a short treatise on the astrolabe. ;This dissertation will include a translation of the Latin text of the De sex rerum principiis, a critical study of the text itself, and a historical study of the text in relation to other Latin cosmologies. Among other things, the historical study will compare the anonymous author's theory of causality with that of other major twelfth-century Latin texts such as Herman of Carinthia's De essentiis and Daniel of Morley's Liber de naturis inferiorum et superiorum, and of Arabic texts in Latin translations. Thus, in addition to making the De sex rerum principiis available for the first time to English readers, this dissertation will make a significant contribution to the history of twelfth-century cosmology