|
IN THIS SUMMARY...
Ancient Origins and Medieval Resurgence |
At the heart of the Renaissance, a unique esoteric tradition flourished under the name magia naturalis, or natural magic. This magic was then presented as a real, coherent, and experimental knowledge, based on the study of the secret forces of nature. Renaissance thinkers – humanists, scholars, and sometimes clerics – claimed natural magic as the heir to an ancient wisdom passed down since Antiquity and considered it “the practical part of natural science,” legitimate and not heretical, to quote Pic de la Mirandole (a famous Italian avant-garde intellectual). Driven by a strong conviction, these “natural magicians” explored the world with wonder and method: nature is alive, inhabited by hidden forces and correspondences that can be understood and used to act on reality. This esoteric knowledge is intended as a tribute to Creation itself, a way to honor God or Nature by uncovering its mysteries to improve the human condition. Discovery.
Ancient Origins and Medieval Resurgence
The notion of natural magic has its roots in Greco-Roman and Eastern Antiquity. The sages of Antiquity – whether the mythical Hermes Trismegistus of the Hermetic tradition, the Pythagorean philosopher, the Chaldean mage, or the Egyptian priest – are considered the bearers of a prisca theologia, a primordial wisdom predating religions, which taught the unity of the cosmos and the means to enter into sympathy with it. The writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, rediscovered later during the Renaissance, describe a living universe saturated with spiritual forces and symbols, where man (as microcosm) reflects the cosmos (macrocosm) and can, through magic, act on nature by virtue of universal correspondences. In the Greco-Roman world, authors like Plato and the Neoplatonists developed the idea of a hierarchy of beings and a world soul connecting all things, while encyclopedists such as Pliny the Elder compiled the marvelous properties of plants, stones, and animals in works that would become authoritative in the Middle Ages. Although magic was condemned by official philosophy (Aristotle viewed it with suspicion, and Plato discouraged it for legislators), some practices related to “natural magic” were passed down: use of medicinal herbs with unexplained virtues, attraction of magnets, astonishing ointments, planetary talismans,... Late Neoplatonic writings (such as Theurgy by Iamblichus) or the Cyranides (a Hermetic compendium of occult properties of animals and minerals) testify to a persistent belief in the hidden forces of nature and the possibility of employing them through rites or recipes.
Representation of Hermes Trismegistus
With the advent of Christianity, magic was relegated to the realm of paganism and diabolical works. Saint Augustine, in the 5th century, unequivocally condemned all magical practices that were not miraculous, stating that “all the wonders of magicians are performed by the cooperation of demons.” Nevertheless, within medieval monasteries, the thirst to understand the mirabilia (wonders of creation) persisted. In the 13th century, two Christian scholars paved the way for a partial rehabilitation of natural magic: Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus) and Roger Bacon. Albert the Great, a learned Dominican, explored in his treatises the occult properties of plants and stones, seeking to distinguish what belonged to God’s natural work from what would be demonic illusion. As for Roger Bacon (c.1214–1294), an English Franciscan later nicknamed Doctor Mirabilis, he was a bold precursor who embraced mathematics, optics, alchemy, and mechanics to uncover the secrets of nature. Bacon openly championed magia naturalis: he defended it as a legitimate science and railed against the “infinite stupidity” of his colleagues who refused to see its usefulness. Aware of the suspicions of heresy he faced, he sought to distinguish natural magic – based on occult physical causes – from harmful magic based on demons. In a famous letter (Epistola de secretis operibus artis et naturae, et de nullitate magiae), Bacon asserted that the feats attributed to magicians were actually the result of art and nature, not supernatural spells. In other words, he sought to “naturalize” magic: to rationally explain marvelous effects that seemed magical by showing they imitate natural processes without diabolical intervention. Astrology (astral influences on the sublunar world) or alchemy could, according to Bacon, be interpreted by hidden natural causes – his theory of multiplication of species (emission of invisible forces by objects) provided an explanatory framework for these distant actions. Thanks to such thinkers, magia naturalis gradually freed itself from suspicion of witchcraft. On the eve of the Renaissance, it appeared as a knowledge in its own right, embracing the study of nature in its most mysterious aspects, and foreshadowing the empirical spirit of modern times.
Renaissance Peak and Its Iconic Figures
It was during the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) that natural magic experienced its golden age, benefiting from the rediscovery of ancient texts and the rise of humanism. In a vibrant intellectual context – the Medici Florence, the learned popes of Rome, European courts fascinated by the occult – magia naturalis earned its philosophical nobility and gained prestigious champions. Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Giambattista della Porta are among the most illustrious representatives of this tradition, alongside other notable authors such as Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, John Dee, Jerome Cardan, and Robert Fludd. They all shared the conviction that natural magic, properly understood, was nothing other than the deep science of nature’s secrets – “the highest power of the natural sciences,” as Agrippa called it. They therefore endeavored to lay its theoretical foundations and codify its practices, while proclaiming its harmony with Christian faith.
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499): Magical Neoplatonism
A Florentine philosopher, translator of Plato and Hermetic texts, Marsilio Ficino is considered the father of Renaissance natural magic. Protected by Cosimo de’ Medici, he led a Platonic Academy in Florence and sought to reconcile the pagan wisdom of the “ancient theologians” (Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Zoroaster,…) with Christianity. Ficino saw natural magic as a form of piety toward God: by studying the secret links uniting man, nature, and the stars, the magician discovers the laws by which the Creator governs the world and can thus harmonize with the cosmos. His main work on this subject, The Three Books of Life (De vita libri tres, 1489), dedicates its third book to a true theory of natural magic, which became “the quintessential Renaissance consideration of the subject.” Ficino explains how the world soul diffuses influences from the stars down to plants, stones, and metals. Drawing on Neoplatonism, he describes a hierarchical universe where degrees of being are connected by sympathetic correlations. Magic, according to him, consists in attracting beneficial influences from the stars by using appropriate correspondences in the earthly realm.
Marsilio Ficino. Source: Oraedes
Ficino relies on the Hermetic-Neoplatonic doctrine: everything that exists proceeds from a divine emanation and remains linked by a network of sympathies. “As above, so below” – the famous Hermetic adage – means there is an analogical relationship between celestial realities (ideas, stars, angels) and lower realities (minerals, plants, body organs). The magician, by knowing these analogies, can compose talismans or remedies that absorb the corresponding celestial virtues. A talisman made under a favorable astrological configuration, or a potion prepared with herbs governed by the same planet, will serve as receptacles for beneficial cosmic influences. Ficino even recommends, to strengthen soul and body, the use of objects or practices imbued with celestial harmony: listening to Orphic hymns dedicated to the planets, wearing solar jewelry and plants to invigorate oneself with the Sun’s energy,... This “medical astrology” fits within what he calls magia naturalis – which he describes as operative knowledge allowing one to “draw down” (coelitus) vital influences from the sky to the earth. While remaining a Christian priest, Ficino carefully avoids any invocation of spirits or demons: his magic is natural, not goetic. He emphasizes the moral preparation of the magician (who must be wise and virtuous) and contemplation as a means to elevate the soul toward divine light. Thus, for Ficino, natural magic has a philosophical and mystical as well as practical character – it is a way to heal body and soul by aligning with the world’s harmony. His fundamental contribution was to demonstrate that magic, purified of all crude superstition, can be integrated into natural philosophy and the theology of his time as a respectable knowledge. Marsilio Ficino thus laid the foundations of a learned celestial magic that would inspire the entire next generation of Renaissance esotericists.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494): The Union of All Wisdoms
An admiring disciple of Ficino, the young Count Pico della Mirandola pushed the bold rehabilitation of magic even further. A precocious genius, in 1486 he wished to publicly defend 900 theses covering all knowledge – theology, philosophy, natural sciences, and magic. In these Conclusiones (1486), as well as in his famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico exalted the human capacity to rise toward the divine through knowledge of all arts, including magic and Kabbalah. A noble and Christian magic: Pico unequivocally stated that magia naturalis is the practical part of natural philosophy and as such is not only lawful but honorable – “the noblest part of natural philosophy,” he wrote, because it concretely applies its principles. He founded the Christian Kabbalah, integrating Jewish mysticism (combinations of Hebrew letters, angels, and sephirothic spheres) with Neoplatonic magic, believing these two esoteric traditions corroborated Christian revelation. For Pico, natural magic allows man to become again, in the words of his Oration, “master and lord of nature,” by deciphering the secret language by which God connected all things. However, he distinguished two forms of magic: one purely natural (acting via occult physical causes, symbols, and astral influences) and the other, higher, which he called divine magic or theurgy, invoking celestial intelligences (angels). The first belongs to human science of the created world, the second to a spiritual operation approaching miracles – and Pico was interested in both, while firmly condemning harmful goetic magic.
The young count, in his Kabbalistic theses, proposed numerical explanations for biblical mysteries, seeking to prove Christ’s divinity through Kabbalah. In his magical theses, he argued that the magician, through enlightened will and faith, could attract celestial forces and even compel demons – a position that earned him accusations of impiety. His overly innovative ideas were condemned by the Church in 1487, and Pico had to renounce part of his theses to avoid being branded a heretic. Nevertheless, his influence was profound: he legitimized the study of occultism within Christian Neoplatonism. He proclaimed that “there is no science that gives us more certainty about the divinity of Christ than magic and Kabbalah,” a provocative statement reflecting his conviction that the hidden truths of nature and those of faith converge in the same wisdom. Pico della Mirandola died too young to further develop his system, but his intellectual legacy is immense: he showed that natural magic can ally with a vast syncretism (ranging from Zoroaster to Moses, from Plato to Kabbalah) and serve a humanist project exalting the infinite dignity of man capable of understanding everything. For thinkers in his wake, magic no longer appeared as a superstitious fancy but as an esoteric key opening the way to total knowledge.
Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615): The Scholar of Natural Wonders
A century after Ficino and Pico, the Italian Giambattista della Porta embodied the practical culmination of magia naturalis and the transition to modern science. A Neapolitan noble passionate about all knowledge, Della Porta founded the Academy of the Secrets of Nature (Academia Secretorum Naturae) in Naples around 1560, inviting scholars who had discovered a secret of nature to come share it. His major work, Magia naturalis, initially published in 1558 (4 books) and expanded in 1589 (20 books), is a vast compendium of the wonders of the natural world, mixing recipes, observations, and theoretical speculations.
Della Porta was interested in everything: geology, botany, optics, mineralogy, medicine, cooking, metallurgy, magnetism, pyrotechnics… Magia naturalis describes both the making of a burning mirror or invisible ink and the means to produce a cosmetic elixir, improve a camera obscura, or make a respectable woman undress by burning a certain lamp with hare fat. This eclecticism earned him immense success throughout Europe (translations into Italian, French, Dutch,...) and secured his reputation as a learned mage. Yet, Della Porta defended himself against accusations of witchcraft: he fully naturalized magic, banning from his book any incantation or prayer. He carefully avoided the slightest suspicion of ceremonial magic – no spiritual ritual was required, only knowledge of things and the skill of the craftsman. For him, magic is “the noblest part of philosophy” (he proclaimed this from Book I) and the magician an artifex, a man of art who manipulates nature with ingenuity.
Giambattista della Porta. Source: The Famous People
Della Porta adopted Ficino’s Neoplatonism: he described a strict order of Creation where universal forms emanate from God to angels, then to souls, then into the occult qualities of material things. These hidden qualities (occultae) are real but subtle properties, inexplicable by matter alone – a small magnet stone attracts heavy iron, or a tiny blade of grass heals an organ: for him, the cause must be a form, an immaterial virtue transmitted by the stars. Natural magic is therefore applied science that studies these occult properties and learns to make use of them. Della Porta defined it figuratively: just as a farmer prepares the soil so that nature produces its crops, the natural magician “prepares matter in a special way to allow its occult (though natural) properties to appear.” The magician is thus “nature’s servant”: he does not violate natural laws, he assists them by creating conditions favorable to marvelous effects. As a good humanist, Della Porta sought confirmation of his recipes in ancient authors, relying on Pliny or Theophrastus, but he also added his personal observations and even experiments he conducted. For example: he improved the lens of the camera obscura, studied refraction to design a telescope prototype, described the anesthetic effects of a soporific ointment, and more.
Magia naturalis by Porta is emblematic of the meeting between ancient magical wisdom and emerging scientific curiosity. On one hand, it contains classic Renaissance occult themes – sympathetic magic (acting at a distance by similarity), astrological talismans, correspondences between Heaven and Earth. On the other, the author offers resolutely naturalistic explanations: far from attributing wonders to spirits, he seeks the hidden material or astral cause. Notably, he explains the “charm” that makes a bull docile when tied to a barren tree by an unknown plant property, or the power to induce sleep with a witch’s ointment containing a plant narcotic he details (including henbane). His pragmatic approach attracted the wary attention of the Inquisition (he was briefly arrested and monitored all his life), but also corresponded to the spirit of his time shifting toward observation and experimentation. Giambattista della Porta bridged natural magic and science: his studies on magnets, herbs, and lenses paved the way for the invention of the microscope and telescope, and his observations on plant reproduction anticipated botany. For him, natural magic was just one step away from becoming experimental science – freed from all supernatural elements and focused on discovering causes and technical mastery of reality. Della Porta can be seen as the last of the great Renaissance magicians and the first of the modern scholars curious about everything, magnificently illustrating the transition from occultism to science.
Philosophical Foundations
Renaissance magia naturalis rests on a syncretic philosophical foundation, mainly borrowed from Neoplatonism and Hermeticism, enriched with Aristotelian concepts and mystical traditions like Kabbalah.
Inherited from Plotinus and his late successors (Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus), Neoplatonic thought postulates a hierarchical reality emanating from a supreme principle (the One or God). Between God and the material world unfold intermediaries: celestial intelligences (angels or demons in a neutral sense), World Soul, stars, down to earthly elements. Each level reflects the one above it and influences the one below in a continuous chain of causes. This cosmic vision was Christianized during the Renaissance by Ficino and Pico, who saw it as the plan of divine Creation. Within this framework, natural magic is legitimized as the study of the mechanisms by which influences descend from heaven to earth.
The writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (the Corpus Hermeticum, translated by Ficino in 1463) permeate Renaissance magic. They contain the idea that man is a microcosm in the image of the macrocosm (the universe), and especially the famous maxim: “As above, so below” (Emerald Tablet). This law of universal analogy is the heart of correspondence magic. Hermeticism teaches that the wise man, through knowledge of nature’s secrets, can become a mage, that is, a “priest of Creation,” cooperating with the divine. The Hermetic world is filled with signs and symbols that the magician must decipher. It emphasizes the power of words, numbers, and images – a legacy taken up in natural magic through talismans covered with figures, magical number squares, or planetary names inscribed on rings.
One of the key principles of magia naturalis is that secret links unite the different things of nature. The stars and metals, plants and human body organs, colors, sounds, and planets – all can correspond. It is this network of correspondences that underpins the laws of universal sympathy and antipathy. Sympathy is the mysterious attraction between two things linked by an occult affinity. Antipathy is, on the contrary, the rejection between things of opposite nature (cabbage supposedly hates vine to the point of making it wither, or the rooster scares away the lion – often cited examples). These ideas partly come from Aristotelian natural philosophy (concept of occult qualities of substances) and ancient medicine (theory of humors and temperaments). In the Middle Ages, they were rationalized by Thomas Aquinas and scholastics, who admitted that God could have placed hidden virtues in nature for certain uses – as long as their effect did not exceed the natural order, they could be studied without impiety. Thus, the philosophical foundation of natural magic lies in the trust that the world is a coherent whole, willed by a supreme Intelligence, and that by decoding its symbols the scholar can discover the chain of invisible causes. Neoplatonism provides the overall vision (a hierarchical and connected cosmos), Hermeticism the analogical key (symbols and correspondences), Aristotelianism the idea of hidden causes acting by virtue of nature. Added to this, in some authors like Pico, is the contribution of Kabbalah which enriches the system with new correspondences (Hebrew letters associated with planets, angels, body parts, forming another network of sympathies). The philosophy of magia naturalis is a syncretism aiming to explain the marvels of nature without invoking demons: every strange effect has a hidden natural cause, which the magician identifies through analogies in Creation.
Knowledge and Practices of Natural Magic
Renaissance natural magic covers a vast range of disciplines and practices, halfway between emerging science and traditional occult art. It was often described as “vast and malleable,” encompassing medicine, pharmacology, alchemy, astrology, mineralogy, mechanics, rhetoric, language studies, and many other fields. Here are some of its main aspects:
-
Herbalism and occult medicine: Renaissance magicians were skilled botanists and physicians. They sought the virtues of plants, that is, their hidden properties, especially for therapeutic purposes. Paracelsus, for example, introduced the notion of plant signatures: the shape or color of a plant indicates which organ it can heal. Ficino recommended potions made from plants “under the influence of Venus” to treat lovesickness, or Saturn for melancholy. Magical ointments were prepared, such as the witches’ salve (a mixture of henbane, opium, and other hallucinogenic plants) to provoke dreams or soul journeys – Della Porta gives the recipe, while stripping it of its demonic aura by scientifically explaining its narcotic effects. Herbalism in natural magic was coupled with alchemy: extracting the “essence” of a plant by distillation, concocting elixirs of long life or panaceas. These practices prepared the emergence of modern chemistry and pharmacology, though still imbued with astrological symbolism.
-
Astrology and talismans: astrology is the cornerstone of most natural magic operations. The guiding idea is that the stars imprint terrestrial matter with their influences. The practitioner must therefore know the favorable celestial configurations for each undertaking. Marsilio Ficino gave advice on how to capture Saturn’s influx (the planet of thinkers) when one wants to stimulate contemplation, or Venus (planet of harmony) to heal ailments related to humoral balance. Astrological talismans are objects (medallions, rings, statuettes) made from symbolic materials and engraved with planetary symbols, exposed at a precise astrological moment so they “absorb” the star’s influence. Cornelius Agrippa explains how to forge a Jupiter’s seal under a Jupiter horoscope to attract wealth and health. These talismans, once “charged,” are worn as concentrates of beneficial influences – a widespread practice intended to be natural (drawn from celestial qualities) and not idolatrous. Similarly, medical astrology (or iatromomy) establishes correspondences between zodiac signs and body parts, planets and organs: the physician-magician must choose the right moment to administer a remedy or incise an organ, in harmony with the sky. Astrology thus offers a unifying theoretical framework for natural magic, linking all its branches through the same network of cosmic influences.
-
Minerals, metals, and occult properties: besides plants, natural magicians were interested in stones, metals, and magnets. Each stone was attributed an occult virtue: the magnet (magnetite stone) attracts iron and, by analogy, love or friendship; amethyst preserves from drunkenness, emerald strengthens sight,... by virtue of their color or brilliance (visible signature of their power). Metals are associated with planets (gold and Sun, silver and Moon, mercury and Mercury, copper and Venus, iron and Mars, tin and Jupiter, lead and Saturn), so the use of metals in alchemy or medicine relies on these correspondences. Alchemy, precisely, is classified as magia naturalis when it focuses on the transmutation of metals by natural means (furnaces, solvents) imitating the slow work of the earth. Paracelsus expanded alchemy to spagyrics (separation and recombination of active principles of natural substances) to make remedies: this alchemical medical approach was one of the lasting legacies of natural magic in pharmaceutical chemistry.
-
Sympathies, antipathies, and action at a distance: one of the most fascinating aspects of natural magic is the idea that one can act on an object or person at a distance by exploiting a secret link. This is the theory of sympathies. A well-known example is that one can heal a person by applying a balm not on their wound but on the weapon that caused it (sympathetic ointment), a practice reported by many authors. The subtle link between the blade and the wound (through dried blood, it was thought) would mean that treating one heals the other at a distance – an occult explanation that later scholars tried to elucidate in physical terms (some saw it as an early form of chemical action at a distance). Similarly, it was believed that by nailing a person’s portrait to a tree one could cause them to wither (negative sympathetic magic), or that carrying a fragment of the mandrake plant attracts love (positive sympathy). Magic mirrors are another category: a properly prepared mirror could capture images at a distance (Della Porta designed parabolic mirrors to transmit light messages – here we enter optics more than occultism). All these practices rely on the idea that nature forms a network where everything communicates invisibly: the magician plays on these subtle connections. The laws of sympathy and antipathy, mentioned above, explain why some plants do not coexist (botanical antipathy) or why a remedy attracts a certain ailment to extract it from the patient (transfer sympathy). While some of these practices seem esoteric to us, it should not be forgotten that their promoters approached them with a spirit of observation and experimentation. The resulting marvel – these astonishing effects that defy common understanding – is precisely what the emerging scientist would seek to naturalize with objective explanations. In this sense, natural magic served as a stimulus to scientific inquiry: faced with an inexplicable phenomenon, the magician’s reflex was to explore, reproduce, and understand it, rather than dismiss it outright as impossible.
The Legacy of magia naturalis
By an apparent paradox, it was by taking natural magic seriously that the Renaissance gave birth to modern science. Indeed, magia naturalis instilled in curious minds several fundamental attitudes: trust in the rational order of nature, the importance of concrete experience, patient collection of strange facts, and the boldness to propose hypotheses to explain the invisible. Before Francis Bacon and Galileo, the great magicians of the Renaissance were already experimenters.
Science historian William Eamon states: Renaissance natural magic was “the science that sought to provide rational and naturalistic explanations” for phenomena, natural magicians affirming that “nature abounds with hidden forces and powers that can be imitated, improved, and exploited for human benefit.” In their eyes, magic was even the best way to end the systematic attribution of mysteries to miracles or demons – to disenchant the world while preserving its sense of natural wonder. The boundary between the alchemist’s laboratory and the 17th-century chemist’s was thin: same glassware, same substances, but an analytical framework gradually detaching from astrology toward quantitative measurement. The turning point occurred when disciples of natural magic began to abandon esoteric jargon to speak in terms of physical properties. In the early 17th century, continuators like Francis Bacon (the English philosopher) were inspired by the ideal of the magus mastering nature, while refining the concept: Bacon dreamed in his New Organon of an active, experimental science delivering “power” over nature – a direct legacy of the magical aim (recall that science and power went hand in hand in magical mentality, expressed by the formula scientia est potentia). Transitional figures embodying this fusion include Johannes Kepler, a major astronomer influenced by astrology who sought the secret music of the spheres; Isaac Newton himself practiced alchemy and left many esoteric writings while founding celestial mechanics. The Royal Society in the 17th century could not have arisen without the prior enthusiasm for “secrets of nature” spread by magia naturalis circles (Porta’s Academy is a prototype, as are networks of Paracelsian alchemists in Europe). Certainly, rising science gradually rejected unverifiable aspects of magic (world soul, mystical sympathies), but retained the essential: the idea that the world obeys hidden laws to be discovered through observation and experience. In this sense, magia naturalis was a remarkable school of wonder and emerging rigor. As historian Paola Zambelli writes, Renaissance magicians were often rationalists unaware of it, seeking how “the marvelous” was possible rather than denying its existence. The process of disenchantment of nature was underway.
magia naturalis thus appears, in the light of history, as much more than a compilation of strange practices or a dark chapter of occultism. It was a true operative natural philosophy, an ancient wisdom revived, where scholarship dialogued with emerging empiricism. From the mythical Antiquity of Egyptian priests to the cabinets of curiosities of Baroque scholars, passing through Renaissance courts fascinated by astrology, natural magic wove a common thread: active wonder before nature. Rejecting easy contempt for this ancient knowledge, we have here adopted a committed stance to give voice back to these mage-philosophers. Their speculations on the world soul, their talismans engraved with symbols, their double boiler distillations, and their astrological calculations were not mere superstition but formed a coherent system aiming to decipher creation. By paying tribute to this tradition, one realizes it was one of the fertile grounds of the scientific revolution: by seeking to uncover nature’s hidden secrets, the adepts of magia naturalis prepared minds for the idea that nature obeys laws and that man can become its interpreter and master. As Pico della Mirandola affirmed, man’s dignity is precisely to be able to embrace by his mind the totality of creation, from material realities to celestial truths. Natural magic, in its time, was the expression of this dignity and this thirst for total knowledge. Even today, reading the writings of Ficino, Agrippa, or Della Porta, one is struck by the modernity of their ambition: to understand the world deeply, without excluding the marvelous. That is why magia naturalis remains a captivating subject of study for historians of science and philosophers – reminding us that the boundary between magic and science was long porous, and that it was from the old “magic laboratory” that the scientific laboratory was born. Ultimately, natural magic appears as knowledge both poetic and pre-scientific, a tribute to the hidden powers of nature. It illustrates an era when knowledge, far from dispelling the enchantment of the world, could instead exalt it by revealing the secret harmony of the universe – an era when studying nature was both an act of faith, art, and science.
Merci pour cet éclairage historique !