Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 43

43
the diagram does not incorporate the temperaments into its system, and
incorporates the humours and elements in only the most fragmentary
way. furthermore, autumn and mature age are associated with moisture
and water, while medieval European learned texts (e.g., Isidore, Bede, and
Af natturu mannz ins ok bloði) associate both with dryness and the element
earth.38 flawed or incomplete as this schema may be, as a whole it reflects
a trace of the larger body of medieval European epistemology on the nature
of man and the elements, which is elaborated on in the second part of Af
natturu mannz ins ok bloði.
The creation and Christian cosmology
additionally, the first part of Af natturu mannzins ok bloði places the inter-
relation of the elements and the humours firmly within the framework
of the creation and Christian cosmology. Klibansky, Panofsky and Saxl
trace how, throughout the twelfth-century, “the tendency to interpret the
temperaments theologically grew,” and argue that this fuelled the revival
and expansion of the doctrine of the four humours.39 a significant figure
in this development was William of Conches (c. 1080–c. 1154).40 While
William of Conches’ Philosophia mundi does not link the four humours
to characters, it contains writings from the same body of teaching as can
38 In addition, Kedwards has pointed out that the wind scheme in the diagram is erroneous
and incoherent, ibid., 236–37.
39 raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the
History of Natural Philosophy and Art (London: nelson, 1964), 106. this development is
traced in some detail on 102–11.
40 See ibid., 102–5.
HUMORAL THEORY IN THE MEDIEVAL NORTH
estas calida
(hot summer)
autumnus humidus
(moist autumn)
hiemps frigida
(cold winter)
ver tepidum
(warm spring)
inuenta [iuventa]
(youth)
senecta
(old age)
decrepita
(decrepitude)
infancia
(infancy)
calor spiritus
(hot breath)
humor
(moisture)
frigus corpus
(cold body)
tepor sanguinis
(warmth of blood)
ignis
(fire)
aqua
(water)