Arnold de Saxe, who is found under the names Arnoldus Saxo or Arnoldus Luca in the manuscripts which preserve his work, and which Vincent de Beauvais calls Arnoldus de Saxonia, is the author of works on natural philosophy, medicine and morality in the 13th century. From now on, his philosophical and scientific production has been brought to light and characterized through the examination of his documentation (sources) and his situation in time and in an environment. The intellectual context of Arnold of Saxony is that of scholasticism at a time when knowledge increased considerably following the intense translation activity of the 12th century , the birth and development of universities, the establishment of Dominican and Franciscan studia and, in parallel, the evolution of intellectual techniques. Arnold of Saxony was only known through an encyclopedia of natural and moral philosophy which was placed between 1220 and 1230 and of which only one manuscript was known (Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt, O. 77). He was therefore considered "the first encyclopedist of the 13th century" and had his place in certain prosopographical dictionaries, but barely three old German works had been devoted to him (E. Stange, dissertation, 1875, V. Rose, 1885 and E. Stange, edition, 1904-1907). Since then, other – partial – manuscripts of this work in five parts have come to light, which must henceforth be called De floribus rerum naturalium and not De finitus rerum naturalium. This brings to around fifteen manuscript witnesses, from which a critical edition is in preparation. - [Author]

Language: French