Liber naturae sive creaturarum
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Liber naturae sive creaturarum (or Theologia Naturalis) (1434–1436) is a manuscript by Catalan theologian Raymond of Sabunde. The text marks an important stage in the history of natural theology. It was first written in Latin (but not in a strictly classical Latin, since it contained plenty of Catalan-influenced Latin words). His followers composed a more classical Latin version of the work. It was translated into French by Michel de Montaigne (Paris, 1569) and edited in Latin at various times (e.g. Deventer, 1487; Strasburg, 1496; Paris, 1509; Venice, 1581, etc.).
The book was directed against the position then generally held, that reason and faith, philosophy and theology were antithetical and irreconcilable. Raymond declares that the book of Nature and the Bible are both Divine revelations, the one general and immediate, the other specific and mediate. Montaigne (Essays, bk. ii. ch. xii., "Apology for Raymond de Sebonde") tells how he translated the book into French and found " the conceits of the author to be excellent, the contexture of his work well followed, and his project full of pietie. . . . His drift is bold, and his scope adventurous, for he undertaketh by humane and naturall reasons, to establish and verifie all the articles of Christian religion against Atheists."
Editions
The editio princeps of the book, which found many imitators, is undated but probably belongs to 1484; there are many subsequent editions, one by J. F. von Seidel as late as 1852. In 1595 the Prologus was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum for its declaration that the Bible is not the only source of revealed truth.
