This study offers a new interpretation of the “Book of Natural Things”, a major work by Konrad of Megenberg (1309-1374) written in the vernacular around 1350 in Regensburg. For the first time, the work is put into the context of the 14th-century Faculty of Arts. In addition, this interpretation draws on Megenberg’s 8-year teaching career as professor of natural philosophy in Paris and his thematically similar writings in Latin.
The volume describes Konrad of Megenberg’s intellectual profile and analyzes his process of creating a vernacular scientific discourse based on Latin sources. Albert the Great’s paraphrases of Aristotle, as well as the neoplatonic writings of ps.-Albertus Magnus, emerge as significant in positioning of the “Book of Natural Things” within its philosophical and cultural context.