3-057-447 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The title page of "Naturalia", 1548. The author Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) sits writing at his desk. Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great, was a Dominican friar, philosopher, astrologer, astronomer scholar and scientist who placed great importance in astrology within his system of nature. He believed that the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - of which everything is made up of, were generated by the movements of the stars and planets. 'darinn durch sechtz kürtze Büchlin viel Haimligkaiten der Natur beschreiben' in which many wonderful things in nature are described in six short books). Edited by Walther Hermann Ryff. Strassburg: Jacob Cammerlander, (1548).