Natural Knowledge in the Latin Middle Ages 91of the liberal arts to that of the sciences. The category “real sciences” un-
derwent extensive transformations. This new, more fl exible division could
encompass all three of Aristotle’s theoretical sciences / philosophies, with a
multiplicity of subdivisions under physica and mathematica in particular.^39
Moreover, the category of scientiae reales permitted the inclusion of such
non- liberal arts as medicine, law, metaphysics / theology, as well as the
practical scientiae of ethics, politics, and economics. In the late twelfth
century, Hugh of St. Victor, who wrote Practica geometriae, had already
classifi ed the mechanical arts under philosophy. Although traditionally
opposed to the liberal arts for being “adulterine,” they nevertheless con-
tained knowledge worthy of being called scientia. Twelfth- century interest
in these areas surfaces in the new coinages ingeniarius and ingeniator to
designate builders of war machines.^40
The infl ux of new material generated complaints about the old clas-
sifi cation. As one early- thirteenth- century author noted, the liberal arts
omitted natural philosophy, metaphysics, and poetry.^41 For Aquinas at
midcentury, “the seven liberal arts do not adequately divide theoretical
philosophy,”^42 even as Robert Kilwardby’s lengthy Origin of the Sciences
discussed forty different specialized scientiae. Kilwardby took Aristotle’s di-
vision of all propositions into ethical, physical, and logical (in the Topics)
as his framework.^43 Here, the category “physical” encompasses all three
divisions of the speculative sciences (theology / metaphysics, physica, and
mathematics), all understood as divine (that is, its objects are not created
by man). Dante’s Convivio, aimed at readers of the Tuscan vernacular, orga-
nized the “sciences” (scienze) according to the structure of the cosmos. Af-
ter matching each of the liberal arts, from grammar through astronomy /
astrology, to its planetary sphere, Dante associated the three remaining
spheres with the “theoretical philosophies,” from scienza naturale (or fi -
sica) to theology or “divine science.”^44
UNIVERSITIES AS INSTITUTIONAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF LEARNING
These theoretical schemata are informative, but they must take a back
seat to practice. Already before the translation movement, several towns
were renowned for the specialization of their learning: medicine in Sal-
erno, law in Bologna, the arts and theology in Paris, for example. During
the thirteenth century, not only these specialties but also the bulk of the
translated Greco- Arabic material would fi nd their places in a new type of
institution. The studium generale, or university, made knowledge its main
business on an unprecedented scale. The model caught on quickly. New