589
sublime? None of these perceived, imagined, experienced appurtenances, glories,
and travails of humans pursuing phantoms out of doors has actually helped resolve
a single ecological problem. That is to say, the vast body of details that have accumulated in the wake of thousands of travelers’ tales, no matter how scientifically
precise, has not managed to alter the course of pain, suffering, fear, and mortality
that grip our species. That, too, is at the heart of existentialism.
61.2 The Earliest Existentialist Codices
While the most ancient illustrated natural history books seem to date to the first
century AD, converging theories of human nature, and its behavioral range of
proclivities and contradictions, all under the aegis of Nature, have obviously
offered up stifling riddles long before that. Human suffering at that time, as
Aristotle certainly discovered in his final year of life, had probably no less impact
on our mental attitudes than today’s ecological and demographic concussions.
These were existential responses to everyday life in the trenches, and the study of
natural history was the premiere outlet for voicing curiosity about the world,
anxiety and terror. Dioscorides, Thales, Hippocrates, Pythagoras and Aristotle’s
student Theophrastus before him, and a long history of medicine after them, had
seen in their prodigious studies of natural history both metaphysical and pragmatic components most relevant to humanity. But “relevancy” can do little for
our cause. The latter, practical considerations regarding pain had largely been
consolidated into various herbaria, medical texts focusing upon the alleviation of
illness and its accompanying suffering. As H. Walter Lack informs, the Codex
Aniciae Julianae, written sometime before AD 512, was the “oldest illuminated
version of the writings of Dioscorides” and “No words can exaggerate the importance of this work.” Also known as the Codex Constantinopolitanus, the Codex
C, and the Codex Vindobonensis in Vienna, it remains, along with the Codex
Sinaiticus, one of the most important of all manuscripts; part of UNESCO’s
“Memory of the World” list.
11
It might as well be designated, memory of long
suffering (Fig. 61.2).
The afore-named “Julianae” has its own dizzying history, as elegantly described
in an entire chapter (“Juliana’s Book”) by Anna Pavord, in her work, The Naming of
Names – The Search for Order in the World of Plants;
12
a comprehensive botanical
11 See Garden of Eden – Masterpieces of botanical illustration, by H. Walter Lack, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Taschen, Koln, 2008, p. 22.
12 Bloomsbury, New York, 2005, pp. 82–92. See also, the wonderful book by evolutionary biologist
Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Naming Nature – The Clash Between Instinct And Science, W. W. Norton &
Company, New York and London, 2009, in which, at one point, she speculates on the “umwelt”
(the world as experienced by a particular organism), “We will need to welcome in all manner of
wondrous absurd-seeming possibilities: cassowaries as mammals, orchids as thumbs, and bats as
birds. We’ll need to greet with open arms the views of the French naturalist who classified slugs,
snakes, and crocodiles as insects…” p. 295.
61.2 The Earliest Existentialist Codices
sublime? None of these perceived, imagined, experienced appurtenances, glories,
and travails of humans pursuing phantoms out of doors has actually helped resolve
a single ecological problem. That is to say, the vast body of details that have accumulated in the wake of thousands of travelers’ tales, no matter how scientifically
precise, has not managed to alter the course of pain, suffering, fear, and mortality
that grip our species. That, too, is at the heart of existentialism.
61.2 The Earliest Existentialist Codices
While the most ancient illustrated natural history books seem to date to the first
century AD, converging theories of human nature, and its behavioral range of
proclivities and contradictions, all under the aegis of Nature, have obviously
offered up stifling riddles long before that. Human suffering at that time, as
Aristotle certainly discovered in his final year of life, had probably no less impact
on our mental attitudes than today’s ecological and demographic concussions.
These were existential responses to everyday life in the trenches, and the study of
natural history was the premiere outlet for voicing curiosity about the world,
anxiety and terror. Dioscorides, Thales, Hippocrates, Pythagoras and Aristotle’s
student Theophrastus before him, and a long history of medicine after them, had
seen in their prodigious studies of natural history both metaphysical and pragmatic components most relevant to humanity. But “relevancy” can do little for
our cause. The latter, practical considerations regarding pain had largely been
consolidated into various herbaria, medical texts focusing upon the alleviation of
illness and its accompanying suffering. As H. Walter Lack informs, the Codex
Aniciae Julianae, written sometime before AD 512, was the “oldest illuminated
version of the writings of Dioscorides” and “No words can exaggerate the importance of this work.” Also known as the Codex Constantinopolitanus, the Codex
C, and the Codex Vindobonensis in Vienna, it remains, along with the Codex
Sinaiticus, one of the most important of all manuscripts; part of UNESCO’s
“Memory of the World” list.
11
It might as well be designated, memory of long
suffering (Fig. 61.2).
The afore-named “Julianae” has its own dizzying history, as elegantly described
in an entire chapter (“Juliana’s Book”) by Anna Pavord, in her work, The Naming of
Names – The Search for Order in the World of Plants;
12
a comprehensive botanical
11 See Garden of Eden – Masterpieces of botanical illustration, by H. Walter Lack, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Taschen, Koln, 2008, p. 22.
12 Bloomsbury, New York, 2005, pp. 82–92. See also, the wonderful book by evolutionary biologist
Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Naming Nature – The Clash Between Instinct And Science, W. W. Norton &
Company, New York and London, 2009, in which, at one point, she speculates on the “umwelt”
(the world as experienced by a particular organism), “We will need to welcome in all manner of
wondrous absurd-seeming possibilities: cassowaries as mammals, orchids as thumbs, and bats as
birds. We’ll need to greet with open arms the views of the French naturalist who classified slugs,
snakes, and crocodiles as insects…” p. 295.
61.2 The Earliest Existentialist Codices