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Summary
Science, and particularly geometry and astronomy, was linked directly to the divine for most medieval scholars. The compass in this 13th century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of Creation. God has created the universe after geometric and harmonic principles, to seek these principles was therefore to seek and worship God.
Title: God as Architect/Builder/Geometer/Craftsman
From: The Frontispiece of Bible Moralisee
Style: Gothic
Date: mid-13th C.
Location: France
Codex Vindobonensis 2554 (French, ca. 1250), in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
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Captions
Platonist Creation according to Plutarch's Moralia 720c. God creates the Cosmos use a Compass with one arm on the precise Centre of the Cosmos and the other on the Periphery. The compass points to the fact that there is a relationship between the two