ABSTRACT
“Science” is used frequently by Gower as a term for “wisdom,” “learning,” or “a kind of orderly investigation.” “Science” in this last sense is a relatively new concept in fourteenth-century vernacular usage and reflects a significant reordering of intellectual possibilities, as ideas, previously a part of a Latin scholastic tradition, infiltrate a new playing field of what might be called – especially in England – the beginning of the scientific revolution, spearheaded by advancements in empirical thought that reach even into vernacular literature, especially through the writings of Gower and Chaucer. 1 Oxford was first and foremost the place where the methodological revolution that led to modern science was taking place. It is doubtful that Gower had much first-hand knowledge of the Oxford philosophers’ writings (though Chaucer certainly did), but he was well versed in Perspectivist theories, particularly with regard to vision, hearing, and cognition. 2 As we shall see, the poets as well as the philosophers think within the same brain model based on Galen’s three-lobe theory, with each lobe performing a double function: the first cell (intuitive cognition), labeled by Albertus Magnus sensus communis/imaginatio, receives information through the five senses, especially sight and hearing, which is incepted into the brain as images. The second cell (abstractive cognition), labeled imaginativa/estimativa, is where thought processing and intellect reside. This cell defines the images with language to give them meaning within categories of intelligence. This middle lobe, under the influence of the third lobe which is labeled memoratio/membrum motiva, uses thought to multiply species of understanding according to an individual’s desires, prejudices, and habits of behavior. 3
