This article will examine how and to what extent the ancient tradition of the didactic poem exerts an influence on contemporary German nature poetry. It will focus in particular on Raoul Schrott’s „Tropen“ and Marion Poschmann’s „Geliehene Landschaften“, which, while different from each other, both offer clues to possible lines of influence. Although there is a long tradition of didascalic poems in the German literature of the Renaissance and of the Enlightenment, my point of reference will be the ancient didactic poem, as it was shaped by Lucretius in his “De rerum natura”, because of its masterful intertwining of knowledge and poetry and its wholly secular view of nature, creation, and evolution, as well as the fact that it stresses the idea that life is accidental. These are the aspects of ancient didactic poetry that I will investigate in the aforementioned German poets and works, with particular attention to the relationship between the knowledge of nature and the language of poetry. Both Schrott and Poschmann openly use the word ‚Lehrgedicht‘ [didactic poem] in order to define their poems, in which the didactic parts function as a knowledge of “nature after nature.” As a consequence, their poetry revolves around the impossibility of an all-encompassing explanation of the world and takes as its theme the rupture that divides human beings from nature in the modern age. Consciousness of the intrinsic constructedness of the way we experience nature is, on the other hand, a condition for both its aesthetic perception and scientific enquiry. At the center of both Schrott’s and Poschmann’s poetry collections, albeit in different ways and with different emphases, we thereby find an understanding of nature as a void that can only be approached (but never overcome) by means of language. Herein lies the main difference between these contemporary poets and the ancient tradition.

This essay puts forth a definition of poetry rooted in experience. In following Eugenio Montale, it analyzes two of his poems – “I limoni” and “Notizie dall’Amiata” – to show how the poet, rather than constructing discrete poetic worlds, aims at a poetry revealing the world and nature to a concrete reader, unforeseeable for the poet. Poetry thus aims at imbuing this reader’s life with an ephemeral poetic form, rather than evoking its own self-sufficient aesthetics. In doing so, chance and flaws in the social and cultural construction of reality act as co-authors of his “poesia”.

Nicolaus Cusanus presents a subtle theory of alterity. We will show why Cusanus does not consistently assign humans a position superior to other living beings, even when strong anthropocentric arguments seem to be present. Kazuhiko Yamaki (2017: 280), e.g., has recently pointed out that the attribution of a privileged position to humans in the world already fails logically, because the complicatio-explicatio scheme applies to all creatures. I would like to follow up on Yamaki’s argument that Cusanus at this point is rather concerned with describing a specific relationship between God and the creatures or the world. If this argument is extended to the question of humans and animals in Cusanus as a whole, the way in which these relations are to be figured becomes the focus of consideration. Just as Cusanus, in cosmology and anthropology, examines the perspectivity of knowledge and the decentralization of the Earth (as a noble star among other stars) without falling into pure perspectivism or decentralism, so traits of this reflective and (figuratively) ‘living’ thinking must also apply to the description of the relationship of living beings to one another or in relation to their Creator.

This article argues that Nicholas of Cusa, in contrast to the scholastic tradition and in consensus with the humanists of his time, develops a high esteem for Artes Me chanicae, placing it on an equal level with Artes Liberales. A close reading of the relevant passages in Cusa’s work reveals that although his early philosophical writings present the old scholastic position, in the Idiota-writings (1450), he shifts his stance toward the Artes Mechanicae and significantly elevates it. Influenced by his encounter with the Italian humanists in Rome, he maintains this approach throughout his late works and late sermons. This positive reweighting of Artes Mechanicae is consistent with Cusanus’ view of the immanence of God and leads him to revaluate his world view.

The concept of art is a lens through which one can explore the thought of Nicho las of Cusa. He uses this notion throughout his work in order to address the pro ductive dynamism of the divine mind as well as the human mind. With a focus on the human arts as likenesses of the divine art, this paper studies the relationship between the art of the word and the illiterate manual arts. Firstly, we examine the ars coniecturalis as a human art form that Cusanus presents for the first time in extenso in “De coniecturis”. Secondly, we address the power of the art of the word through the production of its most precious form, the spoken word. Thirdly, and finally, we inquire into the power of the manual arts through the example of the idiota’s making of wooden spoons in the “De mente” in order to show the relationship between this art and the art of the word.