Thierry of Chartres’ Cosmogony and the Stoic Creative Fire

Thierry of Chartres was a prominent figure of the 12th century philosophy and theology. Among other topics, he was interested in cosmology and cosmogony, and himself contributed to the long tradition of hexaemeral literature – a genre of literature dealing with the creation of the world, mostly based on the first chapter of Genesis. In his treatise De sex dierum operibus, Thierry tries to harmonize the biblical depiction of the act of creation with ancient natural philosophy and the Platonic view of the cosmos. However, I argue that not only Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas are present in Thierry’s Treatise, but also some aspects of the natural philosophy of the Stoics can be found there. In my talk, I will focus on one such aspect – the element of fire. I will examine the nature and the role of fire in Thierry’s cosmogony and point out in which sense it is similar to the Stoic understanding of creative fire.