Meglio nani che giganti ? Dimensioni corporee e capacità cognitive secondo Riccardo di Mediavilla

After briefly mentioning two ways in which giants figure in medieval philosophical and theological culture – one linked to the exegesis of Genesis and the other metaphorical, associated with the famous saying attributed by John of Salisbury to Bernard of Chartres (“we are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants”) – this article focuses on a third scenario : that of the relationship between body size and one’s inclination towards science. More specifically, it examines a question disputed by Richard of Mediavilla (Quodlibet ii, q. 18), in which he explicitly discusses whether dwarfs are better suited to science than giants, and small people better than large ones (Utrum melius dispositi sint ad scientiam nani quam gygantes et parvi quam magni). Richard correlates the four temperaments with body size, on the one hand, and inclination to intellectual activity, on the other, to conclude that in se the choleric (tall and thin) are the people most inclined to science ; per accidens, the best disposition must be attributed to the melancholic. The phlegmatic, who are the largest in all dimensions, are on the contrary the least naturally inclined to science and knowledge.