Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

Written in the wake of the Black Death of 1348, Giovanni Boccaccio masterfully
constructs an ideal society and its mores. The brigata, made of ten young noble
women and men, moves in the country outside the city of Florence, seeking to
escape the ravages of the plague. Here, through the experience of storytelling,
they establish a new social and moral order in a perfected natural environment.
A direct contact with the natural world is described as essential, since it provides
them with the necessary means to face the city again and to potentially shape
there a perfected form of social existence. Nature is considered a haven of
security, of health, of moral excellence. Being in harmony with the environment
is one of the main principles that will grant a material and spiritual rebirth. This
edition was published in 1789.

“There we shall hear the chant of birds, have sight of verdant hills and plains, of
cornfields undulating like the sea, of trees of a thousand sorts; there also we
shall have a larger view of the heavens, which, however harsh to usward yet
deny not their eternal beauty; things fairer far for eye to rest on than the deso-
late walls of our city. Moreover, we shall there breathe a fresher air.”
Tommaso Campanella, La Città del Sole
Written by a Dominican friar in prison and published in 1602, this philosophical work
in the form of a dialogue describes an ideal commonwealth governed by principles
such as community of goods, division of labour, and equal dignity for all men. Private
property, undue wealth, and poverty do not exist in his ideal city, for no man is
permitted more than what he needs. The author imagines a society that lives in a
harmonious state close to nature. During his life, Campanella was involved in pansen-
sism, the doctrine that all things in nature are endowed with sense, and in panpsy-
chism, the view that all reality has a mental aspect. This philosophical approach
justifies his belief that nature had to be respected and regarded as an ideal model for
any political organization.

“Agriculture is much followed among them; there is not a span of earth without
cultivation, and they observe the winds and propitious stars. […] They do not kill
willingly useful animals, such as oxen and horses. They observe the difference between
useful and harmful foods, and for this they employ the science of medicine.”
“The sun is the father, and the earth the mother. The sea is the sweat of earth, or the
fluid of earth combusted, and fused within its bowels, but is the bond of union
between air and earth, as the blood is of the spirit and flesh of animals. The world is a
great animal, and we live within it as worms live within us.”
Elemental music
Jean-Féry Rebel’s ballet Les Elements (1737) is a singular work
depicting the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Rebel, a
composer and violinist, wanted to create a work that accurately
depicted the chaos that is eventually tamed by these elements, thus
creating one of the most startling and original passages in Western
music history. The work begins with chaos, as strings, winds and
harpsichord play a dense cluster of notes that rivals any of the disso-
nances found in the work of 20th century modernists. Rebel himself
was aware of the impact of this opening gesture, writing a detailed
explanation of his reasoning and philosophy behind the music
before the work’s premiere: “I dared to undertake to link the idea of
the confusion of the elements with that of confusion in harmony. I
hazarded to make heard first all sound together or rather all of the
notes of the octave united as a single sound.”
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
This 1970s cult novel, and hopeful antidote to the environmental concerns of today,
was born out of the political and economic turmoil of those years and became a
pioneer of the growing environment movement. Ecotopia is the name of a new
“stable state” in the novel, founded when parts of the American Northwest seceded
from the Union to create a new country and ecosystem that incarnates the perfect
balance between human beings and the environment. The novel takes place in 1999,
twenty years following the formation of Ecotopia, and consists of reports and diary
entries of the first American invited to visit and report on Ecotopia. Interest in
Ecotopia stems largely from the possible social and political arrangements it
describes, in the creation of a society that is founded on principles such as sustain-
able agriculture, democracy, localism, and mutual support, emphasizing the inter-
connectedness among humans and nature and the balance between economic
pursuit and ecological concern. An important theme in Ecotopia is also recycling. In
fact, the communities depicted re-use everything they can and do not produce
excessive waste.

“But what matters most is the aspiration to live in balance with nature, "walk lightly
on the land," treat the earth as a mother.”
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest
Set several centuries in the future, and part of Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle, the
novel is particularly relevant to our own actions today regarding the environ-
ment, the destruction of our planet’s natural resources and assimilation of
indigenous peoples. Men from Earth have arrived on the planet Athshe,
renamed it New Tahiti, and are in the process of logging the abundant forest,
sending the valuable timber back to a homeworld which has suffered envi-
ronmental destruction. The native Athsheans are small, green-furred crea-
tures who live in natural harmony with their world. They have a matriarchal
society and have no history of violence prior to the arrival of humans.Their
world is described in rich detail and shows Le Guin’s talent for worldbuild-
ing. Athshean culture is thoroughly integrated with the planet’s ecology.
Rather than clearing the forests, the Athsheans live within the roots of the
trees themselves in widely dispersed clans that are named after tree species.

“A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go
with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest.”
Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood
This ecotopian novel, published in 2009, contains visions of a negative and dystopian
future that connects with a range of environmental issues. Set in a post-apocalyptic
western nation, the book follows the fates of two female survivors of the disaster that
wiped out Earth. Central to the plot is a religious sect, the Gardeners, who have
strong ecological concerns and believe in living according to the laws of nature. Their
eating habits and clothing is determined by a certain code that is totally in terms with
nature, they grow their own vegetables, avoid television and computers.

The Canadian author, one of the most acknowledged feminist novelists, makes a clear
critique of modern men, with their egotistical ambitions, and depicts them as perpe-
trators and as the worst catastrophe the world has ever seen. Through this dystopian
novel, she warns her readers as to what might happen if the indifference towards the
abuse of nature goes on.

The copy of the book owned by the Regenstein Library is signed by the author and
dedicated to the University of Chicago students.

“We’re using up the Earth. It’s almost gone.”

Musica mundana
In De institutione musica, the Roman writer and statesman
Boethius (c.480–c.524) developed the concept of music of
the spheres, a mathematical music produced by the move-
ments of the planets, either inaudible to the human ear or
not involving sound at all, but nevertheless an all-pervading
force in the universe. This celestial music, also called musica
mundana, was fundamental to the development of early
music theory, and to the work of Johannes Kepler. Though it
has ceased to serve any useful scientific purpose, the music
of the spheres continues as a source of inspiration for com-
posers over a millennium after its writing. One such work is
Rüd Langgard’s The Music of the Spheres (1916-1918), an
innovative work for orchestra.
Music and nature
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (1808) is an early example
of programmatic music, in which a narrative plays out over
the course of an otherwise instrumental piece of music.
Nature played an important role in Beethoven’s creative
process, with his walks in the woods serving as incubators
for new ideas. In the Pastoral Symphony, his sixth, Beetho-
ven sought to depict specific aspects of the natural world, as
well as its relationship to humanity. Thus, each of the five
movement describes a specific aspect of pastoral life: (1)
Awakening of Happy Feelings on Arriving in the Country, (2)
By the Brook, (3) Merrymaking of the Country Folk, (4)
Storm, and (5) Shepherds’ Song: Joy and Gratitude after the
Storm.
Music in the anthropocene
John Luther Adams’ music is inextricably linked to the natural world. A
longtime resident of Alaska, the majority of his works deal with its landscape,
culture, and environment. Living in the sub-arctic climate provided Adams
with a firsthand glimpse of the ravages of climate change: “In our last decade
here, the summers began to swing from one extreme to the other. A summer
of vast wildfires would be followed by a summer of seemingly incessant rain.
The first snows of autumn, which we could always expect in September, now
came as late as the end of November. Spring breakup, which used to arrive
suddenly and explosively in May, now became a slow meltdown, beginning as
early as March. Winter temperatures became dramatically milder, and our
sub-Arctic winters lost the pristine cold and deep stillness they once had.”
Adams’ largest orchestral piece, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Become Ocean,
deals explicitly with the threat of climate change, as he explained in his terse
note for the 40-minute work: “Life on this earth first emerged from the sea.
As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the
prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.”
Earth as musical community
The music of composer and University of Chicago Professor Augusta
Read Thomas can be characterized by its sense of resonance, and few
works demonstrate this quality more than Resounding Earth, a
30-minute percussion quartet utilizing over 300 pieces of metal. The
work features the bells and metallic instruments of numerous cultures
throughout the world and, in Thomas’ words, probes “into bells’ rich
meanings and characteristics as carriers of history, ethnicity, societally
and cultural connotations.” In viewing the Earth as a musical commu-
nity, the work is conceived as a “cultural statement celebrating interde-
pendence and commonality across all cultures, and as a musical state-
ment celebrating the extraordinary beauty and diversity of expression
inherent in bell sounds.”
Sarah Scott, A Description of Millenium Hall
This central document of the British Enlightenment, published in 1762, describes a
utopian society of women living autonomously. As a response to a courtly and patriar-
chal gentry, and as a critique of the London city space affected by dissipation, Sarah
Scott gives birth to a unique form of ecofeminism that functions as a refuge for women
who are victims of the gender system, in a bucolic country estate that recalls the arcadian
pastoral tradition. The beauty of the grounds is what immediately captivates the narrator
as she first approaches Millenium Hall. She also describes an animal sanctuary in which
humans are not tyrants over animals, and uses Alexander Pope’s words about Eden to
reinforce the fact that the animals were protected from meat eating.

“The nearer we came to the house, the greater we found the profusion of flowers which
ornamented every field. Some had no other defence than hedges of rose trees and
sweetbriars, so artfully planted, that they made a very thick hedge, while at the lower
part, pinks, jonquils, hyacinths, and various other flowers, seemed to grow under their
protection. Primroses, violets, lilies of the valley, and polyanthuses enriched such shady
spots, as, for want of sun, were not well calculated for the production of other flowers.
The mixture of perfumes which exhaled from this profusion composed the highest
fragrance, and sometimes the different scents regaled the senses alternately, and filled us
with reflections on the infinite variety of nature.”
Thomas More, Utopia
The inventor of the term Utopia sketches in this 16th century masterpiece, originally
written in Latin, a perfect and imaginary state while subtly expressing sharp criticism
of the English society of his time. A variety of subjects are discussed, most famously
social justice, religious tolerance and human happiness. However, not only does he
analyze the economical, political, and social consequences of implementing his
revolutionary ideas, but he is also concerned with their effects on the natural environ-
ment. The result is an ecologically responsible society, based on agriculture, that leads
a life of moderation and sufficiency. A central element of his ideal society is a responsi-
ble attitude towards nature, thanks to a prudent use of resources, so that waste
problems can be avoided and the environment preserved.
The book presented here is a splendid facsimile reproduction (original size) of the
copy published in 1516, today at the British Museum marked C.27.b.30.

“They cultivate their gardens with great care, so that they have both vines, fruits,
herbs, and flowers in them; and all is so well ordered and so finely kept that I never
saw gardens anywhere that were both so fruitful and so beautiful as theirs. And there
is, indeed, nothing belonging to the whole town that is both more useful and more
pleasant. So that he who founded the town seems to have taken care of nothing more
than of their gardens.”