This volume gathers contributions on a crucial problem of Aristotelian natural philosophy, which puzzled many scholars in the Middle Ages and beyond: why and how is it possible for dry land to exist, if water, being lighter than earth, should surround it entirely in the shape of a sphere? Answers to this physical and cosmological issue were given in a wide variety of different texts, penned by professional intellectuals as well as laymen, by philosophers and theologians, by bellettrists and scientists alike. The problem was treated along many centuries, up at least to the 16th, and it was discussed by Christian, Muslim, and Jewish authors, writing in Latin, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, as well as in the emerging vernaculars. The same issue was famously discussed in a still mysterious little text attributed to Dante Alighieri, the Questio de aqua et terra, which purports to have been disputed and determined by the poet himself at the very end of his life. The materials here gathered help framing this historically rich problem in its philosophical, theological, and properly scientific coordinates, providing relevant materials to historians of philosophy and scholars of medieval literature interested in the mutual relations of water and earth across times and disciplines.

M. Signori, The Elements of a Finite Universe. As an Introduction – C. Fitzpatrick Murtha, Grounds for Dispute. Avicenna and Other Rational (Land) Animals on Terra firma – M. Signori, Elemental Transformations and Divine Providence. Efficient and Final Causes of the Emergence of Dry Land in Some Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin Texts – L. Valletta, Il problema della terra emersa nel Commento a Giobbe di Rolando da Cremona. Esegesi biblica, filosofia naturale e lotta all’eterodossia – A. Panzica, Acqua e terra: un equilibrio difficile? Problemi fisici, geologici e cosmologici nei commenti latini ai Meteorologica di Aristotele – A. G. Chisena, «Questa terra è fissa e non si gira, e [...] col mare è centro del cielo». Acqua e terra nel Convivio e nella produzione filosofica ed enciclopedica fra Duecento e Trecento – Z. G. Baranski, La Questio de aqua et terra di Dante è una questio? – L. Burzelli, Nei dintorni della Quaestio de aqua et terra. Il dibattito sul luogo degli elementi nel primo Rinascimento. Index of Names and Places. Index of Manuscripts