Raymond of Sabunde (also Ramon Sibiuda, Sabiende, Sabond, Sabonde, Sebon, or Sebeyde) was a Catalan scholar, teacher of medicine and philosophy and finally regius professor of theology at Toulouse. He was born at Barcelona, (at that time the major Catalan city of the Crown of Aragon), towards the end of the 14th century and died in 1436.
His Liber naturae sive creaturarum, etc (or Theologia Naturalis), written 1434–1436, marks an important stage in the history of natural theology. It was first written in Latin (but not in a strictly classical Latin, since it contained plenty of Catalan-influenced Latin words).[1]. His followers composed a more classical Latin version of the work.[2]. It was translated into French by Michel de Montaigne (Paris, 1569) and edited in Latin at various times (e.g. Deventer, 1487; Strasburg, 1496; Paris, 1509; Venice, 1581, etc.).
The book was directed against the position then generally held, that reason and faith, philosophy and theology were antithetical and irreconcilable. Raymond declares that the book of Nature and the Bible are both Divine revelations, the one general and immediate, the other specific and mediate. Montaigne (Essays, bk. ii. ch. xii., "An Apologie of Raymond Sebond") tells how he translated the book into French and found " the conceits of the author to be excellent, the contexture of his work well followed, and his project full of pietie. . . . His drift is bold, and his scope adventurous, for he undertaketh by humane and naturall reasons, to establish and verifie all the articles of Christian religion against Atheists."
The editio princeps of the book, which found many imitators, is undated but probably belongs to 1484; there are many subsequent editions, one by J. F. von Seidel as late as 1852. In 1595 the Prologus was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum for its declaration that the Bible is not the only source of revealed truth.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "Raymond of Sabunde". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.