Racialization and Racism in Albertus Magnus’ <i>De Natura Loci</i>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In De Natura Loci, written in the 1250s, Albertus Magnus uses Greco-Roman and Arabic sources (most important, Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Avicenna) to construct his own theory of the geography of the world, and he also offers a theory of how the different climates and other environmental factors generate diverse groups of human beings. Albertus himself relates these theories of climatic and human diversity to the question of the justifiability of slavery, and this chapter argues that, in doing so, Albertus takes a number of key steps toward the racialized justification of slavery that becomes prominent in the context of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonization in the sixteenth century and beyond. Crucially, Albertus offers a scientific theory according to which there are specifiable regions of the world, identifiable in terms of geographical latitude, where the places people inhabit cause them to be timid and unintelligent, but also to be nimble, as well as to have a number of visible features, most notably black skin. Albertus’ theory is both a development and a significant reconfiguration of Aristotle’s views about the influence of climate on human diversity. In framing a theory along these lines, Albertus is offering resources for the naturalization and justification of slavery along geographical and racial lines, in effect proposing that human bodies are readable so as to indicate geographical origin and natural suitability for enslavement.</jats:p>