Nicole Oresme, Questiones in Meteorologica de prima lectura


Book Description

The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Nicole Oresme, a mathematician, philosopher, and theologian, stood as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the Late Middle Ages. This volume presents the critical edition of Oresme's earliest work, his first cycle of lectures on Aristotle's Meteorology (1346). Transcribed directly by one of his students at Paris Arts Faculty, this text explores problems of physics, cosmology, geology, and optics, providing invaluable insights into late medieval philosophy of nature.




Nicole Oresme, Questiones in Meteorologica de ultima lectura, recensio parisiensis


Book Description

Nicole Oresme was one of the most original and influential thinkers of the fourteenth century. He is best known for his mathematical discoveries, his economic theories, as well as his vernacular translations of cosmological and ethical texts that were undertaken at the request of King Charles V. This volume sheds light on the beginning of Oresme's scientific activity at the University of Paris (ca. 1340 – ca. 1350), a period of his intellectual career about which little is known. Over the course of this decade, Oresme lectured on many Aristotelian texts on natural philosophy, such as the Physics, On the Heavens, On generation and corruption, Meteorology, and On the Soul. Oresme's commentaries on Aristotle's Meteorology count among his only unpublished texts. This volume presents the first critical edition of books I-II.10 of the second redaction of Oresme's Questions on Meteorology. The edition is preceded by a historical and philological introduction that discusses the context of Oresme’s scientific career and examines the manuscript tradition.




Nicole Oresme, Questiones in Meteorologica de Prima Lectura


Book Description

This volume provides the first critical edition of the first redaction of the Questions on Aristotle's Meteorology by Nicole Oresme, one of the most original and influential thinkers of the fourteenth century.




Early Thirteenth-Century English Franciscan Thought


Book Description

The thirteenth century was a dynamic period in intellectual history which witnessed the establishment of the first universities, most famously at Paris and Oxford. At these and other major European centres of learning, English-born Franciscans came to hold prominent roles both in the university faculties of the arts and theology and in the local studia across Europe that were primarily responsible for training Franciscans. This volume explores the contributions to scholarship of some of the leading English Franciscans or Franciscan associates from this period, including Roger Bacon, Adam Marsh, John Pecham, Thomas of Yorke, Roger Marston, Robert Grosseteste, Adam of Exeter, Richard Rufus of Cornwall, and Bartholomew of England. Through focussed studies of these figures’ signature ideas, contributions will provide a basis for drawing comparisons between the English Franciscan school and others that existed at the time, most famously at Paris.




Pietro Pomponazzi and the Renaissance Theory of the Elements


Book Description

In medieval and early modern natural philosophy, very few issues were as controversial as the nature of the elements. From the thirteenth up until the sixteenth century, European thinkers discussed this problem with growing interest. Defining the nature of the elements was key to deciphering the very structure of the universe and the essence of things. Along with five primary texts, here edited for the first time, this book discusses one of the most original contributions to this debate, that of Renaissance philosopher Pietro Pomponazzi (d. 1525). Pomponazzi’s account, developed in university lectures, holds significance for two reasons. First, it provides a thorough description of the most influential doctrines on the elements presented by medieval scholars, opening a window onto three hundred years of prior discussions on the topic. Second, Pomponazzi also develops his own views on the issue, explicitly defining them as ‘heretical’ to emphasise his departure from all opinions expressed before him.




Michael Maestlin’s Manuscript Treatise on the Comet of 1618


Book Description

Michael Maestlin was a main protagonist of the astronomical and cosmological revolution between Copernicus and Galileo. This book presents the first-ever edition of his German manuscript treatise on the Great Comet of 1618, accompanied by an English translation with a full introduction and commentary.




A History of Natural Philosophy


Book Description

This book describes how natural philosophy and exact mathematical sciences joined together to make the Scientific Revolution possible.




A History of Western Astrology


Book Description

Superb general account.' Times Literary Supplement The story of the history of Western astrology begins with the philosophers of Greece in the 5th century BC. To the magic and stargazing of Egypt the Greeks added numerology, geometryand rational thought. The philosophy of Plato and later of the Stoics made astrology respectable, and by the time Ptolemy wrote his textbook the Tetrabiblos, in the second century AD, the main lines of astrological practice as it is known today had already been laid down. In future centuries astrology shifted to Islam only to return to the West in medieval times where it flourished until the shift of ideas during the Renaissance.




De Sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period


Book Description

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology. Johannes de Sacrobosco compiled his Tractatus de sphaera during the thirteenth century in the frame of his teaching activities at the then recently founded University of Paris. It soon became a mandatory text all over Europe. As a result, a tradition of commentaries to the text was soon established and flourished until the second half of the 17th century. Here, readers will find an informative overview of these commentaries complete with a rich context. The essays explore the educational and social backgrounds of the writers. They also detail how their careers developed after the publication of their commentaries, the institutions and patrons they were affiliated with, what their agenda was, and whether and how they actually accomplished it. The editor of this collection considers these scientific commentaries as genuine scientific works. The contributors investigate them here not only in reference to the work on which it comments but also, and especially, as independent scientific contributions that are socially, institutionally, and intellectually contextualized around their authors.




Mechanics and Natural Philosophy before the Scientific Revolution


Book Description

This volume deals with a variety of moments in the history of mechanics when conflicts arose within one textual tradition, between different traditions, or between textual traditions and the wider world of practice. Its purpose is to show how the accommodations sometimes made in the course of these conflicts ultimately contributed to the emergence of modern mechanics.




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