Copernicus in the Cultural Debates of the Renaissance

Pietro Daniel Omodeo, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, is member of the Collective Research Centre Episteme in Bewegung, Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on science, philosophy and literature in the Early Modern Period, as well as on historical epistemology.

'Wer an der Astronomiegeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit interessiert ist, wird dieses Opus gerne zur Hand nehmen.'Günther Oestmann, in: Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, 13, p. 321-322.Massimo Bucciantini, in Il Sole 24 Ore, 4 Ottobre 2015:'Pietro Daniel Omodeo indaga settant'anni di cosmologia e astronomia a cavallo di due secoli decisivi per le sorti dell'umanità, dove quei saperi sono inseparabili dalle filosofie e dalle teologie del loro tempo. E procede con passo spedito, ma ben equipaggiato e ben allenato ai lunghi viaggi, facendoci conoscere non solo gli attori principali ma anche i tanti personaggi spesso a torto considerati minori, alcuni dei quali pochissimo noti in Italia.' (Pietro Daniel Omodeo investigates 70 years of cosmology and astronomy between two centuries that were crucial for the fate of humanity, years when those sciences were inseparable from philosophy and theology. He proceeds fluently, ‘well equipped’ and ‘well used’ to long journeys by getting us acquainted to the main and to the less known characters, some of them not enough known in Italy.)'Cliò che subito colpisce è l'attenzione alla pluralità che scaturisce dai tanti modi in cui venne letto Copernico. Sono le molteplici interpretazioni a rendere peculiare questo lavoro.' (What’s remarkable is the attention to a pluralistic perspective emerging from all the different ways in which Copernicus was read. The multiple interpretations make this work special.)'Attraverso l'esame di un numero impressionante di testi Omodeo ci restituisce la fotografia di un'epoca animata da un susseguirsi interminabile di discussioni filosofiche e controversie scientifiche.' (By examining an impressive number of texts, Omodeo gives us a picture of an age animated by a succession of never-ending philosophical discussions and scientific disputes.)'Trai capitoli più interessanti del libro ci sono quelli dedicati ai matematici luterani allievi di Filippo Melantone.' (The chapters devoted to the Lutheran mathematicians, alumni of Filippo Melantone are among the most interesting ones.)'Siamo di fronte a un libro per lettori esigenti che, non accontentandosi delle troppo lineari ricostruzioni manualistiche, sono disposti a inoltrarsi - e con gusto a perdersi - nell'intricata selva dei molteplici e immaginifici universi che popolano la seconda metà del Cinquecento e i primi decenni del Seicento.' (This is a book for demanding readers, who are not satisfied by the too simple/linear reconstructions of usual handbooks, and instead are willing to dive in – and be happily lost in – the intricate wood of the multiplex imaginative universes of the second half of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century.)

• ContentsAcknowledgments ixList of Illustrations xiList of Abbreviations of Journals and Reference Books xiiIntroduction 11 Copernicus between 1514 and 1616: An Overview 111 Copernicus’s Connection 112 Platonizing Humanists 153 Rheticus and the Printing of De revolutionibus 194 The Network of German Mathematicians 235 Italy 256 France 317 Spain and Flanders 358 England and Scotland 379 Central European Circles and Courts 4310 The Physical-Cosmological Turn 4811 Heliocentrism between Two Centuries: Kepler and Galileo 5112 Geo-Heliocentrism and Copernican Hypotheses 5313 The Difficult Reconciliation between Copernicus and the Sacred Scripture 5614 Copernicus before and after 1616 5915 Summary of the Main Lines of the Early Reception of Copernicus 632 Astronomy at the Crossroads of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Epistemology 661 A Split Reception of Copernicus 662 Copernicus Presents Himself as a Mathematician 703 Cosmology and Mathematics in Copernicus’s Commentariolus 714 A Clash of Authorities: Averroist Criticism of Mathematical Astronomy 765 Fracastoro’s Homocentrism 796 Amico on Celestial Motions 827 Osiander’s Theological Instructions 858 Melanchthon’s Approach to Nature 879 Rheticus’s Early “Realism” 9210 The Elder Rheticus and Pierre de la Ramée against the Astronomical Axiom 9411 Facts and Reasons in Astronomy according to Melanchthon and Reinhold 9712 Reinhold’s Astronomy and Copernicus 10013 Epistemological Remarks on Reinhold’s Terminology 10414 Peucer’s Continuation of Reinhold’s Program 10715 Wittich’s Combinatory Games 11216 Brahe as the Culmination of the Wittenberg School 11617 Beyond Selective Reading 1203 Beyond Computation: Copernican Ephemerists on Hypotheses, Astrology and Natural Philosophy 1241 A Premise: Gemma Frisius as a Reader of Copernicus 1242 Frisius’s Cosmological Commitment in Stadius’s Ephemerides 1273 Stadius and Copernicus 1304 Ephemerides and Astrology 1325 Some Remarks on Rheticus’s Challenge to Pico 1346 Giuntini’s Post-Copernican Astrology 1367 Magini: Copernican Ephemerides, Astrology and Planetary Hypotheses 1398 A Dispute on the Reliability of Ephemerides in Turin 1429 Benedetti’s Defense of Post-Copernican Ephemerides and Astrology 14510 Origanus’s Planetary System 14911 Origanus’s Arguments in Favor of Terrestrial Motion 15112 Conclusions 1564 A Finite and Infinite Sphere: Reinventing Cosmological Space 1581 The Finite Infinity of the World Revised 1592 Cusanus’s Two Infinities 1613 Cusanus’s Role in the Copernican Debate 1644 The Invention of the Pythagorean Cosmology 1675 Pythagoreanism and Cosmological Infinity according to Digges 1706 The Infinity of Space and Worldly Finiteness as a Restoration of the Stoic Outlook 1737 Benedetti’s Approach to the Copernican System 1758 Stoicism in Germany: Pegel’s Cosmology 1799 Bruno’s Pythagorean Correction of Copernicus’s Planetary Model 18310 Bruno’s Defense of Cosmological Infinity 18611 Homogeneity, Aether and Vicissitude according to Bruno 18812 Kepler’s Anti-Brunian Pythagoreanism 19113 Conclusions: Eclectic Concepts of Cosmological Space in the Renaissance 1955 A Ship-Like Earth: Reconceptualizing Motion 1971 The Connection between Cosmology and Physics in Aristotle and Ptolemy 1992 Copernicus’s Physical Considerations 2033 Nominalist Sources on Terrestrial Motion 2054 Calcagnini 2095 Renaissance Variations on the Ship Metaphor 2136 Bruno’s Vitalist Conception of Terrestrial Motion 2167 Benedetti’s Archimedean Dynamics 2198 Benedetti’s Post-Aristotelian Physics and Post-Copernican Astronomy 2209 A New Alliance between Mechanics and Astronomy 22310 Brahe’s Physical Considerations 22511 Concluding Remarks 2306 A priori and a posteriori: Two Approaches to Heliocentrism 2341 Mästlin’s a posteriori Astronomy 2352 The Young Kepler and the Secret Order of the Cosmos 2383 Kepler Defends and Expounds the Hypotheses of Copernicus 2424 The Distances of the Planets: Mästlin’s Contribution 2435 Mästlin: Finally We Have an a priori Astronomy 2456 The Sun as the Universal Motive Force 2487 The New Astronomy 2508 Natural Arguments in Astronomy 2519 Gravitas and vis animalis 25410 Celestial Messages 25711 First Reactions to the Celestial Novelties 26312 Kepler’s Discourses with Galilei 2667 The Bible versus Pythagoras: The End of an Epoch 2711 Condemnation 2712 First Scriptural Reservations in the Protestant World 2723 Rheticus and the Scriptures 2744 Spina and Tolosani 2785 Rothmann’s Opinion on the Scriptural Issue 2816 Censorship in Tübingen 2847 Scriptural Defense of Terrestrial Motion by Origanus 2868 In Iob Commentaria 2879 Bruno, Copernicus and the Bible 29010 The Galileo Affaire 29311 Foscarini pro Copernico 29712 Galilei to Christina of Lorraine 30313 Foscarini to Bellarmino 30414 Bellarminian Zeal 30715 Campanellan Libertas 30916 Campanella’s Cosmologia 31117 Apologia pro Galilaeo 31418 Conclusions: Accommodation and Convention 3188 Laughing at Phaeton’s Fall: A New Man 3221 Holistic Views in the Astronomical-Astrological Culture of the Renaissance 3232 The Ethical Question in Bruno: Philosophical Freedom and the Criticism of Religion 3323 The Reformation of the Stars: a Metaphor for the Correction of Vices 3354 A Copernican Sunrise 3395 Beyond the Ethics of Balance 3426 Heroic Frenzy 3447 Actaeon: The Unity of Man and Nature 3478 Bruno’s Polemics, Banishments and Excommunications 3509 Cosmological and Anti-Epicurean Disputations at Helmstedt 35210 Mencius against Epicurean Cosmology 35411 Bruno’s Support of Atomistic Views 35612 “New Astronomy” at Helmstedt 35813 Liddel’s Teaching of Astronomy and Copernican Hypotheses 36014 Hofmann’s Quarrel over Faith and Natural Knowledge 36315 Franckenberg and the Spiritualist Reception of Bruno and Copernicus 36516 Hill and the Epicurean Reception of Bruno and Copernicus 37217 A New Imagery: Phaeton’s Fall 37818 Conclusions: The New Humanity 382Bibliography 387Index of Names 425Index of Places 432