Matteo Valleriani - Böcker

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe.

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe.

This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformationsof scientific knowledge in the early modern period.It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera,by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the uniquestandpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text frommanuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platformof scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuringSacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650,represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmologicalworldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ Derevolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543.The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced theprocess of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the materialinfrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define thepremises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformationsof scientific knowledge in the early modern period.It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera,by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the uniquestandpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text frommanuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platformof scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuringSacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650,represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmologicalworldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ Derevolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543.The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced theprocess of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the materialinfrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define thepremises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

This book explores continuity and ruptures in the historical use of visual representations in science and related disciplines such as art history and anthropology. The book also considers more recent developments that attest to the unprecedented importance of scientific visualizations, such as video recordings, animations, simulations, graphs, and enhanced realities. The volume collects historical reflections concerned with the use of visual material, visualization, and vision in science from a historical perspective, ranging across multiple cultures from antiquity until present day.The focus is on visual representations such as drawings, prints, tables, mathematical symbols, photos, data visualizations, mapping processes, and (on a meta-level) visualizations of data extracted from historical sources to visually support the historical research itself. Continuity and ruptures between the past and present use of visual material are presented against the backdrop of the epistemic functions of visual material in science. The function of visual material is defined according to three major epistemic categories: exploration, transformation, and transmission of knowledge.

This book explores continuity and ruptures in the historical use of visual representations in science and related disciplines such as art history and anthropology. The book also considers more recent developments that attest to the unprecedented importance of scientific visualizations, such as video recordings, animations, simulations, graphs, and enhanced realities. The volume collects historical reflections concerned with the use of visual material, visualization, and vision in science from a historical perspective, ranging across multiple cultures from antiquity until present day.The focus is on visual representations such as drawings, prints, tables, mathematical symbols, photos, data visualizations, mapping processes, and (on a meta-level) visualizations of data extracted from historical sources to visually support the historical research itself. Continuity and ruptures between the past and present use of visual material are presented against the backdrop of the epistemic functions of visual material in science. The function of visual material is defined according to three major epistemic categories: exploration, transformation, and transmission of knowledge.

The Structures of Practical Knowledge investigates the nature of practical knowledge – why, how, when and by whom it is codified, and once codified, how this knowledge is structured.

The Structures of Practical Knowledge investigates the nature of practical knowledge – why, how, when and by whom it is codified, and once codified, how this knowledge is structured.

The first section is concerned with the emergence and expansion of a form of mechanical knowledge defined by us as pre-classical mechanics. The definition purports to the period roughly between the 15th and the 17th century, before classical mechanics was formulated as a coherent and comprehensive mechanical theory in the sequel of Newton's work.

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), his life and his work have been and continue to be the subject of an enormous number of scholarly works. One of the con- quences of this is the proliferation of identities bestowed on this gure of the Italian Renaissance: Galileo the great theoretician, Galileo the keen astronomer, Galileo the genius, Galileo the physicist, Galileo the mathematician, Galileo the solitary thinker, Galileo the founder of modern science, Galileo the heretic, Galileo the courtier, Galileo the early modern Archimedes, Galileo the Aristotelian, Galileo the founder of the Italian scienti c language, Galileo the cosmologist, Galileo the Platonist, Galileo the artist and Galileo the democratic scientist. These may be only a few of the identities that historians of science have associated with Galileo. And now: Galileo the engineer! That Galileo had so many faces, or even identities, seems hardly plausible. But by focusing on his activities as an engineer, historians are able to reassemble Galileo in a single persona, at least as far as his scienti c work is concerned. The impression that Galileo was an ingenious and isolated theoretician derives from his scienti c work being regarded outside the context in which it originated.