DOCSLIB.ORG

Athanasius Kircher 13570FM.Pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page Ii Athanasius Kircher

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Athanasius Kircher 13570FM.Pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page Ii Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page ii Athanasius Kircher The Last Man Who Knew Everything edited by Paula Findlen ROUTLEDGE NEW YORK AND LONDON 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page iv Published in 2004 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 www.routledge-ny.com Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE www.routledge.co.uk Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. © 2004 by Taylor & Francis Books, Inc. Printed in the United States of America on acid free paper. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Athanasius Kircher : the last man who knew everything / Paula Findlen, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-94015-X (hb : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-415-94016-8 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Kircher, Athanasius, 1602–1680. 2. Intellectuals—Germany—Biography. 3. Jesuits— Germany—Biography. 4. Learning and scholarship—Europe—History—17th century. 5. Europe—Intellectual life—17th century. 6. Germany—Biography. I. Findlen, Paula. CT1098.K46A738 2004 001.2'092—dc22 2003022829 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page v To Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, honorary Kircherian, true Newtonian 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page vi 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page vii Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: “The Last Man Who Knew Everything . 1 or Did He?: Athanasius Kircher, S.J. (1602–80) and His World” PAULA FINDLEN Section I: The Art of Being Kircher 1“Kircher’s Rome” 51 EUGENIO LO SARDO 2“Reverie in Time of Plague: Athanasius Kircher and the 63 Plague Epidemic of 1656” MARTHA BALDWIN 3“Kircher and His Critics: Censorial Practice and 79 Pragmatic Disregard in the Society of Jesus” HARALD SIEBERT 4“‘Quasi-Optical Palingenesis’: The Circulation of 105 Portraits and the Image of Kircher” ANGELA MAYER-DEUTSCH Section II: The Sciences of Erudition 5“Copts and Scholars: Athanasius Kircher in Peiresc’s 133 Republic of Letters” PETER N. MILLER 6“Four Trees, Some Amulets, and the Seventy-two Names 149 of God: Kircher Reveals the Kabbalah” DANIEL STOLZENBERG 7“Kircher’s Chronology” 171 ANTHONY GRAFTON Section III: The Mysteries of Man and the Cosmos 8“Athanasius Kircher, Giordano Bruno, and the 191 Panspermia of the Infinite Universe” INGRID D. ROWLAND vii 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page viii viii • Contents 9“Father Athanasius on the Isthmus of a Middle State: 207 Understanding Kircher’s Paleontology” STEPHEN JAY GOULD 10 “The Angel and the Compass: Athanasius Kircher’s 239 Magnetic Geography” MICHAEL JOHN GORMAN Section IV: Communicating Knowledge 11 “Magnetic Language: Athanasius Kircher 263 and Communication” HAUN SAUSSY 12 “Publishing the Polygraphy: Manuscript, Instrument, 283 and Print in the Work of Athanasius Kircher” NICK WILDING 13 “Private and Public Knowledge: Kircher, Esotericism, 297 and the Republic of Letters” NOEL MALCOLM Section V: The Global Shape of Knowledge 14 “Baroque Science between the Old and the New World: 311 Father Kircher and His Colleague Valentin Stansel (1621–1705)” CARLOS ZILLER CAMENIETZKI 15 “A Jesuit’s Books in the New World: Athanasius Kircher 329 and His American Readers” PAULA FINDLEN 16 “True Lies: Athanasius Kircher’s China illustrata 365 and the Life Story of a Mexican Mystic” J. MICHELLE MOLINA 17 “Athanasius Kircher’s China Illustrata (1667): 383 An Apologia Pro Vita Sua” FLORENCE HSIA Epilogue: Understanding Kircher in Context 405 ANTONELLA ROMANO Bibliography 421 Notes on Contributors 447 Index 451 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page ix Acknowledgments When I first became interested in Athanasius Kircher in the mid-1980s, there were very few people, outside of the select members of the Internationalen Athanasius Kircher Forschungsgesellschaft (f. 1968) and the Australian scholar John Fletcher, who had ever heard of him. Among those who had, most proba- bly feared for my sanity in choosing such an unpromising, perhaps even pre- posterous subject. I seem to recall being asked more than once,“So you want to write about that crazy polymath, that strange Jesuit—the man who got every- thing wrong?” Fortunately, not everyone felt this way. My first thanks goes to Martha Bald- win, who spent an evening with me in Rome in 1987 discussing our mutual delight in Father Athanasius. John Heilbron, whose early interest in Jesuit natural philosophy filled Bancroft Library with many of Kircher’s books, inad- vertently contributed to the genesis of this project by making Berkeley a re- markable place to initiate this research. I have been fortunate to study at two different institutions that valued Kircher, since the University of Chicago—as Ingrid Rowland’s recent catalogue, The Ecstatic Journey, makes apparent—also contains an excellent collection of Kircheriana that I used with great pleasure in 1985–86, prior to working with his manuscripts at the Gregorian University in Rome. The current project is the direct result of a collaboration with Stanford University Libraries and a number of my colleagues and students here. I owe a special debt to Henry Lowood, John Mustain, Roberto Trujillo, Assunta Pisani, Michael Keller, and many others in Green Library, whose enthusiasm for ac- quiring Ella and Bernard Mazel’s virtually complete collection of the works of Athanasius Kircher and his disciples led me to envision the workshop from which this volume originated. The result was a wonderful exhibit (beautifully designed by Becky Fischbach) that continues to exist on paper in the form of Daniel Stolzenberg’s catalogue, The Great Art of Knowing. Stanford University Libraries, especially in the persons of Henry Lowood and Glen Worthey, also contributed material and technical support to the Athanasius Kircher Corre- spondence Project directed by Michael John Gorman and Nick Wilding, which came to Stanford in 2000–01 so that we might connect this digital manuscript archive (initially sponsored by the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence, the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome, and the Istituto Eu- ropeo Universitario in Fiesole) to our library holdings. The staff in Special Collections has humored my desire to page every last Kircher book in our col- lection while completing this volume—to all of them, many thanks. ix 13570FM.pgs 5/13/04 2:33 PM Page x x•Acknowledgments The presence of Kircher materials at Stanford, however, was more of an effect than a cause of my revived interest in the subject. During the late 1990s, I began to get a growing number of inquiries from other scholars who told me that they, too, were interested in Kircher or, more generally, in the role of the Jesuits in early modern culture. It was quite clear that something was in the air—some occult force, as Kircher would have said, drawing the scholarly world back to him and his projects. Occasionally I would see Tony Grafton, and we would remind each other that we should try to get as many Kircherians together as we could. I spent four months at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in 1995, which enabled me to meet David Wilson—and perhaps equally impor- tant, allowed Barbara Stafford and me to acquire all of the remaining Kircher pins in the gift store of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The following year, I moved to Stanford and discovered the pleasure of having a wonderful colleague in East Asian Languages and Literature, Haun Saussy, who shared my passion. Shortly thereafter, Umberto Eco put me in touch with Eugenio Lo Sardo as he was in the midst of completing his reconstruction of Kircher’s mu- seum for an exhibit at Palazzo Venezia in Rome in winter 2001. Eventually, just around the time when I was beginning to feel like I might have inadvertently been elected the temporary and quite unofficial president of a neo-Rosicru- cian network whose password was “Kircher,” I decided to make good on my promise. The result was a conference in April 2001. This memorable event—complete with Kircher videos, Kircherian music, a reconstructed magnetic clock by Caroline Bougereau, and many other mod- ern-day wonders—and the volume that resulted from it could not have hap- pened without the generous support of the Dean of Humanities and Science, Dean of Research, Department of History, Program in the History and Philos- ophy of Science, and Science, Technology, and Society Program at Stanford University. I want especially to single out Rosemary Rogers and Margaret Har- ris, since both of them ensured that the conference, postdoctoral fellowship program funded by the Hite endowment, and related activities all went with- out a hitch. Preparing a volume of this scope and complexity has required the assis- tance of a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank four doctoral students: Robert Scafe compiled the bibliography and performed many other tasks essential to the preparation of the final manuscript; Daniel Stolzenberg helped me to edit a number of the papers and generously shared his own considerable expertise and enthusiasm for Kircher with me; and Se- bastian Barreveld has seen the final manuscript through copyediting and page- proofs. Derrick Allums became my collaborator in translating two essays from French. All of them have reminded me what wonderful and interesting gradu- ate students come to Stanford, and what a pleasure it is to work with them. Bill Germano at Routledge Press has been a marvelous editor.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • MAY 13, 2018 Cleveland, Ohio 44113 T 216
    Ambo ST. THEODOSIUS ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL Mailing: 733 Starkweather Avenue MAY 13, 2018 Cleveland, Ohio 44113 T 216. 741. 1310 SUNDAY OF THE F 216. 623. 1092 BLIND MAN www.sttheodosius.org - Archpriest John Zdinak, Dean [email protected] SUNDAY OF THE BLIND MAN Cell: 216. 554. 7282 - Father Jacob Van Sickle - Protodeacon Daniel Boerio - Subdeacon Theodore Lentz, Sacristan - Reader Julius Kovach, Ecclesiarch & Choirmaster - Reader Paul Pangrace, Ambo Editor Divine Services Eve Sundays & Feast Days 5:00 PM Confessions 6:00 PM Great Vespers Sundays and Feast Days 8:40 AM 3rd and 6th Hour 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy *AMBO: Articles for publication should be submitted to the office by Wednesday of each week before noon. * CALENDAR: Event dates must be submitted by the 15th of each month. St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 1 After the Midfeast (John 7:14), the Lord Jesus Christ came to the Temple again and taught the people who came to Him (John 8:2). After leaving the Temple, He opened the eyes of a man “who was blind from his birth (John 9:1). The miracle described in today’s Gospel (John 9:1-38) is even more remarkable than it might seem at first. Saint Basil and other Fathers tell us that this was not just a case of giving sight to a blind man born with eyes that did not function, but to someone who had no eyes at all! The second Exapostilarion for this Sunday says, “Along the way, our Savior found a man who lacked both sight and eyes...”.
    [Show full text]
  • Publikationen Dr. Rita Haub M.A
    Publikationen Rita Haub 1. Die Motetten in der Notre-Dame-Handschrift Mü A (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. gall. 42) (= Münchner Editionen zur Musikgeschichte Band 8), Tutzing 1986. 2. Die Geschichtlichen Hilfswissenschaften stellen sich vor (Redaktion u. Layout: Wolfgang Bildt und Rita Haub), München 21987. 3. 7 Katalogartikel (Urkunden und Siegel) in: Kilian. Mönch aus Irland – aller Franken Patron. 689-1989. (Katalog der Sonderausstellung zur 1300-Jahr-Feier des Kiliansmartyriums), München 1989. 4. Das Urkundenwesen in der Diözese Eichstätt bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts, München 1993 (Selbstverlag). 5. Die Urkunden des Klosters Weihenstephan bis zum Jahre 1381, bearb. von Bodo Uhl, mit den Registern zu Teil 1 und 2, bearb. von Rita Haub (= Quellen und Erörterungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte, Neue Folge Band XXVII Zweiter Teil), München 1993. 6. Die Urbare des Kollegiatstifts St. Johann in Regensburg bis zum Jahre 1400, bearb. von Matthias Thiel, mit den Registern zu Teil 1 und 2, bearb. von Rita Haub (=Quellen und Erörterungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte, Neue Folge Band XXVIII Zweiter Teil), München 1994. 7. Georgius Victorinus und der Triumphus Divi Michaelis Archangeli Bavarici, in: Musik in Bayern 51 (1995), 79-85. 8. Matthäus Rader im Spiegel seiner Briefe, in: Stimmen der Zeit 214 (1996), Umschau 209-212. 9. Eine Urkunde Oswalds von Wolkenstein im Bestand der Klosterurkunden Beuerberg im Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv München, in: Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte 59 (1996), 177-183. 10. Petrus Canisius als Schriftsteller, in: Julius Oswald und Peter Rummel (Hgg.), Petrus Canisius – Reformer der Kirche. Festschrift zum 400. Todestag des zweiten Apostels Deutschlands (= Jahrbuch des Vereins für Augsburger Bistumsgeschichte e.V.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Author(S): Nicholas Overgaard Source: Prandium - the Journal of Historical Studies, Vol
    Early Modern Catholic Defense of Copernicanism: The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Author(s): Nicholas Overgaard Source: Prandium - The Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 2013), pp. 29-36 Published by: The Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga Stable URL: http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/prandium/article/view/19654 Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies Vol. 2, No. 1, (2013) Early Modern Catholic Defense of Copernicanism: The Jesuits and the Galileo Affair Nicholas Overgaard “Obedience should be blind and prompt,” Ignatius of Loyola reminded his Jesuit brothers a decade after their founding in 1540.1 By the turn of the seventeenth century, the incumbent Superior General Claudio Aquaviva had reiterated Loyola’s expectation of “blind obedience,” with specific regard to Jesuit support for the Catholic Church during the Galileo Affair.2 Interpreting the relationship between the Jesuits and Copernicans like Galileo Galilei through the frame of “blind obedience” reaffirms the conservative image of the Catholic Church – to which the Jesuits owed such obedience – as committed to its medieval traditions. In opposition to this perspective, I will argue that the Jesuits involved in the Galileo Affair3 represent the progressive ideas of the Church in the early seventeenth century. To prove this, I will argue that although the Jesuits rejected the epistemological claims of Copernicanism, they found it beneficial in its practical applications. The desire to solidify their status as the intellectual elites of the Church caused the Jesuits to reject Copernicanism in public. However, they promoted an intellectual environment in which Copernican studies – particularly those of Galileo – could develop with minimal opposition, theological or otherwise.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary Glossary
    Glossary Glossary Albedo A measure of an object’s reflectivity. A pure white reflecting surface has an albedo of 1.0 (100%). A pitch-black, nonreflecting surface has an albedo of 0.0. The Moon is a fairly dark object with a combined albedo of 0.07 (reflecting 7% of the sunlight that falls upon it). The albedo range of the lunar maria is between 0.05 and 0.08. The brighter highlands have an albedo range from 0.09 to 0.15. Anorthosite Rocks rich in the mineral feldspar, making up much of the Moon’s bright highland regions. Aperture The diameter of a telescope’s objective lens or primary mirror. Apogee The point in the Moon’s orbit where it is furthest from the Earth. At apogee, the Moon can reach a maximum distance of 406,700 km from the Earth. Apollo The manned lunar program of the United States. Between July 1969 and December 1972, six Apollo missions landed on the Moon, allowing a total of 12 astronauts to explore its surface. Asteroid A minor planet. A large solid body of rock in orbit around the Sun. Banded crater A crater that displays dusky linear tracts on its inner walls and/or floor. 250 Basalt A dark, fine-grained volcanic rock, low in silicon, with a low viscosity. Basaltic material fills many of the Moon’s major basins, especially on the near side. Glossary Basin A very large circular impact structure (usually comprising multiple concentric rings) that usually displays some degree of flooding with lava. The largest and most conspicuous lava- flooded basins on the Moon are found on the near side, and most are filled to their outer edges with mare basalts.
    [Show full text]
  • General Index
    General Index Italicized page numbers indicate figures and tables. Color plates are in- cussed; full listings of authors’ works as cited in this volume may be dicated as “pl.” Color plates 1– 40 are in part 1 and plates 41–80 are found in the bibliographical index. in part 2. Authors are listed only when their ideas or works are dis- Aa, Pieter van der (1659–1733), 1338 of military cartography, 971 934 –39; Genoa, 864 –65; Low Coun- Aa River, pl.61, 1523 of nautical charts, 1069, 1424 tries, 1257 Aachen, 1241 printing’s impact on, 607–8 of Dutch hamlets, 1264 Abate, Agostino, 857–58, 864 –65 role of sources in, 66 –67 ecclesiastical subdivisions in, 1090, 1091 Abbeys. See also Cartularies; Monasteries of Russian maps, 1873 of forests, 50 maps: property, 50–51; water system, 43 standards of, 7 German maps in context of, 1224, 1225 plans: juridical uses of, pl.61, 1523–24, studies of, 505–8, 1258 n.53 map consciousness in, 636, 661–62 1525; Wildmore Fen (in psalter), 43– 44 of surveys, 505–8, 708, 1435–36 maps in: cadastral (See Cadastral maps); Abbreviations, 1897, 1899 of town models, 489 central Italy, 909–15; characteristics of, Abreu, Lisuarte de, 1019 Acequia Imperial de Aragón, 507 874 –75, 880 –82; coloring of, 1499, Abruzzi River, 547, 570 Acerra, 951 1588; East-Central Europe, 1806, 1808; Absolutism, 831, 833, 835–36 Ackerman, James S., 427 n.2 England, 50 –51, 1595, 1599, 1603, See also Sovereigns and monarchs Aconcio, Jacopo (d. 1566), 1611 1615, 1629, 1720; France, 1497–1500, Abstraction Acosta, José de (1539–1600), 1235 1501; humanism linked to, 909–10; in- in bird’s-eye views, 688 Acquaviva, Andrea Matteo (d.
    [Show full text]
  • Church Bulletin ~ May 2010
    SS. Peter and Paul Albanian Orthodox Church 9230 Old Bustleton Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19115 Church Phone: 215–676–3311 Pastor: Father Stephen Siniari Rectory Phone: 1–609–385–3757 Church Bulletin ~ May 2010 1 Holy Days and Name Days in May May 1 - Prophet Jeremiah; St Tamara of Georgia May 2 - Sunday of the Samaritan Woman May 3 - Ven Theodosius of the Kiev caves May 5 - Greatmartyr Irene of Thessalonica May 6 - Righteous Job the Longsuffering May 7 - Repose of St Alexis Toth, Confessor & Defender of Orthodoxy May 8 - Holy Apostle John the Theologian May 9 - Sunday of the Blind Man; Prophet Isaiah; Ven Shio of Georgia May 10 - Apostle Simeon the Zealot May 11 - SS Cyril & Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs May 13 - Ascension of Our Lord May 14 - St Isidore of Chios; St Isidore, Fool-for-Christ of Rostov May 15 - St Pachomius the Great May 20 - Relics of St Aleksy, Metropolitan of Moscow May 21 - Equals-to-the-Apostles St Constantine & his Mother, Helen May 23 - Holy Pentecost May 24 - Day of the Holy Spirit May 25 - 3rd Finding of the Head of St John the Baptist May 28 - St Germaine of Paris May 29 - Blessed John of Ustiug Sunday of the Blind Man (Commemorated May 9) After the Midfeast (John 7:14), the Lord Jesus Christ came to the Temple again and taught the people who came to Him (John 8:2). After leaving the Temple, He opened the eyes of a man “who was blind from his birth” (John 9:1). The miracle described in today’s Gospel (John 9:1-38) is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.
    [Show full text]
  • Origin of Circular Collapsed Landforms in the Chryse Region of Mars ⇑ Manuel Roda A,B, , Maarten G
    Icarus 265 (2016) 70–78 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/icarus Origin of circular collapsed landforms in the Chryse region of Mars ⇑ Manuel Roda a,b, , Maarten G. Kleinhans b, Tanja E. Zegers b, Rob Govers b a Universitá degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Via Mangiagalli, 34, 20133 Milano, Italy b Universiteit Utrecht, Faculty of Geosciences, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands article info abstract Article history: The quasi-circular collapsed landforms occurring in the Chryse region of Mars share similar morpholog- Received 29 June 2015 ical characteristics, such as depth of collapse and polygonally fractured floors. Here, we present a statis- Revised 20 October 2015 tical analysis of diameter, maximum and minimum depth, and amount of collapse of these features. Accepted 21 October 2015 Based on their morphometric characteristics, we find that these landforms have a common origin. In par- Available online 27 October 2015 ticular, the investigated landforms show diameter-depth correlations similar to those that impact craters of equivalent diameters exhibit. We also find that the observed amount of collapse of the collected fea- Keywords: tures is strongly correlated to their diameter. Furthermore, the linear relation between minimum filling Geological processes and pristine depth of craters, the constant ratio between collapse and the amount of filling and the frac- Ices Impact processes tured and chaotic aspect of the filling agree with melting and subsequent collapse of an ice layer below a Mars, surface sediment layer. This interpretation is consistent with a buried sub-ice lake scenario, which is a non-climatic mechanism for producing and storing abundant liquid water under martian conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Race and Class, Imperialism and Nationalism, Etiquette and Consumption in the Chinese and American Revolutions
    Volume 7 | Issue 45 | Number 3 | Article ID 3248 | Nov 09, 2009 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Clean Politics: Race and Class, Imperialism and Nationalism, Etiquette and Consumption in the Chinese and American Revolutions Sarah Schneewind Clean Politics: Race and Class,truthful.3 Imperialism and Nationalism, Etiquette and Consumption in the Chinese and American Revolutions Sarah Schneewind “Why doesn’t this story stick when told?” Clive James1 Every generation of historians rediscovers and then forgets the history of Western views of China: the slow process in which the admiration of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century, Jesuit missionaries and other European visitors to China in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire turned to contempt as nineteenth-century Europe gained the upper hand in world politics and economy.2 Many negative perceptions – that China was weak; the government despotic and venal; the people supine, hypocritical, and dirty; and that nothing in China ever would change without European intervention – were inversions or new readings of material the more admiring Jesuits and The genteel Chinese, portrayed in others had put forward. To tie them to sharper Athanasius Kircher, China Illustrata, observation of Chinese realities, as scholars do published in Amsterdam, 1667 when they speak of the “revelation” of Chinese weakness, of “a new literature of hardheaded appraisal,” or of “new information” and “a fresh domain of realistic reportage,” is to buy into the discourse’s
    [Show full text]
  • THE STUDY of SATURN's RINGS 1 Thesis Presented for the Degree Of
    1 THE STUDY OF SATURN'S RINGS 1610-1675, Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Field of History of Science by Albert Van Haden Department of History of Science and Technology Imperial College of Science and Teohnology University of London May, 1970 2 ABSTRACT Shortly after the publication of his Starry Messenger, Galileo observed the planet Saturn for the first time through a telescope. To his surprise he discovered that the planet does.not exhibit a single disc, as all other planets do, but rather a central disc flanked by two smaller ones. In the following years, Galileo found that Sa- turn sometimes also appears without these lateral discs, and at other times with handle-like appendages istead of round discs. These ap- pearances posed a great problem to scientists, and this problem was not solved until 1656, while the solution was not fully accepted until about 1670. This thesis traces the problem of Saturn, from its initial form- ulation, through the period of gathering information, to the final stage in which theories were proposed, ending with the acceptance of one of these theories: the ring-theory of Christiaan Huygens. Although the improvement of the telescope had great bearing on the problem of Saturn, and is dealt with to some extent, many other factors were in- volved in the solution of the problem. It was as much a perceptual problem as a technical problem of telescopes, and the mental processes that led Huygens to its solution were symptomatic of the state of science in the 1650's and would have been out of place and perhaps impossible before Descartes.
    [Show full text]
  • Paolo Sarpi E Hugo Grotius: Un Dialogo Mancato?
    2019 Isonomia – Storica Rivista online di Filosofia Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo Paolo Sarpi e Hugo Grotius: un dialogo mancato? Alcune osservazioni su sovranità, jus circa sacra e fundamentalia fidei * Gregorio Baldin Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia [email protected] Abstract Hugo Grotius’ correspondence names frequently Paolo Sarpi. Grotius knew some of Sarpi’s texts, but his discovery of the Venetian friar dates back to the late 1620s, when he had already written his most important philosophico- political works. Nevertheless, some of Grotius’ texts, in particular the De Imperio Summarum Potestarum circa Sacra (written between 1614 and 1617), show significant analogies with Sarpi’s ideas. To understand these analogies, it is necessary to glance at the political and cultural milieu of the early 17 th -century Europe, when important political and religious events happened. The political and religious scenarios of the Republic of Venice and the United Provinces let us understand the reasons for some of the similarities between the writings of Sarpi and that of Grotius, but they also explain the reasons of their different orientations about the Synod of Dordrecht. However, Grotius and Sarpi evidently agree on some important topics, like irenicism, and the opposition to dogmatic disputes, but they especially share a particular concept of sovereignty, and of the jus circa sacra which must pertain to sovereign authority. Keywords : Hugo Grotius, Paolo Sarpi, sovereignty. * This article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GA n. 725883 EarlyModernCosmology). Gregorio Baldin “Paolo Sarpi e Hugo Grotius: un dialogo mancato? Alcune osservazioni su sovranità, jus circa sacra e fundamentalia fidei ” © 2019 Isonomia, Rivista online di Filosofia – Storica – ISSN 2037-4348 Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo http://isonomia.uniurb.it/storica 2 GREGORIO BALDIN 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Jews in New Athens by Benedykt Chmielowski*
    Studia Judaica (2017), Special English Issue, pp. 45–69 doi:10.4467/24500100STJ.16.021.7725 Jerzy Kroczak Jews in New Athens by Benedykt Chmielowski* Abstract: Benedykt Chmielowski (1700–1763), a Catholic priest, the author of the New Athens encyclopedia (extended edition: Lwów, 1754–1756) included in his polyhistorical work plenty of information on issues related to Jews. The article discusses these issues and connects their specificity with the character of different parts of the work in which Chmielowski placed them as well as with the detected and secret sources of his knowledge about Jews (especially books by early mod- ern scholars) and the ways he dealt with those sources. The author of the article also shows Chmielowski’s writing strategies, placing New Athens in the tradition of baroque encyclopedism—a literary production typical of the previous epoch. Keywords: encyclopedism, New Athens, Benedykt Chmielowski. * Polish edition: Jerzy Kroczak, “Żydzi w Nowych Atenach Benedykta Chmielowskie- go,” Studia Judaica 19 (2016), 2: 275–299. The special edition of the journal Studia Judaica, containing the English translation of the best papers published in 2016, was financed from the sources of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for promotion of scientific research, according to the agreement 508/P-DUN/2016. 46 JERZY KROCZAK Benedykt Chmielowski (full name: Joachim Benedykt Chmielowski, 1700–1763) is known first and foremost as the author of Nowe Ateny [hence- forth: New Athens].1 In Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine), two volumes of
    [Show full text]
  • Water on the Moon, III. Volatiles & Activity
    Water on The Moon, III. Volatiles & Activity Arlin Crotts (Columbia University) For centuries some scientists have argued that there is activity on the Moon (or water, as recounted in Parts I & II), while others have thought the Moon is simply a dead, inactive world. [1] The question comes in several forms: is there a detectable atmosphere? Does the surface of the Moon change? What causes interior seismic activity? From a more modern viewpoint, we now know that as much carbon monoxide as water was excavated during the LCROSS impact, as detailed in Part I, and a comparable amount of other volatiles were found. At one time the Moon outgassed prodigious amounts of water and hydrogen in volcanic fire fountains, but released similar amounts of volatile sulfur (or SO2), and presumably large amounts of carbon dioxide or monoxide, if theory is to be believed. So water on the Moon is associated with other gases. Astronomers have agreed for centuries that there is no firm evidence for “weather” on the Moon visible from Earth, and little evidence of thick atmosphere. [2] How would one detect the Moon’s atmosphere from Earth? An obvious means is atmospheric refraction. As you watch the Sun set, its image is displaced by Earth’s atmospheric refraction at the horizon from the position it would have if there were no atmosphere, by roughly 0.6 degree (a bit more than the Sun’s angular diameter). On the Moon, any atmosphere would cause an analogous effect for a star passing behind the Moon during an occultation (multiplied by two since the light travels both into and out of the lunar atmosphere).
    [Show full text]