This volume deals with the tracts, Latin and vernacular, published in the Netherlands on the comets of 1577 and 1618. Central to the book is the question how these cometary appearances influenced the Aristotelian world view. Three introductory chapters on the historiography of cometology and the nature of sixteenth-century Aristotelianism are followed by a detailed examination of the Netherlandish authors' views on the nature and constitution of the universe. In the final chapter, their opinions on cometary prognostication are evaluated, and are linked to contemporary political developments. This is the first lengthy examination of the decline of Aristotelian cosmology in the Netherlands. Its demonstration of the connection between cosmological and political views renders the book useful to historians of general Dutch history, as well as historians of science.
Author(s): Tabitta van Nouhuys
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 89
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 616
City: Leiden
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION: OPINIO LOQUITUR, RATIO RESPONDET?
CHAPTER TWO. COMETS AFTER THE CESSATION OF DIALOGUE: A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
1. Dialogue
2. The Cessation of Dialogue
3. The Comets: Stock-Taking
4. Recent Historiography of Comets
a. Astronomy: Solving the Copernican Problem
b. Astrology: Reinstating the Discarded Image
CHAPTER THREE. COMETS BEFORE THE CESSATION OF DIALOGUE
1. Introduction
2. Aristotle's Choice
3. The Stoic Outlook
4. Seneca's Choice
5. Ptolemy: A Choice of Choices
6. Comets and the Early Christians
7. Aristotle and Christianity: A Problem-Fraught Love affair
8. Comets: The Dominicans
9. Comets: Measuring Distances
10. Sixteenth-Century Heterodoxy
CHAPTER FOUR. GREEK MEETS GREEK: THE CULMINATION OF DIALOGUE
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. A Chameleonic World View
3. "Doubt that the Sun doth Move"
4. The Comet of 1577: Its Proper Perspective
a. The Optical Theory of Comets
b. The Nova's Novelty
c. The Comet and Copemicanism
d. Lesser Gods
5. Conclusion: The Aristotelian World View Revisited
CHAPTER FIVE. SENECA SAVES ARISTOTLE: COSMOLOGY IN THE DUTCH TRACTS
1. Learned Tracts and Pamphlets
2. Dutch Reactions to the Comet of 1577
a. Order Out Of Chaos
b. Cornelius Gemma: "Materies Minime Sublunaris"
c. Johannes Heurnius: "In the Astral Element"
d. Mcolaus Bazelius: "Many Fatty Exhalations Mixed with Slimy Vapours"
e. Van Mauden and Portantius: Aflame and Hatched by saturn
3. Forty Tears of Development 1577 to 1618
a. Dutch Pamphlets on the Comets of 1596 and 1607: Heymensz and Mulerius
b. Magnetic Forces
c. "Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist Views"
4. Dutch Reactions to the Comet of 1618
a. Counter-Reformation at Loxwain
b. Thomas Fienus: "Esse corpus caeleste, atque esse in caelo"
c. Libertus Fromondus: "Peregrinum in Regione Planetarum Sidus"
d. Erycius Puteanus: "Caeli civem esse, Solis sobolem, aetheris partem & partum"
e. New Universities at Leiden and Groningen
f. Willebrord Snellius: "Solis άπoσπασμάτιov"
g. Niolaus Mulerius: "Rather an Eternal Creature of God"
5. Conclusion: Seneca Saves Aristotle
CHAPTER SIX. COMETARY CONCOMITANTS: ASTROLOGY AND TERATOLOGY IN THE DUTCH TRACTS
1. Introduction
a. The Mysterious Demise of the Final Cause
b. Pierre Boyle as a Guide
2. Theoretical Background: The Issues Facing Cometologists
a. The Two Faces of Divination: Astrological and Teratological strands
i. Their Origins in Antiquity
ii. Their Fortunes under Christianity
c. Comets at the Crossroads
3.The Netherlands, 1577
a. Current Affairs: Confusion and Deception
b. The Revival of the Teratological Tradition: Gemma and Heurnius
c. The Pamphlets of Portantius, Van Mauden, and Bazelius
4. The Netherlands, 1618
a. Current Affairs: The Parting of the ways
b. The Culmination of the Teratological Tradition: Puteanus
c. The Invalidation of the Astrological Tradition: Fienus and Fromondus
d. The Reformation of the Astrobgical Tradition: Snellius
e. The Continuation of the Astrological Tradition: Mulerius
f. Prudent Predictions: The Pamphlets
5. Conclusion
CHAPTER SEVEN. CONCLUSION: THE AGE OF TWO-FACED JANUS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
