These studies respond to the challenge posed twenty years ago by John E. Murdoch, in whose honor they have been assembled: to interpret ancient and medieval mathematical and scientific texts not just as isolated intellectual productions but as responses to particular settings or contexts. Two broad settings are explored here: that of the wider intellectual culture, where relations among mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy - and also theology, logic and astrology - are shown to have shaped individual texts; and the context of lay society, where institutional structures, patronage, even personal relationships impinged upon scientific writing. The volume reinforces the growing recognition that ancient and medieval scientific texts "made a difference" to their authors and audiences and must be understood in relation to topics like disciplinary identity, career advancement, lay interest, and practical applicability.
Author(s): Edith Sylla, Michael McVaugh (eds.)
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 78
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 368
City: Leiden
List of Plates viii
List of Contributors ix
Editor's Introduction / EDITH D. SYLLA AND MICHAEL R. MCVAUGH xi
Publications of John E. Murdoch xxviii
I. Eudoxan Astronomy and Aristotelian Holism in the 'Physics' / JEAN DE GROOT 1
II. The Latin Sources of 'Quadrans vetus', and What They Imply for Its Authorship and Date / WILBUR R. KNORR 23
ΙII. Roger Bacon's 'De laudibus mathematicae': A Preliminary Study / GEORGE MOLLAND 68
IV. What Really Happened on 7 March 1277? Bishop Tempier's Condemnation and Its Institutional Context / J. M. M. H. THIJSSEN 84
V. Armengaud Blaise as a Translator of Galen / MICHAEL R. MCVAUGH 115
VI. The Meanings of Natural Diversity: Marco Polo on the 'Division' of the World / KATHARINE PARK 134
VII. Thomas Bradwardine's 'De continuo' and the Structure of Fourteenth-Century Learning / EDITH D. SYLLA 148
VIII. Nicole Oresme, Aristotle's 'On the Heavens', and the Court of Charles V / EDWARD GRANT 187
IX. Charles V, Nicole Oresme, and Christine de Pizan: Unities and Uses of Knowledge in Fourteenth-Century France / JOAN CADDEN 208
X. Academic Consulting in Fifteenth-Century Vienna: The Case of Astrology / MICHAEL H. SHANK 245
XI. Domingo de Soto's 'Laws' of Motion: Text and Context / WILLIAM A. WALLACE 271
ΧII. Art, Nature, and Experiment among Some Aristotelian Alchemists / WILLIAM R. NEWMAN 305
Index Codicum 318
General Index 320
