Between Copernicus and Galileo : Christoph Clavius and the collapse of Ptolemaic cosmology / James M. Lattis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lattis, James M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clavius, Christoph, 1538-1612.

Clavius, Christoph.

Ptolemy, active 2nd century.

Ptolemy.

Cosmology, Medieval.

Astronomy, Medieval.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (316 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Between Copernicus and Galileo is the story of Christoph Clavius, the Jesuit astronomer and teacher whose work helped set the standards by which Galileo's famous claims appeared so radical, and whose teachings guided the intellectual and scientific agenda of the Church in the central years of the Scientific Revolution. Though relatively unknown today, Clavius was enormously influential throughout Europe in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries through his astronomy books-the standard texts used in many colleges and universities, and the tools with which Descartes, Gassendi, and Mersenne, among many others, learned their astronomy. James Lattis uses Clavius's own publications as well as archival materials to trace the central role Clavius played in integrating traditional Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian natural philosophy into an orthodox cosmology. Although Clavius strongly resisted the new cosmologies of Copernicus and Tycho, Galileo's invention of the telescope ultimately eroded the Ptolemaic world view. By tracing Clavius's views from medieval cosmology the seventeenth century, Lattis illuminates the conceptual shift from Ptolemaic to Copernican astronomy and the social, intellectual, and theological impact of the Scientific Revolution.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Note on Editions, Quotations, Translations, and Names

One. Clavius's Astronomical Work and Life

Two. Jesuit Mathematics and Ptolemaic Astronomy

Three. The Defense of Ptolemaic Cosmology

Four. The Rival Cosmologies

Five. Cosmological Debate and the Rebuttal of Copernicus

Six. Strains on Ptolemaic Cosmology, Inside and Out

Seven. Galileo, Tycho, and the Fate of the Celestial Spheres

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-284) and index.

ISBN:

9786613058362

9781283058360

1283058367

9780226469263

0226469263

OCLC:

701704588