The theater of nature : Jean Bodin and Renaissance science / Ann Blair.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blair, Ann, 1961- author.

Series:

Princeton legacy library.

Princeton Legacy Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science, Renaissance.

Physics--History.

Physics.

Philosophy of nature--History.

Philosophy of nature.

Bodin, Jean, 1530-1596.

Bodin, Jean.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (398 pages).

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Theater of Nature is histoire totale of the last work of the political philosopher Jean Bodin, his Universae naturae theatrum (1596). Through Bodin's work, Ann Blair explores the fascinating and previously little known world of late Renaissance natural philosophy. A study of the text, of its context (through comparisons with different genres of natural philosophy and works entitled "Theater"), and of its reception in the seventeenth century highlights above all the religious motivations, encyclopedic ambitions, and bookish methods characterizing much of late Renaissance science. Amid the religious crisis and the explosion of knowledge in the late sixteenth century, natural philosophy offered grounds for consensus across religious divides and a vast collection of useful and pleasant information, admired for both its order and its variety. The commonplace book provided a versatile tool for gathering and sorting bits of natural knowledge garnered from a wide array of bookish sources and "experience,'' fueling a vigorous cycle of text-based science at least through the mid-seventeenth century. The miscellaneous genre of the problemata into which Bodin's text was adapted attracted more popular audiences until even later. To place the Theatrum in its cultural context is also to reveal more clearly the peculiarities of Bodin's philosophical project in this, its final expression. He combined arguments from reason, experience, and authority to undermine traditional Aristotelian conclusions and proposed instead a natural philosophy based on pious, often biblical, solutions.Originally published in 1997.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Conventions

Introduction

Chapter One. Kinds of Natural Philosophy

Chapter Two. Methods of Bookishness

Chapter Three. Modes of Argument

Chapter Four. Bodin's Philosophy of Nature

Chapter Five. Theatrical Metaphors

Chapter Six. The Reception of the Theatrum

Epilogue. The Legacies of the Theatrum

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691654386

0691654387

9780691606569

0691606560

OCLC:

1004871787