History and mythography: On the role of Archimedean mathematics in the Renaissance

Abstract

This article argues that the recovery of Greek mathematics and particularly the mathematics of Archimedes in the course of the twelfth to sixteenth centuries was not the only factor that brought about the creation of modern mathematics in the course of the seventeenth. On the contrary, the work of mathematicians such as Francesco Maurolico, Luca Valerio, and Bonaventura Cavalieri, or of scientists such as Guidobaldo dal Monte and Galileo, was impeded by their attempts to hold to the paradigm of Greek mathematics.