The Places of Astronomy in Early-Modern Culture

On astronomy in the universities see Schmitt C. B. , “Astronomy in the universities, 1560–1660”, in The general history of astronomy , ed. by Hoskin Michael , iii (Cambridge, forthcoming); Westman R. S. , “The astronomer's role in the sixteenth century: A preliminary study”, History of science, xviii (1980), 105–47; Biagioli M. , “The social status of Italian mathematicians 1450–1600”, History of science, xxvii (1989), 41–95 (which includes a comprehensive bibliography). On mid-sixteenth-century astronomy courses at Wittenberg, a major centre of study of the discipline, see Gingerich O. , “Heliocentrism as model and as reality”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, cxvii (1973), 513–22. At Ingolstadt the works expounded by Apian Philip (who succeeded to his father Peter Apian's chair of mathematics in 1552) included: Simius Nicolaus , Theoricae planetarum; his father's Cosmographia; Proclus's De sphaera; Winsemius (Sebastianus Theodoricus), Novae quaestiones sphaerae; and his own work on sundials, Scioterica (see Adam Melchior , Vitae Germanorum philosophorum (Heidelberg, 1605), 350). On astronomy at Ingolstadt see also Schöner C. , Mathematik und Astronomie an der Universität Ingolstadt im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1994). It should be noted that teaching of mathematics was very unevenly represented in the universities, and that then as now university curricula were a poor guide to the actual contents of university courses. The Proæmium mathematicum (Paris, 1567) of Pierre de la Ramée (Ramus) offers a comparative account of the state of the teaching and practice of mathematics, including astronomy, in the various nations; and his low estimation of the state of mathematics in France is largely confirmed by Margolin J.-C. , “L'enseignement des mathématiques en France (1540–70): Charles de Bovelles, Fine, Peletier, Ramus”, in French Renaissance studies 1540–70: Humanism and the Encyclopædia, ed. by Sharratt P. (Edinburgh, 1976), 109–55.

On astronomy textbooks in the period see Johnson F. R. , “Astronomical text-books in the sixteenth century”, in Science, medicine and history: Essays in the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer , ed. by Underwood E. A. , i (London, 1953), 285–302; Bennett J. and Meli Bertoloni D. (eds), Sphaera mundi: Astronomy books 1478–1600. A 50th anniversary exhibition at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Cambridge, 1994). On the editions of the Apian/Frisius Cosmographia see Van Ortroy F. , Bibliographie de l'oeuvre de Pierre Apian (Besançon, 1902; facsimile repr. Amsterdam, 1963), 78–86. Leedham-Green's E. S. Books in Cambridge inventories: Booklists from Vice-Chancellor's Court probate inventories in the Tudor and Stuart period, ii (Cambridge, 1986), shows for the period 1545–89 fifteen cases of possession by members of the University of Sacrobosco's De sphaera, and nine of Apian/Frisius's Cosmographia; also four of Frisius's De principiis astronomiae et cosmographiae, deque usu globi, a yet more elementary work of similar scope. A fine survey of the genres of astronomical writing in sixteenth-century France is to be found in the first part of Pantin's Isabelle La poésie du del en France de la seconde moitié du seizième siècle (Geneva, 1995).

The classic work on the “fictionalist” construal of astronomical hypothesis is Duhem P. , To save the phenomena, transl. by Doland E. and Maschler C. (Chicago, 1969; 1st pub. 1908). Critical reassessments of Duhem's interpretations include Westman R. S. , “The Melanchthon circle, Rheticus, and the Wittenberg interpretation of the Copernican hypothesis”, Isis, lxvi (1975), 163–93; Aiton E. J. , “Celestial spheres and circles”, History of science, xix (1981), 75–113; Jardine N. , “Scepticism in Renaissance astronomy”, in Scepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. by Popkin R. H. and Schmitt C. B. (Wolfenbüttel, 1987), 83–102.

See, e.g., Donahue W. H. , The dissolution of the celestial spheres, 1595–1650 (New York, 1981); Jardine N. , “The significance of the Copernican orbs”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xiii (1982), 168–94; Lerner M.-P. , Le monde des sphères (2 vols, Paris, 1997). Note that commentaries on the Theorica planetarum did on occasion touch on the natural philosophy of the heavenly bodies.

Reproduced and translated in Cunningham A. and Hug T. , Focus on the frontispiece of the “Fabrica” of Vesalius (Cambridge Wellcome Publications — Exhibition Series; Cambridge, 1994), 39.

Kusukawa S. , The transformation of natural philosophy: The case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge, 1995).

On Reinhold see Westman , op. cit. (ref. 1); Gingerich O. , “Reinhold, Erasmus”, in Dictionary of scientific biography, ed. by Gillispie C. C. , xi (New York, 1975), 365–7; Jarrell R. A. , “The contemporaries of Tycho Brahe”, in The general history of astronomy, ed. by Hoskin Michael , ii/A (Cambridge, 1989), 22–32.

Ratio studiorum et institutionis scholasticae Societatis Jesu …, ed. by Pachtler G. M. (Berlin, 1887–94), ii, 141–2; transl. by Dear P. , Mersenne and the learning of the schools (Ithaca, 1988), 44–45.

On Clavius's teaching see Baldini U. , “Christoph Clavius and the scientific scene in Rome”, in Gregorian reform of the calendar, ed. by Coyne G. V. Hoskin M. A. and Pedersen O. (Vatican City, 1983), 137–69; 'Legem impone subactis': Studi sufilosofia e scienze del gesuiti in Italia, 1540–1632 (Rome, 1992), part 2; Lattis J. M. , Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the collapse of Ptolemaic cosmology (Chicago, 1994). Our understanding of the early modern community of mathematicians and astronomers will be greatly increased by the publication of Baldini's U. and Napolitani's P. magisterial commented edition of Clavius's correspondence.

See Vasoli C. , La cultura delle corti (Florence, 1980), chap. 5.

See Rose P. L. , The Italian renaissance of mathematics: Studies on humanists and mathematicians from Petrarch to Galileo (Geneva, 1975), especially chap. 2.

Westman , op. cit. (ref. 1); Moran B. T. , “Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel and the aristocratic context of discovery”, in Scientific discovery: Case studies , ed. by Nickles T. (Dordrecht, 1980), 67–96; idem, “German prince-practitioners: Aspects in the development of courtly science, technology and procedure in the Renaissance”, Technology and culture, xxii (1981), 253–74; Leopold J. H. , Astronomen Sterne Geräte: Landgraf Wilhelm IV. und seine sich selbst bewegenden Globen (Lucerne, 1986); Biagioli M. , Galileo courtier: The practice of science in the culture of absolutism (Chicago, 1993).

My sketch of the non-élite contexts of astrology/astronomy draws on Dunn R. S. , “The status of astronomy in Elizabethan England, 1558–1603”, Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge, 1992.

On astrological portents see, e.g., Niccoli O. , Prophecy and people in Renaissance Italy, transl. by Cochrane L. G. (Princeton, 1990; 1st publ. 1987). On popular astrological weather predictions see Hellmann G. , “Einleitung”, Wetterprognosen und Wetterberichte des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts (Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten über Meteorologie und Erdmagnetismus, no. 12; Berlin, 1899, reprinted Nedeln, 1969), 7–33.

On the practices of astrological medicine see Chapman A. , “Astrological medicine”, in Health, medicine, and mortality in the sixteenth century, ed. by Webster C. (Cambridge, 1979), 275–300; Dunn , op. cit. (ref. 13).

See Biagioli , op. cit. (ref. 1); Johnston S. , “Mathematical practitioners and instruments in Elizabethan England”, Annals of science, xlviii (1991), 319–34.

The diversity and complexity of the relations between courts and the various urban élites are well illustrated in Humanisme et élites des cours et des villes au XVI^e siècle, ed. by Malettke K. and Voss J. (Pariser historische Studien, xxvii; Bonn, 1989).

On relations between courts and universities see, e.g., Baumgart P. , “Universitätsautonomie und landesherrliche Gewalt im späten 16. Jahrhundert”, Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, i (1974), 23–53.

Cf. Biagioli , op. cit. (ref. 1), 42. On Danti see Marchesi V. , “Del Padre Ignatio Danti, matematico, cosmografo, ingegnere e architetto”, in Memorie dei piú insigni pittori, scultori e architetti domenicani (Bologna, 1878–79), ii, 351–77.

On Ursus see Moller J. , Cimbria literata (Copenhagen, 1744), i, 513–18; Leopold , op. cit. (ref. 12), 22–25, 186–92; also Ursus's preface to his Fundamentum astronomicum (Strasbourg, 1588).

The touchstone for this kind of interpretation is Mauss's M. classic The gift , transl. by Halls W. D. (London, 1990; 1st publ. 1923–24). On early modern courtly gift exchange see, e.g., Galluzzi P. , “Il mecenatismo mediceo e le scienze”, in Idee, istituzioni, scienze ed arti nella Firenze dei Medici (Florence, 1980), 181–95; Biagioli M. , “Galileo's system of patronage”, History of science, xxviii (1990), 1–62, pp. 18–25, 38–41; Kettering S. , “Gift-giving and patronage in early-modern France”, French history, ii (1988), 133–51. The inappropriateness of traditional patronage models to early modern aristocratic societies is argued in Neuschel K. B. , Word of honor: Interpreting noble culture in sixteenth-century France (Ithaca, 1989), chap. 1. (I thank Emma Spary for drawing my attention to this work.)

On multiple dedication of books see Davies N. Z. , “Beyond the market: Books as gifts in sixteenth-century France”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, xxxiii (1983), 69–88; Findlen P. , Possessing nature: Museums, collecting, and scientific culture in early modern Italy (Berkeley, 1994), passim. Note that letters of dedication were themselves a courtly humanist innovation of the early sixteenth century: See Schottenloher K. , Die Widmungsvorrede im Buch des 16. Jahrhunderts (Munster, 1953).

Findlen , op. cit. (ref. 22), 346.

See Trinkaus C. , “The astrological cosmos and rhetorical culture of Giovanni Gioviano Pontano”, Renaissance quarterly, xxxviii (1985), 446–72. On Pontano's cosmology see also Tateo F. , Astrologia e moralità in Giovanni Pontano (Bari, 1960); Bottin F. , “‘Strumentalismo’ e ‘macchinismo’ nell'universo astrologico di Giovanni Pontano”, in Platonismo e aristotelismo nel Mezzogiorno d'Italia (secc. XIV-XVI), ed. by Roccaro G. (Palermo, 1989), 161–73.

Westman R. S. , “Proof, poetics, and patronage: Copernicus's preface to De revolutionibus”, in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by Lindberg D. C. and Westman R. S. (Cambridge, 1990), 167–205.

Fracastoro G. , Homocentrica sive de stellis (Venice, 1538): In particular, Fracastoro claims that his new orbs are an apt replacement for the monstrous and indecorous eccentrics, and he suggests that “fate has somehow reserved them” for the new reformer of the Church to use in the restitution of the calendar.

For a brief and moving history of Mannerist works and Mannerist theory see Shearman J. , Mannerism (Harmondsworth, 1967). The relations between Mannerist aesthetic values and courtly collecting and competition were pointed out long ago by von Schlosser Julius , Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (Leipzig, 1908).

Benesch O. , The art of the Renaissance in northern Europe (London, 1945), 139–43; Hallyn F. , La structure poétique du monde: Copemic, Kepler (Paris, 1987), chap. 9.

Evans R. J. W. , Rudolf Il and his world: A study in intellectual history (Oxford, 1973), 245–7.

Kepler , Harmonice mundi [Linz, 1619], Gesammelte Werke, vi. On Kepler's harmonic theory see Walker D. P. , Studies in musical sciences in the late Renaissance (Leiden, 1978), chap. 4; Stephenson B. , The music of the heavens: Kepler's harmonic astronomy (Princeton, 1994); Martens R. M. , “Kepler's archetypes in discovery and justification”, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Western Ontario, 1997.

Notably Vitruvius , De architectura, I, 2–3 (also III, 1; V, 4).

De architectura libri decem, cum commentarijs Danielis Barbari… (Venice, 1567), especially pp. 11–14, on harmony; pp. 18–20, on symmetria; p. 25, on imitatio and archetypal ideas.

Kepler J. , Apologia Tychonis contra Ursum , in Jardine N. , The birth of history and philosophy of science: Kepler's “A defence of Tycho against Ursus” with essays on its provenance and significance, revised edn (Cambridge, 1988), 185–6.

On mannerist imitatio and its sources see, e.g., Pigman G. W. , “Versions of imitation in the Renaissance”, Renaissance quarterly, xxx (1983), 1–32; Blumenberg H. , “‘Nachahmung der Natur’: Zur Vorgeschichte der Idee des schöpferischen Menschen”, Studium generale, x (1957), 276–83; Tigerstedt E. N. , “The poet as creator: Origins of a metaphor”, Comparative literary studies, v (1968), 455–88.

Kepler J. , Gesammelte Werke , iv, 245–6, transl. by Walker , op. cit. (ref. 30), 56.

See above, ref. 21.

Note that astronomical and other instruments were frequently displayed in Wunderkammern and Kunstkammern: See, e.g., Scheicher E. , “The collection of Archduke Ferdinand II at Schloss Ambras: Its purpose, composition, and evolution”, in The origins of museums: The cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe , ed. by Impey O. and MacGregor A. (Oxford, 1985), 29–38; Drier F. A. , “The Kunstkammer of the Hessean Landgraves in Kassel”, in ibid. , 102–9; Kugler G. , “Rudolf II. als Sammler”, in Prague um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Kaiser Rudolfs II. (Freren, Emsland, 1988), ii, 9–21; Findlen P. , “Cabinets, collections, and natural philosophy”, in Fučíkova E. (eds), Rudolf II and Prague (Prague, 1997), 209–19.

Biagioli M. , “Galileo the emblem maker”, Isis, lxxxi (1990), 230–58.

Treutler H. , Oratio historica de vita et morte … Wilhelmi Hassiae Landtgravii … (Marburg, 1592), 82–85. In fact Rudolf had offered to pay for the globe: See the account of the affair in Leopold , op. cit. (ref. 12), 175–6.

For comprehensive analyses and beautiful illustrations of Bürgi's astronomical devices and their workings see Leopold , op. cit. (ref. 12), passim.

Ibid., chap. 12.

Aspects of the controversy are discussed in Jardine , op. cit. (ref. 33); Rosen E. , Three imperial mathematicians (New York, 1986); and Gingerich O. and Westman R. S. , The Wittich connection: Conflict and priority in late sixteenth-century cosmology (Philadelphia, 1988). See also Granada M. A. , El debate cosmólogico en 1588: Bruno, Brahe, Rothmann, Ursus, Röslin (Naples, 1996), chap. 4; and Lerner M.-P. , Le monde des sphères, ii: La fin du cosmos classique (Paris, 1997), 142–6.

Kepler , Apologia Tychonis contra Ursum, in Jardine , op. cit. (ref. 33).

Letter of 21 Dec. 1588 to von Rantzau Heinrich (Ursus's former employer), Tychonis Brahe opera omnia, ed. by Dreyer J. L. E. (Copenhagen, 1913–29), vii, 387–8.

Tycho, in Kepler , Gesammelte Werke, xiv, 91.

Cf. Gingerich and Westman , op. cit. (ref. 42), 70; Jardine N. , “How to appropriate a world system”, essay-review of Gingerich and Westman , op. cit., Journal for the history of astronomy, xxi (1990), 353–8.

Ursus , De hypothesibus astronomicis … tractatus … (Prague, 1597), sig. Aiii,v-Aiv,r.

Kepler , Apologia Tychonis contra Ursum, in Jardine , op. cit. (ref. 33).