How Theology,Imagination,and the Spirit of Inquiry Shaped Natural Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages

Grant Edward , God and reason in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2001), 361.

See Grant Edward , A history of natural philosophy from the ancient world to the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 2007), 328.

See Grant Edward , “What was natural philosophy in the late Middle Ages?”, in History of universities, xx/2 (2005), 12–46, p. 19.

For the details on these four questions, see Grant , A history (ref. 2), 236–7.

For much more detailed information on the three formats, see Grant Edward , The foundations of modern science in the Middle Ages: Their religious, institutional, and intellectual contexts (Cambridge, 1996), 127–33.

From Grant , God and reason (ref. 1), 106–7.

Brooke John Hedley , Science and religion: Some historical perspectives (Cambridge, 1991), 58.

Grant , God and reason (ref. 1), 197.

See Grant , God and reason (ref. 1), 197. The translation is by Bert Hansen. For the full citation, see Grant , ibid., 197, n.128.

See Grant , A history (ref. 2), 257.

See Grant Edward , Science and religion from Aristotle to Copernicus 400 BC—AD 1550 (Santa Baarbara, CA, 2004; Baltimore, 2006), 25; also, Grant , A history (ref. 2), 258–9.

Grant , A history (ref. 2), 203.

For a lengthy treatment of the empyrean heaven, see Grant Edward , Planets, stars, and orbs: The medieval cosmos, 1200–1687 (Cambridge, 1994), 371–89.

Quoted in Grant , A history (ref. 2), 258.

For details, see Grant , Planets (ref. 13), 379.

Ibid., 380.

Ibid., 381.

Ibid., 378–82.

The treatises by Jordanus and Blasius have been edited and translated in The medieval science of weights (Scientia de ponderibus), treatises ascribed to Euclid, Archimedes, Thabit ibn Qurra, Jordanus de Nemore and Blasius of Parma, ed. by Moody Ernest A. Clagett Marshall (Madison, 1952).

See Grant Edward , “God, science, and natural philosophy in the late Middle Ages”, in Nauta Lodi Vanderjagt Arjo (eds), Between demonstration and imagination: Essays in the history of science and philosophy presented to John D. North (Leiden, 1999), 243–67. For a brief summary of the main points of my article, see Grant , A history (ref. 2), 257–62.

Grant , A history (ref. 2), 259.

Ibid., 259.

Ibid., 259–60.

For these examples, see Grant , “God, science and natural philosophy” (ref. 20), 260–1, and Grant , A history (ref. 2), 260.

The treatises are: Buridan John , Questions on On the Heavens (De caelo); Albert of Saxony, Questions on the Physics and Questions on Generation and Corruption; Oresme Nicole , Questions on On the Soul (De anima); and Judaeus Themon , Questions on the Meteorology. See Grant , A history (ref. 2), 261.

See Oresme Nicole : “De proportionibus proportionum” and “Ad pauca respicientes”, ed. by Grant Edward (Madison, 1966) and Nicole Oresme and the kinematics of circular motion: “Tractatus de commensurabilitate vel incommensurabilitate motuum celi”, ed. by Grant Edward (Madison, 1971).

For a brief summary of Oresme's theory of “ratio of ratios”, see Grant Edward , “Nicole Oresme”, in Gracia Jorge J. E. Noone Timothy B. (eds), Blackwell's companion to philosophy: A companion to philosophy in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 2003), 477–8.

Oresme Nicole : “De proportionibus proportionum” (ref. 26), chap. 4, Prop. VI, 289–91; also 47–8.

Ibid., 303.

I draw on the my article “Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme on natural knowledge”, in Vivarium, xxxi (1993), 84–105. In what follows, I rely on pp. 94–9.

Ibid., 94–5.

Grant , Foundations (ref. 5), 84.

Cited from Grant Edward , “Science and theology in the Middle Ages”, in God and nature: Historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and science, ed. by Lindberg David C. Numbers Ronald L. (Berkeley, 1986), 49–75, p. 69.

See Nicole Oresme and the medieval geometry of qualities and motions: A treatise on the uniformity and difformity of intensities known as “Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum et motuum”, ed. by Clagett Marshall (Madison, 1968), 135.

See Oresme Nicole , Le livre du ciel et du monde, ed. by Menut Albert D. Denomy Alexander J. (Madison, 1968), Book IV, chap. 12, 727–31.

Nicole Oresme and the marvels of nature: A study of his De causis mirabilium, ed. by Hansen Bert (Toronto, 1985), 137.

In this section, I draw extensively on my article “Scientific imagination in the Middle Ages”, Perspectives on science, xii (2004), 394–423, and on A history (ref. 2), 200–38.

I have described how this came about elsewhere and will not repeat it here. For summary accounts, see A history (ref. 2), 239–47 and Grant , Foundations (ref. 5), chap. 5, 70–85.

Grant , A history (ref. 2), 217. Buridan's discussion occurs in his Questions on Aristotle's Physics, Book 8, qu. 12.

Grant , A history (ref. 2), 196. The translation is drawn from Grant Edward , A source book in medieval science (Cambridge, MA, 1974), 286.

See Grant , “Scientific imagination” (ref. 37), 413.

For a detailed account, see Grant Edward , Planets, stars, and orbs (ref. 13), 637–47.

Oresme , Le livre du ciel et du monde (ref. 35), 537–9; see also Grant , Planets, stars, and orbs (ref. 13), 645.

My explanation from Grant , A history (ref. 2), 200.

For his extended discussion on other worlds, see Oresme , Le livre du ciel et du monde (ref. 35), 167–79. For an extended discussion, see Grant , Planets, stars, and orbs (ref. 13), chap. 8: ” The possibility of other worlds”, 150–68. For Oresme's arguments, see pp. 164–6.

Oresme , Le livre du ciel et du monde (ref. 35), 169.

Article 49, which asserts: “That God could not move the heavens [that is, the world] with rectilinear motion; and the reason is that a vacuum would remain.” See Grant , A source book (ref. 40), 48.

For a detailed discussion of God's possible movement of the cosmos rectilinearly, see Grant Edward , “The condemnation of 1277, God's absolute power, and physical thought in the late Middle Ages”, Viator, x (1979), 211–44, pp. 226–32.

For my discussion of extracosmic infinite void space, I rely on Grant , Foundations (ref. 5), 122–6, and Grant , “Scientific imagination” (ref. 37), 399–401.

Grant , Foundations (ref. 5), 122.

For the five corollaries, see Grant , “Scientific imagination” (ref. 37), 400.

Oresme , Le livre du ciel et du monde (ref. 35), 177.

Grant , Foundations (ref. 5), 125.