German astronomer Georg Peurbach writes a new teaching text titled "New Theorics of the Planets". Rather than showing diagrams made up of geometrical lines representing distinct motions, Peurbach displayed solid spheres of a finite thickness. (Dear pg. 21)
Lutheran theologian who oversaw publication of De revolutionibus (Dear 40)
The House of Trade increasingly concerned itself with mathematical navigational techniques, training the pilots who sailed routes to the New World, and gathering and coordinating related geographical and navigational information. Acted as a model for Bacon’s suggestions for state-run organizations in his own work. (Dear 56)
(Dear 36)
Reports begin circulating about Copernicus’ new research and his hypothesis. De Revolutionibus was consequently eagerly awaited. (Kuhn 185)
Publication of popular elementary defense of Copernicanism by English astronomer Thomas Digges. Digges’ work did much to spread the concept of the earth’s motion beyond the narrow circle of astronomers. (Kuhn 186)
Birth of Michael Maestlin, professor of astronomy at the University of Tubingen. His teaching of Copernicanism converted Kepler to support the new astronomy. (Kuhn 187)
Based in the Spanish capital Madrid, the Council of the Indies gathered geographical and natural historical information from the Americas to assist in the economic exploitation of their mineral and botanical wealth. Acted as a model for Bacon’s suggestions for state-run organizations in his own work. (Dear 56)
“Pirotechnia” was a work on the business of mining and metallurgy written in the vernacular. (Dear 51)
First printed discussion of Copernicus’ sun centered astronomy, written by Georg Joachim Rheticus Contained an outline of Copernicus’ ideas and praise for their virtues. (Dear 34)
French mathematician who was one of the architects of modern symbolic algebra (Dear 39)
Vesalius’ work collaborating on the production of a new scholarly edition on the works of Galen first appears. This work was intended to include, “all the appropriate scholarly apparatus commenting on and explicating the philogoical niceties of Galen’s language and terminology. Such an enterprise stood at the centre of humanist scholarship” (Dear 36)
The establishment of new botanical gardens in the sixteenth century was in part a response to the sudden availability of increasing numbers of new plants species that were arriving in Europe, especially from the Americas. These plants were studied in part for pharmaceutical reasons. (Dear 122)
(Kuhn 185)
(Kuhn 185)
Publishing of De humani Corporis Fabrica “On the Fabric of the Human Body” by anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius of Brussels. The book is dedicated to Roman Emperor Charles V as a “contribution to the general restoration of learning”. (Dear 36)
Birth of William Gilbert- A physician, Gilbert was also an advocate of empiricism and scornful of established Aristotelian learning. Gilbert proposed learning truths about nature through first-hand examination of things themselves. Much of the natural-philosophical content of “De magnete” owes considerable debts to the sixteenth century writers in broadly magical traditions, such as the Italian philosopher Girolamo Cardano. (Dear 53)
Italian nobleman who is best known for having been an early and influential patron of Galileo. Under his influence, Galileo adopted the tenets of a “philosopher-engineer” which later appear strongly in his earliest writing from around 1590. (Dear 45)
Brahe was responsible for immense changes in the techniques of astronomical observation and in the standards of accuracy demanded from astronomical data. Considered the greatest of all naked-eye observers. (Kuhn 208)
Erasmus Reinhold published his Prutenic Tables which he compiled by using Copernicus’ new mathematical models to compute data. The Prutenic Tables were the first complete tables prepared in Europe for three centuries. (Kuhn 187)
Du Bartas’ “The Week, or the Creation of the World” is first published in France. The long cosmological poem was immensely popular in France and England for the next century as it comically makes fun of Copernicans and Copernicanism in general. Du Bartas’ book was much more widely read and popular than De Revolutionibus. (Kuhn 189)
Wrote a history of mathematics reconstructing the history of mechanics using Archimedes as its pivotal point. (Dear 45)
“De re Metallica” was written by Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer), a German mining engineer in Saxony. Agricola’s work laid out in detail knowledge associated with practical matters of the mining of metallic ores and their refining. Agricola also wrote according to humanist models, attempting to make mining a proper pursuit for a gentlemen by associating with such high-class ancient repositories of knowledge such as Pliny’s “Naturalis historia” and equipping it with a Latin technical vocabulary. (Dear 51)
Libavius was an important writer on chemistry at the beginning of the seventeenth century who stressed in his work the civic role of the chemist and the importance of being an active participant in the affairs of one’s community. (Dear 51)
(Dear 56)
(Kuhn 219)
(Kuhn 209)
Brahe also observes comets in 1580, 1585, 1590, 1593, and 1596. (Kuhn 208)
“Historia natural y moral de las Indias” (“Natural and Moral History of the Indies”) by Jose de Acosta. Jose de Acosta’s work of natural history was one of the most celebrated examples of Spanish contributions to natural knowledge in the time period. This work was soon translated into other European language. (Dear 56)
Publication of Cosmogrpahical Mystery, Kepler’s first important book which opened with a lengthy defense of the Copernican system. (Kuhn 209)
Libavius’ textbook is notable for its lengthy presentation of the types of apparatus employed by chemists, comparable to Ptolemy’s discussions of astronomical instruments in his “Almagest”. (Dear 51)
Gresham College was an instution devoted to providing instruction to sailors and merchants in useful arts, especially practical mathematical techniques. (Dear 53)
Gilbert’s work exemplified the mixing of mathematical practice and natural philosophy. (Dear 53)
Publication of Apollonius Gallus (“The French Apollonius”) by Francois Viete, considered his greatest work. (Dear 39)
The Academy of the Lynxes was an exclusive group of philosophically minded gentleman that was formed under the patronage of the Marquess of Monticelli Federico Cesi. The name of the group was intended to indicate that its members were acute observers of nature since lynxes were proverbially keen of sight.
Bacon’s work presents many basic arguments and rhetorical strategies that feature in Bacon’s later writings. (Dear 56)
In this work, Bacon notably praised the philosophical insight of the so-called Presocratics, those Greek philosophers earlier in time than the great age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (late fifth and fourth centuries BC). The Presocratics had the supreme advantage for Bacon’s purposes of being known not by their original writings but by the second-hand accounts of later Greek writers and by brief quoted extracted from their works. This left a considerable degree of latitude for interpretation, permitting the ascription to them of a wide array of congenial ideas and achievements that the evidence at least did not obviously forbid. (Dear 57)
Kepler’s work detailed his findings about elliptical orbits and his variable speed law. Kuhn 212
Galileo resigned from his post to take up a position as “Court Philosopher and Mathematician” to the grand duke of Tuscany, whose court was in Florence. The move was both consequential and symbolic. Galileo negotiated the inclusion of Philosopher in his title. Galileo evidently regarded being a “philosopher” as more important, as well as more prestigious, than being a “mathematician”. (Dear 102)
Galileo’s pamphlet discussed the breakthrough astronomical observations he made using his newly created telescope. (Dear 102)
Catholic Church officially joins battle against Copernicanism, and the charge becomes formal heresy. (Kuhn 192)
Catholics no longer allowed to read De Revolutionibus and all other writings that affirmed the earth’s motions. Also forbidden from teaching or reading Copernican doctrines. (Kuhn 192)
Galileo became a member following a triumphal visit to Rome occasioned by his recent astronomical discoveries, during which the academy held a banquet in his honour. Galileo seemed to particularly have valued this distinction, as evidenced by his care to indicate it in his publications and in his printed references to other members. (Dear 109)
Publication of "Harmonies of the World" by Kepler which featured his Third Law for the first time. Kepler’s Third Law established a relation between the speeds of planets in different orbits. It states that the ratio of the squres of the orbital periods of two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of the average distances of those planets from the sun. Kepler’s Third Law pointed to a regularity in the solar system never perceived before. (Kuhn 217)
Dedicated to King James and written in Latin, Bacon’s work purports to be a wholesale replacement for the complex apparatus of Aristotelian logic. Bacon argued for a reconceptualization of natural philosophy itself. Bacon held that natural philosophy properly understood, should be directed towards achieving improvements in the well-being of humanity. (Dear 57)
Barberini was formerly a good friend of Galileo’s, but Barberini abandoned Galileo in the face of serious political problems created by conservative clerical opposition. (Dear 106)
(Dear 109)
Kepler publishes his Rudolphine Tables (Kuhn 219)
Galileo views the heavens through a telescope for the first time Kuhn (219)
(Dear 109)
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