Publishing Sacroboscos De sphaera in Early Modern Europe by Matteo Valleriani

Publishing Sacroboscos De sphaera in Early Modern Europe by Matteo Valleriani

This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations

of scientific knowledge in the early modern period.

It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera,

by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique

standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from

manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform

of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring

Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650,

represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological

worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De

revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543.

The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the

process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material

infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the

premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

“There is much in this collection that should interest historians of early modern science, as well as historians of early modern print culture and visual cultureThis edited volume is part of a multiyear project at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science … . Written in the 13th-century in Paris, this slim text was taught in universities across Europe until the end of the 17th century.” (Kathleen Crowther, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 54 (3), August, 2023)

Matteo Valleriani's research focuses on the history of mechanics from classical antiquity to late Renaissance. In particular, his research intends to determine the role of the relations between practical knowledge and technology on the one side, and theoretical knowledge on the other side, within the framework of the processes of emergence of new theoretical knowledge. The research is structured on four different levels. The first level is the epistemological level that aims at formulating an epistemic theory of practical knowledge. The second level concerns mechanisms of diffusion of practical knowledge and the consequences this diffusion has in different cultures, as well as the transmission over epochs. The third level refers to the relationship between practical knowledge and natural philosophy. Finally, the fourth level analyzes the inherent points of contact between practical and theoretical knowledge and explores the mechanisms of the processes of emergence of new scientific knowledge.

Matteo Valleriani's research moreover extends the implementation of the approach used to explore mechanisms of diffusion of knowledge also to studies dedicated to the role of Aristotelian knowledge in all cultures and epochs, in which this played a relevant role.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9783030865993
ISBN 10	3030865991
Title	Publishing Sacroboscos De sphaera in Early Modern Europe
Author	Matteo Valleriani
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Year published	2022-04-26
Number of pages	492
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.