The Role of Gardens in the Development of Early Modern Thought Cristian Benţe The volume Gardens as Laboratories. The History of Botany through the History of Gardens, Volume 6, Issue 1 of the Journal of Early Modern Studies, attempts to reconstruct the role played by gardens in the development of early modern European thought. […]
Category: Vol. 11 no. 2
Mathematical Practitioners, Mixed Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Europe
Mathematical Practitioners, Mixed Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Europe Grigore Vida “Theory and practice” is one of those dichotomies that is so entrenched in our thinking that we cannot overcome it, although its shortcomings are often felt. Just like “content and form,” “material and ideal,” etc., the distinction between “theory” and “practice” […]
The Uncertainty of the Global Earth in the History of Progress
The Uncertainty of the Global Earth in the History of Progress Takaharu Oda Is the shape of the Earth really a globe? Reading closely, the author of this voluminous paperback (first published as hardcover in 2015), historian David Wootton, does not take for granted the fact that the Earth is round or spherical. However, […]
The Colourful World of Naturalia Drawings
The Colourful World of Naturalia Drawings Lucie Čermáková The field of visual representations of nature is very attractive for historians of art and science and it has recently gained remarkable attention. The early modern period is in this regard crucial because the production of naturalia pictures was increasing significantly during that time. Usually attention […]
Godly Scholar: The Making of Isaac Newton
Godly Scholar: The Making of Isaac Newton Dana Jalobeanu For more than half a century, the field of Newton studies was characterized by a long and “exciting chase,” as Richard H. Popkin aptly described the painstaking process of reading, transcribing, attempting to date, understand and interpret the multitude of Newton’s manuscripts. Sometimes, the chase […]
Leibniz and the Perfection of Clocks
Leibniz and the Perfection of Clocks Matteo Favaretti Camposampiero Abstract. Throughout his life, Leibniz showed serious interest in the construction of clocks and actively contributed to their technical improvement. He described the mechanical and especially the pendulum clock as a paradigmatic kind of machine, and therefore as a suitable model for exploring the nature […]
Oscillating Affects: Spinoza’s Models for the Confrontation and Adaptation of Opposite Things
Oscillating Affects: Spinoza’s Models for the Confrontation and Adaptation of Opposite Things Maxime Rovere Abstract. Spinoza’s conception of “negativity: is generally approached under the angle of his metaphysics. Relying instead on ethical considerations throughout his work, this article proposes to identify a slight evolution in the philosopher’s thought, especially between the Tractatus de Intellectus […]
Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens: The Odd Philosopher and the Odd Sympathy of Pendulum Clocks
Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens: The Odd Philosopher and the Odd Sympathy of Pendulum Clocks Filip Buyse Abstract. In 1665, in a response to a question posed by Robert Boyle, Spinoza gave a definition of the coherence between bodies in the universe that seems to be inconsistent both with what he had written in a […]
The Pulsilogium of Santorio New Light on Technology and Measurement in Early Modern Medicine
The Pulsilogium of Santorio New Light on Technology and Measurement in Early Modern Medicine Fabrizio Bigotti, David Taylor Abstract. Abstract. The emergence of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had in medicine an important field of development thanks especially to the work of Santorio Santori (1561-1636). Mostly known for his contribution to […]
The Mathematics of Isochronism in Galileo: From his Manuscript Notes on Motion to the Discorsi
The Mathematics of Isochronism in Galileo: From his Manuscript Notes on Motion to the Discorsi Mohammed Abattouy Abstract. This article surveys Galileo’s contribution to the conceptualisation of the problem of isochronism, as his most important input in the study of the oscillation of heavy bodies. We will deal essentially with the mathematical aspects of […]