Galileo in Context

by Edited by Jürgen Renn

• ISBN13: 9780521001038
• ISBN10: 052100103X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This survey of recent attempts to dispel the myth of Galileo as isolated pioneer explores the intellectual, cultural and social contexts that substantially shaped Galilean science. Particular attention is paid to the influence of contemporary engineer-scientists on Galilean experimental physics, the influence of artists on the visual representation techniques used in Galilean astronomy, and the influence of the power structures of Galileo's day on the way in which scientific information was organized and communicated.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction An Engineer-Scientist, Artist, and Courtier at the Origins of Classical Science	1	(10)
Jurgen Renn
The Context of the Practioners: Mechanics and its New Objects
Galileo Engineer: Art and Modern Science	11	(1)
Wolfgang Lefevre
Hunting the White Elephant: When and How did Galileo Discover the Law of Fall?	11	(142)
Jurgen Renn
Peter Damerow
Simone Rieger
Domenico Giulini
The Context of the Artists: Astronomy and its New Representations
Gazing Hands and Blind Spots: Galileo as Draftsman	153	(40)
Horst Bredekamp
The Virgin and the Telescope: The Moons of Cigoli and Galileo	193	(26)
Sara Booth
Albert van Helden
The Contexts of the Church, Patrons, and Colleagues: New Science and Traditional Power Structures
Recent Narratives on Galileo and the Church or The Three Dogmas of the Counter-Reformation	219	(20)
Rivka Feldhay
Gassendi and l'Affaire Galilee of the Laws of Motion	239	(38)
Paolo Galluzzi
Replication or Monopoly? The Economies of Invention and Discovery in Galileo's Observations of 1610	277	(46)
Mario Biagioli
Appendix: A Forgotten Controversy
Introductory Note	323	(4)
Jurgen Renn
Raffaello Caverni and his History of the Experimental Method in Italy	327	(14)
Giuseppe Castagnetti
Michele Camerota
An Excerpt from History of the Experimental Method in Italy	341	(16)
Raffaello Caverni
Antonio Favaro and the Edizione Nazionale of Galileo's Works	357	(6)
Giuseppe Castagnetti
Michele Camerota
Apocryphal Galilean Writings	363	(8)
Antonio Favaro
Emil Wohlwill, Galileo and His Battle for the Copernican System	371	(4)
Hans-Werner Schutt
The Discovery of the Parabolic Shape of the Projectile Trajectory	375	(36)
Emil Wohlwill
Bibliography to the Appendix	411