The Copernican Question

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus publicly defended his hypothesis that the earth is a planet and the sun a body resting near the center of a finite universe. But why did Copernicus make this bold proposal? And why did it matter? "The Copernican Question" reframes this pivotal moment in the history of science, centering the story on a conflict over the credibility of astrology that erupted in Italy just as Copernicus arrived in 1496. Copernicus engendered enormous resistance when he sought to protect astrology by reconstituting its astronomical foundations. Robert S. Westman shows that efforts to answer the astrological skeptics became a crucial unifying theme of the early modern scientific movement. His interpretation of this 'long sixteenth century', from the 1490s to the 1610s, offers a new framework for understanding the great transformations in natural philosophy in the century that followed.

ISBN 0520254813   Pages 704 ISBN13 9780520254817 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1457 Publisher University of California Press   Published in Berkerley Imprint University of California Press   Height (mm) 260 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 184 Publication date 28 Jul 2011   Spine width (mm) 50 DEWEY 520.9409031   Academic level Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22

List of Figures List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction The Historical Problematic Summary and Plan of This Work Categories of Description and Explanation Part I. Copernicus's Space of Possibilities 1. The Literature of the Heavens and the Science of the Stars Printing, Planetary Theory, and the Genres of Forecast Copernicus's Exceptionalism Practices of Classifying Heavenly Knowledge and Knowledge Makers The Science of the Stars The Career of the Theorica/Practica Distinction Theoretical Astrology: From the Arabic to the Reformed, Humanist Tetrabiblos The Order of the Planets and Copernicus's Early Formation Copernicus's Problematic: The Unresolved Issues 2. Constructing the Future The Annual Prognostication The Popular Verse Prophecies Sites of Prognostication 3. Copernicus and the Crisis of the Bologna Prognosticators, 1496-1500 The Bologna Period, 1496-1500: An Undisturbed View From the Krakow Collegium Maius to the Bologna Studium Generale Bologna and the "Horrible Wars of Italy" The Astrologers' War Pico against the Astrologers Domenico Maria Novara and Copernicus in the Bologna Culture of Prognostication Prognosticators, Humanists, and the Sedici Copernicus, Assistant and Witness The Averroists and the Order of Mercury and Venus Copernicus's Commentariolus or, Perhaps, the Theoric of Seven Postulates Copernicus, Pico, and De Revolutionibus Part II. Confessional and Interconfessional Spaces of Prophecy and Prognostication 4. Between Wittenberg and Rome: The New System, Astrology, and the End of the World Introduction Melanchthon, Pico, and Naturalistic Divination Rheticus's Narratio Prima in the Wittenberg-Nuremberg Cultural Orbit World-Historical Prophecy and Celestial Revolutions Celestial Order and Necessity Necessity in the Consequent The Astronomy without Equants Principles versus Tables without Demonstrations The Publication of De Revolutionibus: Osiander's "Ad Lectorem" Holy Scripture and Celestial Order De Revolutionibus: Title and Prefatory Material The "Principal Consideration" 5. The Wittenberg Interpretation of Copernicus's Theory Melanchthon and the Science of the Stars at Wittenberg The Melanchthon Circle, Rheticus, and Albertine Patronage Rheticus, Melanchthon, and Copernicus: A Psychodynamic Hypothesis Erasmus Reinhold, Albrecht, and the Formation of the Wittenberg Interpretation The Prutenic Tables, Patronage, and the Organization of Heavenly Literature The Consolidation of the Wittenberg Interpretation The Advanced Curriculum at Wittenberg Germany as the "Nursery of Mathematics" Conclusion 6. Varieties of Astrological Credibility Marking the Dangers of Human Foreknowledge Becoming a Successful Prognosticator Multiplying Genitures From Wittenberg to Louvain: Astrological Credibility and the Copernican Question John Dee and Louvain: Toward an Optical Reformation of Astrology Jofrancus Offusius's Semi-Ptolemaic Solution to the Variation in Astral Powers Skirting the Margins of Dangerous Divination 7. Foreknowledge, Skepticism, and Celestial Order in Rome De Revolutionibus at the Papal Court: A Stillborn (Negative) Reaction The Holy Index and the Science of the Stars Making Orthodoxy: Learned Advice from Trent Astrology, Astronomy, and the Certitude of Mathematics in Post-Tridentine Heavenly Science The Jesuits' "Way of Proceeding": The Teaching Ministry, the Middle Sciences, Astrology, and Celestial Order Clavius on the Order of the Planets Disciplinary Tensions Astronomy in a Hexameral Genre: Robert Bellarmine Part III. Accommodating Unanticipated, Singular Novelties 8. Planetary Order, Astronomical Reform, and the Extraordinary Course of Nature Astronomical Reform and the Interpretation of Celestial Signs The New Piconians Mistrusting Numbers The Rise of the Theoretical Astronomer and the "Science" of the New Star of 1572 The Generic Location of the New Star Court Spaces and Networks: Uraniborg, Hapsburg Vienna an

"Now, at long last, we have this vast (and beautifully produced and illustrated) book to hold in our hands."--Times Literary Supplement (Tls) "[An] enormously erudite treatment."--Science (Aaas)

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