[Tdotu]ūsī and Copernicus: The Earth's Motion in Context

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 145-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Jamil Ragep
Keyword(s):  
Observational Evidence ◽  
Striking Similarity ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Textual Transmission ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth ◽  
Philosophical Matter

A passage in Copernicus's De Revolutionibus regarding the rotation of the Earth provides evidence that he was aware, whether directly or indirectly, of an Islamic tradition dealing with this problem that goes back to Na[sdotu]īr al-Dīn al-[Tdotu]ūsī (1201–1274). The most striking similarity is the use of comets by both astronomers to discredit Ptolemy's “proofs” in the Almagest that depended upon observational evidence. The manner in which this question was dealt with by Copernicus, as an astronomical rather than natural philosophical matter, also argues for his being within the tradition of late medieval Islamic astronomy, more so than that of medieval Latin scholasticism. This of course is bolstered by his use of non-Ptolemaic models, such as the [Tdotu]ūsī couple, that have a long history in Islam but virtually none in medieval Europe. Finally, al-Qūshjī, who was in Istanbul just before Copernicus was born, entertained the possibility of the Earth's rotation; this also opens up the possibility of non-textual transmission.

scholarly journals Occultation of Planets by the Moon in European Narrative Medieval Sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-220
Author(s):  
María José Martínez Usó ◽  
Francisco J. Marco Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Calculation Of Parameters ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
The World ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth ◽  
Shed Light

Existing research dealing with astronomical observations from medieval Europe have extensively covered topics such as solar and lunar eclipses and sightings of comets and meteors, but no compilation of occultations of planets by the Moon has been carried out and, till now, the data have remained scattered in different publications. The main reasons for this are the small number of observations that has reached us, their limited use for calculation of parameters associated with the rotation of the Earth, and the fact that between the fifth and fifteenth centuries, the period that we consider, almost none of these observations were made scientifically, since they usually appear in narrative texts, be they chronicles or annals. Our purpose is to make a compilation of these phenomena, trying to shed light on some of the most controversial observations after examining them in their historical context. We will examine European sources, but, occasionally, we will also consider reports from other parts of the world to make comparisons, when necessary.

Oresme, Nicole (c.1325–82)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Molland
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Mathematical Language ◽  
Mathematical Approach ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth ◽  
Important Position ◽  
Straight Lines

Nicole Oresme, a French thinker active in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, occupies an important position in late medieval natural philosophy. He was especially notable for his mathematical approach, in which he represented the intensities of qualities and of speeds by geometrical straight lines, which allowed them to be ‘plotted’ in principle against both distance and time. He held that the shapes of the resulting graphs would then have explanatory force in the manner of ancient atomism, but, like the latter, his doctrine had a weak empirical basis. His graphical representations of speed have been compared to those later given by Galileo, but there are no grounds for positing influence. He was prominent in developing a particular mathematical language of ratios, which had earlier been used by Thomas Bradwardine to propose a ‘law’ relating speeds to forces and resistances, and Oresme likewise applied the language to cosmological and physical questions. He was a firm opponent of much of astrology and of magic, and to this end he employed both naturalistic and sceptical arguments. He gave many strong arguments in favour of a daily rotation of the earth, but finally concluded that it was at rest: his gambit had primarily a sceptical and fideistic purpose.

Contesting the City

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian D. Liddy
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Urban Citizenship ◽  
Town Government ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The City

The political narrative of late medieval English towns is often reduced to the story of the gradual intensification of oligarchy, in which power was exercised and projected by an ever smaller ruling group over an increasingly subservient urban population. This book takes its inspiration not from English historiography, but from a more dynamic continental scholarship on towns in the southern Low Countries, Germany, and France. Its premise is that scholarly debate about urban oligarchy has obscured contemporary debate about urban citizenship. It identifies from the records of English towns a tradition of urban citizenship, which did not draw upon the intellectual legacy of classical models of the ‘citizen’. This was a vernacular citizenship, which was not peculiar to England, but which was present elsewhere in late medieval Europe. It was a citizenship that was defined and created through action. There were multiple, and divergent, ideas about citizenship, which encouraged townspeople to make demands, to assert rights, and to resist authority. This book exploits the rich archival sources of the five major towns in England—Bristol, Coventry, London, Norwich, and York—in order to present a new picture of town government and urban politics over three centuries. The power of urban governors was much more precarious than historians have imagined. Urban oligarchy could never prevail—whether ideologically or in practice—when there was never a single, fixed meaning of the citizen.

At the Edge of Reformation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Linehan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.

The Terrestrial Coordinate System and International Earth-rotation Services

1985 ◽  
Vol 38 (02) ◽  
pp. 216-217
Author(s):  
G. A. Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
Earth Rotation ◽  
Reference System ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Crustal Movements ◽  
Earth Observations ◽  
The Earth ◽  
External Reference ◽  
External Objects ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth

New techniques of measurement make it possible in 1984 to determine positions on the surface of the Earth to a much higher precision than was possible in 1884. If we look beyond the requirements of navigation we can see useful applications of global geodetic positioning to centimetric accuracy for such purposes as the control of mapping and the study of crustal movements. These new techniques depend upon observations of external objects, such as satellites or quasars rather than stars, and they require that the positions of these objects and the orientation of the surface of the Earth are both known with respect to an appropriate external reference system that is ‘fixed’ in space. We need networks of observing stations and analysis centres that monitor the motions of the external objects and the rotation of the Earth. Observations of stars by a transit circle are no longer adequate for this purpose.

Sensing the rotation of the Earth

1992 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-111
Author(s):  
H. Richard Crane
Keyword(s):  
The Earth ◽  
Rotation Of The Earth
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