The Marginalization of Astrology in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 464-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Ridder-Patrick
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Observational Methods ◽  
Core Component ◽  
University Library ◽  
University Curriculum ◽  
The University ◽  
Influential Individuals

As evidenced by student notebooks, astrology was a core component of the university curriculum in Scotland until the late seventeenth century. Edinburgh University Library catalogues document that purchases of astrology books peaked in the 1670s. By 1700, however, astrology’s place in academia had been irrevocably lost. The reasons for this abrupt elimination include changes in natural philosophy as scholastic ideas and texts were shed and Cartesianism, Copernicanism, Newtonianism and the experimental and observational methods were adopted. The changing identity of astrological practitioners also played a major role, as did the personal animosity of influential individuals like the mathematician and astronomer David Gregory.


The ‘Entheticus’ of John of Salisbury: A Critical Text

Traditio ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 127-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Pepin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
John Of Salisbury ◽  
University Library ◽  
Critical Text ◽  
Standard Edition ◽  
The University ◽  
Editio Princeps

The Entheticus de dogmate philosophorum of John of Salisbury has come down to us in three manuscripts: a twelfth-century codex in the British Museum (Royal 13. D. IV); a fourteenth-century manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge (Ii. II. 31); a seventeenth-century codex now located in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Hamburg Cod. Phil. 350). The editio princeps was published by Christian Petersen (Hamburg 1843), and it has remained the standard edition. However, important deficiencies in that work have made a complete re-examination of the text necessary.

Zabarella, Jacopo (1533–89)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eckhard Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Renaissance Period ◽  
Extensive Body ◽  
Intellectual Discipline ◽  
University Of Padua ◽  
The University ◽  
Aristotelian Tradition

Jacopo Zabarella was a professor of philosophy at the University of Padua. His work shows conclusively not only that it was possible to philosophize creatively within the limits of the Aristotelian tradition but also that this was still being done towards the end of the Renaissance period. Zabarella’s aim was not to overthrow Aristotle’s doctrines, but to expound them as clearly as possible. He produced an extensive body of work on the nature of logic, arguing that it was neither an art nor a science, but rather an instrumental intellectual discipline which arose from the philosopher’s practice of philosophizing or forming secondary notions. He also worked extensively on scientific method. He gives an account of order as disposing what we come to know through method, and he divides method into the method of composition, which moves from cause to effect, and the method of resolution, which moves from effect to cause. He also discussed regressus (a method for uniting composition and resolution) and thought that it would enable the scientist to discover new causal relations at the same time as proving conclusions with absolute necessity. Zabarella’s work was instrumental in a renewal of natural philosophy, methodology and the theory of knowledge; and it had a major impact on seventeenth-century philosophy textbooks, especially in the Protestant countries of northern Europe.

Reflection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Berger
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Comprehensive Manner ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
The University

This essay discusses a novel category of broadside in which entire systems of logic, natural philosophy, metaphysics, and moral philosophy are represented in a comprehensive manner and coherent format, by showing, on a single page, how individual elements of the system relate to the whole. These broadsides inspired viewers to explore philosophical topics through visually appealing artworks. They functioned to make the activity of learning philosophy and investigating philosophical notions pleasurable and entertaining. In this Reflection, details in two broadsides that present pictorial interpretations of the notion of pleasure and its dangers are examined, in order to show the equivocal attitudes toward sensual pleasures in the convent schools associated with the University of Paris in the early seventeenth century.

Platonism, Renaissance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Hankins
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Marsilio Ficino ◽  
Giordano Bruno ◽  
School Philosophy ◽  
Late Renaissance ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

Though it never successfully challenged the dominance of Aristotelian school philosophy, the revival of Plato and Platonism was an important phenomenon in the philosophical life of the Renaissance and contributed much to the new, more pluralistic philosophical climate of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Medieval philosophers had had access only to a few works by Plato himself, and, while the indirect influence of the Platonic tradition was pervasive, few if any Western medieval philosophers identified themselves as Platonists. In the Renaissance, by contrast, Western thinkers had access to the complete corpus of Plato’s works as well as to the works of Plotinus and many late ancient Platonists; there was also a small but influential group of thinkers who identified themselves as Christian Platonists. In the fifteenth century, the most important of these were to be found in the circles of Cardinal Bessarion (1403–72) in Rome and of Marsilio Ficino (1433–99) in Florence. Platonic themes were also central to the philosophies of Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94), the two most powerful and original thinkers of the Quattrocento. While the dominant interpretation of the Platonic dialogues throughout the Renaissance remained Neoplatonic, there was also a minority tradition that revived the sceptical interpretation of the dialogues that had been characteristic of the early Hellenistic Academy. In the sixteenth century Platonism became a kind of ‘countercultural’ phenomenon, and Plato came to be an important authority for scientists and cosmologists who wished to challenge the Aristotelian mainstream: men like Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Francesco Patrizi and Galileo. Nevertheless, the Platonic dialogues were rarely taught in the humanistic schools of fifteenth-century Italy. Plato was first established as an important school author in the sixteenth century, first at the University of Paris and later in German universities. In Italy chairs of Platonic philosophy began to be established for the first time in the 1570s. Though the hegemony of Aristotelianism was in the end broken by the new philosophy of the seventeenth century, Plato’s authority did much to loosen the grip of Aristotle on the teaching of natural philosophy in the universities of late Renaissance Europe.

Bacon, Roger (c.1214–92/4)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgette Sinkler
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Scientific Experiment ◽  
Latin West ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Century Science

Associated with both the University of Paris and Oxford University, Roger Bacon was one of the first in the Latin West to lecture and comment on Aristotle’s writings on subjects other than logic. After he came to know Robert Grosseteste’s work in natural philosophy, he became the advocate of a curricular reform that emphasized scientific experiment and the study of languages. His views were often unpopular, and he constantly belittled all who disagreed with him. Bacon’s work in logic and semantic theory had some influence during his lifetime and immediately after his death. His work in science, however, had little impact. His renown in the history of science is due in part to his being viewed as a precursor of the Oxford Calculators, who in turn anticipated certain important developments in seventeenth-century science.

‘the most beautifully bound book in the University Library’: The Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Wardlaw Bible in the Special Collections of the University of St Andrews

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-418
Author(s):  
Briony Harding
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Charles I ◽  
University Library ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Family Tradition ◽  
Geneva Bible ◽  
The University ◽  
King James Version

In 2001 Wardlaw family descendants gifted to the University of St Andrews a pair of embroidered seventeenth-century gauntlet gloves and an embroidered seventeenth-century Geneva Bible bound with The CL. Psalmes of David in Meeter. Family tradition purports that the bible and gloves were given by Charles I to Sir Henry and Lady Wardlaw. Although it is feasible that the gloves were gifted to the first Sir Henry by Charles I, the bible was published after 1640—its 1599 date of imprint is false—and it, therefore, cannot have been given to Sir Henry, who died in 1637. It is also questionable if Charles I would have gifted a Geneva Bible, rather than the King James Version. Following a detailed description of the binding and the conservation it has undergone, the Wardlaw family legend is re-examined through comparing the embroidered binding to others of the seventeenth century, examining the provenance within the bible, and discussing the Geneva version of the bible.

A list of Dutch book auction sale catalogues printed before 1611

Quaerendo ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-129
Author(s):  
Bert Van Selm
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Dutch Book ◽  
University Library ◽  
Auction Sale ◽  
The University

AbstractThe descriptions of the Dutch book auction sale catalogues of the period 1599-1610 are preceded by an introduction and a justification. The introduction includes a critical discussion of earlier lists of seventeenth-century Dutch catalogues. Two important collections receive particular attention, viz. those in the Royal Library in Copenhagen and the University Library, Heidelberg. In his justification the author refers to two catalogues of 1598 of which, however, there are no known extant copies. Each description, besides a list of copies, contains references in the literature to the catalogue concerned. The article gives a chronological survey of sales and indexes to auctioneers, printers and the present locations of copies.

scholarly journals James Gregory, the University observatory and the early acquisition of scientific instruments at the University of St Andrews

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen C. Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Scientific Instruments ◽  
University Library ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The University ◽  
Regius Professor

James Gregory, inventor of the reflecting telescope and Fellow of the Royal Society, was the first Regius Professor of Mathematics of the University of St Andrews, 1668–74. He attempted to establish in St Andrews what would, if completed, have been the first purpose-built observatory in the British Isles. He travelled to London in 1673 to purchase instruments for equipping the observatory and improving the teaching and study of natural philosophy and mathematics in the university, seeking the advice of John Flamsteed, later the first Astronomer Royal. This paper considers the observatory initiative and the early acquisition of instruments at the University of St Andrews, with reference to Gregory's correspondence, inventories made ca. 1699– ca. 1718 and extant instruments themselves, some of which predate Gregory's time. It examines the structure and fate of the university observatory, the legacy of Gregory's teaching and endeavours, and the meridian line laid down in 1748 in the University Library.

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