Treccani History of Science
The Scientific Revolution
F1 – Perspectives on knowledge. Institutions and places
Edited by Daniel Garber
The Scientific revolution
• Science, scientia and its divisions
• People and places
• Was there a Scientific revolution in the 17th century?
Historical perspectives: Aristotelianism and the new philosophies
• Aristotelian natural philosophy
• Anti-Aristotelianism and the idea of a new philosophy
• Novelty and authority
• Mathematics and the natural world
• Experience, experiment and the new science
• Certainty and probability
Science and theology
• Scripture and Nature
• Galilei and the Church
• The two Books of God
• New philosophies of Nature
• God and the natural world
Cosmologies
• Antiquity and the Middle Ages
• Renaissance heritage
• A finite and uneven world: Kepler and Campanella
• An immense and uniform world: Galilei and Descartes
• Debates on the plurality of worlds
The transmission of European science to other cultures
• The Iberian Indies
• The English New World
• The New France
• The Dutch Indies
• Jesuits in the Middle Kingdom
Academies
• Motifs and inspiring characters
• The Lincei and the Italian experience
• The Court and the academy
• The Royal Society
• The Accademia del Cimento
• The Académie des Sciences
• Scientific communication and behavioural patterns
University and religious orders
• Teaching in the schools and in the universities
• Institutional constraints and resources
• Salons, libraries and academies
• Religious orders and Scientific revolution
Scientific and scholarly communication
• Publishing and the scientific book
• Scientific illustration and the illustrated book
• Correspondence and Jesuit networks
• Journals
• Popularization
Learned professions and technical professions
• Learned professions and the new science
• From qualitative physics to experimental science
• The role of the learned professions in the Scientific revolution
• Technical professions
Voyages of discovery and observation
• Cosmographic surveys of the Iberian Indies
• Missionary journeys
• Commercial exchanges in the Dutch Indies
• Cooperative voyages in the English New World
• Expeditions into New France
Cabinets
• Italy
• The United Provinces
• France, England, Europe
• The cabinet as a scientific instrument
Curiosity and natural knowledge
• Curiosity as passion
• Curiosities as objects
• Who were the curious?
Observatories, laboratories and botanical gardens
• Observatories and laboratories
• Botanical gardens
Arsenals, mines and artisan’s workshops
• The arsenal
• The mine
• The artisan’s workshop
• Conclusions
Scientific instruments
• Mathematical instruments
• The advent of optical instruments
• Instruments of natural philosophy
• The development of optical instruments
• The development of mathematical instruments
• Makers and natural philosophers; commerce and learning
Engineering and machine technology
• Innovation processes in engineering and machine technology
• Social conditions
• The cognitive dimension
• The impact of early modern engineering and machine technology on contemporary science