From Pious to Polite: Pythagoras in the Res publica litterarum of French Renaissance Mathematics (2013)
Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, Pythagoras became a purveyor of polite secrets. To the Florentine Neoplatonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino, Pythagoras was a prophet or priest whose cryptic sayings might allow a glimpse into cosmic mysteries. By the 1650s one was as likely to find Pythagoras adorning a treatise on the theory of disciplines like swordsmanship and dancing. Numbers had come down to earth. This paper charts the first, crucial part of this inversion in meanings and importance attributed to Pythagoras---and so to mathematics---among French mathematicians in the first part of the sixteenth century. Keywords Pythagoras, mathematics, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Charles de Bovelles, Oronce Fine, Jacques Peletier du Mans, French republic of letters, Renaissance, humanism, philosophy
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Jacomien Prins;
(2015)
Echoes of an Invisible World: Marsilio Ficino and Francesco Patrizi on Cosmic Order and Music Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB988544896/)
Book
Angela Axworthy;
(2016)
Le mathématicien renaissant et son savoir: le statut des mathématiques selon Oronce Fine
(/isis/citation/CBB046243232/)
Article
Celenza, Christopher S.;
(1999)
Pythagoras in the Renaissance: The Case of Marsilio Ficino
(/isis/citation/CBB000660467/)
Article
Vengeon, Frédéric;
(2006)
Mathématiques, création et humanisme chez Nicolas de Cues
(/isis/citation/CBB000770984/)
Article
Hirai, Hiro;
(2006)
Âme de la terre, génération spontanée et origine de la vie: Fortunio Liceti critique de Marsile Ficin
(/isis/citation/CBB001031729/)
Book
Hirai, Hiro;
(2011)
Medical Humanism and Natural Philosophy: Renaissance Debates on Matter, Life, and the Soul
(/isis/citation/CBB001250502/)
Book
Monfasani, John;
(2004)
Greeks and Latins in Renaissance Italy: Studies in Humanism and Philosophy in the 15th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000641019/)
Book
López Pérez, Miguel;
Kahn, Didier;
Rey Bueno, Mar;
(2010)
Chymia: Science and Nature in Early Modern Europe (1450--1750)
(/isis/citation/CBB001023359/)
Article
Paul F. Grendler;
(2014)
Jesuit Schools in Europe. A Historiographical Essay
(/isis/citation/CBB687166731/)
Thesis
Artun, Tuna;
(2013)
Hearts of Gold and Silver: The Production of Alchemical Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman World
(/isis/citation/CBB001562879/)
Book
Katinis, Teodoro;
(2007)
Medicina e filosofia in Marsilio Ficino. Il Consilio contro la pestilentia
(/isis/citation/CBB001020352/)
Chapter
Hotson, Howard;
(2005)
The Instauration of the Image of God in Man: Humanist Anthropology, Encyclopaedic Pedagogy, Baconianism and Universal Reform
(/isis/citation/CBB000773818/)
Book
Bettinzoli, Attilio;
(2009)
La lucerna di Cleante. Poliziano tra Ficino e Pico
(/isis/citation/CBB001020521/)
Article
Elisabetta Ulivi;
(2011)
L'ultimo testamento di Luca Pacioli con altri documenti inediti
(/isis/citation/CBB184381808/)
Book
Coudert, Allison P.;
(2011)
Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America
(/isis/citation/CBB001201259/)
Article
Spiesser, Maryvonne;
(2008)
L'arithmétique pratique en France au seuil de la Renaissance: formes et acteurs d'un enseignement
(/isis/citation/CBB000930397/)
Article
Robin, Diana;
(2013)
Women on the Move: Trends in Anglophone Studies of Women in the Italian Renaissance
(/isis/citation/CBB001320631/)
Thesis
Daigle, Erica Nicole;
(2009)
Reconciling Matter and Spirit: The Galenic Brain in Early Modern Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001561069/)
Chapter
Ogilvie, Brian W.;
(2005)
Natural History, Ethics, and Physico-Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB000670275/)
Thesis
Martel, Heather Elaine;
(2001)
Christianizing the soul, disembodying science, Americanizing the flesh, 1498-1627
(/isis/citation/CBB001562620/)
Be the first to comment!