“… Che i matti dicano spropositi”: A Discussion of Cometary Theory and Superstition in Seventeenth Century Italy (2017)
Bruno-Chomin, Giuseppe (Author)
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Volume: 32
Issue: 1
Pages: 85-110
Cometary theory had remained predominantly rooted in Aristotelianism until late in the seventeenth century. Yet concurrent with the expansion of astronomical understanding there persisted a steadfast vein of astrological superstition. While the newly emerging field of experimental natural philosophy successfully discredited many traditional principles, a notable discord still existed within the academic community regards cometary superstition and prognostication. The Neapolitan mathematician, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, sought to rectify past misconceptions regarding the nature of comets. And literary figures Carlo de’ Dottori and Ciro di Pers textually document the cometary debate in two of their poems. This paper seeks to underscore the diverging paths that the interrelated fields of astrology and astronomy took by considering letters sent by Borelli to Dionigi Guerrini and two seventeenth century poetic works.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Boschiero, Luciano;
(2009)
Giovanni Borelli and the Comets of 1664--65
(/isis/citation/CBB000930143/)
Book
Ovidio Montalbani;
Linda Bisello;
(2017)
Del vento e delle comete: Speculazioni accademiche
(/isis/citation/CBB450320639/)
Thesis
Laura E. Bland;
(2016)
Unfriendly Skies: Science, Superstition, and the Great Comet of 1680
(/isis/citation/CBB968402275/)
Book
Pietro Daniel Omodeo;
Volkhard Wels;
(2019)
Natural Knowledge and Aristotelianism at Early Modern Protestant Universities
(/isis/citation/CBB325233371/)
Article
Renée Raphael;
(2022)
Reading Experiment in 17th-Century Pisa: between University and Academy
(/isis/citation/CBB865172693/)
Article
Ting Chen;
Lingfeng Lü;
(2022)
Astronomical or political: Interpretation of comets in times of crisis in Qing China
(/isis/citation/CBB395595446/)
Book
Emanuele Zinato;
(2004)
Il vero in maschera: dialogismi galileiani. Idee e forme nelle prose scientifiche del Seicento
(/isis/citation/CBB596206141/)
Chapter
Strano, Giorgio;
(2009)
Saturn's Handles: Observations, Explanations and Censorship from Galileo to the Accademia del Cimento
(/isis/citation/CBB001020795/)
Book
Thierry Belleguic;
(2013)
Ordre et désordre du monde: enquête sur les météores, de la Renaissance à l'âge moderne
(/isis/citation/CBB238470883/)
Article
Moreno Corral, Marco Arturo;
Berrón Mena, Tannia;
(2000)
Sigüenza y Góngora: un científico de transición
(/isis/citation/CBB000102467/)
Chapter
Bernadette Brady;
(2015)
Galileo’s Astrological Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB647331398/)
Article
Marco Piccolino;
(2007)
I sensi, l'ambiguità, la conoscenza nell'opera di Galileo
(/isis/citation/CBB706125835/)
Article
Ovanes Akopyan;
(2015)
The Architecture of the Sky: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on Celestial Spheres
(/isis/citation/CBB625324396/)
Book
Doris Gruber;
(2020)
Frühneuzeitlicher Wissenswandel. Kometenerscheinungen in der Druckpublizistik des Heiligen Römischen Reiches
(/isis/citation/CBB272470489/)
Book
Anna Jerratsch;
(2019)
Der Fruhneuzeitliche Kometendiskurs Im Spiegel Deutschsprachiger Flugschriften
(/isis/citation/CBB833184165/)
Book
Kepler, Johannes;
Guiducci, Mario;
Grassi, Horatio;
Galilei, Galileo;
(1960)
The Controversy on the Comets of 1618: Galileo Galilei, Horatio Grassi, Mario Guiducci, Johann Kepler
(/isis/citation/CBB986399645/)
Book
Boner, Patrick J.;
Tessicini, Dario;
(2013)
Celestial Novelties on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution, 1540--1630
(/isis/citation/CBB001200998/)
Article
Maurizio Erto;
(2017)
'Giocare col fuoco' nel Seicento. Esperimenti e osservazioni naturalistiche nella Solfatara di Pozzuoli
(/isis/citation/CBB764648200/)
Article
Raphael, Renée J.;
(2011)
Making Sense of Day 1 of the Two New Sciences: Galileo's Aristotelian-Inspired Agenda and His Jesuit Readers
(/isis/citation/CBB001230562/)
Article
Gábor Almási;
(2022)
Astrology in the crossfire: the stormy debate after the comet of 1577
(/isis/citation/CBB786602400/)
Be the first to comment!