Science in Court Society

Pietro Daniel Omodeo; Jürgen Renn

TY - BOOK
T1 - Science in Court Society: Giovan Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585)
A1 - Pietro Daniel Omodeo
A1 - Jürgen Renn
AB - Giovanni Battista Benedetti is counted as one of the most brilliant mathematical and philosophical minds of the late Italian Renaissance. However, the theoretical and historical relevance of his work is still obscure in many respects. This is due to several factors, principal among which is the relative rarity of his major work, Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Book including various mathematical and physical speculations), 1585.This work was a major contribution to Renaissance science, especially due to its insights on mechanics, the mathematical approach to natural investigation, and the connection of celestial and terrestrial dynamics in a post-Copernican perspective. The first edition was an elegant folio, which includes heterogeneous writings not only on mathematics and physics but also on technical and philosophical issues. Benedetti presented these as short treatises or letters addressed to gentlemen, courtiers, scholars, engineers, and practitioners of different arts. The Diversae speculationes appeared in a series of prestigious volumes aimed at celebrating the magnificence of the court and the capital. It aimed to make the quality of the court mathematician’s research and skills publicly appreciable. It also bore witness to the intensity of the cultural debates going on in Turin or connecting it with other centers, especially Venice.This open access edition makes the Benedetti’s work accessible to a large scholarly readership. In the extensive introduction, his achievement is presented in its rich complexity. Benedetti is emblematic of his time and of the non-linearity of the historical process of Renaissance science with its multicentric institutions and scientific networks. The apparent fragmentary nature of his work hides a fundamental unity of the conception and the method, both of which rest on geometry. Benedetti regarded mechanics as a model, but he enlarged his perspective to include the most varied fields of investigation and concretely to demonstrate the fruitfulness of his approach to universal knowledge, astronomy, physics, meteorology, and even to ethics.Edition Open Sources (EOS) pioneers a new paradigm in the publishing of historical sources. Academic editions of primary sources in the history of science are published in online, digital, and print formats that present facsimiles, transcriptions, and often translations of original works with an introduction to the author, the text, and the context in which it was written. The sources are historical books, manuscripts, documents, or other archival materials that are otherwise difficult to access. EOS is a cooperation between the University of Oklahoma Libraries, the Department for the History of Science der University of Oklahoma, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
PB - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften
PY - 2019
SN - 978-3-945561-16-4
L1 - https://edition-open-sources.org/media/sources/11/sources11.pdf
LK - https://edition-open-sources.org/sources/11/index.html
C1 - by-nc-sa
DO - 10.34663/9783945561485-00
LA - en
ER -

Sources 11

Science in Court Society

Giovan Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585)

Pietro Daniel Omodeo, Jürgen Renn

Introduction and digital reproduction of a standard reference work in Renaissance mechanics

READ ONLINE PDF EPUB

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE) Licence.

Introduction and digital reproduction of a standard reference work in Renaissance mechanics

ONLINE PDF EPUB

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE) Licence.

Giovanni Battista Benedetti is counted as one of the most brilliant mathematical and philosophical minds of the late Italian Renaissance. However, the theoretical and historical relevance of his work is still obscure in many respects. This is due to several factors, principal among which is the relative rarity of his major work, Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Book including various mathematical and physical speculations), 1585.

This work was a major contribution to Renaissance science, especially due to its insights on mechanics, the mathematical approach to natural investigation, and the connection of celestial and terrestrial dynamics in a post-Copernican perspective. The first edition was an elegant folio, which includes heterogeneous writings not only on mathematics and physics but also on technical and philosophical issues. Benedetti presented these as short treatises or letters addressed to gentlemen, courtiers, scholars, engineers, and practitioners of different arts. The Diversae speculationes appeared in a series of prestigious volumes aimed at celebrating the magnificence of the court and the capital. It aimed to make the quality of the court mathematician’s research and skills publicly appreciable. It also bore witness to the intensity of the cultural debates going on in Turin or connecting it with other centers, especially Venice.

This open access edition makes the Benedetti’s work accessible to a large scholarly readership. In the extensive introduction, his achievement is presented in its rich complexity. Benedetti is emblematic of his time and of the non-linearity of the historical process of Renaissance science with its multicentric institutions and scientific networks. The apparent fragmentary nature of his work hides a fundamental unity of the conception and the method, both of which rest on geometry. Benedetti regarded mechanics as a model, but he enlarged his perspective to include the most varied fields of investigation and concretely to demonstrate the fruitfulness of his approach to universal knowledge, astronomy, physics, meteorology, and even to ethics.

Edition Open Sources (EOS) pioneers a new paradigm in the publishing of historical sources. Academic editions of primary sources in the history of science are published in online, digital, and print formats that present facsimiles, transcriptions, and often translations of original works with an introduction to the author, the text, and the context in which it was written. The sources are historical books, manuscripts, documents, or other archival materials that are otherwise difficult to access. EOS is a cooperation between the University of Oklahoma Libraries, the Department for the History of Science der University of Oklahoma, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

Benedetti: Life, Work, Contexts

Introduction

1 Prosopography

2 The Subalpine Environment

3 Structure of the Book and Main Issues

4 Epistemology

5 Mechanics

6 Astronomy

7 Foundations of Physics

Concluding Remarks

References

A Facsimile of Giovanni Battista de Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum, et physicarum liber (Turin 1585)

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Baldi, Bernardino

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Barbaro, Francesco

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Barozzi, Francesco

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Bellarmine, Robert

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Bellay, Joachim Du

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Berga, Antonio

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Bevilacqua, Niccolò

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Bianchini, Giovanni

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Boethius

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Boileau de Boullion, Gilles

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Botero, Giovanni

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Brahe, Tycho

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Brunelleschi, Filippo

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Bruno, Giordano

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Bucci, Agostino

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Buridan, Jean

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Busca, Gabriele

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Calusio, Ludovico Niccolò

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Cambiani, Guiseppe

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Campanella, Tommaso

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Capra, Giovanni Paolo

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Cardano, Girolamo

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Carelli, Giovanni Battista

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Caresana of Vercelli, Guiseppe

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Carlo Emanuele I

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Castagneri, Giacomo

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Catherine Michelle of Spain

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Charles II of Savoy

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Charles V

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Cosimo I de’ Medici

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Da Vinci, Leonardo

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Del Monte, Guidobaldo

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Della Francesca, Piero

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Della Rovere, Girolamo

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Della Torre

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Democritus

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Demoulin de Rochefort, Ludovic

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Descartes, René

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Eisenstein, Wolfhard (Volfardus Aisestain)

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Emanuele Filiberto

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Erasmus of Rotterdam

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Euclid

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Femello, Giovanni Battista

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Fenarolo, Girolamo

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Francis I

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Gagliardi, Achille

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Galilei, Galileo

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Gassendi, Pierre

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Ghisleri, Michele (Pius V)

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Giraldi Cinzio, Giovanni Battista

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Gregory XIII

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Harriot, Thomas

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Jean of Valetta

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John of Austria

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Kepler, Johannes

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Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm

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Louis XVI

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Lucretius

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Machiavelli, Niccolò

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Magini, Giovanni Antonio

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Manuzio, Paolo (Paulus Manutius)

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Marcellus Palingenus Stellatus (Pier Angelo Manzolli)

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Margret of Valoys

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Mayeto, Jacopo

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Mendoza, Francisco

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Milliet Dechales, Claude-François

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Morosini, Domenico (Dominicus Moresinus)

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Nemorarius, Jordanus

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Newton, Isaac

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Onto of Pinerolo, Francesco

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Ottavio Farnese of Parma

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Ovid

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Paciotto, Francesco

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Pappus of Alexandria

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Philip II of Spain

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Piccolomini, Alessandro

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Raimondo, Annibale

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Taisner, Jean

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William IV of Hesse-Kassel

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Zoroaster

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Information

ISBN

978-3-945561-16-4

DOI

10.34663/9783945561485-00

Pages

642

Publication Date

Nov. 25, 2019

Print on Demand

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Suggested Citation

Omodeo, Pietro Daniel and Renn, Jürgen (2019). Science in Court Society: Giovan Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585). Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften.

Submitted by

Antonio Becchi and Elio Nenci

Editorial Team

Louis Berger, Lindsay Parkhowell, Charlie Zaharoff

Science in Court Society

Giovan Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585)

A

Abu Ma’shar

Al-Qabisi (Alcabitius)

Alfonso X of Castile

Altavilla, Benedetto

Amico, Giovan Battista

Antisthenes

Apianus, Petrus

Archimedes

Argenterio, Giovanni

Aristarchus of Samos

Aristotle

Arma, Giovanni Francesco

Augustine of Hippo

B

Baldi, Bernardino

Barbaro, Francesco

Barozzi, Francesco

Bellarmine, Robert

Bellay, Joachim Du

Berga, Antonio

Bevilacqua, Niccolò

Bianchini, Giovanni

Boethius

Boileau de Boullion, Gilles

Botero, Giovanni

Brahe, Tycho

Brunelleschi, Filippo

Bruno, Giordano

Bucci, Agostino

Buridan, Jean

Busca, Gabriele

C

Calusio, Ludovico Niccolò

Cambiani, Guiseppe

Campanella, Tommaso

Capra, Giovanni Paolo

Cardano, Girolamo

Carelli, Giovanni Battista

Caresana of Vercelli, Guiseppe

Carlo Emanuele I

Castagneri, Giacomo

Castiglione, Baldassar

Catena, Pietro

Catherine Michelle of Spain

Charles II of Savoy

Charles V

Clavius, Christopher

Clement VIII

Commandino, Federico

Constantine I.

Copernicus, Nicolaus

Cordero, Gerolamo (Hieronymus Condrumerius)

Correr, Giovanni

Cosimo I de’ Medici

Costeo, Giovanni

Cotin, Guillaume

Cristini, Bartolomeo

D

Da Vinci, Leonardo

Dante Alighieri

De Miranda, Bartolomé

De Montaigne, Michel

De Ronsard, Pierre

De Rore, Cipriano

Del Monte, Guidobaldo

Della Francesca, Piero

Della Rovere, Girolamo

Della Torre

Democritus

Demoulin de Rochefort, Ludovic

Descartes, René

E

Eisenstein, Wolfhard (Volfardus Aisestain)

Emanuele Filiberto

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Euclid

F