Jesuit engagement with natural philosophy during the late 16th and early 17th centuries transformed the status of the mathematical disciplines and propelled members of the Order into key areas of controversy in relation to Aristotelianism. Through close investigation of the activities of the Jesuit 'school' of mathematics founded by Christoph Clavius, The Scientific Counter-Revolution examines the Jesuit connections to the rise of experimental natural philosophy and the emergence of the early scientific societies. Arguing for a re-evaluation of the role of Jesuits in shaping early modern science, this book traces the evolution of the Collegio Romano as a hub of knowledge. Starting with an examination of Clavius’s Counter-Reformation agenda for mathematics, Michael John Gorman traces the development of a collective Jesuit approach to experimentation and observation under Christopher Grienberger and analyses the Jesuit role in the Galileo Affair and the vacuum debate. Ending with a discussion of the transformation of the Collegio Romano under Athanasius Kircher into a place of curiosity and wonder and the centre of a global information gathering network, this book reveals how the Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping of modern experimental science.
Jesuit engagement with natural philosophy during the late 16th and early 17th centuries transformed the status of the mathematical disciplines and propelled members of the Order into key areas of controversy in relation to Aristotelianism. Through close investigation of the activities of the Jesuit 'school' of mathematics founded by Christoph Clavius, The Scientific Counter-Revolution examines the Jesuit connections to the rise of experimental natural philosophy and the emergence of the early scientific societies. Arguing for a re-evaluation of the role of Jesuits in shaping early modern science, this book traces the evolution of the Collegio Romano as a hub of knowledge. Starting with an examination of Clavius’s Counter-Reformation agenda for mathematics, Michael John Gorman traces the development of a collective Jesuit approach to experimentation and observation under Christopher Grienberger and analyses the Jesuit role in the Galileo Affair and the vacuum debate. Ending with a discussion of the transformation of the Collegio Romano under Athanasius Kircher into a place of curiosity and wonder and the centre of a global information gathering network, this book reveals how the Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping of modern experimental science.
Introduction 1. Establishing Mathematical Authority and the Politics of Christoph Clavius 2. Trusting the Jesuit Mathematicus 3. Grienberger, Mathematics and Modesty in the Collegio Romano 4. The Uses of Correspondence 5. Magnetic Declination and the Problem of Longitude 6. Discipline and Authority 7. Experiment, Expertise and Centralized Authority 8. Theatricality and the Failure of Replication Appendix: Documenting Public Mathematics in the Collegio Romano Bibliography Index
From Chrisopher Clavius to Athanasius Kircher, this book explores how the Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping of modern experimental science.
Michael John Gorman is Professor of Life Sciences in Society at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany and Founding Director of BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern, Germany.
This is a finely researched and richly documented book ... The
Scientific Counter-Revolution is a highly valuable addition to the
recent corpus of literature that has served the abandonment of “a
conflictual approach to the relationship between early modern
science and Catholicism” without replacing conflict “with an
equally inappropriate image of harmony”.
*Exchange*
The book offers a rich and extensively documented portrait of the
scientific community centred on the Collegio Romano, with an
impressive number of both printed and manuscript sources cited in
the notes.
*Revue d'Histoire des Sciences*
Gorman invites us to witness the transformations in scientific
knowledge and practice from the vantage point of the Roman College.
This deeply researched study explores how and why Christopher
Clavius became the model Jesuit mathematician, and what successive
generations did with this legacy. The result is a rich,
multi-dimensional portrait of Jesuit science and its contributions
to major scientific controversies of the seventeenth century that
resists oversimplification.
*Paula Findlen, Professor of Early Modern Europe and History of
Science, Stanford University, USA*
Using a remarkable range of printed and manuscript sources, this
perceptive book traces significant Jesuit scholars and
mathematicians to illuminate the experimentation, correspondence
and long-range organisational authority that helped to provide some
of the most important resources for new knowledge in early modern
Europe. Gorman's impressive analysis also speaks to wider debates
on the relationship between social organisations, faith and
authority.
*Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of
Cambridge, UK*
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