The Power of Images in Early Modern Science

310 Pages·2003·32.965 MB·English

by  Jochen Büttner, Peter Damerow, Jürgen Renn, Matthias Schemmel (auth.), Wolfgang Lefèvre, Jürgen Renn, Urs Schoepflin (eds.)

The Power of
Images in
Early Modern
ence
·
SCl
Edited by
Wolfgang Lefevre
Jurgen Renn
Urs 5choepflin
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Editors:
Wolfgang Lefevre
Jurgen Renn
Urs Schoepflin
Max-Planck-Institut fur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Wilhelmstr. 44
D-10117-Berlin
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress,
Washington D.C., USA
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.ddb.de.
ISBN 978-3-7643-2434-6 ISBN 978-3-0348-8099-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-0348-8099-2
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© 2003 Springer Science+ Business Media New York
Originally published by Birkhauser Boston in 2003
Printed on acid-free paper produced from chlorine-free pulp. TCF
00
Cover design: Micha Lotrovsky, CH-4106 Therwil, Switzerland
Cover illustrations: see pp. 113, 148, 84, 17, 110, 190, 229, and 163
ISBN 978-3-7643-2434-6
v
Contents
Introduction (Wolfgang Lefevre, Jurgen Renn, and Urs Schoepflin) VII
I. Mechanics Between Practical and Theoretical Knowledge and the
Mediatory Function of Images
The Challenging Images of Artillery: Practical Knowledge at the Roots of the Scientific 3
Revolution (Jochen Buttner, Peter Damerow, Jurgen Renn, and Matthias Schemmel)
Ships, Science and the Three Traditions of Early Modern Design (David McGee) 28
Art and Artifice in the Depiction of Renaissance Machines (Paolo Galluzzi) 47
The Limits of Pictures: Cognitive Functions of Images in Practical Mechanics - 1400 to 1600 69
(Wolfgang Lefevre)
Reframing the Language of Inventions: The First Theatre of Machines (Luisa M. Dolza) 89
II. Theories of Matter Between Alchemy and Atomism and the
Autonomy of Images
Alchemical Iconography at the Dawn of the Modern Age: The Splendor solis of Salomon 107
Trismosin (Anne-Fran{:oise Cannella)
The Invention of Atomist Iconography (Christoph Luthy) 117
III. The Classification of Life and the Interaction Between Images
and Texts
Image and Text in Natural History, 1500-1700 (Brian W Ogilvie) 141
Notes on the Function of Early Zoological Imagery (Allan Ellenius) 167
VI
IV. Depicting the World at Large and the Hidden Potential of Images
197 Planetary Diagrams - Descriptions, Models, Theories: From Carolingian Deployments to
Copernican Debates (Bruce Eastwood and Gerd Gra/lhoff)
227 Images, Models and Symbols in Copernican Propaganda (Giancarlo Nonnoi)
251 Edmond Halley and Visual Representation in Natural Philosophy (Alan Cook)
V. Systems of Knowledge and their Representation by Images
265 Encyclopaedias and Architecture in the Sixteenth Century (Annarita Angelini)
289 The Mathematical Sciences in Raphael's School of Athens (Matthias Winner)
VII
Introduction
Wolfgang Lefevre, Jiirgen Renn, and Vrs Schoepflin
General
The origin of this volume is a workshop held has a deeper, more complex structure which
in 1997 in Berlin as part of a series of work must be assumed if its analysis is only based
shops organized in the framework of the on text. In fact, the analysis of the function of
Network on Science and the Visual Images images in the early modern period shows that
1500 -1800 funded by the European Science they mediated not only between science and
Foundation and initiated by William Shea. its cultural context, but also between practi
Meanwhile a selection of contributions was cal knowledge and its theoretical reflection
thoroughly revised and prepared for publica in scientific theories.
tion together with additionally invited papers The analysis of images thus constitutes an
for this book. The result is a volume which important branch of the history of science
we hope corresponds to the original inten that on the one hand is conceived of as part
tion of the Network to contribute to a histori of a more general history of culture and on
cal reconstruction of the role of images in the the other hand as a historical epistemology of
history of science, still neglected because of knowledge. This book is not a systematic and
the traditional focus of the history of science comprehensive account of scientific images
on texts corresponding to a concentration on and the early modern period. Nevertheless, it
scientific theories. covers a fairly broad spectrum of the domains
With the widening of the scope of recent of scientific knowledge of the period and
history of science to include for example the raises some of the key issues connected with
experimental culture of science, increas an epistemic history of images.
ing attention has also been paid to images.
This widened perspective not only implies
the methodological extension to incorporate
I. Mechanics Between Practical
in particular the methods of the history of
and Theoretical Knowledge and
art, but also implies a new understanding
of scientific knowledge. Paying attention to the Mediatory Function of
images increases first of all the awareness of Images
the dependence of scientific knowledge on
different external representations and thus
deepens the understanding of the historicity The first section focuses on mechanical
of this knowledge. Indeed, external represen knowledge and illustrates the role of images
tations such as images are subject to cultural as mediatory instances between practical
changes and therefore play an important and theoretical knowledge, addressing vari
mediatory role between science and its cul ous aspects of their role. The first contribu
tural context. Second, the study of images tion shows how the practical knowledge of
makes it evident that scientific knowledge artillerists and its visual representation pro-
VIII Wolfgang Lefevre, Jilrgen Renn, and Urs Schoepflin
vided the basis for early modern theories of these theories comprise structures of knowl
ballistics, eventually leading to the theories edge invariant with respect to the great con
of projectile motion. The second contribu ceptual revolutions of science.
tion addresses a different type of practical
knowledge also relevant to the emergence
of mechanical science, that of shipbuilding.
III. The Classification of Life and
It traces the emergence of design techniques
the Interaction Between Images
and their role in integrating practical knowl
edge and theoretical context. Marking the and Texts
passage from medieval culture to Renais
sance knowledge, the third contribution
describes the evolution of the drawing as an The third section focuses on the interaction
autonomous language for the representation between images and texts in early modern life
of technical subjects. The fourth contribu sciences. This interaction was driven by the
tion analyses the limits of these pictorial dynamics of the technological development of
representations as mediatory instances and the production and reproduction of illustra
points to the lack of a sophisticated gram tions on the one hand, and the increasing pro
mar of visual representation in early modern fessionalization on the other hand. The latter
machine drawings. The fifth contribution resulted in the distinction between amateur
makes it clear on the other hand, that images and professional scientists, each using their
of machines did not primarily serve planning own figurative language, also in an increasing
purposes, but were intended to convey a spe canonization of knowledge, which resulted
cific "image of knowledge" in a social envi in a decreasing importance of illustrations
ronment in which the inventors of machines with respect to texts and schematic represen
depended on patronage. tations in professional science. This devel
opment of a specific pictorial grammar is
similar to that observed in early modern
mechanics. Different aspects of this develop
II. Theories of Matter Between
ment are highlighted for botany in the first
Alchemy and Atomism and the
contribution, and for zoology and geology in
Autonomy of Images the second and third contributions.
The second section focuses on theories of
IV. Depicting the World at Large
matter and illustrates the autonomy of images
and the Hidden Potential of
and their history with regard to textual tra
ditions. The first contribution deals with Images
alchemy and the representation of alchemical
knowledge by symbolically charged images.
It analyses a process in which these images The fourth section deals with the knowledge
took on an increasing autonomy both with of the world at large and analyses the poten
regard to the practice of alchemy and with tial of images to synthesize fragments of
regard to texts. They rather served the pur knowledge to a global picture, thus providing
pose of embedding alchemical knowledge the fragments with a new meaning. The con
in a universal worldview by drawing on tributions to this chapter also illustrate the
iconographic traditions, making it possible to striking power of persistence of images, even
transcend the limits of the textual traditions. if the corresponding textual traditions are
Another transgression of the boundaries broken down or suppressed. This becomes
of a textually based tradition achieved by particularly evident from the first contri
images is illustrated by the second contribu bution that demonstrates, contrary to the
tion dealing with the visual representation of received opinion, the presence of astronomi
the minimal constituency of matter. It shows cal knowledge in early Medieval Europe prior
the striking independence of this tradition of to the advent of the translation movement in
visual representations from specific theories the twelfth century. This knowledge was car
of matter and thus points to the fact that ried by planetary diagrams accompanying
Introduction IX
Greek and Roman texts which in themselves Acknowledgments
provide hardly any detailed information.
While the dispersed ancient knowledge of This volume would have been impossible
astronomy has been largely reconstituted without the lively discussions at the Berlin
and substantially augmented in the early workshop and is thus indebted to all of its
modern period, the cultural constraints participants. It was produced with the help
imposed on science by the catholic church of several collaborators of the Max Planck
also served to give images a special function Institute for the History of Science - in par
making it possible to convey meaning even ticular Ulrike Burgdorf, Lindy Divarci, and
when textual transmission was impossible. Heinz Reddner. The editors are grateful to
This is illustrated by the second contribution. the European Science Foundation for sup
While the first contribution deals with tra porting a project that contributes to the reali
ditional schematic representation, planetary zation of one of the essential goals of the Max
diagrams, which took on a realistic physical Planck Institute - to pursue the history of sci
meaning in the early modern period, the ence as an interdisciplinary endeavour.
third contribution deals with the invention of
new schematic representations of the world Max Planck Institute for the
at large in early modern science. It shows that History of Science
the representation of the global distribution
of winds in the scheme of Halley constituted
a new branch of science, climatology.
v.
Systems of Knowledge and
their Representation by Images
The fifth and final section deals with the
organization of knowledge into systems and
the use of images to represent such systems,
thereby conveying new meaning to them
which may even challenge the traditional
order. The contributions to this section
illustrate that, in the early modern period,
visual representations served as an important
medium for epistemological reflection. The
first contribution takes the example of 17th
century encyclopaedic enterprise and shows
how the idea of knowledge that drove this
enterprise was expressed within allegorical
images placing the enterprise in the context
of the religious worldview of the time. The
second contribution tackles a classical mas
terpiece of the Renaissance from a new angle,
Raphael's School of Athens, which is inter
preted as a synthesis of epistemic and politi
cal order.
I.
Mechanics Between Practical and Theoretical
Knowledge and the Mediatory Function of Images
3
The Challenging Images of Artillery
Practical Knowledge at the Roots of the Scientific Revolution
lochen Biittner, Peter Damerow, liirgen Renn, and Matthias Schemmel
Images and the Material Culture of Science
Princely families of old were in the habit of the material culture of science, and of focus
engaging historians who were charged with ing solely on framing conditions such as
producing tailor-made histories, in which patronage that are largely indifferent to sci
the achievements of these families received entific objects. But, as a matter of fact, sci
due attention. For a long time this, remark entific knowledge is not just determined by
ably, was exactly what natural scientists also a sequence of heroic discoveries, or by con
expected from their historians. As a matter of tingent social constellations indifferent to
fact, from the point of view of developed sci its objects. It is true that the development
ence, the knowledge of a discipline is simply of scientific knowledge depends crucially on
represented by the natural laws that define its a social process of the transformation of
object. It was accordingly a matter of course knowledge systems, but this development also
for its historians to concentrate solely on the involves a material culture constituted by his
question of who had discovered which of torically specific forms of material represen
these laws when and in what manner. In this tation as well as specific objects, neither of
sense, the history of science is a biographi which are indifferent to the contents of sci
cally oriented, heroic history of the great dis entific knowledge. An important part of this
coverers and their discoveries (fig. 1). material culture comprises images.
To modern historians of science this view In the following, the relation between the
represents a naive faith in progress. Recent development of science and material culture
studies of the social and institutional contexts will be elaborated with the example of artil
of scientific discoveries focusing, for instance, lery in the early modern period. According
on Galileo as a courtier, have broadened the to the textbook perspective of a history of
perspective on science in a fundamental way. science conceived as a sequence of heroic
According to such studies, the credibility of discoveries, the most important event in the
scientists like Galileo is put into perspective history of ballistics is Galileo's discovery of
by the fact that they were required to position the parabolic shape of the trajectory. But
themselves in the patronage system, for they this perspective totally neglects the impor
had to praise their knowledge and ability as tant role the material culture of representa
being especially valuable, to ascribe to their tions in the practical knowledge of artillerists
putative discoveries and inventions an out played at that time for the development of
standing practical significance, to hide from ballistics. At the dawn of classical physics,
their competitors the actual state of their visual representations mediated between the
knowledge, and to conceal their failures. immense body of practical experience accu
On the other hand, however, studies of mulated by artillerists over centuries and the
the social context of scientific knowledge run eventually successful attempts of scientists to
the risk of neglecting its dependence on overcome the limitations of this knowledge;
W. Lefèvre et al. (eds.), The Power of Images in Early Modern Science
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2003