The Scientific Revolution Revisited

158 Pages·2015·1.522 MB·English

by  Mikuláš Teich

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
REVISITED

The Scientific Revolution
Revisited
Mikuláš Teich
http://www.openbookpublishers.com
© 2015 Mikuláš Teich
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Teich, Mikuláš, The Scientific Revolution Revisited. Cambridge, UK: Open Book
Publishers, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0054
Please see the list of illustrations for attribution relating to individual images. Every
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website (the relevant links are listed in the list of illustrations).
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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-122-9
ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-123-6
ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-124-3
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-125-0
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-126-7
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0054
Cover image: Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Summmer (1563), http://commons.wikimedia.
org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_Summer_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
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To the memory of

Alistair Crombie (1915-1996)
Rupert Hall (1920-2009)
Joseph Needham (1900-1995)
Roy Porter (1946-2002)

scholars most learned and friends most loyal

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Note on Terminology and Acknowledgements 1
Preface 3
Introduction 5
1 From Pre-classical to Classical Pursuits 11
2 Experimentation and Quantification 29
3 Institutionalisation of Science 55
4 Truth(s) 75
5 The Scientific Revolution: The Big Picture 83
6 West and East European Contexts 101
Epilogue 119
References 125
Index 139

List of Illustrations
1 Image of heliocentric model from Nicolaus Copernicus’ 13
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (c. 1543). Wikimedia
Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Copernican_heliocentrism.jpg
2 Palaeolithic painting, Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave (southern 17
France), c. 32,000-30,000 BP. Wikimedia Commons, http://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Etologic_horse_study,_
Chauvet_cave.jpg
3 The Prague Astronomical Clock (Prague Orloj) in Old Town 34
Square, Prague, Czech Republic. © BrokenSphere/Wikimedia
Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prague_
Orloj_1.JPG
4 Portrait of Nicolaus of Cusa wearing a cardinal’s hat, in 39
Hartmann Schedel, Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Wikimedia
Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Cusanus_schedel_chronicle.jpg
5 Georg Ernst Stahl. Line engraving (1715). Wellcome Trust, 40
http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0008079.html
6 Portrait of Robert Boyle by Johann Kerseboom (c. 1689). 49
Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Robert_Boyle_0001.jpg
7 View from above of Gresham College, London, as it was in the 56
eighteenth century. By unknown artist, after an illustration
in John Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College (1740).
Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:PSM_V81_D316_Old_gresham_college.png