Matteo Valleriani, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

 

Seminar

The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas

University of Tel Aviv

 

 

 

Three meetings of 4 hours each: April 17th, April 24th and May 1st. 2 credits

 

 

At the beginning of the early modern period, toward the end of the 13th century, a reshaping of the old knowledge tradition called De Sphaera took place.

Originally De Sphaera denotes a well-defined cluster of notions that qualitatively describe the cosmos according to a geocentric conception. Such a conception clearly originated in ancient cosmology and in particular in the Aristotelian worldview according to which the cosmos is constituted of concentric spheres. Treatises on The Sphere were indeed circulating long before the early modern period and were especially widespread in the frame of the Arabic tradition, as is evidenced for instance in the works of Thābit ibn Qurra, al-Bīrūnī and al-Fargānī. During the process of a re-elaboration of both ancient and Arabic scientific knowledge in the western 13th century, this knowledge tradition was reshaped. At that time new knowledge was usually produced in the form of commentaries on older works. In spite of this method, three different scholars, Johannes of Sacrobosco, Robert Grosseteste and John Peckham, engaged in producing new treatises on The Sphere which were characterized by giving the content a new structuring rather than introducing new content. The works of the three authors are very similar, only minor differences can be found in reference to technical expositions of a few marginal aspects.

With one of these three treatises, namely Sacrobosco’s, a new tradition of knowledge began and continued to do so for four centuries. Taking into consideration only the period that begins with the diffusion of printing technology and goes until the end of the 17th century, almost 400 editions of Sacrobosco’s The Sphere were printed in Europe. The impressive number of prints, that can surely be increased by including prints of similar works that were not entitled by means of the name of Johannes de Sacrobosco, and the fact that courses on The Sphere were mandatory for the entire period considered in almost all universities of Europe, testify for a growing audience in and outside the universities all over the continent.

 

The originally short treatise however underwent a profound transformation, as it was continuously enlarged and enriched with more and more subjects. Beginning with astrology, medicine and agriculture, the treatise experienced a boost for instance during the time of the exploration travels. Nautical astronomy, observational instruments, cartography, geography and closely associated subjects became standard chapters of the tracts, while the original content was never changed or omitted. This process carried on until the end of the 17th century and new subjects were continuously introduced.

 

The aim of the seminar is to show that the treatise entitled The Sphere of Sacrobosco together with its long lasting tradition represent the virtual place in which a shared scientific identity was shaped over the European continent. The seminar will explore the regional origins of new subjects added to the treatise over time and consider the possibility that such subjects became standard in treatises published also in other regions and languages. The effective performance of the scientific network of the time, which was eventually characterized by its tendency to reach a maximal connectivity leads to this assumption. By making use of the conception “Europe of the regions,” the structure of the network as well as its social and economical behavior will be analyzed by considering the characteristics of local regions, which developed specific scientific knowledge. Further, the connections between these European regions, as well as the network of educational institutions and private enterprises devoted to the dissemination of knowledge, such as publishers, shall be taken into consideration

The seminar concludes by investigating the appropriateness of network theory in the field of activity of writing of history and in particular by exploring the possibility to describe the phenomenon of accumulation of knowledge in terms of information flow.

 

 

1)    The Historical Sources

The first meeting is dedicated to the analysis of the historical sources. By means of a database that consists of a data collection of all printed editions of Sacrobosco’s treatise, sources will be selected and statistically analyzed.

 

2)    The Structure of the Network

The second meeting is dedicated to a subdivision of the sources according to the place of origins and to the corresponding investigation of local traditions of knowledge in Europe. Such localities will then be considered as segments or sub-networks of the entire European network. In addition, the possibility will be explored to explain the formation of a common scientific identity by means of the network theory applied to this specific historical case study.

 

3)    The Information Flow and the Accumulation Process

During the third meeting the social aspects of the European scientific network of the period will be discussed. The seminar will try to determine whether a knowledge tradition such as the tradition materially represented by Sacrobosco’s tracts can be defined in the terms of the network theory. Therefore it will be explored to which extent network theory is a valid approach for writing of history.