The 18th century was a rich period in the history of science, including the publication of the final edition of Newton’s work, the acceptance of the Copernican system by the Church, and the active role of Jesuit observatories in observing the Transits of Venus. One hero of this era is Fr. Roger Boscovich, who (among his other accomplishments) first proposed the modern atomic theory of matter.
A Serious Meditation – from Benjamin Banneker’s 1793 Almanac
Article 390 words Level: all audiences A discussion of a Christian’s duty, from the 1793 almanac published by the self-taught American astronomer Benjamin Banneker of Baltimore County, Maryland. Click here to access Banneker’s 1793 almanac, courtesy of the Smithsonian. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Accuracy of Solar Eclipse Observations Made by Jesuit Astronomers in China
Article 10 pages Level: university A 1995 Journal for the History of Astronomy article by F. R. Stephenson and L. J. Fatoohi: Abstract: During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court in Beijing observed many eclipses of the Sun and Moon. For most of these events the times of beginning, middle and end were measured and the magnitudes estimated. Summaries of virtually all of the observation made between A.D. 1644 and 1785 are still preserved. In this paper, that various solar eclipse measurements that the Jesuits made during the period are compared with computation based on modern solar and lunar ephemerides. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Boscovich – his geodetic and cartographic studies
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above A heavily illustrated 2013 article by B. Crippa, V. Forcella, and L. Mussio, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: The name of Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich has many spellings: the Croatian Boscovič, linked to his Dalmatian origin, becomes Boscowich in German. Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich lived and worked in many cities: Rome, Pavia, Venice, Paris, London, Warsaw, Saint Petersburg and Constantinople, where he carried out diplomatic missions. He was a Jesuit and studied mathematics, physics, astronomy, geodesy, and cartography. His studies in geodesy and cartography were developed in Italy: he measured the meridian between Rome and Rimini, he worked on the new map of the Papal State and he designed the Brera Observatory. In the first part of the present work, we present Boscovich’s activities from a chronological point of view. In the second part, we focus on two specific arguments, related to geodesy and cartography: the new … Continue reading →
Boscovich and the Brera Observatory
Article 10 pages Level: university A 2013 article by Elio Antonello of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Italy, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: In the mid 18th century both theoretical and practical astronomy were cultivated in Milan by Barnabites and Jesuits. In 1763 Boscovich was appointed to the chair of mathematics of the University of Pavia in the Duchy of Milan, and the following year he designed an observatory for the Jesuit Collegium of Brera in Milan. The Specola was built in 1765 and it became quickly one of the main european observatories. We discuss the relation between Boscovich and Brera in the framework of a short biography. An account is given of the initial research activity in the Specola, of the departure of Boscovich from Milan in 1773 and his coming back just before his death. Click here for this article from NASA … Continue reading →
Boscovich, the discovery of Uranus and his inclination to theoretical astronomy
Article 8 pages Level: university A 2013 article by L. Guzzardi, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: On March 13th 1781 Frederick William Herschel observed a bizarre celestial body moving in the sky. Retrospectively, that astral body was not at all new at that point. It was observed by a number of astronomers since the end of 17th century (and maybe earlier). But they failed to find out its motion and catalogued it as a fixed star – each time a different one. On the other hand, Herschel realized it was moving, and catalogued it as a comet. That news of a new finding in the sky rapidly spread throughout Europe, and after some months the `Herschel’s comet’ was correctly recognized as a new planet, which will be named Uranus. The present paper assumes the event of the discovery of Uranus and the assessment of its planetary nature as a system … Continue reading →
Copernicus and the “High Seas”
Article (blog post series) 3600 words Level: all audiences In this series of posts, written for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses “Two Spheres Theory” regarding the shape and composition of the Earth. The Two Spheres Theory was a medieval idea that came to be taken as scientific evidence for existence of, and direct action in the world of, God. However, the Two Spheres Theory was soundly disproven by, among other things, Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the lands now known as the Americas. Click here to read Part I of this series on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Click here to read Part II of this series. Click here to read Part III.
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet on the existence of God
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). The second chapter of this textbook was addressed to the question of God’s existence. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet: Selected Philosophical and Scientific Writings
Book 424 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). This collection of her philosophical and scientific writings, edited by Judith P. Zinsser, includes translations of substantial portions of these works and others. Zinsser’s translation of Institutions contains all of the Preface (discussing, among other things, the utility of mathematics and the usefulness of experiments), all of the first chapter (discussing principles of knowledge and reasoning), all of the second chapter (which contains logical arguments for the existence of God and for determining the basics of God’s nature), as well as chapters on time, matter, motion, and force. Emilie Du Châtelet was a complex person—she sought education and access to the world of science at a time when women were largely … Continue reading →
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
George Berkeley – The Analyst; The Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics
Books (two) 94 pages; 70 pages Level: university George Berkeley’s 1734 The Analyst; or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician criticizes how mathematicians thought regarding the “Method of Fluxions” (in modern terms, “Calculus”) of Isaac Newton, especially when some of those mathematicians were “infidels” (atheists) who criticized theological thought. Thus the title page of The Analyst quotes the Book of Matthew: “First cast out the beam out of thine own Eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye [7:5, KJV].” Berkeley, a bishop in the Church of Ireland, acknowledges that Fluxions is “the general Key, by help whereof the modern Mathematicians unlock the secrets of Geometry, and consequently of Nature…. [and] that which hath enabled them so remarkably to outgo the Ancients in discovering Theorems and solving Problems….” However, Fluxions relies on concepts of infinity, applied repeatedly, and “to conceive a Quantity infinitely small… is, I confess, above my Capacity. … Continue reading →
Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of Ceres
Article (book chapter) 8 pages Level: university The first asteroid was discovered by Fr. Giuseppe Piazza, who gave it the name Ceres. Fr. Piazzi believed that in fact he had discovered a planet, but was hesitant to say so directly, and often referred to Ceres as a “comet”. Today Ceres is classified as a “dwarf planet”. This article on Piazzi is from the book Asteroids III, published in 2002 by the University of Arizona Press and the Lunar and Planetary Institute of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). From the chapter abstract: In this chapter we focus on the circumstances that led Giuseppe Piazzi (1746–1826) to discover the first asteroid, Ceres, on January 1, 1801. Through the examination of published and archival documentation, we shed light on the reaction of the astronomical community at the announcement of the discovery and on Piazzi’s puzzling behavior. In the end, we briefly discuss the discoveries of Pallas, Juno, and Vesta and the theories put forward … Continue reading →
Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of the Proper Motion of 61-Cygni
Article 8 pages Level: university Fr. Giuseppe Piazza discovered the proper motion of the star 61 Cygni at the end of the eighteenth century. A star’s proper motion is its motion across the sky compared to other stars. The position of 61 Cygni, a star that is faint but visible to the naked eye, changes measurably over the course of a year. A star whose position changes like this must be a relatively nearby star. In this 1990 article in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, Georgia Fodera Serio of the Palermo Observatory discusses the story of Fr. Piazzi and his “flying star”, and writes on the importance of Piazzi’s discovery. Serio notes that Piazzi “abandoned the old paradigm that ‘brightness implies nearness’”. This was an important step for astronomers, who previously had supposed that those stars that appear brighter in our night sky are nearer to us. In the 1830s the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel would measure … Continue reading →
Isaac Newton – God and the Universe in the ‘General Scholium’ of the Principia
Book chapter 5 pages Level: university Isaac Newton is arguably the most important scientist of all. His Principia Mathematica (written in Latin, and first published in 1687), in which he develops a physics of the solar system to compete with the “vortex theory” of René Descartes, is arguably his most important work, for it developed the physics still taught in classrooms and used in science and engineering today. Newton sees in this physics and in the solar system the action of God. Newton is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics, although his views on the nature of God were unorthodox and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. From the ‘General Scholium’: This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets, and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed Stars are the centers of other like systems, … Continue reading →
Isaac Newton – Two books relating to religion
Books (two) 376 pages; Level: university Isaac Newton, one of the most prominent scientific figures in history, is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics. However, his views on the nature of God were unorthodox, and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. However, his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms was published in 1728. It contains material such as Newton’s diagram of the Temple of Solomon, shown here. Newton’s Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, was published posthumously in 1733 and is another example of Newton’s writing on matters relating to religion. Click here for Chronology, courtesy of Erara. Click here for Observations, courtesy of Archive.org
Continue reading →Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Jesuits: Savants
Article (book chapter) 46 pages Level: university This article by Mordechai Feingold is the introductory chapter to the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Feingold provides an overview of Jesuit scientists and of the advantages and disadvantages (from a scientific point of view) of doing science within the Jesuit order—an organization whose mission was not scientific but spiritual. Feingold writes: The aim of this introductory chapter is to get past the stereotypes that surrounded the Society of Jesus during the first 200 years of its existence and evaluate the scientific dimension of its intellectual contribution, independent of its religious mission. It is my contention that, by and large, the scholarly activities and aspirations of Jesuits were indistinguishable from those of other contemporary savants, secular or ordained, irrespective of denomination. True, constraints on the pursuit of secular learning were more stringent among Jesuits, as were the mechanisms regulating their … Continue reading →
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi of Bologna
Articles (two) 29 pages; 32 pages Level: high school and above Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (1711-1778) of Bologna, Italy is often identified as being the first woman to earn a doctoral degree and the first to be a university professor (where she eventually became the highest paid member of the faculty). Bassi showed great talent when she was young, and became something of a celebrity in Bologna when she earned her first degree. She was awarded a position at the University of Bologna that was somewhat honorary, but managed to eventually turn that into a full position as professor of physics. Bologna’s Archbishop, Prospero Lambertini, supported Bassi (and encouraged other women to pursue higher education in science)—support that became more valuable as Lambertini became a Cardinal and then Pope Benedict XIV. Bassi’s drive and persistence is reflected in the words of someone involved in considering her request to be made a professor: [F]inally to satisfy, if one ever can, the … Continue reading →
Maria Gaetana Agnesi – Mathematics and the Making of the Catholic Enlightenment
Article 29 pages Level: university This article by Massimo Mazzotti discusses Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a child prodigy who obtained education and acclaim for her abilities in math and physics, as well as support from Pope Benedict XIV. But after the death of her father she abandoned her work in mathematics and physics and chose a life of service to those in need. In this article (published in 2001 in Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, Vol. 92, no. 4, pgs. 657-683) Mazzotti writes: Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) is known as the author of a textbook on calculus that appeared in Milan in 1748. For the first time a woman was able to establish herself as a legitimate mathematician and publish her work…. In her Instituzioni analitiche she presented the most complete introduction to algebra, analytic geometry, and differential and integral calculus yet published in Europe. Far from being a tool to subvert traditional metaphysical assumptions and religious dogmas, … Continue reading →
Michael Buckley SJ: God in the Project of Newtonian Mechanics
Includes an essay by Michael Buckley, “God in the project of Newtonian mechanics” discussing the theological question in Newton’s mechanics, Newton’s methodical resolution of the theological question, Light and the inner structure of natural bodies.
Continue reading →Modern Scientific Thought in Santa Fe, Quito, and Caracas, 1736–1803
Article 30 pages Level: university This paper by Luis Carlos Arboleda and Diana Soto Arango was included in a collection of articles published by the University of Texas Press in 2006 under the title Science in Latin America: A History, edited by Juan José Saldaña. Arboleda and Arango focus on interest in Copernican and Newtonian ideas in Santa Fe, Quito, and Caracas in Latin America in the latter two-thirds of the 18th century, especially at Jesuit-, Dominican-, and state-run universities. They write that these scientific ideas, which held the promise of yielding practical benefits to society, were introduced by scientifically-inclined priests. However, the reception of these ideas was complicated by politics. The authors write that, [The Spanish Crown] had correctly noticed that, behind the teaching of new theories that aimed at practical applications, there lay the interests of the social-climbing elite and the subversion of the colonial order. Click here for a preview of this article, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Pope Benedict XIV – Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women
Article (book chapter) 20 pages Level: university “Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women”, by Marta Cavazza of the University of Bologna, is a chapter in Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality, a collection of essays concerning the mid-eighteenth-century papacy of Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), published by the University of Toronto Press. Cavazza writes: [A] handful of women… received public recognition in eighteen-century Italy, especially in Bologna, for their philosophical [scientific], mathematical, and anatomical knowledge. The instigator and director of these events was in most cases Benedict XIV… [who] used his moral authority and his sovereign power to encourage and reward women who excelled in the fields of philosophy and medicine, helping them obtain public honours and academic positions that were reserved for men during that era… They became “a symbol of the successes of the Bolognese science” chiefly thanks to Benedict XIV’s patronage. The connection between the promotion of modern science and not only the recognition of … Continue reading →
Roger Joseph Boscovich of the Society of Jesus
Article and book chapter Approximately 10 pages each Level: high school and above Roger Joseph Boscovich (Ruđer Josip Bošković) was a Jesuit scientist with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, ranging from developing better lenses for telescopes, to designing a system to reinforce the dome of St. Peter’s for Pope Benedict XIV, to creating what today might be called a “Theory of Everything” that would explain all physical interactions in the universe. These two articles provide concise overviews of his life and work: “Roger Joseph Boscovich: Forerunner of Modern Atomic Theory” by Sr. Mary Mercy Fitzpatrick and Sr. Antonietta Fitzparick (Incarnate Word College, San Antonio, Texas) in The Mathematics Teacher, February 1968, pgs. 167-175. Click here to read this article via JSTOR (many libraries provide complete JSTOR access): Who was this individual who, almost two hundred years after his death, has aroused such interest among scientists and mathematicians? Roger Joseph Boscovich was a Serbo-Coation Jesuit and a renowned mathematician, astronomer, … Continue reading →
Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
The Madras Observatory: from Jesuit cooperation to British rule
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2017 by Blake Smith, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern University in Illinois and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. The Madras Observatory offers little to the visitor’s eye. Stone slabs and broken pillars lie ignored in a fenced-off section of a local weather centre in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Few tourists venture out to see the ruins of the 18th-century complex. On the other side of the subcontinent, in northern Indian cities such as New Delhi, Varanasi and Jaipur, remains of the Jantar Mantars, vast astronomical stations, are far more popular attractions. Built in the same century as the Madras Observatory, their stark geometric structures, with looming proportions and vibrant colours, make for mandatory stops on travellers’ itineraries. Yet it is the Madras Observatory, and not the spectacular Jantar Mantars, … Continue reading →
The Pope and the Englishwoman: Benedict XIV, Jane Squire, the Bologna Academy, and the Problem of Longitude
Article (book chapter) 20 pages Level: university “The Pope and the Englishwoman: Benedict XIV, Jane Squire, the Bologna Academy, and the Problem of Longitude”, by Paula Findlen of Stanford University, is a chapter in Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality, a collection of essays concerning the mid-eighteenth-century papacy of Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), published by the University of Toronto Press. Findlen tells the story of Jane Squire, an English Catholic who had worked out a new system of celestial navigation and who was determined that her ideas be heard by the establishment. As she was unable to get a hearing in England, in 1743 Squire wrote to Pope Benedict XIV, who was open to the scientific work of women. From the article: Squire argued: “my being a Woman, excludes me not from the Blessing of being a Christian; a Character that determines the Business of the reasonable Creature; by a Determination made by its Creator”… Squire … Continue reading →
The publication of the astronomical observations of Buenaventura Suárez SJ (1679-1750) in European scientific journals
Article 4 pages Level: university This 2004 article by Miguel de Asúa was published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. Abstract: Many of the observations of Buenaventura Suárez (1679-1750), a Jesuit astronomer who worked in the missions of Paraguay, were made known in prestigious contemporary scientific European periodicals such as the Acta Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Upsalensis and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Suarez recorded lunar and solar eclipses, and immersions and emersions of the satellites of Jupiter for the purpose of determining the longitude of the mission towns he lived in. He was able to keep abreast of the state of the field and communicate his results through the intermediacy of an epistolary net with correspondents in Europe and the New World. Click here for this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God
Book 240 pages Level: university This book by Massimo Mazzoti, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2007, covers the life and times and work of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a remarkable eighteenth-century woman who lived in a unique period of Italian history when Italy was perhaps the only place where women were encouraged to pursue serious study in math and science. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. From the publisher: She is best known for her curve, the witch of Agnesi, which appears in almost all high school and undergraduate math books. She was a child prodigy who frequented the salon circuit, discussing mathematics, philosophy, history, and music in multiple languages. She wrote one of the first vernacular textbooks on calculus and was appointed chair of mathematics at the university in Bologna. In later years, however, she became a prominent figure within the Catholic Enlightenment, gave up the academic world, and devoted herself to the poor, the sick, … Continue reading →
To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Banneker, 19 August 1791
Article (letter) 1500 words Level: all audiences In 1791 Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught American astronomer, sent a copy of the astronomical almanac (that he published throughout the 1790’s) to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State for the United States. Much of the letter, however, addresses the issue of slavery and its conflict with belief in God as creator of all. Banneker writes: [O]ne universal Father hath given being to us all, and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also without partiality afforded us all the Same Sensations, and endued us all with the same faculties, and that however variable we may be in Society or religion, however diversifyed in Situation or colour, we are all of the Same Family, and Stand in the Same relation to him. Sir, if these are Sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, I hope you cannot but acknowledge, that it is the indispensible duty of those … Continue reading →
Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →A Serious Meditation – from Benjamin Banneker’s 1793 Almanac
Article 390 words Level: all audiences A discussion of a Christian’s duty, from the 1793 almanac published by the self-taught American astronomer Benjamin Banneker of Baltimore County, Maryland. Click here to access Banneker’s 1793 almanac, courtesy of the Smithsonian. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Accuracy of Solar Eclipse Observations Made by Jesuit Astronomers in China
Article 10 pages Level: university A 1995 Journal for the History of Astronomy article by F. R. Stephenson and L. J. Fatoohi: Abstract: During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit astronomers at the Chinese court in Beijing observed many eclipses of the Sun and Moon. For most of these events the times of beginning, middle and end were measured and the magnitudes estimated. Summaries of virtually all of the observation made between A.D. 1644 and 1785 are still preserved. In this paper, that various solar eclipse measurements that the Jesuits made during the period are compared with computation based on modern solar and lunar ephemerides. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Boscovich – his geodetic and cartographic studies
Article 8 pages Level: high school and above A heavily illustrated 2013 article by B. Crippa, V. Forcella, and L. Mussio, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: The name of Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich has many spellings: the Croatian Boscovič, linked to his Dalmatian origin, becomes Boscowich in German. Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich lived and worked in many cities: Rome, Pavia, Venice, Paris, London, Warsaw, Saint Petersburg and Constantinople, where he carried out diplomatic missions. He was a Jesuit and studied mathematics, physics, astronomy, geodesy, and cartography. His studies in geodesy and cartography were developed in Italy: he measured the meridian between Rome and Rimini, he worked on the new map of the Papal State and he designed the Brera Observatory. In the first part of the present work, we present Boscovich’s activities from a chronological point of view. In the second part, we focus on two specific arguments, related to geodesy and cartography: the new … Continue reading →
Boscovich and the Brera Observatory
Article 10 pages Level: university A 2013 article by Elio Antonello of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Italy, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: In the mid 18th century both theoretical and practical astronomy were cultivated in Milan by Barnabites and Jesuits. In 1763 Boscovich was appointed to the chair of mathematics of the University of Pavia in the Duchy of Milan, and the following year he designed an observatory for the Jesuit Collegium of Brera in Milan. The Specola was built in 1765 and it became quickly one of the main european observatories. We discuss the relation between Boscovich and Brera in the framework of a short biography. An account is given of the initial research activity in the Specola, of the departure of Boscovich from Milan in 1773 and his coming back just before his death. Click here for this article from NASA … Continue reading →
Boscovich, the discovery of Uranus and his inclination to theoretical astronomy
Article 8 pages Level: university A 2013 article by L. Guzzardi, published in Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana Supplement, concerning the 18th-century Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich: Abstract: On March 13th 1781 Frederick William Herschel observed a bizarre celestial body moving in the sky. Retrospectively, that astral body was not at all new at that point. It was observed by a number of astronomers since the end of 17th century (and maybe earlier). But they failed to find out its motion and catalogued it as a fixed star – each time a different one. On the other hand, Herschel realized it was moving, and catalogued it as a comet. That news of a new finding in the sky rapidly spread throughout Europe, and after some months the `Herschel’s comet’ was correctly recognized as a new planet, which will be named Uranus. The present paper assumes the event of the discovery of Uranus and the assessment of its planetary nature as a system … Continue reading →
Copernicus and the “High Seas”
Article (blog post series) 3600 words Level: all audiences In this series of posts, written for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses “Two Spheres Theory” regarding the shape and composition of the Earth. The Two Spheres Theory was a medieval idea that came to be taken as scientific evidence for existence of, and direct action in the world of, God. However, the Two Spheres Theory was soundly disproven by, among other things, Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the lands now known as the Americas. Click here to read Part I of this series on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Click here to read Part II of this series. Click here to read Part III.
Continue reading →Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of Ceres
Article (book chapter) 8 pages Level: university The first asteroid was discovered by Fr. Giuseppe Piazza, who gave it the name Ceres. Fr. Piazzi believed that in fact he had discovered a planet, but was hesitant to say so directly, and often referred to Ceres as a “comet”. Today Ceres is classified as a “dwarf planet”. This article on Piazzi is from the book Asteroids III, published in 2002 by the University of Arizona Press and the Lunar and Planetary Institute of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). From the chapter abstract: In this chapter we focus on the circumstances that led Giuseppe Piazzi (1746–1826) to discover the first asteroid, Ceres, on January 1, 1801. Through the examination of published and archival documentation, we shed light on the reaction of the astronomical community at the announcement of the discovery and on Piazzi’s puzzling behavior. In the end, we briefly discuss the discoveries of Pallas, Juno, and Vesta and the theories put forward … Continue reading →
Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of the Proper Motion of 61-Cygni
Article 8 pages Level: university Fr. Giuseppe Piazza discovered the proper motion of the star 61 Cygni at the end of the eighteenth century. A star’s proper motion is its motion across the sky compared to other stars. The position of 61 Cygni, a star that is faint but visible to the naked eye, changes measurably over the course of a year. A star whose position changes like this must be a relatively nearby star. In this 1990 article in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, Georgia Fodera Serio of the Palermo Observatory discusses the story of Fr. Piazzi and his “flying star”, and writes on the importance of Piazzi’s discovery. Serio notes that Piazzi “abandoned the old paradigm that ‘brightness implies nearness’”. This was an important step for astronomers, who previously had supposed that those stars that appear brighter in our night sky are nearer to us. In the 1830s the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel would measure … Continue reading →
Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Jesuits: Savants
Article (book chapter) 46 pages Level: university This article by Mordechai Feingold is the introductory chapter to the 2003 book Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters, edited by Feingold and published by The MIT Press. Feingold provides an overview of Jesuit scientists and of the advantages and disadvantages (from a scientific point of view) of doing science within the Jesuit order—an organization whose mission was not scientific but spiritual. Feingold writes: The aim of this introductory chapter is to get past the stereotypes that surrounded the Society of Jesus during the first 200 years of its existence and evaluate the scientific dimension of its intellectual contribution, independent of its religious mission. It is my contention that, by and large, the scholarly activities and aspirations of Jesuits were indistinguishable from those of other contemporary savants, secular or ordained, irrespective of denomination. True, constraints on the pursuit of secular learning were more stringent among Jesuits, as were the mechanisms regulating their … Continue reading →
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi of Bologna
Articles (two) 29 pages; 32 pages Level: high school and above Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (1711-1778) of Bologna, Italy is often identified as being the first woman to earn a doctoral degree and the first to be a university professor (where she eventually became the highest paid member of the faculty). Bassi showed great talent when she was young, and became something of a celebrity in Bologna when she earned her first degree. She was awarded a position at the University of Bologna that was somewhat honorary, but managed to eventually turn that into a full position as professor of physics. Bologna’s Archbishop, Prospero Lambertini, supported Bassi (and encouraged other women to pursue higher education in science)—support that became more valuable as Lambertini became a Cardinal and then Pope Benedict XIV. Bassi’s drive and persistence is reflected in the words of someone involved in considering her request to be made a professor: [F]inally to satisfy, if one ever can, the … Continue reading →
Maria Gaetana Agnesi – Mathematics and the Making of the Catholic Enlightenment
Article 29 pages Level: university This article by Massimo Mazzotti discusses Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a child prodigy who obtained education and acclaim for her abilities in math and physics, as well as support from Pope Benedict XIV. But after the death of her father she abandoned her work in mathematics and physics and chose a life of service to those in need. In this article (published in 2001 in Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, Vol. 92, no. 4, pgs. 657-683) Mazzotti writes: Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) is known as the author of a textbook on calculus that appeared in Milan in 1748. For the first time a woman was able to establish herself as a legitimate mathematician and publish her work…. In her Instituzioni analitiche she presented the most complete introduction to algebra, analytic geometry, and differential and integral calculus yet published in Europe. Far from being a tool to subvert traditional metaphysical assumptions and religious dogmas, … Continue reading →
Michael Buckley SJ: God in the Project of Newtonian Mechanics
Includes an essay by Michael Buckley, “God in the project of Newtonian mechanics” discussing the theological question in Newton’s mechanics, Newton’s methodical resolution of the theological question, Light and the inner structure of natural bodies.
Continue reading →Modern Scientific Thought in Santa Fe, Quito, and Caracas, 1736–1803
Article 30 pages Level: university This paper by Luis Carlos Arboleda and Diana Soto Arango was included in a collection of articles published by the University of Texas Press in 2006 under the title Science in Latin America: A History, edited by Juan José Saldaña. Arboleda and Arango focus on interest in Copernican and Newtonian ideas in Santa Fe, Quito, and Caracas in Latin America in the latter two-thirds of the 18th century, especially at Jesuit-, Dominican-, and state-run universities. They write that these scientific ideas, which held the promise of yielding practical benefits to society, were introduced by scientifically-inclined priests. However, the reception of these ideas was complicated by politics. The authors write that, [The Spanish Crown] had correctly noticed that, behind the teaching of new theories that aimed at practical applications, there lay the interests of the social-climbing elite and the subversion of the colonial order. Click here for a preview of this article, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
Pope Benedict XIV – Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women
Article (book chapter) 20 pages Level: university “Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women”, by Marta Cavazza of the University of Bologna, is a chapter in Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality, a collection of essays concerning the mid-eighteenth-century papacy of Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), published by the University of Toronto Press. Cavazza writes: [A] handful of women… received public recognition in eighteen-century Italy, especially in Bologna, for their philosophical [scientific], mathematical, and anatomical knowledge. The instigator and director of these events was in most cases Benedict XIV… [who] used his moral authority and his sovereign power to encourage and reward women who excelled in the fields of philosophy and medicine, helping them obtain public honours and academic positions that were reserved for men during that era… They became “a symbol of the successes of the Bolognese science” chiefly thanks to Benedict XIV’s patronage. The connection between the promotion of modern science and not only the recognition of … Continue reading →
Roger Joseph Boscovich of the Society of Jesus
Article and book chapter Approximately 10 pages each Level: high school and above Roger Joseph Boscovich (Ruđer Josip Bošković) was a Jesuit scientist with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, ranging from developing better lenses for telescopes, to designing a system to reinforce the dome of St. Peter’s for Pope Benedict XIV, to creating what today might be called a “Theory of Everything” that would explain all physical interactions in the universe. These two articles provide concise overviews of his life and work: “Roger Joseph Boscovich: Forerunner of Modern Atomic Theory” by Sr. Mary Mercy Fitzpatrick and Sr. Antonietta Fitzparick (Incarnate Word College, San Antonio, Texas) in The Mathematics Teacher, February 1968, pgs. 167-175. Click here to read this article via JSTOR (many libraries provide complete JSTOR access): Who was this individual who, almost two hundred years after his death, has aroused such interest among scientists and mathematicians? Roger Joseph Boscovich was a Serbo-Coation Jesuit and a renowned mathematician, astronomer, … Continue reading →
Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories [with book reviews]
Book 369 pages Level: university Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories, is a 2003 book by Agustín Udías, S. J. of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Universidad Complutenese (Madrid, Spain). From the publisher: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now … Continue reading →
The Madras Observatory: from Jesuit cooperation to British rule
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2017 by Blake Smith, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern University in Illinois and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. The Madras Observatory offers little to the visitor’s eye. Stone slabs and broken pillars lie ignored in a fenced-off section of a local weather centre in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Few tourists venture out to see the ruins of the 18th-century complex. On the other side of the subcontinent, in northern Indian cities such as New Delhi, Varanasi and Jaipur, remains of the Jantar Mantars, vast astronomical stations, are far more popular attractions. Built in the same century as the Madras Observatory, their stark geometric structures, with looming proportions and vibrant colours, make for mandatory stops on travellers’ itineraries. Yet it is the Madras Observatory, and not the spectacular Jantar Mantars, … Continue reading →
The Pope and the Englishwoman: Benedict XIV, Jane Squire, the Bologna Academy, and the Problem of Longitude
Article (book chapter) 20 pages Level: university “The Pope and the Englishwoman: Benedict XIV, Jane Squire, the Bologna Academy, and the Problem of Longitude”, by Paula Findlen of Stanford University, is a chapter in Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality, a collection of essays concerning the mid-eighteenth-century papacy of Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), published by the University of Toronto Press. Findlen tells the story of Jane Squire, an English Catholic who had worked out a new system of celestial navigation and who was determined that her ideas be heard by the establishment. As she was unable to get a hearing in England, in 1743 Squire wrote to Pope Benedict XIV, who was open to the scientific work of women. From the article: Squire argued: “my being a Woman, excludes me not from the Blessing of being a Christian; a Character that determines the Business of the reasonable Creature; by a Determination made by its Creator”… Squire … Continue reading →
The publication of the astronomical observations of Buenaventura Suárez SJ (1679-1750) in European scientific journals
Article 4 pages Level: university This 2004 article by Miguel de Asúa was published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. Abstract: Many of the observations of Buenaventura Suárez (1679-1750), a Jesuit astronomer who worked in the missions of Paraguay, were made known in prestigious contemporary scientific European periodicals such as the Acta Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Upsalensis and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Suarez recorded lunar and solar eclipses, and immersions and emersions of the satellites of Jupiter for the purpose of determining the longitude of the mission towns he lived in. He was able to keep abreast of the state of the field and communicate his results through the intermediacy of an epistolary net with correspondents in Europe and the New World. Click here for this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
A Serious Meditation – from Benjamin Banneker’s 1793 Almanac
Article 390 words Level: all audiences A discussion of a Christian’s duty, from the 1793 almanac published by the self-taught American astronomer Benjamin Banneker of Baltimore County, Maryland. Click here to access Banneker’s 1793 almanac, courtesy of the Smithsonian. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet on the existence of God
Article 6 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). The second chapter of this textbook was addressed to the question of God’s existence. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of Ceres
Article (book chapter) 8 pages Level: university The first asteroid was discovered by Fr. Giuseppe Piazza, who gave it the name Ceres. Fr. Piazzi believed that in fact he had discovered a planet, but was hesitant to say so directly, and often referred to Ceres as a “comet”. Today Ceres is classified as a “dwarf planet”. This article on Piazzi is from the book Asteroids III, published in 2002 by the University of Arizona Press and the Lunar and Planetary Institute of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). From the chapter abstract: In this chapter we focus on the circumstances that led Giuseppe Piazzi (1746–1826) to discover the first asteroid, Ceres, on January 1, 1801. Through the examination of published and archival documentation, we shed light on the reaction of the astronomical community at the announcement of the discovery and on Piazzi’s puzzling behavior. In the end, we briefly discuss the discoveries of Pallas, Juno, and Vesta and the theories put forward … Continue reading →
Tradition and Today: Religion and Science
Article (PDF) 12 pages Level: university Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, presents four case histories which indicate that the relationship between religion and science has, in the course of three centuries, passed from one of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue, to show that the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture, whether traditional or modern. He argues that the approach of science to religion in each of these periods can be characterized respectively as: (l) temptress, (2) antagonist, (3) enlightened teacher, (4) partner in dialogue. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Emilie Du Châtelet: Selected Philosophical and Scientific Writings
Book 424 pages Level: high school and above Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet, wrote, among other things, a translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Principia (published posthumously in 1759), and a physics textbook for her son, entitled Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics, published in 1740). This collection of her philosophical and scientific writings, edited by Judith P. Zinsser, includes translations of substantial portions of these works and others. Zinsser’s translation of Institutions contains all of the Preface (discussing, among other things, the utility of mathematics and the usefulness of experiments), all of the first chapter (discussing principles of knowledge and reasoning), all of the second chapter (which contains logical arguments for the existence of God and for determining the basics of God’s nature), as well as chapters on time, matter, motion, and force. Emilie Du Châtelet was a complex person—she sought education and access to the world of science at a time when women were largely … Continue reading →
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
George Berkeley – The Analyst; The Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics
Books (two) 94 pages; 70 pages Level: university George Berkeley’s 1734 The Analyst; or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician criticizes how mathematicians thought regarding the “Method of Fluxions” (in modern terms, “Calculus”) of Isaac Newton, especially when some of those mathematicians were “infidels” (atheists) who criticized theological thought. Thus the title page of The Analyst quotes the Book of Matthew: “First cast out the beam out of thine own Eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye [7:5, KJV].” Berkeley, a bishop in the Church of Ireland, acknowledges that Fluxions is “the general Key, by help whereof the modern Mathematicians unlock the secrets of Geometry, and consequently of Nature…. [and] that which hath enabled them so remarkably to outgo the Ancients in discovering Theorems and solving Problems….” However, Fluxions relies on concepts of infinity, applied repeatedly, and “to conceive a Quantity infinitely small… is, I confess, above my Capacity. … Continue reading →
Isaac Newton – God and the Universe in the ‘General Scholium’ of the Principia
Book chapter 5 pages Level: university Isaac Newton is arguably the most important scientist of all. His Principia Mathematica (written in Latin, and first published in 1687), in which he develops a physics of the solar system to compete with the “vortex theory” of René Descartes, is arguably his most important work, for it developed the physics still taught in classrooms and used in science and engineering today. Newton sees in this physics and in the solar system the action of God. Newton is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics, although his views on the nature of God were unorthodox and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. From the ‘General Scholium’: This most beautiful System of the Sun, Planets, and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed Stars are the centers of other like systems, … Continue reading →
Isaac Newton – Two books relating to religion
Books (two) 376 pages; Level: university Isaac Newton, one of the most prominent scientific figures in history, is often said to have written more about theology than about mathematics and physics. However, his views on the nature of God were unorthodox, and much of what he wrote regarding matters relating to religion was never published. However, his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms was published in 1728. It contains material such as Newton’s diagram of the Temple of Solomon, shown here. Newton’s Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, was published posthumously in 1733 and is another example of Newton’s writing on matters relating to religion. Click here for Chronology, courtesy of Erara. Click here for Observations, courtesy of Archive.org
Continue reading →Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Pope Benedict XIV – Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women
Article (book chapter) 20 pages Level: university “Benedict’s Patronage of Learned Women”, by Marta Cavazza of the University of Bologna, is a chapter in Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality, a collection of essays concerning the mid-eighteenth-century papacy of Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), published by the University of Toronto Press. Cavazza writes: [A] handful of women… received public recognition in eighteen-century Italy, especially in Bologna, for their philosophical [scientific], mathematical, and anatomical knowledge. The instigator and director of these events was in most cases Benedict XIV… [who] used his moral authority and his sovereign power to encourage and reward women who excelled in the fields of philosophy and medicine, helping them obtain public honours and academic positions that were reserved for men during that era… They became “a symbol of the successes of the Bolognese science” chiefly thanks to Benedict XIV’s patronage. The connection between the promotion of modern science and not only the recognition of … Continue reading →
Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy
Book 380 pages Level: high school and above As suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and one which has repeatedly led to fundamental changes in our view of the world. This book covers the history of our study of the cosmos from prehistory through to a survey of modern astronomy and astrophysics (sure to be of interest to future historians of twentieth-century astronomy). It does not attempt to cover everything, but deliberately concentrates on the important themes and topics. These include stellar astronomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time subordinate to the study of the solar system, but the source of many important concepts in modern astronomy, and the Copernican revolution, which led to the challenge of ancient authorities in many areas, not just astronomy. This is an essential text for students of the history of science and for students of astronomy who require a historical background … Continue reading →
The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God
Book 240 pages Level: university This book by Massimo Mazzoti, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2007, covers the life and times and work of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a remarkable eighteenth-century woman who lived in a unique period of Italian history when Italy was perhaps the only place where women were encouraged to pursue serious study in math and science. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. From the publisher: She is best known for her curve, the witch of Agnesi, which appears in almost all high school and undergraduate math books. She was a child prodigy who frequented the salon circuit, discussing mathematics, philosophy, history, and music in multiple languages. She wrote one of the first vernacular textbooks on calculus and was appointed chair of mathematics at the university in Bologna. In later years, however, she became a prominent figure within the Catholic Enlightenment, gave up the academic world, and devoted herself to the poor, the sick, … Continue reading →