XLIII National Congress of the Italian Society for the History of Physics and Astronomy

When the time was ripe to publish Copernicus: a view of the European intellectual context of the first half of the 16th century

6 Sept 2023, 09:15

30m

Sala Jappelli (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)

Invited SISFA 2023 Copernico e il nuovo Cosmo / Copernicus’ Changeover From the Old to the New Cosmos

Speaker

VALLERIANI, Matteo (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

Description

The talk elucidates the context of transformation of astronomical knowledge in the years when Nicholas Copernicus' work saw the light of day, the Revolutionibus orbium coelestium of 1543. In particular, it is intended to show that the publication took place at the beginning of a period in which the processes of transformation, dissemination and accumulation of scientific knowledge had taken on a dynamic quite different from the previous period and marked by a greater speed of dissemination, an enlargement of the space of knowledge circulation and, above all, a marked tendency toward scientific innovation.
Thus, taking the perspective of the potential audience of Copernicus' text, it will be shown how the publication was the consequence of a changed intellectual environment and economy of knowledge due to Wittenberg's entry into the scene as a scientific center.