What Galileo Saw

Lawrence Lipking

Description

The Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century has often been called a decisive turning point in human history. It represents, for good or ill, the birth of modern science and modern ways of viewing the world. In What Galileo Saw, Lawrence Lipking offers a new perspective on how to understand what happened then, arguing that artistic imagination and creativity as much as rational thought played a critical role in creating new visions of science and in shaping stories about eye-opening discoveries in cosmology, natural history, engineering, and the life sciences. When Galileo saw the face of the Moon and the moons of Jupiter, Lipking writes, he had to picture a cosmos that could account for them. Kepler thought his geometry could open a window into the mind of God. Francis Bacon's natural history envisioned an order of things that would replace the illusions of language with solid evidence and transform notions of life and death. Descartes designed a hypothetical "Book of Nature" to explain how everything in the universe was constructed. Thomas Browne reconceived the boundaries of truth and error. Robert Hooke, like Leonardo, was both researcher and artist; his schemes illuminate the microscopic and the macrocosmic. And when Isaac Newton imagined nature as a coherent and comprehensive mathematical system, he redefined the goals of science and the meaning of genius. What Galileo Saw bridges the divide between science and art; it brings together Galileo and Milton, Bacon and Shakespeare. Lipking enters the minds and the workshops where the Scientific Revolution was fashioned, drawing on art, literature, and the history of science to reimagine how perceptions about the world and human life could change so drastically, and change forever.

Sujets

• History of art
• History of science
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 06 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801454851
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

 WHAT GALILEO SAW

WHAT GALILEO SAW n I MAGI NI NG T HE SCI E NT I F I C RE VOLUT I ON

L a w r e n c e L i p k i n g

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESS IthacaandLondon

Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Firstpublished2014byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lipking,Lawrence,author.  What Galileo saw : imagining the scientific revolution / Lawrence Lipking.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5297-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Literature and science—History—17th century. 2. Europe—Intellectual life—17th century. 3. Science— History—17th century. 4. Galilei, Galileo, 1564–1642— Influence. I. Title.  PR149.S4L56 2014  001.09'032—dc23 2014017110

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Clothprinting

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Co nt e nt s

ListofIllustrationsvii Prefaceix Acknowledgmentsxv

a Revolution1. Introducing 2. What Galileo Saw: Two Fables of Sound and Seeing Progress: Imagining3. Kepler’s the Future Poetry of the World: A Natural4. The History of Poetics 5.“Look There, Look There!” Imagining Life inKing Lear Dream of Descartes: The Book6. The of Nature and the Infinite I AM 7. A History of Error: Robert Fludd, Thomas Browne, and the Harrow of Truth Century of Genius (1):8. The Measuring Up  9. The Century of Genius (2): Hooke, Newton, and the System of the World 10. Revolution and Its Discontents: The Skeptical Challenge

1

20

41

68

91

110

131

158

177

201

vi CONTENTS

Appendix1.Galileo:TheFableofSound 221 Appendix2.Descartes’sThreeDreams 225 Notes231 Bibliography281 Index309

  I l lu s t r at i o n s

1.Galileo’s wash drawings of the moon 2. Galileo’s etchings of the moon,Sidereus Nuncius 3. Frontispiece for Kepler’sTabulae Rudolphinae 4. Panel from the frontispiece for Kepler’sTabulae Rudolphinae 5. Descartes’s diagram of planets and comets afloat on celestial matter,The World 6. Descartes’s diagram of magnetism,Principles of Philosophy 7. Descartes’s diagram of the solar system,Principles of Philosophy

29 35 63 65

118 123 124

vii

  P r e f a c e

What Galileo saw, when he looked through his homemade spyglass at the sky, has been a source of fascination and hindsight for 400 years. It brings together an intimate, private act—one man’s effort to make sense of the flickering images in his eyes—and an earthshaking histori- cal event—perhaps the making of the modern world. Something important happened then, as everyone agrees. Yet every aspect of what occurred is subject to interpretation. No one can ever know exactly what Galileo saw, of course, and the evidence that he provided, in skillful wash drawings and etchings as well as verbal descriptions, could never record his first impres- 1 sions directly; instead he offers his later reflections on them. Nor does the significance of what he saw speak for itself. If Galileo started a revolution, the meaning of that revolution has not yet been settled. Even the phrase “what Galileo saw” can point in different directions. An emphasis on the “what” highlights the heavenly objects of his vision: the patchy, shining face of the moon, the countless stars that decompose the Milky Way into individual dots, the moons of Jupiter, and later the phases of Venus and spots on the sun. Scholars have taken pains to show how well these observations match the photographic evidence of later times. But Galileo’s discoveries extended much further. They opened a universe of boundless unknown possible worlds, explored by ever-improving instruments in a far- sighted future. In 2003 an essay by Michael Benson told the story of the Gal- ileo Orbiter, which after touring the solar system found several new moons 2 of Jupiter and took close-ups of Europa before crashing into the planet. The title of the essay, “What Galileo Saw,” suggests a continuity between the man and the spacecraft, as if the orbiter had refined and completed his mission. This was what Galileo began long ago with his own explorations. YetanemphasisonwhatGalileosawmight lead to different conclusions. Other observers, using their naked eyes, had already noticed some spots on the moon and the sun. When Dante is transported to the moon, in canto 2 of theParadisocan hardly wait to ask Beatrice, “What are the dark marks on, he 3 this body?” With the aid of his spyglass, Galileo perceives those spots much

ix