Read more
List of contents
Introduction
1. Establishing Mathematical Authority and the Politics of Christoph Clavius
2. Trusting the Jesuit Mathematicus
3. Grienberger, Mathematics and Modesty in the Collegio Romano
4. The Uses of Correspondence
5. Magnetic Declination and the Problem of Longitude
6. Discipline and Authority
7. Experiment, Expertise and Centralized Authority
8. Theatricality and the Failure of Replication
Appendix: Documenting Public Mathematics in the Collegio Romano
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Michael John Gorman is Professor of Life Sciences in Society at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany and Founding Director of BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern, Germany.
Summary
Jesuit engagement with natural philosophy during the late 16th and early 17th centuries transformed the status of the mathematical disciplines and propelled members of the Order into key areas of controversy in relation to Aristotelianism. Through close investigation of the activities of the Jesuit 'school' of mathematics founded by Christoph Clavius, The Scientific Counter-Revolution examines the Jesuit connections to the rise of experimental natural philosophy and the emergence of the early scientific societies.
Arguing for a re-evaluation of the role of Jesuits in shaping early modern science, this book traces the evolution of the Collegio Romano as a hub of knowledge. Starting with an examination of Clavius’s Counter-Reformation agenda for mathematics, Michael John Gorman traces the development of a collective Jesuit approach to experimentation and observation under Christopher Grienberger and analyses the Jesuit role in the Galileo Affair and the vacuum debate. Ending with a discussion of the transformation of the Collegio Romano under Athanasius Kircher into a place of curiosity and wonder and the centre of a global information gathering network, this book reveals how the Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping of modern experimental science.
Foreword
From Chrisopher Clavius to Athanasius Kircher, this book explores how the Counter-Reformation goals of the Jesuits contributed to the shaping of modern experimental science.
Additional text
Using a remarkable range of printed and manuscript sources, this perceptive book traces significant Jesuit scholars and mathematicians to illuminate the experimentation, correspondence and long-range organisational authority that helped to provide some of the most important resources for new knowledge in early modern Europe. Gorman's impressive analysis also speaks to wider debates on the relationship between social organisations, faith and authority.
