Mechanics and Cosmology in the Medieval and Early Modern Period

Area:	Institute
Start:	1 June 2007
Description:	The 64th volume of the series "Biblioteca di Nuncius" has been published by Olschki with the title "Mechanics and cosmology in the Medieval and Early Modern Period". Edited by Massimo Bucciantini, Michele Camerota and Sophie Roux, it contains the proceedings of the workshop "Mechanics and Cosmology" held in Florence from 25 to 27 November 2004. The main purpose of the book is to reconstruct the paths followed by mechanical and cosmological ideas in the crucial period between the first exposition of heliocentrism in the "De Revolutionibus" by Copernicus (1543) and the presentation of a new celestial mechanics in the "Principia Mathematica" by Isaac Newton (1687). The book consists of three parts, coinciding roughly with three historical and conceptual periods. The first part aims at defining factors of permanence and factors of transformation from the Middle Ages onwards; the second part focuses on the early reception of Copernicus in different intellectual contexts; the essays in the third and last part are devoted to different interactions between cosmology and the new science of motion.
Link:	www.olschki.it/page.htm

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