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Week I (5 February)
- Lecture 1. Introduction: Science, Culture, and History
- Lecture 2. The World of Aristotle and Ptolemy
- Reading
- John of Holywood, On the Sphere, in E. Grant
(ed.), Source Book in Medieval Science, 442-451 (in Readings
and
online)
- Anon., Theorica planetarum (Models of the Planets),
in Grant, 451-465 (in Readings)
- M.S. Mahoney, "Ptolemaic Astronomy in the Middle Ages", (online
and in Readings)
WWW Resources
| Background and Supplementary Reading
|
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Week II (12 February)
- Lecture 3. The World on Its Head: Copernicus' On the
Revolutions
- Lecture 4. The Union of Head and Hand: Vesalius'On the
Structure of the Human Body
- Reading
- Nicholas Copernicus, On the Revolutions (trans.
Rosen), Prefatory material and Book I (online)
and Book V, pp. 227-254 (in packet)
- Andreas Vesalius, On the Fabric of the Human Body,
Preface
and Printer's Note to the Reader (Online edition at Northwestern; go to
the homepage
and from there to
Book One, then choose the two items from the sidebar on the left.)
- J.D.deC. Saunders and C.D. O'Malley, The Illustrations
from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels (On reserve at
Firestone: spend some time looking at Vesalius'drawings) or visit the
online selection at the National Library of Medicine's
"Historical Anatomies on the Web".
WWW Resources
| Background and Supplementary Reading |
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Week III (19 February)
- Lecture 5. Shaping the World: Renaissance Engineering
- Lecture 6. Machines and Motion: Galileo's Two New Sciences
- Reading
- S. Drake and I.E. Drabkin, Mechanics in
Sixteenth-Century Italy, 3-26, 63-78, 241-258 [E-reserve]
- Galileo Galilei, Discourses and Demonstrations
Concerning Two New Sciences (trans. Crew and DeSalvio [online
or pdf],
or Drake), First Day, 49-68, 105-118, 127-141; Second Day,
151-158; Third Day, 190, 197-214; Fourth Day, 268-280 (N.B. the page
numbers here refer to those
of the standard Italian edition and are given in square brackets in the
Crew-DeSalvio translation and at the side of the page in the Drake
translation)
WWW Resources
| Background and Supplementary Reading |
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Week IV (26 February)
- Lecture 7. Breaking the Circle: Kepler's New Astronomy
- Lecture 8. The Cosmological Crisis: Galileo's Two
World
System
- Reading
- Curtis Wilson, "How did Kepler Discover His First Two
Laws?", Scientific American (March 1972), 92-106 (in packet)
- Galileo Galilei, The Assayer,
selections in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (trans.
Drake), 231-280 [
online]
- Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World
Systems (trans. Drake), 46-80, 140-188 (in packet)
WWW Resources
| Background and Supplementary Reading |
 |
Week V (5 March)
- Lecture 9. The Promise and Threat of Magic
- Lecture 10. Bacon on Truth and Utility
- Reading
- William Eamon, "Technology as Magic in the Late Middle
Ages and the Renaissance" Janus 70(1983), 171-212 (in packet)
- Francis Bacon, The New Organon, Book I (pp.
33-120) [online
version]
[and
another]
[and
the original Latin]
WWW
Resources | Background and Supplementary Reading |
 |
Week VI (12 March)
- Lecture 11. Meeting the Sceptical Challenge
- Lecture 12. Optics and Mechanicism
- Reading
- Marin Mersenne, The Truth of the Sciences (online
and in packet)
- Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry
and Meteorology (trans. Olscamp), 65-83, 162-173, 332-352 (in
packet)
WWW Resources | Background and Supplementary Reading |
