History of Jesuit Science

Reviews: British Journal for the History of Science 45(2012), S. 288–290 (N. Kaoukji); Emblematica. An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies 19(2012), S. 327-333 (J. Sawday); Catholic Historical Review 98(2012), S. 573f (K. Howell); Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 74(2012), S. 200-202 (S. Taussig); Print Quarterly 29(2012), S. 454-458 (E. Reeves); Historians of Netherlandish Art Review of Books 2012 (E. Jorink).

Reviews of the German edition: The Library 7(2006), S. 473f (J. L. Flood); Journal for the History of Astronomy 37(2006), S. 471ff (N. Jardine); American Historical Review 112(2007), S. 265f (G. Scholz Williams); Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 120(2007), S. 252f (A. de Bruycker); Sehepunkte. Rezensionsjournal für die Ge¬schichtswissenschaften 7(2007), Nr. 9 (M. Bronscheuer); History of Universities 22(2007), S. 258-261 (A. de Bruycker); NTM. Internationale Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Ethik der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, N.S. 15(2007), S. 303f (A. Kleinert); Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 34(2007), S. 705-707 (A. Brendecke); Renaissance Quarterly 60(2007), S. 1416f (A. Mosley); Nuncius. Journal of the History of Science 22(2)(2007), S. 384f (H. Bredekamp); Morgen-Glantz. Zeitschrift der Christian Knorr von Rosenroth-Gesellschaft 18(2008), S. 228ff (J. J. Berns); Fachsprache. Internationale Zeitschrift für Fachsprachenforschung 30(2008), S. 200-202 (J. Engberg/P. Kastberg); Isis 99(2008), S. 844-846 (S. de Angelis); Zeitschrift für Ger¬ma¬nistik 19(2009), S. 483f (M. Neumann).

Der zwischen 1657 und 1672 erschienene Atlas Marianus von Wilhelm Gumppenberg hat die Wahrnehmung der Marienheiligtümer anhaltend beeinflusst. Das Werk gilt als paradigmatisches Beispiel des im 17. Jahrhundert erarbeiteten wissenschaftlichen Diskurses der Jesuiten zur Marienverehrung. Hier werden Marienwunder durch gelehrte Nachweise beglaubigt und insbesondere die Astronomie in den Dienst des Glaubens gestellt, damit sie das Himmelsgewölbe im Sinne des Christentums neu deute. Am Beispiel der Himmelskönigin Maria und anhand von Texten Gumppenbergs und prominenter jesuitischer Wissenschaftler wie Johann Baptist Cysat oder Matthäus Rader soll hier erörtert werden, welche Rolle die Jesuiten beim Aufbau eines mit den Prinzipien der katholischen Kirche kompatiblen wissenschaftlichen Denkens innehatten.

Ziel des Seminars ist, den Studierenden grundsätzliches Wissen zum Thema "Mariologie und jesuitisches Wissenschaftsverständnis" zu vermitteln und sie mit dem Umgang mit Quellen und Sekundärliteratur vertraut zu machen. Auch sollen sie im Seminar lernen, gesammelte Informationen selbständig kritisch auszuwerten und einem interessierten Publikum zugänglich zu machen. Es ist vorgesehen, Ergebnisse und Überlegungen aus dem Seminar in Form einer virtuellen Ausstellung zu veröffentlichen. Anstatt eines klassischen Referats oder eines Essays werden die Studierenden an der Konzeption einer Webseite auf der hypotheses.org-Plattform mitwirken: Die Arbeit umfasst die Identifizierung potentieller Exponate, ihre kritische Beschreibung sowie das Verfassen von Begleittexten.

Die Teilnahme am Seminar steht allen offen, die am Projekt aktiv mitwirken wollen. Erwartet wird eine regelmäßige Anwesenheit, die Teilnahme an den gemeinsamen Diskussionen sowie gegebenenfalls die Vorbereitung ausgewählter Quellentexte für die gemeinsame Lektüre.

Visuelle Strategien zur Konturierung eines jesuitischen Wissensreiches, in: Oy-Marra, Elisabeth/Remmert, Volker R. (eds.): „Le monde est une peinture“. Jesuitische Identität und die Rolle der Bilder, Berlin 2011 [Beiträge zu den Historischen Kulturwissenschaften 7], 85-108

Carlos Zimmermann SJ was an important pedagogue and one of the most influential naturalists working in Portugal at the beginning of the twentieth century. He was an active promoter of an experimental approach to the teaching of the natural sciences, and one of the founders of the leading Portuguese scientific journal, Brotéria. His main area of research was the identification and classification of novel species of diatoms (one of the largest groups of microscopic algae). In the aftermath of the expulsion of the religious orders in 1910, the newly-established Portuguese Republic confiscated Jesuit scientific books, instruments and collections, including those produced by Zimmermann. Exiled to Brazil from 1911, he remained there until his death in 1950. This article focuses on the main questions relating to the organisation, apprehension, and partial restitution of these collections. By analysing a set of sixteen unpublished documents, recently found in a private archive and now published as an appendix, the article reconstructs the trajectory and significance of Zimmermann’s  body of work. It elucidates, furthermore, the complex diplomatic and political circumstances, as well as the central role of  correspondence networks, that led to the retrieval of these  documents.

Рымскі архіў езуітаў (Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu-ARSI)-гэта цэнтральны архіў Таварыства Іісуса, размешчаны ў Рыме ў Галоўнай курыі Ордэна (Рым, Borgo S. Spirito, 4). Галоўныя мэты архіва-захаваць, прывесці ў парадак і зрабіць дасяжнымі для даследавання дакументы, звязаныя з Таварыствам Іісуса і яго дзейнасцю ад XVI стагоддзя (ад пачатку яго гісторыі) да нашых дзён. Фонды ARSI умоўна маюць чатыры раздзелы. Дакументаў так шмат, што іх колькасць вымяраюць метрамі паліц: усяго 1643 метры. 1. Дакументы так званага «старога» Таварыства (1540-1773)-291 м. 2. Дакументы так званага «новага» Таварыства (пасля 1814)-814 м. 3. Архіў генеральнага пракурора езуітаў (так званы Фонд Джэзуціка-FG)-190 м. 4. Іншыя дакументы, якія наўпрост гісторыі Ордэна не тычацца-348 м. Архіў стаў фарміравацца амаль ад першых дзён утварэння Ордэна. Да канца XVIII стагоддзя з правінцый у Рым высылалі вялікую колькасць дакументаў: гадавыя і трохгадовыя каталогі, а таксама афіцыйныя ліставанні, пастановы судоў, друкаваныя творы аўтараў-езуітаў. У 1773 годзе Ордэн быў распушчаны-і архіў спыніў сваё існаванне. Частка дакументаў была знішчана, частка-перададзена ў дзяржаўныя і прыватныя калекцыі. Толькі ў міжваенны час, калі італьянскі ўрад вярнуў дакументы з Фонда Джэзуціка, архіў быў адноўлены.

In Companions in Geography, Mario Cams revisits the early 18th century mapping of Qing China, without doubt one of the largest cartographic endeavours of the early modern world. Commonly seen as a Jesuit initiative, the project appears here as the result of a convergence of interests among the French Academy of Sciences, the Jesuit order, and the Kangxi emperor (r. 1661-1722). These connections inspired the gradual integration of European and East Asian scientific practices and led to a period of intense land surveying, executed by large teams of Qing officials and European missionaries. The resulting maps and atlases, all widely circulated across Eurasia, remained the most authoritative cartographic representations of continental East Asia for over a century.

Нарис історії Львівської єзуїтської академії. У дослідженні зосереджено увагу на витоках університетської традиції у Львові, історіографічних та джерелознавчих аспектах вивчення освітньої діяльності єзуїтів. Відтворено структуру навчального закладу, організацію навчального процесу.

How we think of the relationship between the Jesuits and the Enlightenment largely depends on how we conceptualize the latter. This chapter addresses it as a series of debates conducted in the context of a cosmopolitan Republic of Letters and a number of specific cultural practices that made that very Republic possible. The Jesuits were, therefore, participants in, rather than enemies of, the Enlightenment. Because they combined theological conservatism with cultural modernity, the Jesuits were feared and resented with particular vehemence. Placed between two different modernities, one characterized by global structures of communication and learning, as well as by the practices of cultural accommodation, the other by the attack on superstition and religious authority, the Jesuits helped create the conditions for the Enlightenment, making important but paradoxical contributions to some of its central debates. Nowhere was it more obvious than in the impact of missionary ethnographies concerning the "Gentile" pagan peoples of the world.

This dissertation explores the natural philosophy of the polymath Louis-Bertrand Castel (1688-1757), one of the most prolific and colorful Jesuit thinkers of early modern France. It approaches Castel’s writings as part of a coherent and insightful enterprise and shows the importance of avoiding facile categorizations of his world system as “Aristotelian,” “Cartesian” or “Anti-Newtonian” in favor of a sensitive biographical and historical contextualization of his oeuvre. Castel believed that God invested human beings with the duty and power to shape the earth, and he developed an all-embracing philosophy upon this notion. He argued that human activity occasioned rains, storms, and natural disasters; perpetuated the existence of plants and animals; caused mountains to rise and fall, rivers to flow, and fire to burn beneath the crust; in short, it ensured the circulation, the organization, and the revitalization of the world machine. Castel’s lifelong, syncretic endeavor aimed to reconcile the mechanical philosophy of his forebears with the tenets of his faith, at a time when he felt a growing number of “moderns” were eroding the dignity and free will of man.
Although scholarship has long marginalized his work, Castel’s oeuvre emerges here at the center of eighteenth-century intellectual life. By studying the development of his theories about “the action of man upon nature” in a variety of disciplinary contexts — theology, physics, political economy, geometry, meteorology, and history —  this work allows one to better understand the relationship between these disciplines and the evolution of the early modern quest for universal knowledge. This work also participates in the reassessment of the role that the Society of Jesus played in France in the development of early modern science. Castel’s intellectual endeavor helps shift one’s understanding of the scientific revolution and its aftermath, as it features Jesuits as full participants, colleagues and even precursors to better known figures of the canon. It suggests new ways of understanding how science and religion – far from being in conflict – worked together at one point to foster Enlightenment practices and ideologies.

La prova tangibile dell’avvenuto insediamento della Compagnia di Gesù a Genova è costituita non solo dall’edificazione della chiesa del Gesù, ma anche dall’atteggiamento dei nobili cittadini che, come si legge nell’Historia Domus Professa,  pur di celebrare il proprio legame con l’Ordine “facevano a gara per chiedere di decorare le cappelle” della chiesa della Casa Professa.
Il fatto che il processo di stanziamento, indubbiamente difficoltoso, fosse stato portato a compimento con successo è testimoniato anche dall’intervento di Andrea Pozzo.
Stando alle fonti, l’artista gesuita, sovente inviato dall’ordine ad operare nelle varie sedi della Compagnia, realizza in Liguria complessivamente sei opere di cui due risultano oggi perdute.
Benché la cronologia degli spostamenti del Pozzo, come anche le fasi della sua formazione, non sia stata ancora completamente definita, è stato ipotizzato che le tele liguri siano le sue prime grandi pale d’altare.
Dalla loro analisi è possibile trarre dunque importanti informazioni circa il tentativo dell’artista trentino di individuare i modelli e le modalità migliori con cui esprimere i principi della spiritualità gesuitica.
La tela raffigurante San Francesco Borgia, conservata nella chiesa del Gesù, costituisce un perfetto esempio di questa particolare ricerca.
In quest’opera, infatti, non solo l’artista dà dimostrazione di essersi avvalso di specifici testi devozionali, elaborati all’interno dell’ordine, al fine di meglio esprimere la personalità del santo spagnolo ma propone, forse per la prima volta, il modello, in seguito replicato, della figura maschile inginocchiata intenta a reggere un libro.
L’assenza, nell’opera genovese, dell’elemento del tomo si deve probabilmente alla controversa vicenda dei restauri ottocenteschi che interessarono la chiesa del Gesù e, in particolare, le opere del Pozzo.
Un episodio poco noto che permette di gettare una luce nuova sull’opera del maestro trentino e che dimostra come spesso dietro a dettagli apparentemente insignificanti si celino scoperte sorprendenti.

Este capítulo es un primer análisis de las ideas darwinistas enseñadas por el profesor jesuita alemán Teodoro (Theodor) Wolf
(1841-1924), durante su clase de Geología en la Escuela Politécnica de Quito en 1871 a partir de dos fuentes inéditas: los apuntes realizados por Miguel Abelardo Egas (1845-1926) en la clase de Geología en la Escuela Politécnica y la autobiografía escrita por Teodoro Wolf entre 1909 y 1910, con anotaciones hasta
1923, cuya difusión prohibió expresamente su autor (Wolf, 1909-1910). Este documento es donde el alemán expresó su pensamiento en torno a la compleja relación entre ciencia y religión y su experiencia de estudiar historia natural en Bonn, en 1862 siendo jesuita.
Se muestra las distintas formas en las que circuló el evolucionismo en el mundo, en este caso a través de las clases de un jesuita que primero estudió darwinismo en Bonn, y luego lo enseñó en Alemania y en el Ecuador.

Since their foundation Jesuits have a remarkable scientific tradition not comparable con that of any other institution in the Catholic Church. Here I present a summary of the different contributions of Jesuits to the natural sciences. It is divided into two parts. The first from the foundation of the order in 1540 to its suppression in 1773. The second from its restoration in 1814 to the present. A bibliography is added of general works on the subject.

“Our Mathematicians Have Learned and Verified This”: Jesuits, Biblical Exegesis, and the Mathematical Sciences in the Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries, in: van der Meer, Jitse M./Mandelbrote, Scott H. (eds.): Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up to 1700, 2 voll., Leiden/Boston 2008 [Brill’s Series in Church History 36], vol. II, 665-690

In the mid-seventeenth century, as the first full atlas of East Asia became available on the European book market, a dramatic shift took place in textual and visual representations of the Far East. The atlas, titled “Novus Atlas Sinensis” (1655), was the product of a cooperation between Joan Blaeu, who headed one of Europe's foremost commercial publishing houses, and Martino Martini, a prominent Jesuit missionary to China. This study shows how the Martini-Blaeu atlas thoroughly challenged the worldview of late Renaissance audiences by tracing and reconstructing a series of displacements that facilitated its production process.

In the mid-seventeenth century, as the first full atlas of East Asia became available on the European book market, a dramatic shift took place in textual and visual representations of the Far East. The atlas, titled “Novus Atlas Sinensis” (1655), was the product of a cooperation between Joan Blaeu, who headed one of Europe's foremost commercial publishing houses, and Martino Martini, a prominent Jesuit missionary to China. This study shows how the Martini-Blaeu atlas thoroughly challenged the worldview of late Renaissance audiences by tracing and reconstructing a series of displacements that facilitated its production process.

Fear of annihilation in the debates about the physical vacuum among
early modern philosophers, this is the topic of this paper. My focus will
not lie on the development of science but on the strategies to avoid or justify or ‘fill’ the vacuum and the conceptual strategies used, not only in natural philosophy but also in literature and the arts. Thus I hope to establish that fuga vacui was, indeed, a signature of baroque ways of thinking.

Die Einheit von Theologie und Astronomie: zur visuellen Auseinandersetzung mit dem kopernikanischen System bei jesuitischen Autoren in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts, in: Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 72(2003), 247-295

Zu den Kernprozessen der Wissenschaftlichen Revolution gehörte der Streit um das richtige Weltsystem. Die verschiedenen Weltsysteme wurden zur Veranschaulichung häufig schematisch dargestellt. Unabhängig davon entwickelte sich im 17. Jahrhundert in den Titelbildern astronomischer Veröffentlichungen eine intensive visuelle Debatte um das richtige Weltsystem. Unter jesuitischen Astronomen wurde die Erdbewegung nach dem Verbot der kopernikanischen Lehre im Jahr 1616, aber auch schon zuvor abgelehnt. Diese Ablehnung wurde besonders in den Frontispizen dreier Werke kunstvoll ins Bild gesetzt, um die Einheit von theologischer und astronomischer Argumentation hervorzuheben: in den Opera mathematica von Christoph Clavius (1612), in der Rosa Ursina von Christoph Scheiner (1630) und im Almagestum novum von Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1651). Um diese drei Bilder interpretieren zu können, werde ich ausführlich auf den Kontext der Bibelexegese eingehen, ohne den insbesondere das Frontispiz von Clavius’ Opera mathematica nicht zu verstehen ist

Manipulating the Sun: Picturing Astronomical Miracles from the Bible in the Early Modern Era

Workshop at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, August 21-23, 2019
The workshop is being organized by the research project Iconography of the Imagery on Early Modern Scientific Instruments (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG). One of the aspects being analysed in the project is biblical imagery that could be related to astronomy. Of particular interest is imagery that was used to argue against the Copernican system from the mid-16th century such as the miracles of the Sun reversing its course in II Kings 20:8-11/Isaiah 38:8 (Horologium Ahas) and the Sun standing still in Joshua 10:12.
The workshops aims at discussing these two passages – e.g. the development of the imagery (for instance in Bible illustrations, religious art, etc.), their genesis as anti-Copernican arguments (in text and image), their reception, their various cultural layers, etc. – in a workshop in Wuppertal/Germany from a broad perspective with a certain focus, however, on the history of art and the history of science in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Resumen: Los trabajos sobre el jesuita chileno Manuel Lacunza han tratado aspectos biográfi cos, teológicos y editoriales, los cuales se han centrado en los temas escatológicos de La Venida del Mesías en Gloria y Majestad y en las ideas religiosas de su autor. Además, se suma a esto que los investigadores han abordado las diferentes ediciones de la obra y la recepción que tuvo esta tanto en Europa como en América, dejando un vacío en lo referente a las ideas científi cas presentes en ella, las cuales están contenidas en el tercer tomo. Por lo tanto, en este artículo abordaremos las referencias astronó-micas incluidas en el tratado teológico de Lacunza, la cual fue la ciencia que el jesuita chileno sintió afi ción durante su estadía en Chile como en Italia, desde la perspectiva de la historia de la ciencia. Para este cometido se analizará la ciencia y su vinculación con la religión en el pensamiento del teólogo jesuita proponiendo que no hubo una contradicción o confl icto en ambas vías. Palabras clave: Lacunza, jesuitas, ciencia, religión y astronomía. Abstract: The works on the Chilean Jesuit Manuel Lacunza have dealt with biographical, theological and editorial aspects, which have focused on the eschatological themes of The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty and in the religious ideas of its author. In addition, it is added to this that the researchers have approached the different editions of the work and the reception that it had both in Europe and in America, leaving a gap in relation to the scientifi c ideas present in it, which are contained in the Third volume Therefore, in this article we will address the astronomical references included in the theological treatise of Lacunza, which was the science that the Chilean Jesuit was fond of during his stay in Chile as in Italy, from the perspective of the history of science. For this purpose science and its connection with religion in the thought of the Jesuit theologian will be analyzed , proposing that there was no contradiction or confl ict in both ways.

Niemiecki ekonomista, ojciec Heinrich Pesch SJ, opracował w początkach XX w. oparty na idei solidaryzmu system ekonomiczny, mający stanowić alternatywę zarówno wobec wolnorynkowego liberalizmu, jak i etatystycz­nego socjalizmu. Jego „społeczny system pracy” miał na celu przeniesie­nie zasad chrześcijańskich w dziedziny życia społecznego i gospodar­czego. Pesch oddziaływał głównie poprzez swoich uczniów, wywierając pośrednio wpływ na rozwój nauczania społecznego Kościoła. Mniej znany jest natomiast jego wkład do rozwoju nauk ekonomicznych. Celem arty­kułu jest przybliżenie osoby Heinricha Pescha, kręgu jego uczniów i spad­kobierców intelektualnych, oraz pobieżny zarys wpływu, jaki oni wywarli, i dziedzictwa, jakie pozostawili, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem nauk ekonomicznych.

Keywords:

Early Modern South America, Brasil, Tupinambá, Hans Staden (c1525-c1576), Jean de Léry (1536-1613), David Frölich (1595-1648), Early Modern Hungary, History of the Book, History of Reading and Print Culture, Reception of non-European indigenous people in Europe/Hungary, History of Anthropology, History of Geography, Protestant print culture, Jesuit print culture

Natural sciences and natural philosophy of the Jesuits are based on theology. At least the concept of God is an integral part of their theoretical structure. Examples are taken from Rudjer Boskovic, Honore Fabri and Nicolaus Cabeus. In fact, the Jesuits, e. g. Theophil Raynaud, dealt with natural theology as the spiritual foundation of knowledge independent of revelation. But natural theology, as in Raimundus Sabundus, has an anthropocentric and hence moral dimension: it links knowledge with religion. Ig-natius of Loyola influenced decisively the Jesuits' concept of science and its relationship to religion through his Spiritual Exercises in which meditation and religious practice are developed into a technique and a scientific approach to faith. Die Jesuiten sind der Orden, der nach allgemeinem Verständnis am meisten zur Entwick-lung der Wissenschaften in der frühen Neuzeit beigetragen hat-und zwar gerade als katholische Institution, als Sproß der Konfessionalisierung von Politik und Wissenschaft im Laufe des 16. Jahrhunderts und als Kampftruppe der Gegenreformation. Der Jesuiten-orden muß also in ganz ausgezeichneter Weise Religion und Wissenschaft zu einer Engfüh-rung gebracht haben, die den Sinn der Begriffe ,Religion' und ,Wissenschaft' strapaziert. Das möchte ich an einigen Beispielen aus der Wissenschaftsgeschichte andeuten, wobei ich die hard core-Wissenschaften meine. Sodann möchte ich im Sinne dieser Eng-führung die natürliche Theologie als Wissenschaft herausheben, um an der Interferenz von wissenschaftlicher Theologie und Frömmigkeit die spezifische Religiosität des Or-dens zu zeigen; denn man kann die Exerzitien des Ignatius von Loyola, des Gründers der Gesellschaft Jesu, als Verwissenschaftlichung der Frömmigkeit verstehen, eine Ra-tionalisierung religiöser Erfahrung, und diese macht eines der Gründungsfundamente des Ordens aus. Sie prägte übrigens auch das äußere Bild des Ordens: Stichwort mag hier die Jesuitenmoral sein (" Der Zweck heiligt die Mittel" und ähnliche Unterstellun-gen). Solch ein Bild stellt die wissenschaftlichen Leistungen in Frage-erinnert sei an Blaise Pascals Polemik gegen die Jesuiten-, so daß die Wissenschaftsgeschichte sich seit den Anfängen zwischen säkularer Vernachlässigung des religiösen Motivs und rein reli-gionspolitischer Apologetik durchlaviert, sobald es um Jesuiten geht. Grund ist eben die eigenartige Position der Jesuiten zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft; denn im Grunde wollen sie beides. Lassen Sie mich mit einem Zitat eines Jesuiten beginnen 1 : Wenn jemand feststellt, Gott komme im Bereich der Naturwissenschaft und in der von ihr manipulierten Welt nicht vor, wenn jemand sagt, die Naturwissenschaft sei deswegen a priori in ihrer Methode a-theistisch. Vortrag, gehalten auf dem XXXI. Symposium der Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte "Religion und Wissenschaft"

„and as we remember Kircher speaks of it“: Schriften jesuitischer Autoren als Quellen von John Evelyns Elysium Britannicum, in: von der Lühe, Irmela/Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim (ed.): Landschaften – Gärten – Literaturen: Festschrift für Hubertus Fischer, München 2013, 159-169

The fourth volume in the series Aurorae Borealis Studia Classica consists of the Jesuit Maximilianus (Maximilian) Hell's monograph on the Aurora Borealis, first written as a paper for the Royal Society of Sciences in Copenhagen (MS, c. 1770), then published in a slightly enhanced Latin edition (1776) and finally in a German edition by L.A. Jungnitz (1792). These are introduced by a biographical essay and summaries of contents by Per Pippin Aspaas. Facsimiles of the original works are freely available at http://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/aurora/index

Alexandre Wiltheim (1604-1684), the author of the Luciliburgensia sive Luxemburgum Romanum, was certainly a major figure in the intellectual life of the seventeenth-century Southern Netherlands. For three decades, this Jesuit antiquarian traveled across the duchy of Luxembourg to study the Roman past of the region. Today still, he is frequently known as the “father of the Luxembourg archaeology”. This article aims to present and study his methodology and his sources.
The first part of the paper deals with the detection and the rediscovery of the Antique remains. It highlights the broad range of sources consulted by Wiltheim. As many early modern antiquarians, he used Ancient Itineraries, early modern scholars’ works, local traditions and his network of contacts. In a more original way, his method also included toponymy (with the use of Frankish documents) and topographical observations.
The second part focuses on the observation of the Roman vestiges and their place in Wiltheim’s methodology. In Wiltheim’s view, the personal observation of the remains was an absolute necessity to carry out a serious survey of the Roman past. Thus, he took great care to describe them and he often provided drawings to the reader.
The last part is devoted to the interpretation of the Antique vestiges. To understand Roman inscriptions, artefacts and iconographic representations, the Jesuit scholar compared them with Ancient authors (Pliny, Virgil, Plautus…) or with other Roman remains. He frequently used the main collections of antiquities of his time (Gruterus, Lipsius, Bergier…) and the data provided by his correspondents. He was also interested in the history of technology and in the dating of the remains, two fields rarely studied by the seventeenth-century antiquarians.

This is the final, accepted manuscript version of a book review that was published in the so-called 2016 issue of Centaurus (in fact, is was not released online until the 2nd semester of 2017). Difference between this version and the publisher’s PDF should consist in lay-out and punctuation only.

A 350 anni dalla sua morte, l’astronomo gesuita Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671) resta un erudito conosciuto essenzialmente agli specialisti. La sua proposta della teoria geoeliocentrica a “epic-epicicli”, basata sulla ricezione delle orbite ellittiche di Kepler, lo pose fin da subito tra i perdenti della Rivoluzione scientifica. Divulgatore in Italia del testo della sentenza del Sant’Uffizio contro Galileo Galilei, condannò se stesso a passare alla storia dell’astronomia come astronomo di retroguardia. Tutto questo è innegabile, ma resta il problema della congruenza tra la sua soluzione geometrica e i dati e le osservazioni disponibili al suo tempo. Perché la matematica poteva offrire questa possibilità a una teoria che si rivelerà sbagliata? In questo seminario saranno esaminate alcune delle articolate risposte tecniche ed epistemologiche date da Riccioli, che offrono ancora oggi un’interessante occasione di riflessione.

Keywords:

Early Modern South America, Brasil, Tupinambá, Hans Staden (c1525-c1576), Jean de Léry (1536-1613), David Frölich (1595-1648), Early Modern Hungary, History of the Book, History of Reading and Print Culture, Reception of non-European indigenous people in Europe/Hungary, History of Anthropology, History of Geography, Protestant print culture, Jesuit print culture

Closely connected with the development of early modern ‘curiosity’ and the new science, the gardens of Baroque Rome became an important venue for the display of knowledge. Engravings of ‘mathematical gardens’ featuring the mixed sciences (scientiae mediae) based on mathematics (astronomy, gnomonics, optics, perspective, etc.) multiply after 1600, offering an idealized reflection of real gardens, where scientific experiments were performed and mathematical instruments were displayed, notably sundials. Often, elaborate perspectival designs were used for the architecture and/or painted decoration of these spaces.
In this paper, I examine a few case studies at the Villa Borghese, the Villa Montalto and Palazzo Spada. Using an intermedial approach, I study the way these devices were spatially connected, thus intensifying the optical experience of the viewer, moving through the space of the garden and the villa. This enriched optical experience, I argue, was not only considered delightful. It possessed a strong pedagogical and moral dimension that was as important for the elite society that commissioned these gardens, as was the display of erudition and knowledge.