Galileo's Muse

Galileo's Muse
Author: Mark Austin Peterson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2011-10-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674062973


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Mark Peterson makes an extraordinary claim in this fascinating book focused around the life and thought of Galileo: it was the mathematics of Renaissance arts, not Renaissance sciences, that became modern science. Galileo's Muse argues that painters, poets, musicians, and architects brought about a scientific revolution that eluded the philosopher-scientists of the day, steeped as they were in a medieval cosmos and its underlying philosophy. According to Peterson, the recovery of classical science owes much to the Renaissance artists who first turned to Greek sources for inspiration and instruction. Chapters devoted to their insights into mathematics, ranging from perspective in painting to tuning in music, are interspersed with chapters about Galileo's own life and work. Himself an artist turned scientist and an avid student of Hellenistic culture, Galileo pulled together the many threads of his artistic and classical education in designing unprecedented experiments to unlock the secrets of nature. In the last chapter, Peterson draws our attention to the Oratio de Mathematicae laudibus of 1627, delivered by one of Galileo's students. This document, Peterson argues, was penned in part by Galileo himself, as an expression of his understanding of the universality of mathematics in art and nature. It is "entirely Galilean in so many details that even if it is derivative, it must represent his thought," Peterson writes. An intellectual adventure, Galileo’s Muse offers surprising ideas that will capture the imagination of anyone—scientist, mathematician, history buff, lover of literature, or artist—who cares about the humanistic roots of modern science.


Galileo's Muse
Language: en
Pages: 347
Authors: Mark A. Peterson
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-10-17 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

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Mark Peterson makes an extraordinary claim in this fascinating book focused around the life and thought of Galileo: it was the mathematics of Renaissance arts,
Galileo's Muse
Language: en
Pages: 352
Authors: Mark Austin Peterson
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-10-17 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

GET EBOOK

Mark Peterson makes an extraordinary claim in this fascinating book focused around the life and thought of Galileo: it was the mathematics of Renaissance arts,
Reading Galileo
Language: en
Pages: 279
Authors: Renée Raphael
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-03-15 - Publisher: JHU Press

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How did early modern scientists interpret Galileo’s influential Two New Sciences? In 1638, Galileo was over seventy years old, blind, and confined to house ar
Nexus Network Journal 14,3
Language: en
Pages: 177
Authors: Kim Williams
Categories: Mathematics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-03-07 - Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

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The Winter 2012 (vol. 14 no. 3) issue of the Nexus Network Journal features seven original papers dedicated to the theme “Digital Fabrication”. Digital fabr
Galileo's Reading
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: Crystal Hall
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-12-12 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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Galileo (1564–1642) incorporated throughout his work the language of battle, the rhetoric of the epic, and the structure of romance as a means to elicit emoti