De sphaera mundi
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De sphaera mundi (
Reception
Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi was the most successful of several competing thirteenth-century textbooks on this topic. It was used in universities for hundreds of years and the manuscript copied many times before the invention of the printing press; hundreds of manuscript copies have survived. The first printed edition appeared in 1472 in Ferrara, and at least 84 editions were printed in the next two hundred years. The work was frequently supplemented with commentaries on the original text. The number of copies and commentaries reflects its importance as a university text.[1]
Content
The 'sphere of the world' is not the earth but the heavens, and Sacrobosco quotes
The world, or universe, is divided into two parts: the elementary and the ethereal. The elementary consists of four parts: the earth, about which is water, then air, then fire, reaching up to the moon. Above this is the ethereal which is immutable and called the 'fifth essence' by the philosophers. All are mobile except heavy earth which is the center of the world.[citation needed]
The universe as a machine
Sacrobosco spoke of the universe as the machina mundi, the machine of the world, suggesting that the reported eclipse of the Sun at the crucifixion of Jesus was a disturbance of the order of that machine. This concept is similar to the clockwork universe analogy that became very popular centuries later, during the Enlightenment.[2]: 465
Spherical Earth
Though principally about the universe, De sphaera 1230 A.D. contains a clear description of the
See also
References
- ^ Olaf Pedersen, "In Quest of Sacrobosco", Journal for the History of Astronomy, 16 (1985): 175-221. Pedersen identifies 35 printings in Venice, another 35 in Paris, and more in 14 other cities throughout Europe.
- ^ Grant, Edward (1974). A Source Book in Medieval Science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- ISBN 0-275-93956-1.
Sources
- Pedersen, Olaf (1975). Gingerich, Owen; Dobrzycki, Jerzy (eds.). "The Corpus Astronomicum and the Traditions of Medieval Latin Astronomy: A Tentative Interpretation". Colloquia Copernicana III. Wrocław: Ossolineum: 59–76.
- Thorndike, Lynn (1949). The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators. Corpus of mediaeval scientific texts sponsored jointly by the Mediaeval Academy of America and the University of Chicago ;v. 2. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. .
External links
- Media related to De sphaera mundi at Wikimedia Commons
- Summary of the contents of each chapter
- Sacrobosco's De Sphaera – complete treatise in English translation
- Book, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators, by Lynn Thorndike, year 1949. Text in Latin, English translation, and commentary.
- Treasures of the RAS: The Sphere by John of Hollywood on YouTube
- Selected images from Sphaera mundi From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library