Mosaic physics and the search for a pious natural philosophy in the late renaissance

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Volumn 91, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 32-58

  Blair, Ann ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 3042676003     PISSN: 00211753     EISSN: 15456994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/384625     Document Type: Article

References (202)

1. For the most recent account of thirteenth-century objections to Aristotelian philosophy see J. M. M. H. Thijssen, "What Really Happened on 7 March 1277? Bishop Tempier's Condemnation and Its Institutional Context," in Texts and Contexts in Ancient and Medieval Science: Studies on the Occasion of John E. Murdoch's Seventieth Birthday, ed. Edith Sylla and Michael McVaugh (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 84-105.
2. A recent account of Renaissance philosophy brings the later religious anti-Aristotelianism to the fore; see Stephen Menn, "The Intellectual Setting," in The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, ed. Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998), pp. 33-86.
3. On Robert Boyle, whose Christian Virtuoso (1690) offers an interesting variation on the theme of pious philosophy, see Jan W. Wojcik, Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997);
4. and Reijer Hooykaas, Robert Boyle: A Study in Science and Christian Belief (Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press America, 1997).
5. On Descartes's meeting with Bérulle see Adrien Baillet, La vie de Monsieur Descartes (Paris, 1691; rpt., New York: Garland, 1987), Vol. 2, ch. 14, pp. 165-166.
6. For a comparison of Cartesian and Thomist strategies for making science pious see Rivka Feldhay and Michael Heyd, "The Discourse of Pious Science," Science in Context, 1989, 3:109-142.
7. On attempts to Christianize other pagan philosophers see Margaret Osler, "Baptizing Epicurean Atomism: Pierre Gassendi on the Immortality of the Soul," in Religion, Science, and Worldview: Essays in Honor of Richard S. Westfall, ed. Osler and Paul Lawrence Farber (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985), pp. 163-184;
8. and Osler, "Fortune, Fate, and Divination: Gassendi's Voluntarist Theology and the Baptism of Epicurus," in Atoms, Pneuma, and Tranquillity: Epicurean and Stoic Themes in European Thought, ed. Osler (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991), pp. 155-174.
9. On Patrizi see Luc Deitz, "Space, Light, and Soul in Francesco Patrizi's Nova de universis philosophia," in Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe, ed. Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, forthcoming), pp. 139-169.
10. On the usefulness of Aristotle for philosophers at the university see Ann Blair, "The Teaching of Natural Philosophy in Early Seventeenth-Century Paris: The Case of Jean Cécile Frey," History of Universities, 1993, 12:95-158, on pp. 117-119.
11. For an introduction to the Fifth Lateran Council and for further references see Christia Mercer, "The Vitality and Importance of Early Modern Aristotelianism," in The Rise of Modern Philosophy: The Tension between the New and Traditional Philosophies from Machiavelli to Leibniz, ed. Tom Sorell (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), pp. 33-67, on pp. 46-49.
12. On the difficulties involved in interpreting Pomponazzi's position see Martin L. Pine, Pietro Pomponazzi: Radical Philosopher of the Renaissance (Padua: Editrice Antenore, 1986), pp. 3-39.
13. On the modern debate, opened in 1928, see Alexandre Charles Renard, La querelle sur la possibilité de la philosophie chrétienne (Paris: Editions Ecole et Collège, 1941);
14. and Maurice Nédoncelle, Existe-t-il une philosophie chrétienne? (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959).
15. For occurrences of the term in St. Augustine, in a few early modern authors (including Erasmus, Suarez, and Javelli), and in dozens of authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries see the references accumulated by Etienne Gilson, a major player in the modern debate, in his "Notes bibliographiques pour servir à l'histoire de la notion de philosophie chrétienne," in L'esprit de la philosophie médiévale, 2nd ed. (Paris: Vrin, 1944), pp. 413-440;
16. see p. 413 on Augustine. Paul Oskar Kristeller comments that further references from Justin, Petrarch, and Calvin could be added; see Kristeller, "Thomism and the Italian Thought of the Renaissance," in Medieval Aspects of Renaissance Learning: Three Essays by Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. and trans. Edward P. Mahoney (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1992), pp. 29-91, on p. 34 n 7.
17. Petrarch's critique is described in Menn, "Intellectual Setting" (cit. n. 1), p. 41 ff.;
18. and Paul Oskar Kristeller, "Petrarch," in Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1964), p. 6 ff.
19. On Ficino's use of the term see James Hankins, "Marsilio Ficino and the Tradition of Pious Philosophy," paper read at a conference entitled "Marsilio Ficino: His Sources, His Circle, His Legacy," sponsored by the Society for Renaissance Studies, National Gallery, London, 25-26 June 1999 (publication pending); I am grateful to the author for sharing this manuscript with me.
20. See also Hankins, "Marsilio Ficino as a Critic of Scholasticism," Vivens Homo, 1994, 5:325-334.
21. Menn, "Intellectual Setting," pp. 58, 82.
22. He cites Lipsius and Cudworth as examples and points to a passage in which Descartes offers to explain Genesis with his philosophy: René Descartes, Oeuvres, ed. Charles Adam and Paul Tannery (Paris: Vrin, 1996), Vol. 5, pp. 168-169.
23. See also René Descartes to William Boswell[?], 1646[?], Oeuvres, ibid.. Vol. 4, p. 698; I owe this reference to an anonymous referee.
24. The offer to explain Genesis is also mentioned as relevant in Daniel Georg Morhof, Polyhistor, literarius, philosophicus et practicus, 3rd ed. (Lübeck: Petrus Boeckmann, 1732), Vol. 2, Pt. 1, ch. 3, p. 159,
25. which cites Descartes, Epistolae [partim ab auctore latino sermone conscriptae, partim ex gallico translatae] (Amsterdam: Blaviana, 1682), Vol. 2, ep. 24 [p. 108],
26. as well as Descartes, Epistolae [partim ab auctore latino sermone conscriptae, partim ex gallico translatae] Vol. 2, ep. 53 [p. 206];
27. the latter reference corresponds to Descartes to Marin Mersenne, 28 Jan. 1641, in Descartes, Oeuvres, ed. Adam and Tannery, Vol. 3, pp. 295-296.
28. Examples of the Platonist use of the argument from piety include Sebastian Fox Morzillo, De naturae philosophia seu de Platonis et Aristotelis consensione libri V (Louvain, 1554; rpt., Hildesheim: Olms, 1977);
29. Georgius Acanthius, Platonicae philosophiae libri tres (Basel: Oporinus, 1554);
30. and Francesco Verino, Antonio Montecatini, and Francesco Patrizi, as discussed in Hankins, "Marsilio Ficino and the Tradition of Pious Philosophy."
31. See Johann Jakob Brucker, Historia critica philosophiae (Leipzig: Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, 1743), Vol. 4 ("A tempore resuscitatarum in Occidente literarum"), Pt. 1, bk. 3, ch. 2, pp. 610-643, on Mosaic philosophers.
32. Among modern historians of science Reijer Hooykaas, for example, mentions Mosaic philosophy only to dismiss it as a "temptation" that found no general acceptance; see Hooykaas, Religion and the Rise of Modern Science (Edinburgh/London: Scottish Academic Press, 1972), p. 116.
33. In Humanisme, science et réforme: Pierre de La Ramée (1515-72) (Leiden: Brill, 1958), pp. 108-112, Hooykaas alludes to it again, subsuming it under the search for a "prisca theologia"; on this strand of thought see note 10, below.
34. Brucker, Historia critica, Vol. 4, pp. 610-611: "Quidam literam scripturae sequentes, quae de cosmogonia rebusque naturalibus sacri scriptores tetigerunt magis, quam enarrarunt, ad construendam novam physicam sacram adhibuerunt. . . . Mosaici et Christiani philosophi inde dicti sunt. Alii depressa intellectus luce connata, lumen aliud et divinum longe maius et perfectius ex coelesti revelatione fundamentum esse debere philosophiae clamarunt, adeoque neglecta scripturae litera, mediante allegoriae machina. . . . Quod genus philosophorum . . . theosophicum se et dici passum est, et ipsum appellavit."
35. See also ibid., pp. 612 (Vallès), 614-617 (Casmann, Alsted, Aslacus, Daneau), 628 ff. (Comenius); and Brucker, Historia critica, ibid., Pt. 1, bk. 3, ch. 3, pp. 644-750, on the theosophs.
36. Much of the same material can be found in Johann Jakob Brucker, Kurze Fragen aus der philosophischen Historie (Ulm: Daniel Bartholomaeus, 1735), pp. 993-1062 ("Mosaici et Christiani"), 1063-1254 (theosophs).
37. See Morhof, Polyhistor (cit. n. 6), Vol. 2, Pt. 1, ch. 3: "De Physica Mosaica, ejusque interpretibus," pp. 157-167, esp. p. 160: "Qui dogmatica methodo complexus fuerit principia Mosaica, neminem novi, quam Comenium, et, qui ejus principia secutus est, Johan. Baierum. Rob. enim Fluddius, in Philosophia Mosaica sua, confusus est, et coelum terrae miscet, omnia pervagando. Lamb. Danaeus, Conr. Aslacus Joh. Henr. Alstedius . . . , ac alii qui Physicam Christianam scripserunt, nulla certa principia sequuntur, sed vel Interpretes sunt priorum Capitum Geneseos, vel Physicam Aristotelicam et vulgarem ad Mosaica illa reducunt." This section of Morhof's Polyhistor was compiled by Johannes Möller.
38. The specific works Morhof mentions include Henry More, In defensione suae cabalae philosophicae, which probably corresponds to his Conjectura Cabbalistica (1653);
39. Johannes Amerpoel, Cartesius Mosaizans (1669);
40. Jean d'Espagnet, Enchiridion physicae restitutae (1647);
41. Francesco Giorgi, De harmonia mundi (1545);
42. Aegidius Guthmann, Offenbahrung göttlicher Majestät (1619);
43. and John Heydon, The Harmony of the World (1662).
44. Other early histories of philosophy include Johann Franz Buddeus, Introductio ad historiam philosophiae ebraeorum (Halle: Orphanotrophii Glaucha-Halensis, 1702);
45. Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling, Historia philosophiae moralis (1706);
46. Gottlieb Stolle, Anleitung zur Historie der Gelahrheit (Jena: Meyer, 1724);
47. and Johann Georg Walch, Philosophisches Lexicon (1726),
48. cited in Jaromír Červenka, Die Naturphilosophie des Johann Amos Comenius (Prague: Academia, 1970), p. 105.
49. Stolle seems to follow Morhof's broad construction of the category in Anleitung zur Historie der Gelahrheit, Pt. 2, ch. 4, sect. 29, pp. 541-545.
50. Budde, who served as a source for his pupil Brucker and his son-in-law Walch, emphasized Comenius as the outstanding representative of Mosaic philosophy; see Buddeus, Introductio ad historiam philosophiae ebraeorum, par. 36, pp. 245-264, esp. p. 255.
51. See also Hans Ahrbeck, "Einige Bemerkungen über 'Mosaische Philosophen' des 17. Jahrhunderts," Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1958, 7(5):1047-1050, on p. 1048 n 7.
52. The category does not appear in Giovanni Santinello, ed., Models of the History of Philosophy (Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer, 1993).
53. The appellation "genuine" comes from Červenka, Naturphilosophie des Comenius, pp. 112-113, who also calls the group I will study "traditionalists";
54. see also Ahrbeck, "Bemerkungen über 'Mosaische Philosophen,'" p. 1048.
55. Another reason for choosing to narrow rather than broaden the scope of this study is that there already exists an abundant secondary literature on Paracelsus, Fludd, Boehme, and their followers; see, most recently, Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Philosophia Perennis: Historische Umrisse abendländischer Spiritualität in Antike, Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1998).
56. Gerhardus de Neufville, Physiologia seu physica generalis (Bremen, 1645), bk. 6, pp. 346-349,
57. cited in Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1958), Vol. 7, pp. 414-415.
58. Johann Heinrich Alsted, Triumphus bibliorum sacrorum seu encyclopaedia biblica exhibens triumphum philosophiae, iurisprudentiae et medicinae sacrae, itemque sacrosanctae theologiae, quatenus illarum fundamenta ex scriptura Veteris et Novi Testamentis colliguntur (Frankfurt: Bartholomaeus Schmit, 1625), sigs. 3v-4r: "Intellexerunt hoc [that the holy scriptures contain a sublime erudition in philosophy, medicine, and law] superiori aevo viri Christianissimi, Franciscus Valesius Hispanus, Levinus Lemnius Belga, Lambertus Danaeus Gallus, Cunradus Heresbachius Germanus. . . . Cunradus Heresbachius publicavit epitomen iurisprudentiae Christianae, in qua leges Moysis elegantissimo ordine digessit. Tantorum virorum vestigia secuti sunt nostra aetate Otho Casmannus in ethica et oeconomica theosophica; Iohannes Althusius in civili conversatione; Grossius in compendio medicinae ex S. literis deprompto; et Conradus Aslacus Danus, qui scripsit Physicam et ethicam mosaicam."
59. Alsted is no doubt referring to Otto Casmann, Biographia, sive de vita hominis naturali . . . Ethica theosophica . . . Oeconomica theosophica (Frankfurt: Palthenius, 1602);
60. Conrad Heresbach, Christianae iurisprudentiae epitome, cited in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1967-1971), Vol. 12, p. 105;
61. Iohannes Althusius, Civilis conversationis libri II (Hanau, 1601);
62. and possibly to Johann Georg Grossius, Compendium quatuor facultatum (including medicine) (Basel, 1620).
63. Brucker, Historia critica (cit. n. 7), Vol. 4, p. 628: "Enarrandi iam paulo plenius Comenii et Bayeri conatus sunt, eo quod prae aliis in hoc philosophiae genere exornando commendandoque industriam posuerunt suam."
64. For Morhof's assessment see note 9, above. Johan Bayer, from Hungary, was the author of Ostium seu atrium naturae (Cassovia/Kaschau [Hungary], 1662).
65. See Brucker, Historia critica, Vol. 4, p. 632 ff.;
66. and Ahrbeck, "Bemerkungen über 'Mosaische Philosophen'" (cit. n. 10), p. 1048.
67. On Comenius in England see Robert Fitzgibbon Young, Comenius in England (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1932);
68. Hugh Trevor-Roper, "Three Foreigners: The Philosophers of the Puritan Revolution," in Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 237-293;
69. and George H. Turnbull, Samuel Hartlib, with Special Regard to His Relations with J. A. Comenius, Inaugural-dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde, Bonn (London: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne, 1919).
70. On the patronage Comenius received and was promised see Mark Greengrass, "The Financing of a Seventeenth-Century Intellectual: Contributions for Comenius, 1637-1541," Acta Comeniana, 1995, 11:71-87.
71. For Bayle's negative assessment see Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (Amsterdam: Brunel, et al., 1730), Vol. 2, pp. 202-205.
72. The literature on Comenius is vast; I have found Hans Aarsleff's entry in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Vol. 3, pp. 359-363) especially helpful.
73. The best biography is Milada Blekastad, Comenius: Versuch eines Umrisses von Leben, Werk und Schicksal des Jan Amos Komensky (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget; Prague: Academia, 1969).
74. Among the most recent literature see Pauline van Vliet and Arie Johan Vanderjagt, eds., Johannes Amos Comenius (1592-1670): Exponent of European Culture? (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1994);
75. and Klaus Schaller, Comenius 1992: Gesammelte Beiträge zum Jubiläumsjahr (Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia, 1992).
76. J. A. Comenius, Physicae ad lumen divinum reformatae synopsis, philodidacticorum et theodidactorum [sic] censurae exposita (Leipzig: Gotofredus Grossius, 1633).
77. Re-editions appeared in Amsterdam in 1643 and 1645 and in Paris in 1647; it was also issued, under a revised title that emphasized that the reformation of physics remained to be completed, as Physicae ad lumen divinum reformandae synopsis in Amsterdam in 1663.
78. The British Library also owns a Latin edition published in Giessen in 1896 by Joseph Reber, which includes a careful introduction and commentary, according to Ahrbeck, "Bemerkungen über 'Mosaische Philosophen'" (cit. n. 10), nn. 5, 20.
79. In addition to reporting a first edition of Amsterdam, 1632 (otherwise unattested), Brucker notes that Ioachim Lange published theses from the book, once it could no longer be found for sale, as Theses physicae comenianae ad lumen divinum reformatae (Berlin, 1702); see Brucker, Kurze Fragen (cit. n. 8), p. 1035.
80. The English translation, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light; or, A Synopsis of Physicks (London: Robert and William Leybourn, for Thomas Pierrepont, 1651), seems faithful to the Latin original, although it lacks the prefatory poem by Andreas Wengerscius, rector of the school at Leszno. All further references to Comenius in this essay will be to the English edition of this work.
81. For a monograph on Comenius's natural philosophy, which relies primarily but not exclusively on this work, see Cervenka, Naturphilosophie des Comenius (cit. n. 10).
82. A recent article on the Physicae synopsis offers a valuable analysis, in particular of its biblical citations; see Jean-Robert Armogathe, "La Physica sacra de Comenius comme physique chrétienne," Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, 1996, 1:7 -1 6. Armogathe also signals the existence of a seventeenth-century Danish translation of the work, without giving a full bibliographical citatio n.
83. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, sigs. 5r-v, A3v, 6v-7r.
84. See Blekastad, Comenius (cit. n. 13), pp. 176 (on the composition of the work), 176-184 (on its content).
85. By "Triumphus biblicus" Comenius is no doubt referring to Alsted's Triumphus bibliorum sacrorum seu encyclopaedia biblica (cit. n. 11).
86. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, sigs. [8]v, alv, A4r;
87. for the Latin original see Comenius, Physicae ad lumen divinum reformatae synopsis (1633) (cit. n. 14), sig. c3r.
88. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, sigs. 6v, A3r-v.
89. On Comenius's millenarianism see Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, "Enzyklopädie, Eschatologie und Ökumene: Die theologische Bedeutung von enzyklopädischen Wissen bei Comenius," Frühneuzeit-Info, 1992, 3:19-28.
90. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, sig. A6r;
91. and Francis Bacon, New Organon, trans. Fulton H. Anderson (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960), bk. 1, aph. 89, p. 88; aph. 65, p. 62.
92. In discussing the last passage, Arnold Williams suggests that Bacon may have in mind Hieronymus Zanchi, an Italian converted to Calvinism, whose hexameral commentary (De operibus Dei intra spacium sex dierum creatis opus [1591]) argues for a correspondence between the work of the days of creation and the eight books of Aristotle's Physics, or Lambert Daneau, whom I discuss below. See Arnold Williams, The Common Expositor: An Account of the Commentaries on Genesis, 1527-1633 (Chapel Hill: Univ. North Carolina Press, 1948), p. 176. In addition, an anonymous referee for Isis has pointed out to me that "Paracelsian writers have also been suggested as Bacon's targets in this passage."
93. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, sig. A5v-A6r;
94. for the Latin original ("Christianissimi Philosophi") see Comenius, Physicae ad lumen divinum reformatae synopsis (1633) (cit. n. 14), sig. b5r. For the lists of Alsted and Brucker see notes 11 and 8, above.
95. For an example of Casmann's citations see Otto Casmann, Philosophiae et christianae et verae adversus insanos hostium eius et nonnullorum hierophantarum morsus et calumnias modesta assertio (Frankfurt: Palthenius, 1601), Vol. 1, ch. 24 ("De Christiana physica"), p. 153: "Moses enim in rerum genesi totius admirandam spiral naturae explicationem, adeo ut Christianae physicae autor Danaeus physicam generalem ex s. Literarum adytis plene peti posse affirmet."
96. For Aslakssøn's citations of Daneau see Conrad Aslacus, Physica et ethica mosaica (Hanau: Wechel, 1613), pp. 45 (where Daneau serves as a source for references among the Church Fathers), 125 (where Daneau is praised for his "most true opinion" on the creation of the heavens and earth); Aslakssøn also cites Zanchi regularly. Lydiat cites Vallès (along with Cardano, Scaliger, Agricola, and Jean Bodin) among those whose refutation of the Aristotelian theory of the origin of underground springs he praises, but Vallès is not mentioned for his specifically pious agenda;
97. see Thomas Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica de natura coeli et conditionibus elementorum: Item disquisitio physiologica de origine fontium (London: Ioannes Bill, 1605), pp. 83, 91. On Comenius's reading of Aslakssøn see Blekastad, Comenius (cit. n. 13), p. 31. He might have met Lydiat in England, but I have found no specific evidence of this.
98. On an earlier work of Valles's see José María López Pin̄ero and Francisco Calero, Los temas polemico de la medicina renacentista: Las "Controversias" (1556) de Francisco Valles (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1988).
99. Franciscus Vallès, De iis quae scripta sunt physice in libris sacris, sive de sacra philosophia (1587; Lyon: Franciscus Le Fevre, 1588), pp. 6-7: "Cum quoniam nulla alia ratione censeo certi quidpiam de naturalibus haberi posse, tum quia nescio quo modo eorum lectio, etiam historica, aut physica, animum pietate imbuit latenter. Quare huic lectioni, consecrare senectutem, aequum est putare, scripta esse mihi hactenus Philosophica, ad opinionem, haec autem scribi ad veritatem."
100. See Jean-Claude Margolin, "Vertus occultes et effets naturels d'après les Occulta naturae miracula de Levinus Lemnius," in L'uomo e la natura nel Rinascimento, ed. Luisa Rotondi Secchi Tarugi (Milan: Nuovi Orizzonti, 1996), pp. 415-443;
101. and Carel Maaijo van Hoorn, Levinus Lemnius, 1505-1568 (Kloosterzande: Duerinck-Krachten, 1978). Vallès's De iis quae scripta was published with Levinus Lemnius, Similitudinum ac parabolarum quae in Bibliis ex herbis atque arboribus desumuntur dilucida explicatio, and Franciscus Rueus, De gemmis aliquot, iis praesertim quorum divus Iohannes Apostolus in sua Apocalypsi meminit, in most editions, including Turin, 1587; Lyon, 1588, 1592, 1595, 1622, 1652; and Frankfurt, 1667. Lemnius's study of the plants in the Bible appeared separately in Antwerp in 1566 and 1568; in Erfurt in 1581; in Frankfurt in 1591; in Lyon in 1594; and in Frankfurt in 1596, 1608, and 1626;
102. and in English translation as An Herbal for the Bible, trans. Thomas Newton (London: Edmund Bollifant, 1587).
103. Lambert Daneau, Physica christiana (Geneva: Petrus Santandreanus, 1576);
104. and Daneau, Physicae christianae pars altera (Geneva: Vignon, 1580).
105. The first part appeared again in Geneva in 1579, 1580, 1588, 1602, and 1606 and in an English translation as The Wonderfull Woorkmanship of the World, trans. T[homas] T[wyne] (London: Andrew Maunsell, 1578); the second part appeared again in Geneva in 1582, 1589, and 1606.
106. See Olivier Fatio, Méthode et théologie: Lambert Daneau et les débuts de la scolastique réformée (Geneva: Droz, 1976), and reproductions of the title pages of these works, pp. 161*-164*, 177*-178*.
107. Otto Casmann, Cosmopoeia et ouranographia christiana (Frankfurt: Palthenius, 1598), p. 58 (see also note 11, above): "Nos ratione non nitimur, ut primo fundamento, sed Dei sacro verbo."
108. Casmann, Philosophiae et christianae et verae adversus insanos hostium eius et nonnullorum hierophantarum morsus et calumnias modesta assertio (Frankfurt: Palthenius, 1601). Brucker describes this work as Casmann's response to criticism of his earlier Biographia (cit. n. II);
109. see Brucker, Historia critica (cit. n. 7), Vol. 4, p. 615.
110. On Casmann and his general academic context see Joseph Freedman, European Academic Philosophy in the Late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Life, Significance, and Philosophy of Clemens Timpler (1563/4-1624), 2 vols. (Hildesheim: Olms, 1988), esp. Vol. 1, p. 54.
111. I use "Aslakssøn" when referring to the historical figure but "Aslacus" in bibliographical citations, following my primary sources. On Aslakssøn (also Axelson) see Jole Shackelford, "Rosicrucianism, Lutheran Orthodoxy, and the Rejection of Paracelsianism in Early Seventeenth-Century Denmark," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1996, 70:181-204, on pp. 188-192;
112. and Shackelford, "Unification and the Chemistry of the Reformation," in Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture, ed. Max Reinhart (Sixteenth-Century Studies and Essays, 40) (Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth-Century Journal Publishers, 1998), pp. 291-312, esp. pp. 299-302. I am grateful to the author for these references and for copies of these articles.
113. Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica (cit. n. 20), sig. [A5]r-v: "Igitur his duabus exercitationibus Philosophicis, ante sexennium in Academia conceptis, conatus sum, refutatis praesertim Aristotelis opinionibus de natura coeli et elementorum, reddere rationes Physicas illius constitutionis universi (quoad maiores ipsius partes et potissimas harum affectiones) quae sacris scripturis videretur esse tradita iuxta genuinam earam sententiam, a plerisque Christianorum etiam hodie, ab omnibus vero olim receptam antequam quorundam mentes Ethnicorum Philosophorum praesertim Aristotelicorum sive Peripateticorum argutijs inescatae ad alieniores interpretationes abducerentur: id praecipue operam dans ut demonstrarem idem esse verum Physice ac Theologice." Ibid., p. 181: "Eoque magis quodum in duabus hisce commentatiunculis duas hypotheses aliquantum praeter multorum Christianorum nunc nimis addictorum Philosophis ethnicis praesertim Peripateticis opinionem statuerimus; alteram quidem, ingentem esse aquae vim supra coelum, causam primi motus etc. alteram vero, magnam esse ignis copiam infra terram, causam fontium perennium etc."
114. See Mordechai Feingold, The Mathematicians' Apprenticeship (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984), pp. 48-49, 55-56, 146-152;
115. Anthony Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), Vol. 2, pp. 744-745;
116. and W. H. Donahue, "A pre-Keplerian oval orbit," Journal for the History of Astronomy, 1973, 4:192-194.
117. Ann Blair, The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1997), esp. ch. 4.
118. For an analysis of Bodin's Judaizing tendencies see Paul L. Rose, Bodin and the Great God of Nature: The Moral and Religious Universe of a Judaiser (Geneva: Droz, 1980).
119. For the principles see Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light (cit. n. 14), esp. chs. 2 and 4.
120. Comenius's physics is neatly reduced to thirty-three propositions in Brucker, Historia critica (cit. n. 7), Vol. 4, pp. 641-643, here proposition 23.
121. For the references to primordial dust see Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light, pp. 28, 30,
122. discussed in Danton B. Sailor, "Moses and Atomism," Journal of the History of Ideas, 1964, 25:3-16, on pp. 8-9.
123. On Comenius's citations see Červenka, Naturphilosophie des Comenius (cit. n. 10), pp. 63-64.
124. Casmann, Philosophiae . . . modesta assertio (cit. n. 20), p. 55;
125. and Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica (cit. n. 20), sig. A4r.
126. On this saying, ancient in origin but especially in vogue in the Renaissance, see Leonardo Tarán, "Amicus Plato sed magis arnica veritas: From Plato to Aristotle to Cervantes," Antike und Abendland, 1984, 30:93-124;
127. and Henry Guerlac, "Amicus Plato and Other Friends," J. Hist. Ideas, 1978, 39:627-633.
128. Casmann, Philosophiae . . . modesta assertio, p. 40: "Duplex vero illa veritas unius eiusdemque rei, una Theologica sapientiae divinae, altera Philosophica, sapientiae humanae, est diabolicum ad omnes errores atque atheismos excusandos et defendendos accommodatissimum figmentum. Verum unum ac simplex, suique perpetuo simile: falsum autem multiplex, suique perpetuo dissimile." Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica, sigs. A4v-A5r: "Haudquaquam ratus oportere me contentum esse eo quod vulgo solitum esset responderi ad huiusmodi dogmata Aristotelica sententiae sacrorum bibliorum contraria, scilicet verum est Physice non Theologice."
129. Casmann, Philosophiae . . . modesta assertio, sigs. 2r-v, 3v: "Primum genus dico eorum qui propter pauca, quae in libris paganorum philosophorum, a decretis et sanctitate nostrae religionis abludere et aliena aquilinis cernunt oculis, non modo cetera quam plurima vere et utiliter ab illis tradita reiiciunt, sed omnem etiam cuiusvis Philosophiae Christianam cognitionem rodunt, calumniantur, ac tanquam certam animorum pestem, ex hominum praesertim Christianorum societate exterminandam iudicant, clamant. . . . Alterum genus est eorum qui divina ut vocant Platonis et Aristotelis ingenia, uberrimamque cunctarum rerum scientiam cum excellenti eloquentia coniunctam, usque eo admirantur et amplexantur, ut eos veluti numina et Deos a lapsibus immunes philosophiae, tanquam anthropolatrae et prosopolatrae adorent, eorumque decreta Philosophica, tanta animi assensione complectantur, vix ut credant, quicquam esse posse probabile, quod improbetur ab illis, aut quod ab illis probetur, improbabile."
130. This story is the subject of Sachiko Kusukawa, The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: The Case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995); see p. 39 ff. on Luther's hostility to Aristotelian philosophy.
131. On Hofmann see Maria Rosa Antognazza, "Hofmann-Streit: Il dibattito sul rapporto tra filosofia e teologia all'Università di Helmstedt," Rivista Filosofica Neoscolastica, 1996, 86:390-420, esp. pp. 393-397, 410.
132. owe this reference to Markus Friedrich, to whom I am grateful for helpful advice. He is preparing a dissertation at the University of Munich on the controversies at Helmstedt and Magdeburg and the antiphilosophical stance more generally, under the working title "Die Grenzen der Vernunft: Theologie, Philosophie und die doppelte Wahrheit zwischen Helmstedt und Magdeburg um 1600." See also the entries on Hofmann in Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (cit. n. 13),
133. and Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1967-1971), Vol. 12, pp. 628-629;
134. and William Ashford Kelly, "The Theological Faculty at Helmstedt: An Outline of Its Intellectual Development as Mirrored in Its Dissertations, Together with a Chronological Catalogue" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Strathclyde, 1991), esp. pp. 101-105.
135. On Hofmann's students see the entries on Cramer, Schilling, and Werdenhagen in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 4, pp. 545-546,
136. Cramer, Schilling, and Werdenhagen in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 31, pp. 261-262,
137. and Cramer, Schilling, and Werdenhagen in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 41, pp. 759-762, respectively;
138. and Peter Petersen, Geschichte der aristotelischen Philosophie im protestantischen Deutschland (Leipzig: Felix Meiner, 1921), pp. 263-267.
139. See also Brucker, Historia critica (cit. n. 7), Vol. 4, Pt. 1 bk. 3, ch. 5, "De hostibus philosophiae," pp. 776-785.
140. Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica (cit. n. 20), p. 53, speaking of the Aristotelian belief in the existence of heavenly intelligences: 'Tantidem Intelligentiarum Aristotelicarum existentiae, adeoque toti Theologiae Peripateticae (ut sciant nostri christiani quam religiosam doctrinam amplectantur) derogatum esse intelligite." Notably, Boyle wrote in 1665 to the Presbyterian minister Richard Baxter that he was glad that "you [are] none of those narrow-souled divines, that, by too much suspecting natural philosophy, tempt many of its votaries to suspect theology":
141. Robert Boyle, Letters, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, 2nd ed. (London: Rivington, 1772), Vol. 6, p. 520,
142. cited in Hooykaas, Robert Boyle (cit. n. 2), p. 57.
143. The debate on the existence of atheists in the sixteenth century continues; for the most recent discussion and literature see Michael Hunter and David Wootton, eds., Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992);
144. and Silvia Berti, "At the Roots of Unbelief," J. Hist. Ideas, 1995, 56:555-577.
145. Vallès, De iis quae scripta (cit. n. 21), pp. 5-6: "Ego divina haec eloquia, minime ad naturae interpretationem scripta esse, a viris Dei amicis, sancto afflatis spiritu, mihi persuadeo. . . . Tamen, cum quaedam in ipso sermonum ductu texantur naturalia, ea omnia verissima esse existimo, utpote quae, a summe vero Dei spiritu, dictata sint, et ab ipso naturae autore fluxerint, quem latere nihil potuit. . . . Ob haec ego mihi persuadeo atque omnibus persuasum volo, ut omnem aliam doctrinam, quae vera sit, ita naturalem, in his divinis libris contineri."
146. For the Vallès-Lemnius-Rueus edition see note 22, above. On the varieties of interpretive approaches to both the Bible and nature in the Renaissance see James J. Bono, The Word of God and the Languages of Man: Interpreting Nature in Early Modern Science and Medicine, Vol. 1: Ficino to Descartes (Madison: Univ. Wisconsin Press, 1995), e.g., pp. 82-84.
147. For the argument that Protestant literalism fostered the development of modern empiricism see Peter Harrison, The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998), esp. ch. 4.
148. See John Wilkins, Ecclesiastes; or, A Discourse Concerning the Gift of Preaching (1647; 4th ed., London: Gellibrand, 1653), p. 41,
149. as discussed in Harrison, Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science, p. 126 and n. 20.
150. For other examples of Protestant works on biblical geography and natural history see Otto Zöckler, Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft mit besondrer Rückicht auf Schöpfungsgeschichte, 2 vols. (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1877-1879), Vol. 1, pp. 563-568.
151. On Pereira see Armogathe, "Physica sacra de Comenius" (cit. n. 14), p. 15.
152. Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica (cit. n. 20), p. 186: "Verum nostra aetate multi nullas eiusmodi aquas supercoelestes agnoscentes, sed verba sacrae scripturae ad Ethnicorum Philosophorum praecipue Peripateticorum sensus torquentes, ab illa quae vulgo media aeris regio appellatur in qua nube consistunt, effusas esse statuunt."
153. Casmann, Cosmopoeia (cit. n. 24), prolegomenon: "An de rebus physicis sacra oracula ad vulgares aristotelicae physicae regulas sint contorquenda?"
154. Aslacus, Physica et ethica mosaica (cit. n. 20), p. 101: "An quae narrat Moses primis tribus capitibus geneseos sint litteraliter intelligenda? Quantum vero ad sensum trium primorum capitum Gen. attinet, debent haec non tantum allegorice, sed primum litteraliter intelligi. Nee tamen mysticum in quibusdam prorsus reiicimus sensum, dummodo simplex litteralis et historica verborum expositio, non excludatur, sed praesupponatur. Deinde, si primum et secundum caput geneseos allegorice tantum est explicandum. . . . imo totum Mosen reliquamque scripturam eodem modo mystice et allegorice tantum explicare licebunt. Quod absurdissimum."
155. Comenius, Natural Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light (cit. n. 14), sig. a5r.
156. See the original passage in Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica, p. 200 (ch. 10 of the "Disquisitio physiologica"): "Absurdissimum enim existimavimus Ethnicos philosophos in unius Homeri poesi omnium artium principia quaerere: nos vero Christianos in oraculis Dei uberrimo scilicet pariter ac limpidissimo sapientiae fonte non idem facere."
157. On the role of Homer as a source of wisdom see Plutarch's Essay on the Life and Poetry of Homer, ed. Robert Lamberton and John J. Keaney (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars' Press, 1996), which was widely read in the Renaissance.
158. Aslacus, Physica et ethica mosaica, pp. 83-84: "Quod si vero ethnici ethnica sua scripta, tanta vigilantia et assiduitate nocturna diuturnaque manu versare volupe duxerunt: quanto magis Christianos Christianae doctrinae unicum hoc κειμγ́λιον et inexhaustum Thesaurum videlicet Sacrosancta prophetarum et apostolorum scripta assidue evolvere, legere et meditari debebunt."
159. Lemnius, Herbal for the Bible, trans. Newton (cit. n. 22), sig. b3v.
160. Lemnius, Herbal for the Bible, trans. Newton, ch. 2, pp. 10-20.
161. For examples of classroom commentaries on Ovid in the Renaissance see Ann Blair, "Ovidius Methodizatus: The Metamorphoses of Ovid in a Sixteenth-Century Paris Collège," Hist. Univ., 1990, 9:73-118;
162. and, more generally, Ann Moss, Ovid in Renaissance France (London: Warburg Institute, 1982);
163. and Latin Commentaries on Ovid from the Renaissance, ed. and trans. Moss (Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Summertown, 1998).
164. For examples of Renaissance biblical commentary see Williams, Common Expositor (cit. n. 18), ch. 9.
165. Samuel Pike, Philosophia sacra; or, The Principles of Natural Philosophy Extracted from Divine Revelation (London: Buckland, 1753), p. v.
166. Vallès, De iis quae scripta (cit. n. 21), p. 6: "Certe [Deus] decipi non potest, neque decipere." Daneau, Physica Christiana (cit. n. 23), pp. 23-24: "Sed ut simpliciter loquutus esse concedatur, non tamen mendaciter falso et ignoranter quicquam dixisse aut de iis rebus scripsisse convincetur Moses. Aliud est igitur fateri stylum Mosis nudum et simplicem esse, qualis oratio veritatem decet: aliud autem falsum et mendacem eum affirmare, quod nemo potest, nisi perfrictae conscientiae homo."
167. Aslacus, Physica et ethica mosaica (cit. n. 20), p. 225: "An fluxu et refluxu maris ex sideribus tantum pendeat? Philosophi sic statuunt. At ex Mose liquet mare ipsum eiusque terminos, item fluxum et refluxum ante solis et reliquorum siderum productionem a Deo fuisse constituta. Et proinde scriptura non ad sidera tantum, sed ad mirabilem Dei providentiam haec refert. Iob. 3. Ierem. 5. 22."
168. This point is also made in Armogathe, "Physica sacra de Comenius" (cit. n. 14), p. 10.
169. On Aslakssøn's view of Copernicanism see Shackelford, "Rosicrucianism" (cit. n. 25), p. 189,
170. citing Oscar Garstein, Cort Aslakssøn: Studier over dansk-norsk universitets- og lœrdomshistorie omkring år 1600 (Oslo: Lutherstiftelsen, 1953), pp. 191, 198.
171. "Physica Mosis, Jobi et Davidis," in Johann Heinrich Alsted, Encyclopedia (Herborn, 1630; facsimile ed., Stuttgart/Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1989-1990), Vol. 4, p. 2350.
172. It is followed by a longer section entitled "Theosophia et philosophia Salomonis." Encyclopedia Ibid., p. 2350: "Hinc [Gen. 2.7] enim facile potest deduci fundamentum secretions philosophiae de terra Adamica apud Agrippam et de Limbo apud Paracelsum." In his detailed study of Alsted's thought, Howard Hotson finds that Alsted's treatment of physics follows a pattern common to his treatment of other disciplines, in which he calls for, but never carries out very far, a harmonization of competing positions.
173. See Howard Hotson, "Johann Heinrich Alsted: Encyclopedism, Millenarianism, and the Second Reformation in Germany" (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford Univ., 1991), esp. pp. 137-144;
174. and Hotson, Johann Heinrich Alsted: Between Renaissance, Reformation, and Universal Reform (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000).
175. Morhof, Polyhistor (cit. n. 6), p. 160: "Lamb Danaeus, Conr. Aslacus, Joh. Henr. Alstedius . . . ac alii qui Physicam Christianam scripserunt, nulla certa principia sequuntur, sed vel Interpretes sunt priorum Capitum Genesos, vel Physicam Aristotelicam et vulgarem ad Mosaica illa reducunt."
176. Buddeus, Introductio ad historiam philosophiae ebraeorum (cit. n. 10), pp. 258-259: "Ceterum fuerunt adhuc plurimi, qui christianam se sequi philosophiam professi sunt, quorum praecipuos ex Comenio supra nominavimus: ast tamen qui inter Ebraeae philosophiae propagatores praeter Comenium et Bayerum referri mereantur, non vidimus. Plerique enim eorum, qui Christianam philosophandi rationem sequi videri voluerunt, nihil tamen fecerunt aliud, quam ut doctrinam scholasticam, quam a teneris hauserunt unguiculis, ex Scriptura Sacra confirmarent et stabilirent. . . . Hi ergo si Aristotelicam aut scholasticam reiecisse videntur philosophiam, verbis potius quam reipsa hoc fecerunt."
177. Daneau, Physices christianae pars altera (cit. n. 23), chs. 28-29,
178. as discussed in Max Engammare, "Controverses autour de la foudre et du tonnerre au soir de la Renaissance," Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée (forthcoming). I am grateful to the author for a copy of this paper.
179. See also Christoph Strohm, Ethik im frühen Calvinismus: Humanistische Einflüsse, philosophische, juristische und theologische Argumentationen sowie mentalitätsgeschichtliche Aspekte am Beispiel des Calvin-Schülers Lambertus Danaeus (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 1996), pp. 66-69.
180. Casmann labels these disciplines "Christian" except for the four quadrivial ones; among them, optics has replaced astronomy. See Casmann, Philosophiae . . . modesta assertio (cit. n. 20); for the chapter on "Christian physics" see pp. 152-155. Alsted, however, included an "arithmetica sacra" and a "geometria sacra," devoted to biblical uses of numbers and sizes.
181. See Alsted, Triumphus bibliorum (cit. n. 11), pp. 105 ff., 109 ff. Buddeus, Introductio ad historiam philosophiae ebraeorum, p. 260: "Idem porro Casmannus earn ubique tenet tractandi rationem, quae a vulgari haud discrepat. In eo tamen laudandus, quod pro viribus iugo scholasticae philosophiae collum subducere elaboraverit, licet non adeo magno cum successu."
182. Comenius, Naturall Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light (cit. n. 14), par. 53, pp. 140-141.
183. Vallès, De iis quae scripta (cit. n. 21), p. 7: "Volo tamen haec in Dei gloriam, potius quam mei nominis celebritatem, scripta, atque rei tantae difficultatem, et humanae mentis debilitatem agnoscens. Testor ante omnia, nihil me in hoc, aut ullo alio meorum operum asserere, nisi quatenus probetur a sancta Romana Ecclesia."
184. Daneau, Physica christiana (cit. n. 23), pp. 28-29: "Christiani Physici qui de rebus creatis agunt, suae disputationis summam eo referant ut verus ille Deus Optimus Maximus, qui earum omnium autor est, parens et conditor, agnoscatur, laudetur, celebretur, denique colatur ardentius et magis timeatur. At Aristotelici et profani Physici ita de rerum natura disputant, ut in ipsis rebus tanquam infimis gradibus et in certa quadam vi (quae post earum creationem spectatur et quam naturam appellant) toti inhaereant, altius autem non assurgant, neque ad Deum opificem his tanquam scalis conscendant."
185. See Wojcik, Boyle and the Limits of Reason (cit. n. 2).
186. On Boyle's criticism of "timid Christians" see Hooykaas, Robert Boyle (cit. n. 2), p. 59.
187. For Boyle's citation of Bacon, discussed Hooykaas, Robert Boyle ibid., p. 86,
188. see Robert Boyle, The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle (cit. n. 34), Vol. 2, p. 58,
189. quoting Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, bk. 1.
190. The passage can be found in Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book I, ed. William A. Armstrong (London: Athlone, 1975), p. 55.
191. Lydiat, Praelectio astronomica (cit. n. 20), p. 173: "Ita ille cum salsedinis marinae causam naturalem invenire non posset, ne nullam afferret, ad supernaturalem confugit, itaque Physiologiam cum Theologia confudit; quas tamen scientias sicut et alias omnes, nostra quidem iudicio, coniungi non confundi bonum est. Neque enim transitum a genere ad genus in ulla scientia aut facultate vel in alijs Iaudamus vel quoad nos concedimus. Mare igitur salsum esse propter rei alicuius admistionem etsi ex eo satis clarum est, quod omnis sapor misti sit qua mistum; probat tamen Aristoteles compluribus rationibus tertio secundi meteororum."
192. Cf. Daneau, Physica christiana (cit. n. 23), p. 54.
193. See Cotton Mather, The Christian Philosopher (London, 1721), ed. Winton Solberg (Urbana/Chicago: Univ. Illinois Press, 1994);
194. and Samuel Pike, Philosophia sacra (cit. n. 41).
195. Ahrbeck sees other successors in August Pfeiffer, Pansophia e Genesi delineata (1685),
196. and Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, whose Physica sacra (1731) is most notable for its lavish copper engravings.
197. See Ahrbeck, "Bemerkungen über 'Mosaische Philosophen'" (cit. n. 10), p. 1050.
198. Thomas Burnet, Telluris theoria sacra (1681);
199. and William Whiston, A New Theory of the Earth (1696).
200. See Brucker, Historia critica (cit. n. 7), Vol. 4, pp. 621 ff., 625.
201. Other Cartesians who attempted a reconciliation with Genesis include Johannes Amerpoel, Cartesius Mosaizans (1669);
202. and Christopher Wittich, Consensus veritatis in scriptura divina . . . cum veritate philosophica a Renato Cartesio detecta (1659). I am grateful to an anonymous referee for the latter reference.