Overview

This book presents the first interdisciplinary study of Alessandro Piccolomini’s two early astronomical works – De la Sfera del Mondo and De le Stelle Fisse.  First published in Venice in 1540, the two treatises are amongst the earliest scientific texts written in the vernacular (Italian) and were specifically composed to make astronomical principles and practices available to a lay reader.  The book includes modern editions of the original Italian texts and an English translation of both treatises (all appended as Electronic Supplementary Material to the online edition), while also examining the contents of each treatise in depth. It explores the way in which Piccolomini addresses the theoretical underpinnings of the science of astronomy in his De la Sfera del Mondo by providing a version of Sacrobosco’s De sphaera, which he has expanded and updated to include the views of more recent natural philosophers and astronomers. The book also presents an extended study ofDe le Stelle Fisse and the unique method that Piccolomini devised for observing the stars, as well as explanatory notes on the sources behind his explanations of the mythographic sources of each constellation. In addition to this, the book presents a detailed examination of the cultural context in which Piccolomini wrote his treatises, focussing on such issues as how astronomy was taught in Italian universities in the 16th-century; the on-going debates on the viability of Italian as language as a means for discussing scientific ideas; and how Piccolomini navigated through the competitive and complicated world of book production in 16th-century Venice. Given that Piccolomini originally dedicated both treatises to his female friend, the Sienese aristocrat Laudomia Forteguerri, there is also a discussion of the mysteries behind their personal relationship; of the dynamics of Sienese society at the time; and, in particular, the role that the Sienese Accademia degli Intronati played in Piccolomini’s own intellectual development and the composition of his astronomical treatises. This book is a companion volume to Alessandro Piccolomini’s Early Astronomical Works: II. An Examination of Their Scientific Content by Elly Dekker in the same series.

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9783031567858

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Dr Kristen Lippincott is a London-based historian, specialising in art history, cultural history, the history of science and scientific instruments. She has spent most of her career working in and with museums, most notably as the Director of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum in London and as a Founding Director of The Exhibitions Team. She is currently Director of the Saxl Project. Her academic affiliations include the Warburg Institute and University of Chicago. Her research has been supported by a series of prestigious academic awards and fellowships, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the J Paul Getty Trust and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. During the academic year 1987-88, she was a Fellow at the Harvard University’s Center for Renaissance Studies at the Vila I Tatti in Florence and in 2003-04, she was Visiting Professor there. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and her books include:  Astronomy, Dorling Kindersley/ Eyewitness Science series, London (etc.): Dorling Kindersley, 1994; The Story of Time [exhibition catalogue, London, the National Maritime Museum, 1 December 1999 - 28 September 2000], London: Merrell Holberton, 1999 (translated into French (Flammarion), Spanish (Grijablo), Dutch (Sluyters), Korean (Pun-run-soop Publishing) and Hungarian (Perfekt); A Guide to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London: National Maritime Museum, 2007; The Aratea ascribed to Germanicus. MS 735C Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales. Commentary to the Facsimile Edition and Latin Edition with English translation, Lucerne: Quaternio Verlag, 2019; and The Curious History of the Text and Illustrations of Hyginus’s De Astronomia, Cologne: Albireo Verlag, 2021. Most recently, she contributed to an edition, translation and iconographic examination of  the British Library manuscript attributed to Georgius Zothorus Zaparus  Fendulus, Sloane Ms 3983 , in Liber Astrologiae. Abū Ma'shar Treatise, Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 2023.

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