Alessandro Piccolomini's Early Astronomical Works: I. An Exploration of Their Cultural Significance

With Editions and Translations of De la Sfera del Mondo and De le Stelle Fisse
2024
ISBN: 978-3-031-56785-8
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Buch, Englisch, 292 Seiten, Book w. online files / update, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 685 g

Reihe: Historical & Cultural Astronomy

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  by Elly Dekker in the same series. The two volumes are jointly available as print set with ISBN 978-3-031-76964-1.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lippincott, Kristen

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Astronomische Beobachtung: Observatorien, Instrumente, Methoden
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Lehrerausbildung, Unterricht & Didaktik Allgemeine Didaktik Naturwissenschaften, Mathematik (Unterricht & Didaktik)
• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Astronomie: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgements

Chapter I. Alessandro Piccolomini and the background to his astronomical treatises

Chapter II. Piccolomini’s Aim and Ambitions: Considering the dedications of De la Sfera del Mondo and De le Stelle Fisse

Chapter III. Revealing and concealing: Piccolomini’s nickname and imprese

Chapter IV. Musings on the successes and shortcomings of Piccolomini’s methods



Chapter V. De la Sfera del Mondo – by Kristen Lippincott with Marco Spreafico

ESM I.I De la Sfera del Mondo (1540)

ESM I.II Aggiunte to the 1561 Varisco edition

ESM I.III English translation of De la Sfera del Mondo (1540)

ESM I.IV English translation of the Aggiunte to the 1561 Varisco edition

De le Stelle Fisse – by Kristen Lippincott

ESM II.I De le Stelle Fisse (1540)

ESM II.II English translation of De le Stelle Fisse (1540)



APPENDIX I: Editions and partial editions of the De la Sfera del Mondo and De le Stelle Fisse (1540-1600)

APPENDIX II: a. ‘Lessons in Astronomy and Astrology’ from Piccolomini’s De la

institutions di Tutta la Vita del’homo nato nobile in città libera.,

1542 (edition and English translation

b. Alessandro Piccolomini’s letter to Pietro Aretino. 20 March 1541

(edition and English translation)



APPENDIX III: a. Laudomia Forteguerri, Ora ten’ vai superbo

b. Alessandro Piccolomini: A selection of early Petrarchan sonnets



APPENDIX IV: Two astrological poems
BibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

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:  , Dorling Kindersley/ Eyewitness Science series, London (etc.): Dorling Kindersley, 1994; [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);, London: National Maritime Museum, 2007; , Lucerne: Quaternio Verlag, 2019; and 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. Abu Ma'shar Treatise, Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 2023.