THE SEARCH FOR ANTEDILUVIAN ASTRONOMY: SIXTEENTH- AND SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ASTRONOMERS' CONCEPTIONS OF THE ORIGINS OF THE SCIENCE

摘要

Many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomers believed that astronomy had existed before the Flood. It existed in God's mind as an eternal plan, according to which celestial bodies were created and their periods of revolution defined. Furthermore, the first people, Adam and his descendants, the biblical patriarchs, had engaged in astronomy. However, there was no consensus among early modern astronomers as to the fate of antediluvian astronomy after the Flood and its relation to their own astronomy. In this article, I present an overview of the various conceptions of antediluvian astronomy, to illustrate astronomers' opinions regarding the origin of their science, and how their views gradually changed.