‘Heavens and earth in one frame’ Cosmography and the form of the earth in the Scientific Revolution.

摘要

This thesis addresses the role of geography in the Scientific Revolution, a matter yet to besettled by historians of science. Specifically it argues that cosmography, the parent disciplineof both astronomy and geography, was central to Copernican natural philosophy in the earlymodern period. Copernicus, Bruno, Gilbert, Galileo and Descartes all sought to provide aunified picture of the heavens and earth by harmonising ideas in geography and astronomy,according to established principles of cosmography. In addition, using concepts about theearth's form to build heliocentric cosmological theories was routine amongst Copernicanthinkers. Indeed, this analysis demonstrates that Copernicus, Bruno and Gilbert staked theirclaims about the heavens on their theories of the earth.Recognising cosmography offers several advantages to historical understanding of theScientific Revolution. It helps explain the form of Bruno's argument for an infinite cosmos anda multiplicity of worlds. It provides insights into Gilbert's interest in the detailed structure ofthe earth, beyond simply magnetism, and reveals that his argument followed a more traditionalpath than generally thought. A cosmographic perspective explains why Galileo took such pridein his theory of the tides and clarifies the place of this theory in his case for heliocentrism.From the cosmographic viewpoint, Descartes appears as a radically ambitious cosmographerwith his use of a single account of the creation of the heavens and earth, thereby linkinggeography and astronomy in a single physical theory. Thus, cosmography represented acompetitive enterprise among the Copernican natural philosophers. In general, thinking interms of cosmography helps us understand the manner in which geographical ideas entered intothe conceptual developments of the Scientific Revolution.The main contribution to knowledge in this thesis is its identification of cosmography as a keyframe of reference for early modern thinking about cosmology, overlooked in the historicalliterature.