Nicole Oresme and the Medical Geometry of Qualities and Motions.

Buchr�cken letzte Seiten leicht angel�st, Umschlag mit Randl�ren, berieben, innen sehr sauber / Spine last pages slightly detached, cover with marginal tears, rubbed, inside very clean- Following the practice of his time, the fourteenth-century scholastic Nicole Oresme considered many diverse phenomena, both natural and supernatural, abstract and practical. Original and speculative in many fields, his work in natural philosophy and mathematics in particular was of some influence on the later development of scientific thought. This volume, presented by Marshall Clagett in the continuing series of University of Wisconsin Publications in Medieval Science, offers what will surely be a definitive edition of Oresme�s important text on the configurations of motion and qualities. -- The doctrine of configurations, though firmly set in the midst of medieval philosophical problems, at least indirectly influenced the later Renaissance and early modern use of geometrical figures to represent problems in local motion. It was essentially Oresme�s configurations that were used by Galileo in his celebrated discussion of uniformly accelerated motion. With meticulous and thoughtful scholarship, Dr. Clagett�s historical and critical discussion places the De configurationibus in the framework of Oresme�s philosophy and gives a detailed outline and analysis of his speculations. The editor has for the first time established the text itself from the fourteen extant manuscripts; he presents not only an extensive sampling of variant readings but reconstructions of the explanatory diagrams with which the original manuscripts were liberally supplied. An English translation of the text is provided on facing pages, and a section of analysis and commentary follows the text itself. Substantial appendices present editions and translations of further works pertinent to the De configurationibus. -- Oresme divides the 93 chapters of De configurationibus qualitatum et motuum into three parts. The first establishes the tenets of his geometrical system to represent qualities. In this part, he also discusses the implications of his doctrine for the explanation of various physical phenomena, notably those factors and perceptions relating to aesthetics. The second part applies the doctrine to problems of motion, referring to its possible use also in sonics, music, and the refutation of magic. An attempt is made in Part III to illustrate how qualities or motions may be compared by comparing their geometrical representations. -- Marshall Clagett, a distinguished authority on medieval science, is well-known for his many scholarly publications, which include Archimedes in the Middle Ages, Vol. I ( Vol. II, in progress ) , The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, Giovanni Marliani and Tate Medieval Physics and numerous articles in Isis and Osiris. He is also the editor of Critical Problems in the History of Science, The Medieval Science of Weights ( with Ernest Moody ) and co-editor of Twelfth-Century Europe and the Foundations of Modern Society. Dr. Clagett is a member of many learned societies and from 1962 to 1964 served as President of the History of Science Society. Formerly the Director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, he is at present Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. ISBN 9780299019006