The Revival of European Astronomy

Abstract

The fifteenth century in Europe was remarkable in that two great intellectual movements began to sweep across the continent almost simultaneously: the Renaissance and free scientific inquiry—particularly astronomy. Scholasticism was a mixture of Greek reasoning and Christian revelation as epitomized in the philosophical writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Italy, Duns Scotus in Scotland, and Saint Albertus Magnus in Germany Accepting Socrates not only as the father of logic, but also as the infallible authority in physics, astronomy, and biology, the scholastics considered the Scriptures and Christian theology in general as the guiding truth to be followed in studying and understanding nature at all levels. Acting as a pall on the freedom of thought, particularly on the pursuit of science, for almost two centuries, it began to fade by the end of the thirteenth century It had not been without its merits, however, because it had awakened an enormous interest in the Greek philosophers so the monasteries were besieged by requests for ancient Greek manuscripts. Fortunately, the printing press with movable type appeared at about this time so that knowledge and ideas were widely disseminated.

Here and elsewhere we shall not obtain the best insights into things until we actually see them growing from the beginning.

—Aristotle