Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel: Informal Communication and the Aristocratic Context of Discovery

  • Chapter
Book cover Scientific Discovery: Case Studies

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 60))

Abstract

That a period of scientific revolution coincided with a period of theological, social and economic change in Europe is an obvious commonplace in literature dealing with the history of early modern science. The question of how specific elements in sixteenth-century society affected the actual process of discovery and the diffusion of new ideas is less clearly understood. In particular, the structure of informal methods of scientific interaction which made possible the transmission of new procedures, discoveries, and technical innovations among mathematicians, astronomers, and naturalists prior to the development of formal scientific organizations,has been left, for the most part,unexplored. One of the aims of this study, then, is to delineate an important mode of scientific interaction during the late Renaissance by examining the role of princely courts in the construction of informal patterns of scientific and technical information exchange. Among various forms of aristocratic patronage, it is possible to reconstruct a special type of courtly involvement characterized by the direct participation of princes in scientific and technical projects. Such courts not only provided an environment for the development of technical proficiency and innovation but also were capable of initiating vast networks of scientific correspondence based upon pre-existing religious and political avenues of communication.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes and References

  1. Concerning the Flacian-Philippist controversy see: Wilhelm Prager, Matthias Flacius und Seine Zeit (Erlangen, 1859-1861); Lauri Haikolu, Gesetz und Evangelium bei Matthias Illyricus: eine Untersuchung zur Lutherischen Theologie vor der Konkordien- formel (Lund, 1952 ); Hans-Werner Gensichen, We Condemn: How Luther and 16th- century Lutheranism Condemned False Doctrine, trans, by Herbert J. A. Bouman ( St. Louis, 1967 ).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Robert Calinich, Kampf und Untergang des Melanchthonismus in Kursachsen in den Jahren 1570–1574 (Leipzig, 1866).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ludwig Zimmermann, Der Okonomische Staat Landgraf Wilhelm IV (Marburg, 1933 ), vol I, pp. 167–168.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Most of Wilhelms botanical correspondence with other princes must be consulted in manuscript: Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 32. 28; 4A. 32. 18; 4A. 32. 19; 4B. 40. 20; 4B. 40. 25; 4B. 40. 44; 4B. 40. 60; 4B. 5. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4B. 40. 24; letters 1578-1580. See also Hermann Friedrich Kessler, Landgraf Wilhelm IV von Hessen als Botaniker (Cassel, 1859 ), p. 18.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Richard J. Durling, Conrad Gesners Liber amicorum: 1555 1565, Gesnerus: Viertel- jahrschrift flir Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 22 (1965), 134– 159. See also the section Einfuhrung zum Bilderteif, by Rudolf Steiger in Conrad Gesner 1516–1565: Universalgelehrter, Naturforscher, Arzt (Zurich, 1967 ), pp. 129–130.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Conradi Gesneri… historiae animalium lib. I. de quadrupedibus viviparis… (Tiguri, 1551 ).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Melchior Adam, Vitae Germanorum Medicorum, in: Dignorum lauda Vivorum… ( Frankfurt a. M., 1706 ), pp. 154–159.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 36. See also Maximilian Reess, ifber die Pflege der Botanik in Franken von der Mitte des 16. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Erlangen, 1884 ).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Christian Bay, Conrad Gesner (1516-1565): The Father of Bibliography, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 10 (April, 1916 ), 53-86. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 36; Wilhelm to Camerarius, April 14, 1581.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Joachim Camerarius, Hortus Medicus et Philosophicus: In quo plurimarum stirpium breves descriptione, Novae Icones… (Francofurti ad Maenum, 1588), ad lectorum.

    Google Scholar 

  12. F. W. T. Hunger,Charles de L Escluse 1526-1609, Janus 31 (1927), 139–151. Idem, Charles de L’Escluse, Nederlansch Kruidkundige: 1526–1609, VoL I (S-Graven- hage, 1927 ).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kessler, p. 15. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4B. 40. 23; 4A. 32. 12; 4A. 31. 37. See also Gy. Istranffi, Etudes et commentaires sur le Code de L Escluse, Augmentis de quelques Notices Biographiques (Budapest, 1900 ).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Hunger, Charles de L Escluse, Nederlandsch Kruidkundige, VoL I, p. 168.

    Google Scholar 

  15. The term is used by Herbert Menzel, Planning the Consequences of Unplanned Action in Scientific Communication, in Communication in Science: Documentation and Automation, ed. De Reuck et al. (Boston, 1967), 57–71. Idem., Informal Communication in Science: Its Advantages and Its Formal Analogue in The Foundations of Access to Knowledge, ed. Edward B. Montgomery (New York, 1968 ), pp. 153–163.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 36; Camerarius to Wilhelm, March 13, 1585;May 27,1587;March 2,1588;March 14, 1591.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Paul Lawrence Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics: Studies on Humanists and Mathematicians from Petrarch to Galileo (Geneve, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  18. See: A. G. Keller, Mathematicians, Mechanics and Experimental Machines in Northern Italy in the Sixteenth Century, in The Emergence of Science in Western Europe, ed. Maurice Crosiand (New York, 1976 ), pp. 15–34.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Derek J. Price, Precision Instruments: To 1500, in A History of Technology, ed. Charles Singer et al. ( New York, 1957 ), Vol. Ill, pp. 582–619.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Paul Melchger, Niirnberg und seine Uhrmacher vor dem 17. Jahihunderf, Schriften des Fachkreises Freunde Alter Uhren’in der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Chronometrie 8 (Ulm, 1968/69), 6-13.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Andreas Schoner, Gnomonice… hoc est: de descriptionibus horologiarum scioteri- corum omnis generis… libri tres (Noribergae, 1562), epistolae nuncupatoria.

    Google Scholar 

  22. P. Rami Scholarum mathematicarum libri unus et triginta (Basilae, 1569), p. 67.

    Google Scholar 

  23. See. H. Allen Lloyd, Some Outstanding Clocks over Seven Hundred Years 1250–1950 (London, 1958 ), pp. 46–60.

    Google Scholar 

  24. С/ Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia, ed. J. L. E. Dreyer (Hauniae, 1919 ), Vol. VI, p. 157.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Henry C. King, Geared to the Stars (Toronto, 1978), pp. 78–84; esp. p. 83.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Bruce T. Moran, Princes, Machines and the Valuation of Precision in the Sixteenth Century, Sudhoffs Archiv 61 (1977), 209–228. 27% Erwin Neumann, Der Konigfiche Uhrmacher Moritz Behain und seine Tischuhr von 1559 (Luzern, 1967 ), pp. 8–9.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Bruce T. Moran, Princes, Machines and the Valuation of Precision in the Sixteenth Century, Sudhoffs Archiv 61 (1977), 209–228. 27% Erwin Neumann, Der Konigfiche Uhrmacher Moritz Behain und seine Tischuhr von 1559 (Luzern, 1967 ), pp. 8–9.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ernst Zinner, Deutsche und Niederldndische Astronomische Instrumente des 11.–18. Jahrhunderts (Munchen, 1956 ), p. 385.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Bernard Sticker, Landgraf Wilhelm IV und die Anfange der Modemen astronomischen Messkunst, Sudhoffs Archiv 40 (1956), 15–25; p. 18. Reprinted in Sticker, Erfahrung und Erkenntnis (Hildesheim, 1976 ), pp. 234–240.

    Google Scholar 

  30. These obervations were recorded by Schoner in the Landgrafs copy of Peter Apianus’s Astronomicum Caesareum (Ingolstadt, 1540 ), Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt Kassel und Landesbibliothek, Kassel: MS astron. 2° 16.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Susanne Voight, Ebert Baldewein, der Baumeister Landgraf Ludwigs IV von Hessen- Marburg, 1567–1592, Dissertation at the University of Marburg, 1942, p. 32.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Max Engelmann, Sammlung Mensing: Altwissenschaftliche Instrumente (Amsterdam, 1924), p. 34, number 237. A second sundial signed Ό. H. P. (Ott-Heinrich Pfalzgraf) was discovered in 1970 by the curators of the Mensing collection, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, as part of a private collection in Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Max Engelmann, Die Wegmesser der Kurfiirsten August von Sachsen, Mitteilungen aus den Sachsischen Kunstsammlungen 6 (1915), 11–43. Also, Ad. Drechsler, Mathe- matisch-Physikalischer Salon im Westlichen Fliigel des Zwingers (Dresden, 1874 ), p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Niedersachsisches Staatsarchiv, Wolfenbuttel: 2 Alt. 5228. See Gerd Spies, Werk- zeuge, Gerte und Maschinen in Braunschweigischen Steinbruch, Museum und Kultur- geschichte: Festschrift fur Wilhelm Hansen, ed. Martha Bringmeier et ah (Miinster, 1978 ), pp. 233–244.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Zimmermann, Okonomische Staat…, Vol I, pp. 111–288.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Tycho Brahe, Opera Omnia, VoL VI, p. 31.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ibid., VoL III, p. 127.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Tycho Brahe, Tycho Brahe’s Description of His Instruments and Scientific Work as Given in Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica, trans, and ed. by Hans Raeder et al. (Kobenhaven, 1946), p. 79.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Caspar Peucer, Hypotheses Astronomiae, seu Theoriae Planetarum ex Ptolemaei et aliorum… (Wittenberg, 1571 ).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 32. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4F Kursachsen 82; November 17, 1586.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Tabulae Observationum Stellarum Fixarum… anno 1586, Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS astron. 2° 6. Partially transcribed by Rudolf Wolf, Astronomische Mitteilungen 45 (Zurich, 1856-1896), pp. 126 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, pp. 90-117.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Donald deB Beaver,Bernard Walther: Innovator in Astronomical Observation, Journal for the History of Astronomy 1, pt. 1 (February, 1970 ), 39–43. Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York, 1923), Vol. V, p. 366.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Thorndike, VoL V, p. 339.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Philip Melanchthon, Corpus Reformatorum, ed. Carlos Gottlieb Bretschneider (Halle, 1834 ), Vol. IH, p. 118.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, Historische Nachricht von dem Nitrnbergischen Mathe- maticis undKunstlern… (Niirnberg, 1730), pp. 79–81.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Johann Schoner, Opera Mathematica (Niirnberg, 1561). so Joannis Regiomontani… fundamentum operationum… Neuberg a.d. Donau, 1557 ).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Johann Schoner, Opera Mathematica (Niirnberg, 1561). so Joannis Regiomontani… fundamentum operationum… Neuberg a.d. Donau, 1557 ).

    Google Scholar 

  51. Cf. Bernard Sticker, Die Wissenschaftlichen Bestrebung des Landgrafen Wilhelm IV, Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde 67 (1956), 130 - 137. Idem., Landgraf Wilhelm IV und die AnfSnge der Modernen astronomischen Messkunst, he. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 26; 4F Kursachsen 71. Wilhelm to August, October 24, 1580.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4F Kursachsen 60. Wilhelm to August, November 2, 1576.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Among these are the Praedictiones Astrologiae, 1558, of Nicolas Caesareus Leuco- petraeus and Cyprianus Leovitius’s De Conjunctions Magnis. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: 4° MS astron. 10. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A, 31. 13; 4A. 31. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  55. TychonisBrahe, Dani, De Nova etNullius Aevi Memoria Prius Visa Stella… (Hafniae, 1573 ).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astroa 5, number 7, fol. 8r. Wolf, Astron- omische MitteUungen 45, pp. 133 - 134.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 17.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astron. 5, number 19.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astron. 5, number 4; MS 2° astron. 6; MS 2° astron. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astron. 6. Wolf, Astronomische Mitteilungen 45, p. 126.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astron. 5, number 8,48r.

    Google Scholar 

  62. The use of Venus had already been employed at Niirnberg and was further refined by Tycho. Ibid

    Google Scholar 

  63. Sticker, Landgraf Wilhelm IV und die Anfange der Modernen Astronomischen Messkunst, loc. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Donald deB Beaver, loc. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  65. H. von Bertele, Precision Timekeeping in the Pre-Huygens Era, Horological Journal (December, 1953 ), 794–816.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 29.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 12. Also, Tycho Brahe, Opera Omnia, Vol. III, pp. 114 ff.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4F Kursachsen 51; December 21, 1572.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Ibid

    Google Scholar 

  70. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4F Kursachsen 51.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 12. Also, Tycho Brahe, Opera Omnia, Vol. Ill, p. 114.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Apianus’s letter was later published by Tycho, Opera Omnia, VoL III, pp. 158–161.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4A. 31. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  75. С. Doris Hellman, The Comet of4577: Its Place in the History of Astronomy, 1944 (rept. New York, 1971 ), Chapter III.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Ibid., Chapter IV.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Tycho Brahe, Opera Omnia, VoL VI, p. 49.

    Google Scholar 

  78. William H. Donahue, The Solid Planetary Spheres in Post Copernican Natural Philosophy, in The Copernican Achievement, ed. Robert S. Westman ( Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1975 ), pp. 244–275.

    Google Scholar 

  79. Oratio Valedictoria a Jordano Bruno Nolano D. Habita, ad amplissimos et clarissimos professores, atque auditores in Academia Witebergensi anno 1588, 8 Marti inJordani BruniNolani Opera Latine conscripta (Neapoli, 1879 ), VoL I, pars 1, pp. 18 f.

    Google Scholar 

  80. See: Robert S. Westman, Magical Reform and Astronomical Reform: The Yates Thesis Reconsidered, in Westman and McGuire, Hermeticism and the Scientific Revolu-tion (Los Angeles, 1977 ), pp. 1–91.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 2° astron. 5, number 8, fol. 36r-v. Wolf, Astronomische Mitteilungen 45, p. 147. Also, Willebrord Snellii Descriptio Cometae qui anno 1618… effulsit. Hue accessit Christophori Rothmanni… descriptio accurata cometae anni 1585 (Lugduni Batavorum, 1619 ), pp. 146–155.

    Google Scholar 

  82. Robert S. Westman, The Melanchthon Circle, Rheticus and the Wittenberg Inter-pretation of the Copernican Theory, Isis 66 (1975), 165–193. Zofia Wardeska, Die Universitat Altdorf als Zentrum der Copernicus-Rezeption um die Wende vom 16. zum 17. Jahrhundert, Sudhoffs Archiv 61 (1977), 156–164. G6tz von Selle, Geschichte der Albertus - Universitat zu Kdnigsbergin Preussen (Wurzburg, 1956 ), pp. 72–73.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Marburg: 4F Kursachsen 82

    Google Scholar 

  84. Westman, The Melanchthon Circle…, loc. cit. Students at Wittenberg most likely encountered the ideas of Copernicus initially through Erasmus Reinhold’s commentary on Peurbach’s Theoricae Novae Planetarum (1542), a basic text in astronomy. See: Owen Gingerich, The Role of Erasmus Reinhold and the Prutenic Tables in the Dissemination of the Copernican Theory, Colloquia Copernicana 2 (Warsaw, 1973 ), 43–62.

    Google Scholar 

  85. This correspondence is published by Tycho Brahe in his Epistolae Astronomicarum (Uraniburgi, 1596).

    Google Scholar 

  86. Murhardsche Bibliothek, Kassel: MS 4° astron. 11.

    Google Scholar 

  87. Tycho Brahe, Opera Omnia, VoL VI, pp. 118–119. For a discussion of Rothmann’s model see Christine Schofield, The Geoheliocentric Hypothesis in Sixteenth-Century Planetary Theory, The British Journal for the History of Science 2 (1965), 291–296.

    Google Scholar 

  88. See Derek J. Price, Is Technology Historically Independent of Science? A Study in Statistical Historiography, Technology and Culture 6 (1965), 553–568; Idem., Structures and Publication in Science and Technology, in Factors in the Transfer of Technology, ed. by William Gruber etal. ( Cambridge, Mass., 1964 ), pp. 91–104.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Bruce T. Moran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

    Thomas Nickles

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1980 D. Reidel Publishing Company

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Moran, B.T. (1980). Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel: Informal Communication and the Aristocratic Context of Discovery. In: Nickles, T. (eds) Scientific Discovery: Case Studies. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 60. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9015-9_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9015-9_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1093-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9015-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation