Francesco d'Appignano and the Non-Existent Canon: Tracing Francesco d'Appignano's scientific legacy in Francesc Marbres, alias Johannes Canonicus, and fragments discovered along the way. (original) (raw)

Physics, Neo-Thomism and Mosaic Cosmogony at the Roman College: the case of the Jesuit Giambattista Pianciani

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Horizons in Teaching Science. Special Issue of Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti. Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, Vol. 99, Suppl. No 1, 2021

Preliminary the figure of Abbot Feliciano Scarpellini and the scientific envi ronment in Rome in the first half of the XIX century are introduced. It is then analysed the life and work of the physicist and philosopher Giambattista Pianciani (1784-1862) of the Society of Jesus. Pianciani was in Rome among the most peculiar representatives of that cultural program aimed at countering the theses of Enlightenment materialism through a process of conciliation and justification of scientific discoveries with Catholic doctrine. This apologetic and concordist program started under Pius VII, also continued during the pontificate of Leo XVI. In the wake of this peculiar apologetic program, the controversy that, around the mid-nineteenth century, arose in the Roman College between neotomists and some scientists of the order, for example, Angelo Secchi, is also discussed. Finally, the specific concordist program developed by Pianciani is discussed. This program aimed to reconcile the biblical account of the world's creation with the scientific results that came from the studies of natural cosmogony.

Marcacci-Zaffino_The Infinite Cosmos, Similitudo or Data_Giordano Bruno and the Astronomers of XVI-XVII Century

ABSTRACT Our paper pay attention to the historical passage from a closed geocentric world-system to an infinite one. The similarity is the figure of speech that reveals its explicative power, especially in the case of Giordano Bruno who uses it to introduce the idea of an infinite cosmos. The astronomers tried hard to understand how widely they could extend the (depth of the) universe on the basis of the observational data available at that time, with opportune instruments and without any metaphorical reasoning: Giovanni Battista Riccioli, the Jesuit astronomer who proposed the last semi-geocentric model of world before Newton by using the telescope, compares different methods and results from many astronomers and once again concludes with a closed world. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ERRATA CORRIGE (only to to the version of the paper available at http://isonomia.uniurb.it/metaphor-and-argumentation/ ). P. 136, note 72 e 73: “Locher (1614:”; not “Scheiner (1615:” P. 136, middle page: “Christophori Scheiner apparently supports Johann Locher, though arguing against the thesis of infinite universe”; not “Christophori Scheiner, though arguing against the thesis of infinite universe” p. 139, between “Lansbergen and “Lucentini”: Locher, J. G., 1614, Disquisitiones mathematicæ, de controversiis et novitatibus astronomicis quas sub præsidio Christophori Scheiner ... publice disputandas posuit, propugnavit mense septembri, die 5 ... Ioannes Georgius Locher, ex typographeo Ederiano, apud Elisabetham Angermariam, Ingolstadii

Francis of Marchia on the Heavens

Vivarium, 2006

Francis of Marchia (c. 1290-†1344) is said to have challenged Aristotelian orthodoxy by uniting the celestial and terrestrial realms in a way that has important implications for the practice of natural philosophy. But this overlooks Marchia’s vital distinction between bare potentiality, which is actualizable only by God, and natural potency, which is the concern of the natural philosopher. If due attention is paid to this distinction and to its implications, Marchia’s position no longer seems to be revolutionary.