TY - JOUR
T1 - Practicing and Patronizing Science in the Republic of Letters
T2 - Andreas Dudith's Radiating Curiosity, Vanity, and Skepticism
AU - Sebők, Marcell
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© MARCELL SEBŐK, 2024.
PY - 2024/3/20
Y1 - 2024/3/20
N2 - Visible for months, the Great Comet of 1577 attracted worldwide attention, particularly among the scholars of Europe's Respublica Litteraria, and reflections on it were not limited to the books of scientists like Brahe and Kepler; the Hungarian humanist bishop, politician, and nonprofessional astronomer Andreas Dudith (1533-1589) also published a Short Commentary, a fascinating example of the epistemological changes in scientific discourse and astronomical method that characterized the era. With his zealous advocacy of rational argumentation, insistence on the primacy of 'the most direct causes', and caustic criticism of superstition, Dudith was in a complex discussion with the Aristotelian tradition and the theological-astrological explanations of his day, thus helping clear the way for modern scientific thought. As his voluminous correspondence makes clear, he spent the final decades of his life trying to make a professional astronomer of himself, and though his friends in the Respublica helped guide his research, he never mastered the requisite mathematical methods, though remained a patron of science.
AB - Visible for months, the Great Comet of 1577 attracted worldwide attention, particularly among the scholars of Europe's Respublica Litteraria, and reflections on it were not limited to the books of scientists like Brahe and Kepler; the Hungarian humanist bishop, politician, and nonprofessional astronomer Andreas Dudith (1533-1589) also published a Short Commentary, a fascinating example of the epistemological changes in scientific discourse and astronomical method that characterized the era. With his zealous advocacy of rational argumentation, insistence on the primacy of 'the most direct causes', and caustic criticism of superstition, Dudith was in a complex discussion with the Aristotelian tradition and the theological-astrological explanations of his day, thus helping clear the way for modern scientific thought. As his voluminous correspondence makes clear, he spent the final decades of his life trying to make a professional astronomer of himself, and though his friends in the Respublica helped guide his research, he never mastered the requisite mathematical methods, though remained a patron of science.
KW - Andreas Dudith
KW - anti-Aristotelianism
KW - astronomy
KW - comet of 1577
KW - curiosity
KW - patronage
KW - Respublica Litteraria
KW - skepticism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188807723&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/24055069-09010002
DO - 10.1163/24055069-09010002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85188807723
SN - 2405-5050
VL - 9
SP - 32
EP - 75
JO - Erudition and the Republic of Letters
JF - Erudition and the Republic of Letters
IS - 1
ER -