Early Modern Mathematical Instruments

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3569207
AutoresJim Bennett (Museum of the History of Science, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen102
Número4
Páginas697-705
Fecha de publicación2011-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaIsis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/663607
PMID22448544
OpenAlexW2083165269
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13

In considering the appropriate use of the terms "science" and "scientific instrument," tracing the history of "mathematical instruments" in the early modern period is offered as an illuminating alternative to the historian's natural instinct to follow the guiding lights of originality and innovation, even if the trail transgresses contemporary boundaries. The mathematical instrument was a well-defined category, shared across the academic, artisanal, and commercial aspects of instrumentation, and its narrative from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century was largely independent from other classes of device, in a period when a "scientific" instrument was unheard of

Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · History and Theory of Mathematics · Philosophy