During the 17th century, important conventions for the visual representation of the Earth as a whole were established by writers of Theories of the Earth. This essay examines how the emergence of visual representations contributed to the establishment of a new print tradition of multicontextual discourse and critical debate. Four vignettes contrast varying uses of global depictions: the incidental global depictions and mathematical vision of Johannes Kepler; the cosmogonic sections and chemical vision of Robert Fludd; the geogonic sections and mechanical vision of René Descartes; and the global views and classical vision of Thomas Burnet. The continuities of visual conventions and the contrasts of disciplinary perspectives and local contexts observed in these vignettes conforms well to the characterization of Theories of the Earth as an interdisciplinary print tradition.
During the 17th century, in a new contested tradition known as Theories of the Earth, conventions for the visual representation of the Earth as a whole developed alongside the expression of biblical idiom. Global depictions carried embedded biblical idiom that shaped the formulation of questions, the development of theories, and the exchange of discoveries and ideas.In several examples I contrast the varying ways in which biblical idiom was expressed within global depictions, particularly hexameral idiom (i.e. the language of the six day creation in Genesis 1). I discuss the Jesuit mathematician Gabriele Beati and meteorological and cosmic sections; the cosmogonic sections and hexameral idiom of Robert Fludd; the geogonic sections and hexameral idiom of René Descartes; the apocalyptic idiom of Thomas Burnet; and the global depictions and hexameral idiom of William Whiston in the controversy over Burnet. Biblical and particularly hexameral idiom proved durable and versatile for more than a century after Fludd, and facilitated the development of a directionalist sense of Earth history. The continuities of visual conventions, the durability of hexameral idiom, and the contrasts of disciplinary perspectives and local contexts observed in the examples considered here conform well to the characterization of Theories of the Earth as a contested print tradition.
Gabriele Beati (1607–1673) taught mathematics at the Collegio Romano when in 1662 he published an introduction to astronomy, the Sphaera triplex. This little work contains an interesting cosmic section which is analyzed here as representing a fusion of Jesuit traditions in cosmology achieved by Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671). The cosmic section enumerates three heavens, depicts fluid planetary heavens, and expresses hexameral biblical idiom. Woodcut and engraved variants of the cosmic section offer a glimpse of Jesuit freedom to experiment with various cosmological systems (Capellan, Tychonic and semi‐Tychonic). Analysis of this cosmic section suggests several conclusions for the interpretation of visual representations, science and biblical interpretation, the Scientific Revolution and Jesuit science after Galileo.
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