Jesuit Science After Galileo: The Cosmology of Gabriele Beati

Abstract

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.

‘Jesuit Science’ and Cultural Hegemony: A Political-Historiographical Critique

“…12 8 Among the most significant publications in which the label 'Jesuit Science' explicitly appears in the title: 'Jesuit Science through Korean Eyes' (Baker 1982/83); 'Jesuit mathematical science and the reconstitution of experience in the early seventeenth century' (Dear 1987); Jesuit Ideology & Jesuit Science: Scientific Activity in the Society of Jesus, 1540Jesus, -1773 (Harris 1988); 'Boscovich, the Boscovich Circle and the Revival of the Jesuit Science' (Harris 1993); 'Jesuit Science Between Texts and Contexts' (Biagioli 1994); 'Confession-building, Long-distance Networks, and the Organization of Jesuit Science' (Harris 1996); 'From "The Eyes of All" to "Useful Quarries in Philosophy and Good Literature": Consuming Jesuit Science, 1600-1650' (Gorman 1999); 'The Cultural Field of Jesuit Science' (Feldhay 1999); 'Mapping Jesuit Science: The Role of Travel in the Geography of Knowledge' ; The New Science and Jesuit Science. Seventeenth Century Perspectives (Feingold 2003); 'Jesuit Science in the Spanish Netherlands' (Vanpaemel 2003); Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters (Feingold 2003); 'The trading zone communication of scientific knowledge: An examination of Jesuit science in China (1582-1773)' (Huang 2005); 'Benedictus Pereirus: Renaissance Culture at the Origin of Jesuit Science', (Blum 2006); 'Jesuit scientia and Natural Studies in Late Imperial China, 1600-1800' (Elman 2006); 'Jesuit Science after Galileo: The Cosmology of Gabriele Beati' (Magruder 2009); Ferdinand Verbiest and Jesuit Science in 17 th Century China: An Annotated Edition and Translation of the Constantinople Manuscript (1676) (Golvers and Nicolaidis 2009); Missionary Scientists: Jesuit Science in Spanish South America, 1570-1810 (Prieto 2011); 'Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792 and the eighteenth-century transits of Venus: A study of Jesuit science in Nordic and Central European contexts' (Aspaas 2012); 'Early Modern Jesuit Science. A Historiographical Essay' (Rabin 2014).…”