Pietro Daniel Omodeo

Research Scholar

Ph.D.

Residence: November 1, 2010 - June 30, 2016

Profile

Pietro Daniel Omodeo is a researcher in the history of astronomy and philosophy.

Fields of research

History of philosophy and scientific culture: history of philosophical and scientific disciplines from an interdisciplinary point of view as well as in relation with neighbouring fields:

-       Late medieval and early modern philosophies of nature, ontology, ethics and epistemology (focus on Nicholas of Cusa and Giordano Bruno);

-       Early modern astronomy and cosmology from Antiquity to the Early Modern Time, with a particular stress on post-Copernican Renaissance astronomy and the Renaissance interconnections between mechanics and mathematical astronomy (focus on Benedetti);

-       Institutions and intellectual history, especially the teaching of mathematics at German Lutheran universities (such as Helmstedt, Frankfurt on Oder, Rostock);

-       Science and literature (especially during the Renaissance).

Current work

1. Early modern transformation of ancient cosmological models

The ancient world produced a wide range of cosmological models which were mostly overshadowed during the European Middle Ages by the pre-eminence of the geocentric, geostatic and finite model assumed as a standard view. In spite of the Averroistic criticism of the Ptolemaic geometrical models deemed to be irreconcilable with the peripatetic cosmos of concentric material spheres, scholastic philosophy generally assumed a unified Aristotelian-Ptolemaic perspective, synthesized by Sacrobosco in his famous Sphaera and characterized by the centrality and immobility of the Earth as well as by the finitude of the starry heavens. In the late Renaissance, especially as a consequence of the discussion on Copernicus, eclectic views began to circulate. In this context, the rediscovery and reworking of ancient models alternative to the Aristotelian became fashionable. The fluidity of the heavens and the fiery nature of celestial bodies could be derived from stoicism. Space infinity could be asserted together with the stoics, the atomists and, to some extent, the Pythagoreans. Moreover, the homogeneity of cosmological space circulated as an atomist conception. Neo-Pythagoreanism played a decisive symbolic role in this heated debate since it brought together, in the eyes of many followers of Copernicus, heliocentrism and a mathematical philosophy of nature. Also the peripatetic worldview was transformed, as the homocentric models of the 1530s and the post-Tychonic cosmologies witness.

This project has been part of the research activities of the Sonderforschungsbereich (Collaborative Research Centre) 644 “Transformations of Antiquity.”

Link: http://www.sfb-antike.de/index.php?id=248&L=6

2. The alliance of mechanics and post-Copernican cosmology in the late Renaissance:

The close ties between early modern mechanics and post-Copernican cosmology is often regarded as self-evident, although the way in which it concretely occurred, from a theoretical and historical viewpoint, is still obscure in many respects. Koyré's famous narrative of the emergence of classical physics as a dependent of Copernican astronomy is obsolete in many respects. In particular, it completely and intentionally neglects the material and technical tradition of mechanics characterized by the interest in application of mathematician-engineers and by a reflection on so-called 'challenging objects.' A thorough study of the scientific activity of the Renaissance mathematician Giovanni Battista Benedetti sheds new light on the relation between physics and cosmology in the Cinquecento. In fact, his mathematical and physical speculations witness an 'alliance' rather than a dependency between mechanics and post-Copernican cosmology. Moreover, Benedetti's Archimedean and Euclidean theory of motion presupposes a post-Aristotelian physics in which fundamental concepts (above all space, time, void and infinity) are radically revised.

3. The early reception of Copernicus

1514 is the first ascertained date of the dissemination of Copernicus's planetary theory; 1616 the year of the Catholic condemnation of the heliocentric system. This research deals with the reception of the ideas of this author in the one hundred years in-between and aims at a new synthesis of post-Copernican astronomy, a historical-geographical overview and an analysis of the channels, the networks and the institutions relevant to the development of the cultural debate on Copernicus’s work (universities, academies, personal contacts, correspondence, book circulation and polemics). For this purpose, it is necessary to take into account new documents and to explore also milieus so far barely considered in the history of science (for instance the Swiss editors and humanists, Wroclaw humanist circle, scientific debates in Turin and German-European scientific networks). It should be furthermore remarked that Copernicus’s work and conception involved heterogeneous levels of reception (scientific, mathematical, philosophical, ethical, epistemological) since his views (what we usually call 'Copernicanism') did not constitute a homogeneous, standard or unique worldview. The following issues are regarded as particularly significant: the mathematical one (problems of mathematical astronomy, such as the planetary theory, the geometrical models and ephemerides calculation), the physical one (development of a new dynamics), the cosmological one (discussion on the hypotheses and the proliferation of different “world systems”), the philosophical one (revaluation of Pythagoreanism, stoicism and atomism and the new philosophies of nature), and the theological one (the difficult reconciliation of Copernicus’s theory with the Bible, the attitude of Reformed theologians and the Catholic Church towards heliocentrism until 1616).

4. Mathematical culture in the Network of Early Modern Reformed Universities and Cultural Centres

Philipp Melanchthon's academic reform, inspired by Lutheran theology and humanism, attached great pedagogical importance to mathematics as part of an education in the humanae litterae. As a consequence, this discipline (which included besides the quadrivium also astrology and geography) could flourish in old and new German universities adhering to his cultural program, as was the case with Frankfurt on Oder, Rostock and Helmstedt. A thorough bibliographical and archival research on the teaching of mathematics at Lutheran universities, beginning with the mentioned universities, shall focus on academic statutes, syllabi, disputations as well as on the biographies and the publications of the professors of mathematics appointed at Reformed universities in the 16^th and the 17^th centuries. This research is part of a wider project on early modern cultural institutions, including universities, courts and formal and informal intellectual circles. The network of scholars and centres also includes the courts of Kassel, Hven, Prague, Dresden and Wolfenbüttel, the cities of Wrocław and Gdańsk, German universities and Gymnasia as well as the Colleges of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and Leiden, in the Netherlands.

Omodeo is a member of:

- Kueser Akademie für Europäische Geistesgeschichte, Bernkastell-Kues, Germany

- Società Cusaniana Italiana, Turin, Italy.