Art and the History of Science
By Rachel Hatlestad
Prelude
The year is 1350 A.D. during the High Middle Ages at the Cathedral in Pisa, Italy. It is a cold wet fall morning and a young Italian boy named Dario is awaiting outside a large Cathedral for his teacher Nicole Oresme. Oresme (1323-1382) was an important natural philosopher during the middle ages and had many ideas on mathematics, astronomy and physics. His work was further taken on by Copernicus whom had valid opinion on the Gothic Cathedral. (Young Dario shivers at the morning chill and quickly cowers in search for his teacher) Dario: Hello my lord. ( Dario bows and tips his hat slightly before Oresme) Oresme: Good day, young Dario. And how is my most eager student on this fine morn? Dario: I am great my master, yet I am not quiet sure why we are meeting at this Cathedral this morning before our daily studies. Oresme: Well Dario,this is an exciting time in our history of science. During the ancient times men were more of philosophers of science now with universities and new theories like the sceintific method, sceince is evolving. The Cathedral schools in which we do our daily studies were founded in the 12th century A.D.and this one we stand before is one of the earliest Cathedrals in history. I brought you here for an important lesson today. Did you know that the Cathedrals architecture in the Middle Ages had a direct link to the knowledge of astronomy during our time? Dario: No, I did not. I am not quiet sure what you are speaking of, Master Oresme. Oresme: I am sure that you are aware of that during much of the middle ages Aristotelian from ancient philosphy work has been translated. Many scholars believed the earth to be the center of the universe and the earth is surrounded by cylestrial spheres that symbolize the hierarchy of existance. The higher you move up the spherical ladder, the closer you are to divinity. Many of the Cathedrals resemble this hierarchy in their construction. When you look up at the dome it is like looking through a telescope into the cosmos above and you can get a physical sense of the spheres by the framing of the archiecture. Oresme: Although ancient philosophers and early middle age scholors believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, I believe something quiet different. In my teachings I have disproved Aristotle's ancients believes and proved the sun is the center of the universe. I have been able to show that the Aristotle physics against the movement of the earth were not valid. I have argued that it is the Earths moves, not the heavens.(3) Oresme: We are now standing before the great Pisa Cathedral. Construction for this building started around 1035 and ended around the 14Th century. The architect is unknown; however, it was completed in the Romanesque style which was a revival of Roman antiquity. Now Dario, let us go inside.. (Dario is now very ready to go inside and escape the cool fall wind. As he steps inside the Cathedral he is amazed at the magnificence.) Dario: Wow, mas Oresme: Yes Dario, take note of the interior. Look at the Possenti chandelier and the iconic artwork inside. Oresme: Sometime in the future, around the 16th century, a man named Copernicus will go further with the work I have done this past decade. Copernicus will argue that the Sun rather than the Earth lies in the center of the universe and rather the Earth moves around the sun. He will compare the center of the Temple to the center of the cosmos, like a lamp similar to a blazing hot sun. Copernicus will say " Behold, in the middle of the universe resides the Sun. For who, in this most beautiful Temple, would set this lamp in another or a better place, whence to illumine all things at once? For aptly indeed do some call him the lantern--and others the visible god, and Sophocles’ Electra, the Watcher of all things. Truly indeed does the Sun, as if seated upon a royal throne, govern his family of planets as they circle about him."(1)
Dario: So the how does the Cathedral reflect these theories? Oremse: Look above at the dome ceiling. It is influenced by the conceptions of the universe. A famous writer in the 18Th century will noted at the cathedral at Franuenburg: "Pascal’s terror at [the eternal silence of infinite space] never entered [the mind of Dante. Dante was] like a man being conducted through an immense cathedral, not like one lost in a shore less sea.... To look out on the night sky with modern eyes is like looking out over a sea that fades away into mist... To look up at the towering medieval universe is much more like looking at a great building. The ‘space’ of modern astronomy may arouse terror, or bewilderment or vague reverie; the spheres of the old present us with an object in which the mind can rest, overwhelming in its greatness but satisfying in its harmony." Dario: I visit the cathedral many times yet now I look at it very differently. Oresme: I am glad I was able to teach you some things today and I hope you will appreciate this Cathedral and the intellect of all the middle age philosophers that inspired it. Notes and References 1. Copernicus, Book I, Chapter 10. See Rosen, 22; Danielson, 117.
2. Lewis, Discarded Image, p. 99-100.
3. http://hsci.ou.edu/exhibits/exhibit.php?exbgrp=-999&exbid=52&exbpg=37
4.http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/hsci/09-14thCentury/sources/Oresme-Rotatio.html |
