Shadows in Medieval Optics, Practical Geometry, and Astronomy. On a Perspectiva Ascribed to Thomas Bradwardine

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F22%3A00559706" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/22:00559706 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20220044" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20220044</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20220044" target="_blank" >10.1163/15733823-20220044</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Shadows in Medieval Optics, Practical Geometry, and Astronomy. On a Perspectiva Ascribed to Thomas Bradwardine
Original language description
In examining the roles of the shadow (umbra) in medieval science, this paper analyses a hitherto unstudied early fourteenth-century optical treatise with the incipit Perspectiva cum sit una (PCSU), which, on the basis of medieval evidence, may arguably be attributed to Thomas Bradwardine. The third part of this treatise, on shadows, presents the doctrine of three shadow shapes – a doctrine which was popular in pre-modern optics and astronomy and was important in explaining eclipses – as well as the theory of umbra recta and versa, parallels of (co)tangent functions, which were essential for (instrumental) measurements. While the bulk of the treatise draws on John Peckham’s Perspectiva communis, an extensive analysis of medieval canons to astronomical tables, manuals of practical geometry and texts on instruments leads us to Campanus of Novara’s Practica quadrantis as the chief source of the last chapter of PCSU. Finally, the paper reflects on whether the light-centred conception of optics embodied in the PCSU may echo an alternative current to the otherwise predominantly sight-centred approach in pre-modern optics.
Czech name
—
Czech description
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Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project
<a href="/en/project/GA19-16793S" target="_blank" >GA19-16793S: Philosophy at the University of Prague around 1409: Matěj of Kníns Quodlibet as a Crossroads of European Medieval Knowledge</a><br>
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year
2022
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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