The new astronomy of Nicolaas Copernicus, published in 1543, had an enormous impact on intellectual life in early modern Europe, but the reception of his new ideas differed fundamentally from one country to another.

In the Dutch Republic, heavily dominated by the Calvinist church, the Copernican system only became a real issue in the course of the seventeenth century. Initially the discussion was dominated by humanist scholars with an interest in mathematics, who judged Copernicus' work on its own merits.

By the middle of the seventeenth century it came to be seen as a touch-stone of Cartesian natural philosophy, and was considered highly controversial for religious reasons, both within and without the universities. As a consequence, people no longer bothered about astronomical details, but just made a choice from current world systems on philosophical or religious grounds. These controversies were partly of a political nature and subsided only in the course of the eighteenth century.

This book discusses the initial reception of Copernicus' 'new astronomy' in the Dutch Republic and shows how its position changed from an alternative world view to an established concept.

This title is the first volume in the series Geschiedenis van de wetenschap in Nederland / The history of science and scholarship in the Netherlands

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The Calvinist Copernicans.
Contents, acknowledgements and introduction, pdf 133 Kb

Calvinist Copernicans.
The Chapter 1: The context of learning, pdf 149 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 2: Cosmography and the classical studies, pdf 213 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 3: Humanist mathematicians and Copernicus, pdf 124 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 4: Simon Stevin and the tradition of practical mathematicians, pdf 183 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 5: Philip Lansbergen's Christian cosmology, pdf 270 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 6: Conceptions of the cosmos after 1610, pdf 163 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 7: Astronomy at the universities, pdf 159 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 8: Cartesian cosmology, pdf 157 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
http://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/pdf/991129_09.pdf">Chapter 9: Cartesian cosmology at Dutch universities, pdf 255 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 10: Impact of Cartesianism outside Dutch universities, pdf 553 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 11: Copernicanism in the theological discussion: preliminaries to a problem, pdf 171 kB

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 12: Copernicanism as a theological problem: the Wittich affair, pdf 160 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 13: Copernicanism as a political problem: the Velthuysen affair, pdf 133 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 14: The schism withing the Dutch Reformed Church, pdf 284 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 15: Newton's theories and Copernicanism at Dutch universities, pdf 147 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 16: New tendencies in theological and apologetical thinking, pdf 122 Kb

The Calvinist Copernicans.
Chapter 17: The cosmological debate in society at large, pdf 187 kB

The Calvinist Copernicans.
General conclusion, abbreviations, bibliography and index, pdf 133 kB