The Age of Two-Faced Janus —— The Comets of 1577 and 1618 and the Decline of the Aristotelian World View in the Netherlands

----- 古罗马两面神的双面的时代：1577年和1618年的彗星以及荷兰亚里士多德世界观的衰落

ISBN: 9789004112049 出版年：1998 页码：614 Tabitta van Nouhuys Brill

This volume deals with the tracts, Latin and vernacular, published in the Netherlands on the comets of 1577 and 1618. Central to the book is the question how these cometary appearances influenced the Aristotelian world view. Three introductory chapters on the historiography of cometology and the nature of sixteenth-century Aristotelianism are followed by a detailed examination of the Netherlandish authors' views on the nature and constitution of the universe. In the final chapter, their opinions on cometary prognostication are evaluated, and are linked to contemporary political developments. This is the first lengthy examination of the decline of Aristotelian cosmology in the Netherlands. Its demonstration of the connection between cosmological and political views renders the book useful to historians of general Dutch history, as well as historians of science.