Review

Reviewed Work(s): La Contre-Réforme mathématique: Constitution et diffusion d'une

culture mathématique Jésuite à la Renaissance (1540-1640) by Antonella Romano
Review by: Douglas M. Jesseph
Source: Isis, Vol. 92, No. 2 (Jun., 2001), pp. 386-387
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3080667
Accessed: 27-11-2016 14:04 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

The History of Science Society, The University of Chicago Press are collaborating with JSTOR
to digitize, preserve and extend access to Isis

This content downloaded from 62.204.192.85 on Sun, 27 Nov 2016 14:04:57 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
386 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 92: 2 (2001)

in
in Renaissance
RenaissanceEurope.
Europe.(Dibner
(Dibner
Institute
Institute StudiesVivian Nutton's
Studies Nutton's survey
survey ofof medical
medical thinking
thinking in
in
in
in the
the History
Historyofof Science
Scienceandand
Technology.)
Technology.)
xiv xivEngland. The combined
combined length
length of
of these
these essays
essays
+ 426
426 pp.,
pp.,illus.,
illus.,tables,
tables,index.
index.
Cambridge,
Cambridge,scarcely exceeds
exceeds the
the sections
sections devoted
devoted to
to appen-
appen-
Mass.:
Mass.: MIT
MITPress,
Press,1999.
1999.
$50.
$50. dixes and footnotes in some of the other contri-
butions.
Natural Particulars launches a new series of The volume opens with a lengthy tour de force
publications based on Dibner Institute confer- by Brian Copenhaver, who examines Pico's
ences. This substantial volume comprises thir- adoption of the Cabala, an important topic, re-
teen essays and an editorial introduction. The ed- covered in an impressive monograph by
cently
itors, Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi, Chaim Wirszubski. Copenhaver promises addi-
provide an informative overview of the current tional conjectures and speculations but in the
state of research on natural science in the Re- event concentrates almost exclusively on ele-
naissance, emphasizing natural history and med- mentary explanatory background, providing lit-
icine in particular. From the opening pages of tle in the way of original comment. James Han-
their introduction it is evident that the distin- kins achieves a more satisfactory balance in his
guished editors have strong misgivings about equally lengthy exposition of Ficino in which he
current fashions in research in their field. But demonstrates the importance of the relatively ne-
their dark remarks about some kind of interne- glected commentary on the Timaeus in the con-
cine warfare among American historians of sci- struction of Ficino's Christian Platonism. Mi-
ence are perhaps misplaced, for they are neither chael Allen, who explores Ficino's aspirations as
referenced nor adequately explained. Accord- a geometer magus, offers a useful coda to Han-
ingly, these observations will not be understood kins. Allen is just one of the authors to draw
by much of the readership. attention to the prevalence of demonic magic.
In practice, neither the editors nor the individ- Two other comprehensive studies consider Re-
ual authors engage much in historiographical de- naissance Aristotelianism, both addressing top-
bate. Rather than develop an explicit new pro- ics that were for a long period relegated to the
gram, Grafton and Siraisi are content to affiliate fringes of Aristotle studies. Ann Blair undertakes
themselves with such pioneering figures as Os- a comprehensive review of the career of the
kar Kristeller and Erwin Panofsky, as well as the vastly popular Problemata, and John Monfasani
Warburg school. Michel Foucault is also ele- provides the first detailed analysis of the work
of Theodore of Gaza as the translator of the
vated to the ranks of these divinities, but the ed-
itors' introduction seems to contain the only ref-
Problemata and the biological works of Aris-
totle. Both Blair and Monfasani include useful
erence to Foucault in the volume. The authors
reference material in the appendixes to their es-
reflect a similar Warburgian perspective. They
says.
are, as Brian Copenhaver says, primarily inter-
The more specific studies included in this vol-
ested in the reconstruction of "natural philoso-
ume are Luc Deitz's incisive and lucid exposi-
phy of that period on its own terms." It is re-
tion of the "Proclian physics" contained in Fan-
freshing to read a series of studies on important
cesco Patrizi's intractable Nova de universis
aspects of the understanding of nature that are
philosophia; Daniela Mugnai Carrara's analysis
no more than incidentally concerned with estab-
of the commentary by Giovanni Mainardi on Ga-
lishing the antecedents of the major scientific len's influential Ars Parva; Chiara Crisciani's
breakthroughs of seventeenth-century science.
account of an alchemical text by Guglielmo Fa-
The editors are very unpretentious about their
bri de Die; and a little vignette on Paracelsian
project. Nevertheless, faithful to the sources of
speculations on the homunculus by William
inspiration outlined by the editors, the collection
Newman. One final observation: this volume
leans somewhat toward Platonism, the Cabala,
would benefit greatly from the inclusion of a
and Hermeticism. Only part of one essay ad-
subject index.
dresses the genuine works of Aristotle, and only CHARLES WEBSTER
one is devoted specifically to Galen.
The individual essays are very varied in char-
acter. Some are long, erudite, and technical, con-
structed as works of reference. Others are brief Antonella Romano. La Contre-Rdforme math-
introductory surveys. Among the latter are Kath-ematique: Constitution et diffusion d'une culture
arine Park's account of healing springs in the
mathematique Jesuite d la Renaissance (1540-
Italian medical literature, Paula Findlen's obser-1640). (Biblioth.que des Ecoles FranSaises
d'Ath6nes et de Rome, 306.) xii + 686 pp.,
vations on the professionalization of botany, and

This content downloaded from 62.204.192.85 on Sun, 27 Nov 2016 14:04:57 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 92: 2 (2001) 387

illus., figs.,
figs., tables,
tables, apps.,
apps.,bibl.,
bibl.,index.
index.Rome:
Rome:powers necessary for the object of any true sci-
Ecole Frangaise
Frangaise de
de Rome,
Rome,1999.
1999. ence. Clavius participated in these debates and
was instrumental in making mathematics a cen-
Antonella Romano's aim in this work is to de- tral part of the Jesuit pedagogical program.
scribe the development and diffusion of a dis- The second part of the book covers essentially
tinctively Jesuit approach to mathematics from the same temporal period as the first but extends
the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth cen-
the geographic focus beyond Rome to include
tury. Romano abjures a purely "internalist" treat- Jesuit institutions on the periphery, notably in
ment of the issues in favor of a broader approach France and Turin. Here Romano investigates the
that places Jesuit mathematical research and ped- issues raised and debated as the Society's ratio
agogy in the context of social, cultural, and po- studiorum was put in place in Jesuit institutions
litical developments of the period. A guiding of learning. Questions concerning the relation-
theme in her book is the complex relationship ship between mathematics and humanism, as
between a Roman "center" and a provincial "pe- well as the role of mathematics in such "mixed"
riphery"-that is, the process in which initia- sciences as astronomy, are of particular impor-
tives and debates at the Collegio Romano un-tance in this part of the book, and Romano pro-
derwent subtle transformations as the Jesuits vides an insightful and well-documented treat-
implemented their centralized educational poli-ment of them.
cies. Accordingly, this work is a detailed and In the third and final part of the book Romano
carefully researched account that makes a com- examines developments in the first half of the
pelling case for the argument that mathematicalseventeenth century and the establishment of
practice and mathematical pedagogy were inte-chairs of mathematics at Jesuit colleges in
gral to the mission of the Society of Jesus. France and Italy. Her emphasis in this discussion
The notion of a "mathematical counter-refor- is less on technical issues in mathematics than
mation" may at first seem strange. Calls for aon institutional history, and the result is a de-
"reform" of mathematics have generally been in-tailed and very interesting study of the diffusion
tended to raise standards of rigor, and one mightof mathematical education in the period.
wonder what sort of opposition such reform pro- This book has much to offer anyone with an
grams could face. But if we think of the Jesuits'interest in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
role in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century intel-mathematics, the history of mathematical peda-
lectual life, and specifically their prominentgogy, or the Jesuit order. Romano's impressive
place in the Counter Reformation, it is easydocumentation, extensive bibliography, and use
enough to see Jesuit mathematical and scientificof manuscript sources makes for a comprehen-
practice as part of a broader program to defendsive account of her subject. Although Romano
the intellectual status of the Catholic Church eschews any bold general conclusions, this de-
against the claims of Protestants. tailed investigation provides a rich source of in-
The most prominent figure in Romano's ac- sights and information for historians of the pe-
count is Christopher Clavius (1537-1612), who
riod.
worked tirelessly to promote the study of math- DOUGLAS M. JESSEPH
ematics at the Collegio Romano and to ensure
that the Society's ratio studiorum granted an ap-
propriate place to mathematical instruction. The
Joelle Ducos. La nmetorologie en franfais au
first of the book's three parts examines the place
Moyen Age (XIIIe-XIVe siecles). (Sciences,
of mathematical education in the Society's early
Techniques et Civilizations du Moyen Age a
years, from the founding of the order in 1540 to
the death of Clavius in 1612. Romano's focus
l'Aube des Lumieres, 2.) 494 pp., illus., tables,
apps., bibl., indexes. Paris: Honore Champion,
here is largely on debates within the Society over
1998. Fr 430 (cloth).
the epistemological status of mathematics in an
Aristotelian classification of the sciences and on Current scholarship is showing how the medie-
the related question of whether and to what ex- val Latin reception of Aristotle's Meteorologica
tent mathematics should be made a part of the
in turn provoked developments in vernacular
curriculum of Jesuit colleges. Some disputants
"meteorologies" during the four and a half cen-
turies between the first Latin version of the trea-
held that mathematics failed to satisfy the criteria
for demonstrative knowledge set out in Aris- tise and the publication of Descartes's Meteores
in 1637: Rita Librandi's edition and study La
totle's Posterior Analytics, principally because
the objects of mathematical investigation were metaura d'Aristotile: Volgarizzamento fioren-
conceived as abstractions that lack the causal tino anonimo del XIV secolo (1995; reviewed in

This content downloaded from 62.204.192.85 on Sun, 27 Nov 2016 14:04:57 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms