ABSTRACT
THEAIMofthisdiscussionistocastlightonwhatAlexandreKoyrehasreferredtoas"theenigmaofDomingodeSoto."1SotowasaSpanishDominican who,intheearlysixteenthcentury,studiedattheCniversityofParis,returnedto Spain,andattheUniversityofSalamancacomposedacommentaryandquestions onthePhysicsofAristotle(c.1545 )alongwithanimposingseriesofworkson politicalphilosophyandtheology. 2Inamuch-quotedpassageinhisquestionson thePhysicsSotoassociatestheconceptofmotionwhichisuniformiterdifformisanexpressionderivingfromtheE nglishCalculatores-withfallingbodies,andhe indicatesthatthedistanceoffallcanbecalculatedfromtheelapsedtimebymeans oftheso-calledMertonianmean-speedtheorem.3ThecasualwayinwhichSoto introducesthisassociationhas!eelsometospeculatethatthiswasgenerallyknown inhisclayandthathemerelyrecordedwhathadbecomecommonteachinginthe earlysixteenthcentury."Butifthisisthecase,"writesKoyre,"whywasdeSoto aloneinputting[theseviews]downonpaper?Andwhydidnooneelsebefore
Galileo ... adopt them ?4 These questions, neither of which JS easily answered, *pose the enigma of Domingo de Soto.
