ABSTRACT
The pioneering stage of the Scientific Revolution may indeed be considered completed by the early 1640s. It is true that, conceptually, the major breakthroughs had already taken place decades earlier, and even if they had not yet come into print, word about them had begun to spread by the 1620s. Still, the two founding documents of the – as yet – greatest moment of all saw the light of day with considerable delay, in 1638 and 1644, respectively. Schema 4 lists the pioneers’ most innovative work in chronological order. Dates of the onset of the Scientific Revolution
|
1592–1610 |
Galileo in Padua at work on free fall and projectile motion |
|
1600 |
Gilbert, De magnete |
|
1605 |
Kepler determines elliptical orbit of Mars |
|
1609 |
Kepler, Astronomia nova |
|
1610 |
Galileo, Sidereus nuncius |
|
1613–1634 |
Beeckman develops kinetic corpuscularianism in his diary |
|
1617–1621 |
Kepler, Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae |
|
1620 |
Bacon, Novum organum |
|
1627 |
Bacon, New Atlantis |
|
1628 |
Harvey, De motu cordis |
|
1629–1633 |
Descartes at work on manuscript of ‘Le monde’ |
|
1629–1642 |
Gassendi prepares restoration of Epicurean atomism |
|
1630s–1644 |
van Helmont revises Paracelsianism in private |
|
1632 |
Galileo, Dialogo |
|
1637 |
Descartes, Discours de la méthode |
|
1638 |
Galileo, Discorsi |
|
1644 |
Descartes, Principia philosophiae |
|
1648 |
van Helmont, Ortus medicinae |
|
1649 |
Gassendi, Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii |
