The voice of the artisans in the scientific Renaissance: cosmographers and cartographers in the prelude of the “new natural philosophy”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2010.743n1209Keywords:
Cosmography, Cartography, Early Modern Science, Artisanal Epistemology, Zilsel, Hooykaas, Ortelius, Natural Philosophy, theory, practice, Baconian SciencesAbstract
The purpose of this article is to recover the voice of cosmographers, cartographers and navigators as artisans of science in the mid-sixteenth century. These artisans impulsed a new trend style in thinking nature, which later would be so relevant for natural philosophy. It has been argued that when speaking of modern science all natural sciences must be analyzed and not just the physical and mathematical disciplines. We should also consider the mechanistic conception of nature related to experimental philosophy, to which cartographers and cosmographers as Abraham Ortelius contributed. Starting off from Zilsel’s writings, and through the recovery of the superior artisans of the XV and XVI centuries by authors such as Rossi, Crombie, Hooykaas, and most recently Pamela H. Smith, the discussion is now focused on formulating and solving the problems of nature and the position of the emerging disciplines devoted to the visual representation of space through new cartographical methods. It is to recognize these disciplines in a common “intellectual style” that also contributed to the origins of early modern experimental science.
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