Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe

This book is the first extensive study of ideas on earthquakes before the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. Earthquakes had a deep impact on pre-modern European culture and reactions to them stood in a long tradition that, before this study, had yet to be explored in detail.

"Following a chronological development, this volume represents an important synthesis of the scientific opinions and theories that have matured over the centuries in the European cultural sphere, showing how the ancient and medieval philosophers, who provided rational hypotheses for the origin of earthquakes, both switched to supernatural and sectarian explanations, diverting science towards social, political and religious needs.The analysis carried out by Rienk Vermij testifies to the cultural and knowledge development in modern Europe and represents a fundamental source for scholars of the history of geology and science." Marco Pantaloni, Geological Society of Italy, 2020 (https://www.socgeol.it/N2838/thinking-on-earthquakes-in-early-modern-europe.html) "In short, Vermij offers a fascinating study on confessionalized science and the study of earthquakes. His sensitivity to the political and social use of earthquakeexplanations is commendable and a welcome addition to disaster studies. [...] His intention to also look at explanations among the wider populace and his inclusion of different media are innovative for a history of science." Marieke van Egeraat, Early Modern Low Countries, 2021

Autorentext

Rienk Vermij obtained his PhD in 1991 at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and is presently Professor at the Department of History of Science of the University of Oklahoma. He has published on several aspects of early modern intellectual culture. Among his books is The Calvinist Copernicans. The Reception of the New Astronomy in the Dutch Repbublic 1575***1750* (2002).

Inhalt

Part I: Scientific, philosophical, and religious traditions up to the Renaissance 1. Experiencing earthquakes 2. Reading on earthquakes: explanations and interpretations up to the end of the Renaissance 3. Writing on earthquakes: the available information 4. Earthquakes in Renaissance scholarship Part II: Early modern confessionalized science 5. The assault on naturalism 6. The emergence of a science of signs 7. Prodigies in Reformation scholarship 8. Miracles and meteorology among Catholic scholars 9. Reactions to earthquakes in the sixteenth century: the emergence of a discourse 10. Interpreting earthquakes in the seventeenth century 11. Marginalized approaches Part III: The rise of modern empiricism 12. New sources of information and the rise of a scientific public 13. New observations and theories: the non-confessional investigation of nature 14. Confessionalized natural philosophy in the age of the new sciences 15. Earthquakes in the religious discourse of the late seventeenth century