Libert Froidmont’s Conception and Imagination of Space in Three Early Works: Peregrinatio cœlestis (1616), De cometa (1618), Meteorologica (1627)

Abstract

Libert Froidmont defended a single conception of space in the three books he published as a professor of philosophy at the University of Leuven before, as a professor of theology, he became involved in a series of open controversies (against heliocentrism and in defence of Jansenius). This conception of space was anti-Aristotelian; it was influenced by Stoicism, by the impact of the work of Tycho Brahe, and that of the new telescopic discoveries. However, the style, aim and focus of the successive expositions of this conception did change, as Froidmont became more and more invested both in his theologian studies, and in his defence of the geocentrist cosmology supported by the Roman Church. The Peregrinatio cœlestis (1616), which belonged to the tradition of humanist joco-seria, was meant to contribute positively to the debate first prompted by the publication of the Sidereus nuncius. The De cometa (1619), a dissertation on the 1618 comet, openly supported the 1616 decree against Copernicus. In the Meteorologicorum libri sex (1627), a traditional Aristotelian paraphrase, the demonstration was mainly supported by references to contemporary exegetes, and showed that the interpretation of Scripture was henceforth the issue that most interested Froidmont.