Planets, stars, and orbs: the medieval cosmos, 1200-1687

Abstract

Introduction: scope, sources, and social connections 1. Pierre Duhem, medieval cosmology and the scope of the present study 2. The sources of cosmology in the late Middle Ages 3. The social and institutional matrix of scholastic cosmology Part I. The Cosmos as a Whole and What, if Anything, Lies Beyond: 4. Is the world eternal, without beginning or end? 5. The creation of the world 6. The finitude, shape, and place of the world 7. The perfection of the world 8. The possibility of other worlds 9. Extracosmic void space Part II. The Celestial Region: 10. The incorruptibility of the celestial region 11. Celestial perfection 12. On celestial matter: can it exist in a changeless state? 13. The mobile celestial orbs: concentrics, eccentrics and epicycles 14. Are the heavens composed of hard orbs or a fluid substance? 15. The immobile orb of the cosmos: the empyrean heaven 16. Celestial light 17. The properties and qualities of celestial bodies and the dimensions of the world 18. On celestial motions and their causes 19. The influence of the celestial region on the terrestrial 20. The earth and its cosmic relations: size, centrality, immobility, and habitability Conclusion: Five centuries of scholastic cosmology Appendices.