The Cultivation of Astronomy in Spanish Universities in the Latter Half of the 16th Century

Abstract

The four universities known to have taught mathematics in the 16th century in what is now known as Spain, were Salamanca, Valencia, Alcala, and, at the end of the century, Seville. In addition to being taught at university, astronomy was also taught in other institutions such as for example, the Casa de la Contratacion of Seville, the so-called Mathematics Academy of Madrid, certain naval academies and, towards the end of the century, certain Jesuit schools. At the University of Valencia, following the official foundation of the Estudi or center of learning in 1500, a chair of mathematics was set up in 1503, although we have no documentary evidence of the subjects taught there in the early decades of that century. The first person to occupy the chair was Tomas Duran, a Dominican from Salamanca who published (Valencia, 1503) Bradwardine’s Arithmetic and Geometry and also Pecham’s Perspectiva, together with Questiones super perspectivam by Henricus or Heinrich of Hesse (or of Langenstein). None of Duran’s successors before the mid-16th century are known to have published and we have been able to find almost no trace of their activities. Despite the considerable interest in astrology of some teachers from the faculty of medicine, and the fact that they published books on this subject, in the early years of the university, the teaching of mathematics must have concentrated basically on preparing pupils to study natural philosophy and logic, mainly under the influence of the University of Paris. It must however be said that the commentaries on Aristotle’s treatise De caelo and the one by Juan de Celaya of Valencia, also included descriptions of planetary motion in keeping with Ptolemaic models situating eccentrics and epicycles in concentric spherical shells concentric around the earth.1 From the year 1540 onwards, it was compulsory for students of medicine to have an arts degree, as was already the case for students of law and theology. This must have increased the interest in the study of astronomy and astrology. According to certain documents of that time, in the years 1540–1550 the study of mathematics included arithmetic, geometry, geometrical optics, music, judicial astrology, and cosmography (which included astronomy and geography). The upsurge in humanism led to greater interest in astronomy and astrology amongst humanist physicians, who took them as a basis for the interpretation of Hippocratic texts. The chair of astronomy was occupied in the 1555–1556 academic year by the noteworthy physician and humanist Pedro Jaime Esteve. His commentaries on the second book of Epidemics in