Isaac Beeckman as a reader of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum Cover Image
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Isaac Beeckman as a reader of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum
Isaac Beeckman as a reader of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum

Author(s): Benedino Gemelli
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Zeta Books
Keywords: natural philosophy; Bacon’s reception in Holland; Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum; Beeckman’s Journal; experiments about sound and light; atomisticcorpuscular theory in seventeenth century

Summary/Abstract: Th e Journal of the Dutch natural philosopher and scientist Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637) is an important document of the new science; it gives us important insights into corpuscularian physics, mechanical philosophy, and the physico-mathematical project. It is also valuable for documenting Beeckman’s sustained interest in ancient and contemporary authors and his strategies as a reader. This paper discusses Beeckman’s reading of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum (1626), an important source for Beeckman’s science of nature. I do not propose here a thorough reading of Beeckman’s annotations to Sylva but I mainly concentrate on a number of yet unexplored fragments of Beeckman’s journal. I discuss these fragments in the wider context of Beeckman’s reading of Sylva, but I also assess their value as elements in a larger natural philosophical debate over the nature of light and sounds taking place in the mid-seventeenth century.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 61-79
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English