The history of science as the progress of human spirit: Historiography of astronomy in the 18th century
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
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| Description | In this contribution, I analyze early histories of astronomy which began to appear during the 18th century, such as Cassini’s De l’origine et du progres de l’astronomie (1699), Weidler’s De ortu et progressu astronomiae (1741), Heilbronner’s Historia matheseos (1741), Esteve’s Histoire de l’astronomie (1755), Montucla’s Histoire des mathématiques (1758), Costard’s The History of Astronomy (1764), and Bailly’s Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne (1781). I focused on several specific questions arising after reading of these works. How did the historians and astronomers evaluate the historical importance of ancient astronomy? How did they imagine the origins of astronomy? How did they assess the persuasiveness of ancient heliocentrism? |
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