Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance

History of Science and Medicine Library #8

by Bruce Eastwood

The astronomy of the Carolingian era has commonly been represented as concerned exclusively with "computus," the science of calendar construction as well as arithmetical calculation in general. This volume shows the error of that portrayal by exploring the study and teaching of four Roman texts on astronomy and cosmology in the Carolingian world and the diagrams connected to those texts. As each of these works came into use over the Carolingian era, its contributions merged into a progressively more ordered picture of the heavens. Both eccentrics and epicycles appeared by the 840s. These techniques were subsequently introduced clearly and qualitatively to complete the Carolingian enterprise. The primary tool for understanding this effort is the analysis of their diagrams.

480 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2007