Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

Preface.- I. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and Archimedes (287-212 B.C.).- II. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).- III. Jerome Cardan (1501-1576).- IV. The Impossibility of Perpetual Motion.- V. The Alexandrian Sources of Medieval Statics.- 1. The works attributed to Euclid.- 2. The Liber Charastonis, published by Thabit ibn Qurra.- 3. The treatise De canonio.- VI. Statics During the Middle Ages - Jordanus de Nemore.- 1. What do we know about Jordanus de Nemore?.- 2. Some passages from Aristotle's Mechanical Problems.- 3. The Elements of Jordanus on the Demonstration of Weights.- VII. The Statics of the Middle Ages (Continued) - The School of Jordanus.- 1. The Genesis of the Liber Euclidis de ponderibus.- 2. The Peripatetic transformation of the Elementa Jordani.- 3. The Precursor of Leonardo da Vinci. Discovery of the concept of moment. Solution to the problem of the inclined plane.- 4. The Treatise on Weights according to Master Blasius of Parma.- VIII. The Statics of the Middle Ages and Leonardo da Vinci.- 1. The School of Jordanus, the Treatise of Blasius of Parma and the Statics of Leonardo da Vinci.- 2. The Composition of Forces.- 3. The Problem of the Inclined Plane.- IX. The School of Jordanus in the 16th Century - Nicolo Tartaglia.- 1. Nicolo Tartaglia or Tartalea.- 2. Jerome Cardan. - Alexander Piccolomini. -.- X. The Reaction Against Jordanus - Guido Ubaldo - G.B. Benedetti.- 1. Guido Ubaldo, Marquis del Monte (1545-1607).- 2. Giovanbattista Benedetti (1530-1590).- XI. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)..- XII. Simon Stevin (1548-1620)..- XIII. The French Contribution to Statics - Roberval.- 1. Salomon de Caus. The Early Works of F. Mersenne. The Course on Mathematics by Pierre Herigone.- 2. Gilles Persone de Roberval (1602-1675).- XIV. The French Contribution to Statics (Continued) - Rene Descartes (1596-1650).- Preface.- XV. The Mechanical Properties of the Center of Gravity from Albert of Saxony to Evangelista Torricelli.- First Period -From Albert of Saxony to the Copernican Revolution.- 1. Formulation of the Principle of Torricelli.- 2. The concept of the center of gravity in Antiquity.- 3. The propensity of the center of gravity to move towards the center of the Universe. Albert of Saxony (XIVth century).- 4. The theory of the shape of the earth and the oceans, from Aristotle to Albert of Saxony.- 5. The influence of Albert of Saxony in the School: Themon Judaeus, Marsilius of Inghen, Blasius of Parma, Pierre d'Ailly, Giovanni Battista Capuano, Nifo, Gregory Reisch.- 6. The influence of Albert of Saxony and Leonardo da Vinci.- Second Period - From the Copernician Revolution to Torricelli.- 7. The influence of Albert of Saxony and the Copernican revolution.- 8. The influence of Albert of Saxony and of Leonardo da Vinci: Cardan and Guido Ubaldo.- 9. The influence of Albert of Saxony and Leonardo da Vinci: J.-B. Villalpand and Mersenne.- 10. The influence of Leonardo da Vinci on Bernardino Baldi.- 11. The influence of Albert of Saxony and Galileo. In what way did Galileo contribute to the discovery of the Principle of Torricelli?.- XVI. The Doctrine of Albert of Saxony and the Geostaticians.- 1. How the notion of the center of gravity was refined. The influence of Kepler.- 2. How the notion of the center of gravity was refined (continued). The geostaticians.- XVII. The Systematization of the Laws of Statics.- 1. F. Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), F. Zucchi (1586-1670), F. Honore Fabri (1606-1688).- 2. The Traite de Mechanique of Roberval.- 3. John Wallis (1616-1703).- 4. The great treatises of statics from the Jesuit school. F. Dechales (1621-1678), F. Paolo Casati (1617-1707).- 5. The reaction against the methods of virtual velocities and virtual work; Jacques Rohault (1620-1675), F. Pardies (1636-1673). The Treatises of F. Lamy, The De motu animalium of Borelli.- 6. The Parallelogram of Forces and Dynamics. The Observations of Roberval. Varignon (1654-1722). The Letter of F. Lamy. The Principia of Newton. The Neo-Statics of F. Saccheri.- 7. The Letter of Jean Bernoulli to Varignon (1717). The definitive formulation of the Principle of Virtual Displacements.- Note A. On the Identity of Charistion and Heriston.- Note B. Jordanus de Nemore and Roger Bacon.- Note C. On the Various Axioms Permitting the Deduction of the Theory of the Lever.