The Reception of the Copernican Revolution Among Provençal Humanists of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

We discuss the reception of Copernican astronomy by the Provençal humanists of the XVIth-XVIIth centuries, beginning with Michel de Montaigne who was the first to recognize the potential scientific and philosophical revolution represented by heliocentrism. Then we describe how, after Kepler's Astronomia Nova of 1609 and the first telescopic observations by Galileo, it was in the south of France that the New Astronomy found its main promotors with the humanists and "amateurs éclairés", Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Pierre Gassendi. The professional astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini, also from Provence, would later elevate the field to new heights in Paris.

arXiv comment17 pages. Extended version of the article "The Provençal Humanists and Copernicus" published in Inference vol.2 issue 4 (2017)