内容

目次

Introduction: scope, sources, and social connections; 1. Pierre Duhem,medieval cosmology and the scope of the present study; 2. The sourcesof cosmology in the late Middle Ages; 3. The social and institutionalmatrix of scholastic cosmology; Part I. The Cosmos as a Whole and What,if Anything, Lies Beyond: 4. Is the world eternal, without beginning orend?; 5. The creation of the world; 6. The finitude, shape, and placeof the world; 7. The perfection of the world; 8. The possibility ofother worlds; 9. Extracosmic void space; Part II. The Celestial Region:10. The incorruptibility of the celestial region; 11. Celestialperfection; 12. On celestial matter: can it exist in a changelessstate?; 13. The mobile celestial orbs: concentrics, eccentrics andepicycles; 14. Are the heavens composed of hard orbs or a fluidsubstance?; 15. The immobile orb of the cosmos: the empyrean heaven;16. Celestial light; 17. The properties and qualities of celestialbodies and the dimensions of the world; 18. On celestial motions andtheir causes; 19. The influence of the celestial region on theterrestrial; 20. The earth and its cosmic relations: size, centrality,immobility, and habitability; Conclusion: Five centuries of scholasticcosmology; Appendices.