Craig Martin takes a careful look at how Renaissance scientists analyzed
and interpreted rain, wind, and other natural phenomena like meteors and
earthquakes and their impact on the great thinkers of the scientific
revolution.
Martin argues that meteorology was crucial to the transformation that
took place in science during the early modern period. By examining the
conceptual foundations of the subject, Martin links Aristotelian
meteorology with the new natural philosophies of the seventeenth
century. He argues that because meteorology involved conjecture and
observation and forced attention to material and efficient causation, it
paralleled developments in the natural philosophies of Descartes and
other key figures of the scientific revolution.
Although an inherently uncertain endeavor, forecasting the weather was
an extremely useful component not just of scientific study, but also of
politics, courtly life, and religious doctrine. Martin explores how
natural philosophers of the time participated in political and religious
controversies by debating the meanings, causes, and purposes of natural
disasters and other weather phenomena.
Through careful readings of an impressive range of texts, Martin
situates the history of meteorology within the larger context of
Renaissance and early modern science. The first study on Renaissance
theories of weather in five decades, Renaissance Meteorology offers a
novel understanding of traditional natural philosophy and its impact on
the development of modern science.
