The Scientific Revolution: The Essential Readings

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a fundamental transformation in how nature was understood and studied, a transformation which came to be known as the Scientific Revolution. This book introduces students to the best recent writings on this important era in the history of science. It presents innovative work by scholars who have been at the forefront of reinterpreting the Scientific Revolution, as well as seminal work by an older generation of scholars. The volume opens with a substantial editorial essay outlining the most important developments in approaches to the Scientific Revolution over the past two decades. The readings themselves embrace a wide range of subjects, including astronomy, natural history, alchemy, medicine, and technology. Each one is preceded by a short introduction, setting the material in context. The book concludes with an essay which rejects the notion of the Scientific Revolution entirely.