Initia doctrinae physicae

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Initia doctrinae physicae , German The foundations of the scholarly knowledge of the theory of nature is a document that Philipp Melanchthon 1549 (the last event mentioned in the document is a position of the planet Mars 1549 in the chapter De tribus supremis Planetis (About the 3 upper planets, Col. 271 )) in humanistic Latin . In it he puts together the natural philosophy of his time for the science lessons at the University of Wittenberg . The text is arranged in non-numbered chapters, with a structure in 3 books. It is therefore quoted after chapter headings and column numbers in the text output given below.

Ideas, attitudes, sources

In the 6 introductory chapters of the work, Melanchthon explains his ideas and basic attitude and also gives some references to sources used. In the chapter Quid est physica doctrina? (What is the learned theory of nature? Sp. 179ff) this is defined as the preoccupation with the movement of all bodies in nature, their becoming and passing away, the reasons for this, the mixture of the elements. The main subjects of his theory of nature ( stars , medicine), the rejection of the ancient Lectores (meaning reading master , teacher) and the security that all human knowledge ultimately finds in God are presented in an overview .

In the chapters Quae doctrina usitate nuncupatur Physica? (What learned use is made of the doctrine of nature ?, Sp. 182ff) and Quis est finis et Usus physices? (What is the purpose and use of natural philosophies, Sp. 189ff) entered. The sky, the constant reasons for the movement of the sun and moon, the stellae errantes and the zodiac are in the foreground. But also the matter below the sky, the sublunar world up to humans, is according to Melanchthon under its influence. In this book he attributes great heat to the meeting of the "dry" planets Saturn and Mars with the "dry" zodiac signs Leo and Aries (Col. 182) and thus follows the ancient natural scientist Claudius Ptolemy . He attributes the ancient natural philosopher Thales of Miletus to having studied the influence of a comet on the Attic epidemic (Col. 185). For medicine, Melanchthon makes the practical reference in particular. Using the example of pleurisy (stitches in the side, mentioned by Isidore of Seville : Etymologiae , 4,6,8 and Caelius Aurelianus : De morbis acutis et chronicis , 2,16,100) he describes the medicine's remedies, such as cutting the vein to drain blood and administering pharmaceuticals (Sp. 185). But rest and restraint from the injured can also lead to healing. Here the author refers to Aulus Cornelius Celsus (Sp. 190).

Estne certitudo aliqua doctrinae physicae? (Is there certainty in the learned theory of nature?, Sp.185ff) is one of the chapter headings. Melanchthon sees God as the first universal force and thus gives natural science a metaphysical, secure basis. He expresses this several times in this introductory chapter. ... proposita est oculis, ut naturae opificem Deum queramus (... it is clear that we as creators of nature seek God, Col. 188). But ancient writings also give the researcher security. Aristotle has shown two ways of security in his works of natural philosophy: from the causes ( causae ) to the effects ( effectus ) and from the effects to the causes (Sp. 193f). While other ancient philosophical orientations are strongly rejected ( furores , deliramenta ), in particular Democritus by Abdera , Epicureans and the Stoics , Aristotle is given in many places as a source, u. a. his work De generatione et corruptione (Sp. 184). The whole text can be interpreted as a representation of and examination of the natural philosophy of Aristotle; Melanchthon himself often calls it haec aristotelica initia .

contents

The introduction is followed by a list of 70 chapter headings for the following text. Three theological themes ( De Deo , De providentia = providence, care, De contingentia ) are followed by 7 chapter headings from the field of astronomy . However, behind De stellis, et earum motibus et viribus (On the stars and their movements and forces, Col. 229ff) there are 63 columns with extensive depictions of the movement of the sun, moon and planets, which take up a considerable part of the first book. But the chapter in the text Quis est motus mundi? (What is the movement of the world ?, col. 216) does not appear under the headings. Here Melanchthon argues most sharply against the opinion that the earth moves and not the sun, that is, against a heliocentric worldview . Although he names the ancient representative of this doctrine Aristarchus of Samos , but not his own contemporaries, who would adhere to it from aliquid amore novitatis ( addiction to innovation).

The following approximately 20 chapters deal with the Physica of Aristotle with reference to other works. The chapter headings 39-70 are only loosely related to the rest of the work. Different scientific topics are given (about winds, about the iris, about the human body parts). For some there is no text. Fonts may have been lost.

The astronomy of Philipp Melanchthon

cosmology

Melanchthon depicts the geocentric worldview developed and widespread by ancient natural philosophers : a spherical earth (chapter Quae est figura mundi? (What shape does the world have ?, col. 215)) immobile in the center of the eight heavenly spheres (chapter Quis est motu mundi? (What is the movement of the world ?, col. 216)). In the problem of the duration of the world, however, he does not follow the ancient sources. Aristotle saw the world without beginning and end, but for him it applies (Chapter An sit aeternus mundus, an vero ceperit, et an sit corruptibilis (Whether the world is eternal, whether it has really begun and whether it will end, Sp. 221f)): Adsentiamus autem doctrinae a Deo traditae, quae ait hunc Mundum conditum esse ... et sine fine mansurum esse domicilium anglorum et hominum (But we agree with the teaching handed down by God that this world is founded ... and without End of an abode of angels and people).

In the cosmology of the Middle Ages , the idea of ​​a ninth ( primum mobile , crystal heaven ) and tenth ( ultimum mobile , empyrean ) heavenly sphere was developed and connected with Christian ideas, u. a. by the English astronomer Johannes de Sacrobosco . Melanchthon follows the idea of ​​further spheres, but has a different view of the ninth sphere. Presumably from Claudius Ptolemy he took over the knowledge that ancient naturalists had gained through careful observation of the stars and comparison of the data over the centuries: the objects of the eighth sphere, the fixed stars are in a fixed spatial relationship to one another, but the sphere itself moves. Melanchthon proves this and a. with the migration of the Pleiades in relation to the zodiac sign Taurus and the changing values of the difference between the meridian altitude of the sun at summer solstice and equinox (Chapter Quot sunt sphaerae coelestes (How many heavenly spheres there, Sp. 225ff)). The ninth sphere is supposed to produce this movement. He calls these phenomena, which are based on the precession of the earth's axis and which cannot be explained for him, trepidatio (restless haste, confusion) or praecisio ( praecesio = going ahead ).

About the sun

In Sp. 230-242 Melanchthon collects the knowledge to be conveyed about the sun , which he praises in the opening lines as a warming force and promotion of the growth of all living things. According to his geocentric view of the world, it has two movements (Sp. 230): its daily migration around the earth and its annual migration in the zodiac . The 1st movement is only briefly treated by Melanchthon. It leads to the alternation of day and night, with the duration of the day in our latitudes ( in nostro climate ) increasing from 7 hours / 30 minutes at the winter solstice to 16 hours / 30 minutes at the summer solstice (Sp, 236). The reason for this lies in the second movement, the annual migration of the sun in the zodiac and thus from the point of spring via the points of summer solstice, autumn equinox and winter solstice. Melanchthon documents the observation that was passed down several times in antiquity (e.g. Claudius Ptolemy, Martianus Capella ) that the winter half-year is several days shorter than the summer half-year (Col. 232). He names the eccentric orbit of the sun around the earth as the reason (Sp. 233, 240), the apogee of which lies at the point of the summer solstice. For its calculation ( 6 gradus, 24 minuta Cancri ) he quotes Nicolaus Copernicus .

Melanchthon also puts together a historicizing overview of the division of the year , from the Egyptians to the calendar reform of Gaius Julius Caesar . He deals in depth with the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark . On the basis of the numerous date and time span information in it, it represents the transition from the lunar year (of 12 lunar months ) to the solar year . The flood lasts a full solar year. Therefore, after the date of the beginning of the flood in the following lunar year, another 10 epact days must be added until the end of the flood.

A few lines later the description of the trigons follows , a network of relationships that can be attributed to astrology within the framework of the zodiac, which is permeated by the sun. Melanchthon finds these themes in the astrological work of Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos , which he had translated into Latin years earlier.

About moon and eclipses

In the chapter De Luna (Über den Mond, Sp. 242ff), Melanchthon collects the properties of the moon which, in the interaction of earth, sun and moon, lead to solar and lunar eclipses . The moon is spherical, opaque, does not shine itself, but receives its light from the sun and orbits the earth.

Melanchthon describes the admiring shudder that seized the ancient world at the sight of the lunar and especially the solar eclipses (chapter De Eclipsibus (From the eclipses, Sp. 248ff)) to the belief that a solar eclipse pestilentiae , bellorum tumultus and others Disaster follow (col. 253). He is not so far removed from this attitude. And according to the tradition of the anecdote from the Pericles vita of Plutarch , in which the latter rationally confronts the horror of the solar eclipse during the Peloponnesian War, he says that Pericles was severely punished for his contempt for the divine warning (Sp. 249).

The main focus of this chapter is on the scientific / astronomical explanation of the eclipses:

  • During the lunar eclipse, the moon is robbed of the light of the sun because it steps into the shadow of the earth, which is then positioned diametrically between the sun and the moon. This only happens when the moon is at the junction , i.e. the intersection of the ecliptic and the lunar orbit plane (column 250).
  • The solar eclipse, on the other hand, occurs when the moon stands between our sight and the sun at the time of the novilunium and brings darkness to some areas of the earth with the shadow of its body (Sp. 254).

To explain this, Melanchthon includes the distances and proportions of the 3 heavenly bodies in his writing, which he finds in Claudius Ptolemy's. Ptolemy's idea of parallax (because of these proportions, the earth cannot be viewed as point-shaped, rather the location of the observer on the earth's surface must be taken into account in the calculation) is taken up in the Initia doctrinae physicae . The formulations, such as aberration of our gaze due to the proximity of the moon (Col. 256) or the true location of the moon differs from the visible place of the moon (Col. 257), correspond in clarity but not to the explanations of Ptolemy.

Stellae errantes

Sp. 260-292 contain extensive, not necessarily ordered, knowledge about the 5 planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. First of all, the idea that has been handed down for centuries, even millennia, is reproduced that these 5 planets orbit the center of the world - i.e. the earth - 2 (Mercury and Venus) below the sun and the 3 remaining above the sun (column 261). For example, the approximate values ​​given by Pliny the Elder ( Naturalis historia , II / 32f) (Mars 2 years, Jupiter 12 years, Saturn 30 years) are used for the period of rotation of the upper planets . In the chapter De duobus inferioribus Planetis, Venere et Mercurio (On the two lower planets Venus and Mercury, Col. 275f) the possibility that these lower planets orbit the sun is considered, but rejected. This is followed by a more precise representation of the planetary movement based on Claudius Ptolemy (Almagest, Book IX, Chapters 5, 6): Orbital circles ( defender ) run around the earth, but these are eccentric ( eccentricus ) with one distant from the earth ( apogeon ) and one near the earth ( perigeon ) period. For each planet, the center of another circle ( epicyclum ), on which the planet revolves, lies on its orbit. This model is explained with numerous observations of the planets on their way through the zodiac and their latitude deviation from the ecliptic . The focus is on the figures determined by Claudius Ptolemy and later naturalists, such as the maximum elongation of Mercury and Venus (Sp. 275f). But there are also descriptive parts that are intended to promote the students' understanding, for example in the chapter De tribus supremis Planetis ( Col. 263, in free translation):

  • When a planet moves in the upper part of its epicyclic, it has 2 movements in the same direction, that of the planet on the epicyclic and that of the center of the epicyclic on the eccentric; therefore he appears faster against the signs of the zodiac. But when it descends to the lower tell, it has an easterly and a westerly direction ... Similar to a ship that is moved against the current, the opposite movements cause a planet to be seen stationary for a few days.

Representation of the natural philosophy of Aristotle

At the beginning of Book II (Col. 291) Melanchthon summarizes what the main part of Books II and III is about:

  • ... consideratio materiae ... et earum effectionum, quae sunt causae mutationum in corporibus, ut generationum ... alterationum, corruptionum ... et partium in corporibus, et causarum propinquarum et remotarum
  • ... Consideration of the material ... and the forces acting on it, which are the reason for the changes in the bodies, such as becoming, change, passing away, ... and the parts in the bodies, and the nearer and more distant reasons.

Aristotle and other natural philosophers had developed terms in the Greek language on these topics. Over the centuries, Latin equivalents have been found for this. Examples of this are the translations of Plato's Timaeus , but also in the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville, for example, usiae, id est substantiae (II, XXVI) or ὺλῃ, the Latins called materia (XIII, III). In the chapter De Principiis (Col. 293, Grundstoff-Grund-Ursprung, Greek archai ) Melanchthon explains his view of the foundations of various ancient natural philosophers. He rejects Democritus of Abdera and the Epicureans because they know no effective cause ( efficientis causa ). He accuses the Stoics of having supplemented and destroyed the 2 principles mens et materia (quoted in Greek λόγον, ὒλμν ) by the nonsensical necessitas (connection of causes and effects according to an unbreakable order and necessity). Although Plato and his 3 principles Deus, Materia, Idea are seen positively, Aristotle is the preferred author with the 3 principles of nature materia, forma, privatio . The important terms matter ( Et quid est Materia , Sp. 296), form ( Quid est Forma , Sp. 297), and cause ( Prima divisio causarum , Sp. 306ff) are explained. The further development of the causes to coincidence, fate finally leads to the astrologically treated topic De Fato (Sp. 329ff).

The astrology of Philip Melanchthon

For Philip Melanchthon, as for other scholars of his time, astrology is definitely a physical science. In the introductory chapter Quae doctrina usitate nuncupatur Physica (Sp. 182ff) he already points out the possibilities of astrology to explain what is happening on earth. However, Aristotle did not comment on this in the Physica . And when treating the planets, the astrological aspect comes up too. The status of the upper planets is given for important and mostly disastrous events, for example for the death of Martin Luther and the outbreak of a new disease called Gallicum (the French). In the chapters De Temperamentis et Stellis (On the plants and the stars, col. 323f) and De Fato physico (On physical fate, col. 331-335) he goes into more detail on the subject. In the first mentioned chapter an attempt is made to present different ideas and to bring them into agreement. On the one hand Melanchthon follows Tetrabiblos , the astrological work of Claudius Ptolemy, which he had translated from Greek into Latin. The disposition of people is therefore traced back to the constellation of the stars, for example the sickness of a Magdeburg clergyman to the unfavorable combination of the moon and Aries with Saturn and Taurus ; The inclination towards music and poetry is found under the rule of the planets Mercury and Venus. On the other hand, the fate of Absalom , the son of King David , shows that the counsel of God stands outside such contexts. Under physical fate of the influence of the stars is understood to elements and body. This includes the influence of the annual course of the sun on the seasons , but also the effect of the signs of the zodiac on cooler and wetter or warmer and drier weather, as described in the Tetrabiblos. Through the providentia of God, which Melanchthon had honored earlier in the work (Col. 203), their sequence is laid out for an optimal growth and prosperity of nature. The course of diseases is also determined by the stars, especially the moon.

Edition and transmission

The work was first printed in 1549 by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg; However, a manuscript of Melanchthon's had been used and worked out years before by his close colleague Paul Eber for physics lectures. Further editions were published in Wittenberg until 1600, some also in Basel, Frankfurt a. M. and Leipzig. Overall, Melanchthon's scientific achievements and his scientific textbooks had a great influence in the following centuries. A translation into the German language is not available.

Text editions and translations

literature

  • Claudia Brosseder: Under the spell of the stars, Caspar Peucer Philipp Melanchthon and other Wittenberg astrologers , Berlin 2004.
  • Martin H. Jung : Philipp Melanchthon and his time , Göttingen 2010.
  • Wilhelm Maurer : Melanchthon Studies , Gütersloh 1964.
  • Peter Petersen : History of Aristotelian Philosophy in Protestant Germany , Leipzig 1921.
  • Karin Reich : Philipp Melanchthon in dialogue with astronomers and mathematicians in mathematics and natural sciences in the time of Philipp Melanchthon , Wiesbaden 2012.
  • Georg Singer: Star Run and Divine Providence in Mathematics and Natural Sciences in the Time of Philipp Melanchthon , Wiesbaden 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudia Brosseder: Im Banne der Sterne , p. 166, footnote 4
  2. ↑ Claudia Brosseder: Im Banne der Sterne , p. 170f
  3. ↑ Claudius Ptolemy: Tetrabiblos , Book 2, Chapter 11
  4. ↑ Claudia Brosseder: Im Banne der Sterne , p. 179
  5. ^ Wilhelm Maurer: Melanchthon Studies , p. 41
  6. ↑ Peter Petersen: History of Aristotelian Philosophy in Protestant Germany , p. 54
  7. ↑ Peter Petersen: History of Aristotelian Philosophy in Protestant Germany , p. 75f
  8. ^ Isidore of Seville : Etymologiae , Lib. III, XXIX-XXXIII
  9. ↑ Claudius Ptolemy: Almagest , Book I, Ch. 3-7, The earth occupies the center of the sky
  10. ^ Dagmar Gottschall: Expert knowledge and lay knowledge in the field of astrological prognostics with Konrad von Megenberg and Cecco d'Ascoli in Konrad von Megenberg (1309-1374): A late medieval "encyclopedia" in a European context , Wiesbaden 2011
  11. ^ Claudius Ptolemy: Almagest , Book I, Chapter 8, There are two different first movements in the sky
  12. ^ Karl Ernst Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary
  13. ↑ Claudius Ptolemy: Almagest , Book 3, Chapter 4, The Apparent Anomaly of the Sun
  14. ↑ Martianus Capella: De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii , Book 8,846
  15. ↑ Old Testament, Genesis 6.9-8.14
  16. ↑ Philipp Melanchthon: Phil. Mel. Interpretatio operis Quadripartiti Claudii Ptolemaei de praedictionibus astronomicis , Lib.I, De trigonis
  17. ↑ Glenn W. Most : Pindars Sonnenfinsternis in Helga Köhler, Herwig Görgemanns , Manuel Baumbach (eds.): Storming on dark path ..., Heidelberg 2000
  18. ↑ Hans-Armin Gärtner : Political interpretations of solar eclipses in antiquity in Helga Köhler, Herwig Görgemanns , Manuel Baumbach (eds.): Storming on dark path ..., Heidelberg 2000
  19. ↑ Claudius Ptolemy: Almagest , Book V, chap. 15:16, The sizes of the sun, the moon and the earth
  20. ↑ Claudius Ptolemy: Almagest , Book V, chap. 11 The parallaxes of the moon
  21. ^ Karl Ernst Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary
  22. ↑ Werner Marx : Introduction to Aristotle's Theory of Beings , Freiburg 1972, p. 22
  23. ↑ Maximilian Forschner : The Philosophy of the Stoa , Darmstadt 2018, p. 129
  24. ↑ Peter Petersen: History of Aristotelian Philosophy in Protestant Germany , p. 77
  25. ↑ Claudia Brosseder: In the spell of the stars, Caspar Peucer Philipp Melanchthon and other Wittenberg astrologers , p.168
  26. ^ Wilhelm Knappich : History of Astrology , Frankfurt 1967, Chapter 7: Flower of Astrology (1450-1650)
  27. ↑ Tetrabiblos, Book I, 9, On the power of the fixed stars
  28. ^ Tetrabiblos, Book IV, 4, About the Profession
  29. ↑ Karin Reich: Philipp Melanchthon in dialogue with astronomers and mathematicians , p. 55f
  30. ↑ Georg Singer: Star Run and Divine Providence , p. 71
  31. ↑ Martin H. Jung: Philipp Melanchthon and his time , p. 176