Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts

by Mark Austin Peterson

Overview

Mark Peterson makes an extraordinary claim in this fascinating book focused around the life and thought of Galileo: it was the mathematics of Renaissance arts, not Renaissance sciences, that became modern science. Painters, poets, musicians, and architects brought about a scientific revolution that eluded the philosopher-scientists of the day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674059726
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/17/2011
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Mark A. Peterson is Professor of Physics and Mathematics on the Alumnae Foundation, Mount Holyoke College.

Table of Contents

Contents
Prologue
1. Galileo, Humanist
2. The Classical Legacy
Poetry
3. The Plan of Heaven
4. The Vision of God
Painting
5. The Power of the Lines
6. The Skin of the Lion
Music
7. The Orphic Mystery
8. Kepler and the Music of the Spheres
Architecture
9. Figure and Form
10. The Dimensions of Hell
11. Mathematics Old and New
12. Transforming Mathematics
13. The Oration
Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

Arielle Saiber

Galileo's Muse is a brilliant study that lucidly explains the mathematics central to innovations in the Renaissance arts and sciences. Peterson's expertise as a mathematician and physicist gives this book a level of detail and insight that will offer much to historians of art, science, literature alike.

— Arielle Saiber, Associate Professor of Italian, Bowdoin College

Owen Gingerich

Peterson's book portrays Galileo in a wonderfully fresh perspective. Over several decades I have steeped myself in Galileo biographies, and it's really rare to find an account as intriguing as this one.

Peter Pesic

Galileo's Muse explores a wealth of intriguing connections between the arts and the birth of modern science, presented with thought and verve. Mark Peterson's excitement shines through on every page
— Peter Pesic, author of Sky in a Bottle and Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science

Editorial Reviews

Mount Holyoke professor Peterson reviews Galileo's life and works while discussing his contemporaries and predecessors, classical Greek and Roman views, and the interplay between mathematics and the arts. In excavating the world of Galileo, Peterson explores Dante's poetry and finds new meaning in The Divine Comedy when interpreted mathematically. He also takes a mathematical look at perspective in the works of Piero della Francesca, Leonardo Pisano/Fibonacci, and in the Golden Ratio. In terms of music, Peterson discusses Galileo's study of the ratios between pitches and how this impacts scales and tuning of different instruments. On architecture, Peterson writes: "Galileo takes a fundamentally geometrical, not arithmetical, point of view. He begins with a geometrical theorem about proportions…this gives him a flexible framework for considering the design. Each part of the architecture is a model for each other part." With these studies as supporting data, Peterson advances the hypothesis that it was the interplay of mathematics in the arts, not the philosophically-bent sciences of the day that evolved into our modern sciences. The book's academic tone and detailed discussions are best suited for readers with an amateur or professional interest in math and science history. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Peterson's book portrays Galileo in a wonderfully fresh perspective. Over several decades I have steeped myself in Galileo biographies, and it's really rare to find an account as intriguing as this one.
— Owen Gingerich

Galileo's Muse explores a wealth of intriguing connections between the arts and the birth of modern science, presented with thought and verve. Mark Peterson's excitement shines through on every page
— Peter Pesic, author of Sky in a Bottle and Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science

Galileo's Muse is a brilliant study that lucidly explains the mathematics central to innovations in the Renaissance arts and sciences. Peterson's expertise as a mathematician and physicist gives this book a level of detail and insight that will offer much to historians of art, science, literature alike.
— Arielle Saiber, Associate Professor of Italian, Bowdoin College

Peterson advances the hypothesis that it was the interplay of mathematics in the arts, not the philosophically-bent sciences of the day that evolved into our modern sciences.
— Publishers Weekly

Peterson believes there is a fresh and important story to tell about Galileo's roots in Renaissance humanism. He tells that story well and makes the fascinating argument that Galileo's interest in applied geometry arose not from the study of orthodox philosophy and mathematics but from his interest in the application of geometry to poetry, painting, music and architecture. He makes this case well.
— Paul Monk The Australian

Mark A. Peterson takes us on a lively journey...Galileo's Muse is a welcome addition to the growing literature on art and science in the early modern period.
— Alexander Marr Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

Galileo's Muse is a brilliant study that lucidly explains the mathematics central to innovations in the Renaissance arts and sciences. Peterson's expertise as a mathematician and physicist gives this book a level of detail and insight that will offer much to historians of art, science, literature alike.

Arielle Saiber

Peterson believes there is a fresh and important story to tell about Galileo's roots in Renaissance humanism. He tells that story well and makes the fascinating argument that Galileo's interest in applied geometry arose not from the study of orthodox philosophy and mathematics but from his interest in the application of geometry to poetry, painting, music and architecture. He makes this case well.

The Australian - Paul Monk

Peterson's book portrays Galileo in a wonderfully fresh perspective. Over several decades I have steeped myself in Galileo biographies, and it's really rare to find an account as intriguing as this one.

Owen Gingerich

Galileo's Muse explores a wealth of intriguing connections between the arts and the birth of modern science, presented with thought and verve. Mark Peterson's excitement shines through on every page

Peter Pesic

Mark A. Peterson takes us on a lively journey...Galileo's Muse is a welcome addition to the growing literature on art and science in the early modern period.

Times Literary Supplement - Alexander Marr

Mark A. Peterson takes us on a lively journey...Galileo's Muse is a welcome addition to the growing literature on art and science in the early modern period.
— Alexander Marr

Times Literary Supplement

Peterson believes there is a fresh and important story to tell about Galileo's roots in Renaissance humanism. He tells that story well and makes the fascinating argument that Galileo's interest in applied geometry arose not from the study of orthodox philosophy and mathematics but from his interest in the application of geometry to poetry, painting, music and architecture. He makes this case well.
— Paul Monk

The Australian

Where did Galileo come from? Why was he uniquely willing to relate mathematics to the real world? These are the questions Peterson (physics & mathematics, Mount Holyoke Coll.) asks. He reveals the answers in a tour of Galileo's education and the heritage of Renaissance mathematics and art. Peterson ends by laying out how Galileo helped move mathematics beyond philosophy, making it a tool for precise theorizing about imprecise, real-world data. This book covers well-worn ground in the history of science; scholars have written much about Galileo's connection to the arts and about the complex relationships among art, math, and science in the early modern period. (One need only mention the works of Pamela O. Long, David Freedberg, and others.) In addition, for a historian of science, Peterson perhaps overemphasizes Galileo's similarity with present-day scientists and overexplains how he rose above the shortcomings of his contemporaries. VERDICT Suitable for general readers, this book is not for advanced scholars of the history of science.—Jon Bodnar, Emory Univ., Atlanta

Library Journal