Planets, Stars, and Orbs 2 Volume Paperback Set : The Medieval Cosmos, 1200-1687 (Paperback)

Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: scope, sources, and social context; 1. Pierre Duhem, Medieval cosmology and the scope of the present day; 2. The sources of cosmology in the late Middle Ages; 3. The social and institutional matrix of scholastic cosmology; Part I. The Cosmos as a Whole and What, if Anything, Lies Beyond: 4. Is the world eternal, without beginning or end?; 5. The creation of the world; 6. The finitude, shape, and place of the world; 7. The perfection of the world; 8. The possibility of other worlds; 9. Extracosmic void space; Part II. The Celestial Region: 10. The incorruptibility of the celestial region; 11. Celestial perfection; 12. On celestial matter: can it exist in a changeless state?; 13. The mobile celestial orbs: concentrics, eccentrics, and epicycles; 14. Are the heavens composed of hard orbs or a fluid substance?; 15. The immobile orb of the cosmos: the empyrean heaven; 16. Celestial light; 17. The properties and qualities of celestial bodies, and the dimensions of the world; 18. On celestial motions and their causes; 19. The influence of the celestial region on the terrestrial; 20. The earth and its cosmic relations: size, centrality, shape, and immobility; Conclusion: Five centuries of scholastic cosmology; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.