INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC IDEAS VOLUME 8 2 2017 ΙSSUE NOV
Journal of the Network of History of Science of Southeastern Europe EDITORIAL BOARD: Barahona, Ana, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico Bevilacqua, Fabio, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy Blay, Michel, Centre d"archives de Philosophie, d"histoire et d"édition des Sciences, CNRS-ENS, France Chatzis, Konstantinos, Université Paris-Est -- Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés (UMR CNRS 8134), France Cullen, Christopher, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK Demidov, Sergei, Institute of History of Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia Figueirôa, Silvia, State University of Campinas, Brazil. Halleux, Robert, Centre d"histoire des Sciences et des Techniques, Université de Liège, Belgium Ihsanoglu, Ekmeleddin, Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture, IRCICA, Istanbul, Turkey Jullien, Vincent, Université de Nantes, France Knobloch, Eberhard, Technische Universität, Berlin, Germany Kostov, Alexandre, Institute for Balkan Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Liu Dun, Institute for the Study of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Numbers, Ronald, University of Wisconsin, USA PetkoviČ, Tomislav, University of Zagreb, Croatia Petrovic, Aleksandar, University of Belgrade, Serbia Rommevaux, Sabine, Centre d"études Supérieures de la Renaissance, CNRS-Université de Tours, France Vogt, Annette, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany EDITORS: Efthymios Nicolaidis, National Hellenic Research Foundation, and Constantine Skordoulis, University of Athens, Greece ASSISTANΤ EDITOR: Gianna Katsiampoura, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece MANAGING EDITOR: Vangelis Koutalis, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece 2 ORDERS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: Brepols Publishers NV 67, Begijnhof; B-2300 Turnhout Tel: +3214448020; fax: +3214428919 e-mail: periodicals@brepols.net Order number 04010361 Published by the Hellenic Society of History, Philosophy and Didactics of Sciences, Greece ISSN 17922593 Lay-out: DesignBond (Greece) Printed in the EU
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 4 8 28 48 84 110 136 Efthymios Nicolaidis and Constantine Skordoulis Foreword John Hedley Brooke and Ronald L. Numbers Into all the World: expanding the History of Science and Religion beyond the Abrahamic Faiths Anne-Laurence Caudano Cosmography, Asceticism and Female Patronage in Late Byzantine and Slavic Miscellanies Michael H. Shank The Almagest, Politics, and Apocalypticism in the Conflict between George of Trebizond and Cardinal Bessarion Flora Vafea The Astronomical Instruments in Saint Catherine s Iconography at the Holy Monastery of Sinai Tomislav Petković R. J. Bošković as European Scientist and Theologian at Work on the Bridges between Science and Religion. Essay on Bošković s top concept and epistemological interpretation of God Kostas Tampakis Orthodoxy and Science in the Greek State, 1830-1939 158 Guidelines for Authors
Foreword
Efthymios Nicolaidis Institute of Historical Research / National Hellenic Research Foundation E-mail: efnicol@eie.gr Constantine Skordoulis University of Athens E-mail: kskordul@primedu.uoa.gr Following the expansion during the last three decades of Science-Religion studies, the last ten years have seen an effort to develop this field as far as it concerns Orthodox Christianity, an area which was neglected and even ignored by the community of historians of science. 5 Efthymios Nicolaidis and Constantine Skordoulis: Foreword In order to not repeat clichés or preconceived ideas about the relationships between science and Orthodox Christianity, access to the sources is needed. To implement part of this goal, an interdisciplinary team was organised in 2012 at the Institute of Historical Research / National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece. The aim of the team was to gather Greek language sources about the subject and offer relevant metadata in English. As in the case of Western Christianity, much of the contemporary literature about the relationships between Eastern Christianity and science is produced by writers belonging to the religious and/or political sphere. Therefore, in these works apologetic and polemical views prevail. Historiographical notions about complexity and reading the texts in context are not the rule for most of the writers. Offering the sources to researchers and to the interested public is but one step. To situate these sources in their historical context and relate them to their philological and philosophical tradition is the next one. The Narses (Nature and Religion in Southeastern European Space) project (http://narses. hpdst.gr/, funded by the Greek National Strategic Reference Framework Programme), tried to fulfil part of these two steps by developing a database of the Greek sources and by commenting on them in relevant articles, books, conferences and workshops. The SOW (Science and Orthodoxy around the World) project (http://project-sow.org/, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation) is expanding the research by developing a database of all languages used by Orthodox Christianity, by encouraging relevant publications, by organising conferences and other events in order to discuss the attitudes of Orthodox Christianity towards science today, and by promoting an interdisciplinary approach to the subject. Science and religion studies is a field where historians of science, philosophers, theologians, scientists and thinkers can and must meet. The present thematic issue of Almagest presents some historical aspects of the relations
between science and religion focusing on Orthodox Christianity. An introductory article by John Hedley Brooke and Ronald L. Numbers is exploring what happens when we try to incorporate the disparate religious traditions of the world into some kind of coherent narrative about science and religion. Anne-Laurence Caudano s article presents an intriguing anonymous cosmographical work that appears in a range of Byzantine and Slavic manuscripts dating from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. This brief text departs from other Byzantine scholarly works published at the time by upholding, rather curiously, that the earth has the shape of an egg. Michael H. Shank presents unknown aspects of the conflict between Cardinal Bessarion, a former Greek Orthodox metropolitan, and George of Trebizond. This conflict involved Ptolemy s Almagest and shaped the history of astronomy through the writings and career of Regiomontanus. M. Shank argues that these conflicts mixed powerfully with geopolitics and religion. Flora Vafea deals with art, science and religion by presenting the astronomical instruments in Saint Catherine s iconography at the Holy Monastery of Sinai.Tomislav Petković presents the role that the notion and epistemological interpretation of God played in Roger Joseph Bošković s work and thinking on natural philosophy. Due to his origin, Bošković is a pretty rare example of a Jesuit having been influenced by Eastern Christianity. This thematic issue concludes with an article by Kostas Tampakis dealing with the seminal influence of the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox tradition on the Greek State, from its foundation to the beginning of World War II. These articles are the reworked versions of papers presented at the International Conference Science and Religion organised September 3-5, 2015 in Athens, Greece. The other papers of the Conference are open access publications on the web available at the following page: http://narses.hpdst.gr/sites/narses.hpdst.gr/files/proceedings%20narses_1.pdf. Efthymios Nicolaidis and Constantine Skordoulis: Foreword 6