Overview

This book brings together a collection of essays dedicated to the memory of John L. Heilbron (1934–2023), one of the foremost historians of science of his generation. Originally conceived as a Festschrift to mark his 90th birthday, it became a memorial volume following his passing. The contributors — former students, colleagues, and collaborators — reflect the breadth of Heilbron’s scholarship, from the Scientific Revolution to modern physics, from Lamarck and Darwin to contemporary science writing. The essays exemplify his approach to the history of science: technically informed, contextually grounded, and attentive to language and method. Together, these studies trace the enduring influence of Heilbron’s work on the practice of historiography itself. They illustrate how his legacy continues to shape new research agendas, connecting detailed historical inquiry with broader questions about knowledge, culture, and scientific understanding. This volume is both a tribute and a continuation of his intellectual project.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stefano Gattei
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
ISBN:  

9783032256775

ISBN 10:   3032256771
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   14 July 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Preface.- Acknowledgements.- About the Authors.- A Bibliography of the Writings of John L. Heilbron, 1964–2025 (Stefano Gattei).- My Autobiography for John: An Open Letter to a Dear Friend (Finn Aaserud).- Encomium (A. J. Lustig).- Part I: Early Modern Studies.- Chapter 1. Vincenzo Galilei on Zarlino’s Mathematical Demonstrations: Towards an Account of Science vs. Music in the Scientific Revolution (Maurice Finocchiaro).- Chapter 2. Reading Copernicus in Padua: The Case of Paolo Sarpi (Stefano Gattei).- Chapter 3. Wise Guy (Eileen Reeves).- Chapter 4. “In fibris corporis planetae”: Johannes Kepler and the Fabric of the Earth (Luca Ciancio).- Chapter 5. A Jesuit Journey from Heaven to Earth (Ivana Gambaro).- Chapter 6. How Huygens Avoided Figleaf Physics (Jed Buchwald).- Chapter 7. A Black Sheep in Isaac Newton’s Family? The Haunts of Benjamin Smith, Jr. (Mordechai Feingold).- Chapter 8. The Astronomy of Thomas Hornsby, 1763–1772: History, Geography and Computation (Jim Bennett†).- Chapter 9. Telescopic Hindsight: Forging Galileo in the 1920s (Nick Wilding).- Part II: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.- Chapter 10. Professor of Insects and Worms (Jessica Riskin).- Chapter 11. Darwin, Merchants, and Famines (Giuliano Pancaldi).- Chapter 12. Measures by Americans: The United States and the Establishment of International Electrical Standards, 1881–1897 (Daniel Kevles).- Chapter 13. D’Arcy Thompson, Alan Turing and the Rise of Mathematical Biology (Brian Ross).- Chapter 14. Hiroshi Sugimoto and the History of Science (Matthias Dörries).- Part III: Styles in the Historiography of Science.- Chapter 15. Science and the Jewish Question (Tal Golan).- Chapter 16. Applied History of Science and the National Academy of Sciences (Peter Westwick).- Chapter 17. Citation Styles in History of Science: A Critical Discussion and a Proposal (Olivier Darrigol).- Chapter 18. From Hypatia to “Cosmos” and “Agora”: The Formation of a Fractal Narrative of Scientific Decline (Michael H. Shank).

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Author Information

Stefano Gattei graduated at the University of Milan (2003) and holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, UK (2004). He held teaching and research positions in various Italian universities, as well as Oxford University, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the California Institute of Technology. He is now Associate Professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Trento, Italy. Among his publications are Thomas S. Kuhn’s ‘Linguistic Turn’ and the Legacy of Logical Positivism (Routledge, 2008), Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Science: Rationality without Foundations (Routledge, 2009) and On the Life of Galileo: Vincenzo Viviani’s Historical Account and Other Early Biographies (Princeton University Press, 2019). He co-edited, with Joseph Agassi, the fourth volume of Paul K. Feyerabend’s collected philosophical papers, Physics and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and, with Roberta Corvi, Feyerabend in Dialogue: Critical Essays (Springer, 2024). He also published critical editions and annotated translations of texts by Regiomontanus, Rheticus, Galileo and Thomas Seget; that of Kepler’s Strena seu De nive sexangula is forthcoming.

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