This book explores the dynamics of the commentary and textbook traditions in Aristotelian natural philosophy under the headings of doctrine, method, and scientific and social status. It enquires what the evolution of the Aristotelian commentary tradition can tell us about the character of natural philosophy as a pedagogical tool, as a scientific enterprise, and as a background to modern scientific thought. In a unique attempt to cut old-fashioned historiographic divisions, it brings together scholars of ancient, medieval, Renaissance and seventeenth-century philosophy. The book covers a...

This book has evolved out of a colloquium entitled "The Reception of the Galilean Science of Motion;' held at Amsterdam on 5-7 July 2000. It was our intention as the organizers to bring together historians of science interested in Galileo's science of motion, its ramifications in seventeenth-century Europe, and its impact on what Anneliese Maier and E. J. Dijksterhuis have labeled the "mechanization of the world picture. " Funding for the conference was provided by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, which honored our proposal for an Academy Colloquium. We should also like to...