Spinoza:

(1632-1677) Dutch philosopher whose ancestors were of Sephardic Jewish descent, part of the community of Portuguese Jews that had settled in the city of Amsterdam.  His magnum opus, Ethics (1661- 1675), was a philosophical treatise in Latin in which he describes the character & structure of reality in terms of substance, attributes & modes.  Substance is self-existent, eternal, unrestricted, infinite.  Substance expresses itself in all the movements & changes in space, a physical force he called extension & described as substance.  His system envisages a God that is the deterministic system of which everything in nature is a part.

 

Hertz:

(1857-1894) German physicist first to conclusively prove the existence of the electromagnetic waves; born in Hamburg (in the German Confederation) into a prosperous & cultured Hanseatic family.  He was raised as a Lutheran.  His father was Gustav Ferdinand Hertz.  Gustav’s family was Jewish but in 1834 converted to Lutheranism.  Gustav was age 7.

see above page 391

 

Statics:

branch of mechanics concerned with the analysis of loads (force and torque, or "moment") acting on physical systems that do not experience an acceleration (a=0), but rather, are in static equilibrium with their environment.  Archimedes (287-212 BC) did pioneering work in this filed.  Later developments are found in works of Thebit (826-901 AD).  A Syrian Arab, mathematician, physician, astronomer & translator, he lived in Baghdad.   He made important discoveries in algebra, geometry & astronomy; considered one of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system & a founder of statics.

 

mean vis viva:

mean here is used as “average” and vis vivia is Latin for living force, a historical term used for the first recorded description of kinetic energy, in an early formulation of the principle of conservation of energy.  This theory was proposed by Leibniz between 1676 & 1689; it was controversial as it seemed to oppose the theory of conservation of momentum advocated by Newton & Descartes.  The 2 theories are now understood to be complementary.  In 1807, the term vis viva started to be identified as energy after the term was first used in that sense by Thomas Young.

 

Archimedean physics:

(287-212 BC) Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor & astronomer; one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics & statics, including an explanation of the principle of the lever; credited with designing innovative machines (screw pump, compound pulleys).  The few copies of Archimedes' written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance.

 

Andrea Mantegna): * see EndNote<A>

(1430-1506) Noted for his illusionistic foreshortening technique & introduction of spatial illusionism, in frescoes & in sacra conversazione paintings; his tradition of ceiling decoration was followed for the next 3 centuries.  His success with painting the human body however was far more limited.  He was criticized for his body forms being too statuesque.  This criticism stems from Mantegna's master teacher Francesco Squarcione of Padua, who when referring to the Ovetari Chapel frescoes stated: "Andrea would have done much better with those figures if he had given them the tint of marble and not all those colours; they would have been nearer to perfection since they had no resemblance to life."  His most famous works are of dead bodies: The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1490) and the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (1480).

and see chapter VII pages 221, 239 and 242

 

Signorelli: * see Endnote<B>

(1441-1523) Italian Renaissance painter, part of the Tuscan school, he bears resemblance to Mantegna.  He was heavily influenced by the sculpture of antiquity.  Like Mantegna he was a student of human anatomy & again like Mantegna he was noted in particular for his use of foreshortening.  However his work presents a much more convincing 3D figure (as opposed to a relief).  The Last Judgment (1499–1503) in Orvieto Cathedral is his masterpiece.  This work would have had a far more powerful impact on other artists were it not located in a provincial centre like Orvieto.  Furthermore they appeared old-fashioned soon after they were painted, followed so quickly by the frescoes in the 4 Raphael Rooms (1508-20)  & Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes (1508-41).  Despite moments of great invention he was a great provincial master who remained provincial.

see Chapter VII pages 221, 239 and 242 Chapter VIII page 271

 

Leonardo: * see Endnote<C>

(1452-1519) Italian artist who brought oil painting to a new peak, a master of the techniques of chiaroscuro (use of shadow to create a 3D effect) and sfumato (use of glazes in slightly different tones of colour creating an almost imperceptible transition from light to dark), including perspective, all of which allowed the creation of immensely realistic 3D effects.  This new approach, along with his mastery of design & colour pigments had a huge impact.

​

dynamics:

see above page 412

 

Rubens: * see EndNote<D>

(1577-1640) Flemish artist and diplomat from Brabant S. Netherlands, the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition.  He delighted in painting women of generous figure & radiant flesh, and gave his name to the adjective Rubenesque.  His biblical & mythological nudes are especially famous.  Painted in the Baroque tradition depicting women as soft-bodied, passive, his nudes emphasize the concepts of fertility, desire, physical beauty, temptation & virtue.  His depiction of males is equally stylized, replete with meaning, quite the opposite of his female subjects.  His male nudes represent highly athletic, large mythical or biblical men.  Unlike his female nudes, most of his male nudes are depicted partially nude.  They are twisting, reaching, bending, and grasping: all of which portrays his male subjects engaged in a great deal of physical, sometimes aggressive, action.

 

Cabeo:

(1586- 1650) Italian Jesuit, philosopher, theologian, engineer & mathematician; born in Ferrara educated at the Jesuit College in Parma where he taught & preached.  At one point he was involved in hydraulics projects.  Taught mathematics in Genoa where he died.  Noted for his contributions to physics: he observed & wrote of experiments with falling objects, pendulums & electrically charged bodies.  His Philosophia magnetica (1629) examined magnetism.  He also wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology in which he examines theories proposed by Galileo (the motion of the earth, the law of falling bodies).  Cabeo was an opponent of such theories instead favouring the Aristotelian idea that the Earth must not move as humans are unable to perceive the effects of this motion. .  He also discussed the theory of water flow proposed by Galileo's student, Benedetto Castelli, as well as ideas concerning alchemy.

 

Palladio (to lead to nothing): * see endnote<E>

(1508-1580) Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic; heavily influenced by Greco-Roman architecture (primarily Vitruvius), designed churches & palaces, famous for his country houses & villas.  His designs were based on the symmetry & perspective of Greek temples, characterised by classical facades, pediments, symmetry with proportions based on mathematics rather than ornament.  His Four Books of Architecture gained wide recognition.  After his death Baroque architecture moved away from the Greco-Roman balance & symmetry towards a new dynamic.  In the 18th century however Palladio again became popular.

 

14th century thinkers:

This century witnessed growing use of mathematical reasoning in natural philosophy, which prepared the way for the rise of science.  The mathematical reasoning techniques of William Heytesbury & William of Ockham reflect this.  Other contributors to natural philosophy were Albert of Saxony, John Buridan, and Nicholas of Autrecourt.  the most famous of this group, Ockham (1287-1347), was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic Nominalist philosopher & theologian; a major figure of medieval thought, at the centre of the major intellectual & political controversies of his day & creator of Ockham's razor.