The places of astronomy in early-modern culture / Nicholas Jardine.
Abstract:
'In this article I consider ways in which forms of patronage affected the beliefs and goals of astronomy in the early modern period. Astronomy did not then make up a specialty or discipline in anything like the modern sense. Rather, it comprised a whole series of practices widely diffused through the various social sites and strata. I shall start with a survey of the types and locations of sixteenth- and early seventeenth- century astronomy. Then I shall concentrate on the courtly patronage of astronomy, indicating how in the second half of the sixteenth century a new agenda for astronomy--the quest for the true world system--was formed by the codes of courtly conduct.'
Journal for the history of astronomy Vol. 29 (1998), p. 49-62