10 • Philosophers’ Reception of the Tychonic Cosmology
abstract
While historians tend to emphasize the existence within the Jesuit Order of strict disciplinary distinctions and different scholarly practices, this study shows that, despite operating in different institutional settings, there was no divide between mathematicians and philosophers. An analysis of the reception by the philosophers' community at Santo Antão of the Tychonic cosmological foundations proves that this community had a vivid interest in astronomical debate. In coming up with a cosmology able to come to terms with the Tychonic system, these philosophers did introduce some variations on the cosmological outline proposed by the mathematics professors.