Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T22:33:35.449Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Irenism and Natural Philosophy in Rudolfine Prague: The Case of David Gans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Noah J. Efron
Noah J. Efron
Affiliation:
The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

David Gans (1541–1613), a German Jew who was educated in Poland and spent his adulthood in Prague, produced over his lifetime a large and unprecedented corpus of Hebrew introductions to various liberal disciplines, chiefly astronomy. Gans believed that the disciplines he described might help to mediate between Christians and Jews, by serving as a shared subject of study. He considered these subjects to be uniquely apt for shared study because they took them to be theologically neutral.

Gans's hopes went unfulfilled, and most of his books remained unpublished and ignored. Still, his own firm belief in the plausibility of his project implies that it was not a foregone conclusion near the start of the seventeenth century that astronomy and other liberal disciplines would find no purchase among Central European Jews. It also suggests that the mutual alienation between intellectuals of different confessions that has been emphasized by some historians might have been less pronounced than is often imagined. Further, Gans's belief that these disciplines could encourage interdenominational discourse and respect, and his intimation that such beliefs were shared by Kepler and Brahé, suggest the intriguing possibility that natural philosophy was valued by at least some of its early modern practitioners as an irenic undertaking.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 1997 , pp. 627 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alter, G. 1958. Two Renaissance Astronomers (Gans, Delmedigo), vol. 68.Prague.Google Scholar
Barker, Peter, and Roger, Ariew, (eds.) 1990. Revolution and Continuity: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Early Modern Science. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Ben-Sasson, H. H. 1971a. “Gans (Avaza), R. David b. Shelomo.” Encyclopedia Judaica, 11:52–53.Google Scholar
Ben-Sasson, H. H. 1971b. “The Reformation in Contemporary Jewish Eyes.” Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 4:239–327.Google Scholar
Ben-Sasson, Yonah, 1984. Mishnato ha-‘Iyyunit shel ha-Rama. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Michael André. 1994. Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bondy, G., and Dworsky, F., eds. 1906. Zur Geschichte der Juden in Böhmen, Mähren, und Schlesien von 906 bis 1620. Prague.Google Scholar
Breuer, Mordechai. 1964. “Megamotav shel ẓemaḥ David le-Rav David Gans,” Ha-Ma'ayan 5.Google Scholar
Breuer, Mordechai. 1964a. “Introduction [in Hebrew].” In Breuer 1964b.Google Scholar
Breuer, Mordechai. 1973. “Kavim le-demuto shel Rav David Gans, ba';al ẓemaḥ David.” In Bar-Ilan: Annual of Bar-Ilan University Studies in Judaica and the Humanities.Google Scholar
Breuer, Mordechai. 1983a. “Modernism and Traditionalism of David Gans.” In Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Bernard Cooperman, 49–88. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Breuer, Mordechai. 1983b. Sefer ẓemaḥ David le-David Gans. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.Google Scholar
Brooke, John Hedley. 1991. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brüll, N. 1912. “Gans.” In Allgemeine deutsche Biographic, 8:360–61.Google Scholar
Clulee, Nicholas H. 1988. John Dee's Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion. New York.Google Scholar
Colorni, Abraham. 1593. Scotographia overo, Scienza discrivere oscvro, facilissima, et sicurrissima, per qualsi uoglia lingua; le cui diuerse inuentioni diuisi in tre libri, seruiranno inpiu modi, & per cifra, & per contracifra. Le quali, se ben saranno commvnu a d'essere inteso da altri, che dalproprio corrispondente. Opera di Abram Colorni. Prague.Google Scholar
Cooperman, B. D., trans. 1993. Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages. New York. For original, see Katz [1958] 1993.Google Scholar
Culianu, loan Petru. 1987. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. Chicago.Google Scholar
David, Abraham, ed. 1993. A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615. Tuscaloosa and London.Google Scholar
David, Zdenek V. 1996. “Hájek, Dubravius, and the Jews: A Contrast in Sixteenth-Century Czech Historiography.” Sixteenth Century Journal 27(4):997–1013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Joseph Maurice. 1990. “R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, Joseph b. Isaac ha-Levi, and Rationalism in Ashkenazic Jewish Culture 1550–1650.” Ph.D., diss., Harvard.Google Scholar
Davis, Joseph Maurice. 1993. “The Cultural and Intellectual History of Ashkenazic Jews, 1500–1750: A Selective Bibliography and Essay.” Yearbook of the Leo Baeck Institute 38:343–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De León-Jones, Karen Silvia. 1997. Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah: Prophets, Magicians, and Rabbis. New Haven, Conn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. 1996. Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science. Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Efron, Noah J. 1996. “R. David b. Solomon Cans and Natural Philosophy in Jewish Prague.” Ph.D. diss., Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Efron, Noah J. 1997. “Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe: A Review Essay.” Journal for the History of Ideas, Fall:719–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Efron, Noah J. Forthcoming. Gans in Prague.Google Scholar
Erkens, Franz-Reiner. 1997. Europa und die osmanische Expansion im ausge-heńden Mittelalter. Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. J. W. 1973. Rudolf II and His World: A Study in Intellectual History 1576–1612. London.Google Scholar
Feuer, Lewis S. 1982. “Francis Bacon and the Jews: Who Was the Jew in New Atlantis?” Jewish Historical Studies 29:1–25.Google Scholar
Gans, , David, b. Solomon. 1612. Magen David. Prague (Oxford-Bodl., Heb Opp 4r 417).Google Scholar
Gans, , David, b. Solomon. 1743. Neḥmad ve-Na'im. Jesnitz.Google Scholar
Gans, , David, b. Solomon. 1983. Sefer ẓemaḥ David. Edited by Mordechai, Breuer. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Gosson, Henry. 1607. A lewes prophesy, with newesfrom Rome: of two mightie armies, aswellfootemen as horsmen, the first of the great Sophy, the other of an Hebrew people, till this time not discouered, coming from the mountaines of Caspij, who pretend their wane is to recouer the land of promise, expell the Turks out of Christendome. An anonymous booklet printed in London in 1607.Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony. 1991. “Humanism and Science in Rudolphine Prague: Kepler in Context.” In Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Grünwald, M. 1887. David Gans. Regensburg.Google Scholar
Heer, Friedrich. 1959. Die dritte Kraft: Der europäische Humanismus zwischen den Fronten des konfessionellen Zeitalters. Frankfurt a. M.Google Scholar
Hegyi, Klara. 1989. The Ottoman Empire in Europe. Budapest.Google Scholar
Huff, Toby E., ed. 1981. On the Roads to Modernity: Conscience, Science and Civilization — Selected Writings of Benjamin Nelson. Totowa, N.J.Google Scholar
Hughes, Charles, ed. 1903. Shakespeare's Europe: A Survey of the Condition of Europe at the End of the Sixteenth Century, Being Unpublished Chapters of Fynes Moryson's Itinerary (1617). New York.Google Scholar
Hunter, Michael. 1990. “Science and Heterodoxy: An Early Modern Problem Reconsidered.” In Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, edited by David, C. Lindberg and Westman, Robert S.. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Katz, Jacob. [1958] 1993. Masoret u-Mashber: Ha-Hevrah ha-Yehudit be-Mozei Yemeiha-Beinayim. Jerusalem. Retranslated by Cooperman, B. D. as Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages, New York.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, David. 1893. “Der Stammbaum des R. Eleasar Fleckeles.” Mo-natsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 37.Google Scholar
Kortepeter, Max. 1972. Ottoman Imperialism during the Reformation: Europe and the Caucasus. New York.Google Scholar
Kortepeter, Max. 1978. Ottoman Rule in Middle Europe and Balkan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Papers Presented at the Ninth Joint Conference of the Czechoslovak- Yugoslav Historical CommitteePrague.Google Scholar
Kühn, Johannes. 1923. Toleranz und Offenbarung. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kusukawa, Sachiko. 1995. The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: The Case of Philip Melanchthon. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lecler, Joseph. 1960. Toleration and the Reformation. New York.Google Scholar
Levine, Hillel. 1983. “Paradise Not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science.” In Epistemology, Methodology and the Social Sciences, edited by Cohen, R. and Wertofsky, M.. Boston.Google Scholar
Loew, Judah. 1972. Netivot ‘Olam. London.Google Scholar
Morson, Gary Saul. 1994. Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time, New Haven.Google Scholar
Muneles, Otto. 1976. “Kommentare zu den ausgewählten Grabinschriften vom Alten jüdischen Friedhof in Prag.” Judaica Bohemiae 12(1):11.Google Scholar
Muneles, Otto. ed. 1988. Ketubot me-Beit ha-Almin ha-Yehudiha-Atik be-Prag. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Néher, André. 1974. David Gans, disciple du Maharal de Prague, assistant de Tycho Brahé et de Jean Kepler. Paris.Google Scholar
Néher, André. 1976. “Homer Hadash al David Gans ke-Tokhen.” Tarbiẓ 45 (102): 138–47.Google Scholar
Néher, André. 1982. David Gans (1541–1613) u-Zemano. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Néher, André. 1986. Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: David Gans (1541–1613) and His Times. Oxford.Google Scholar
Nelson, Benjamin. 1981a. “On the Shoulders of Giants: The Comparative Histori cal Sociology of‘Science’.” In Huff 1981, 109–13.Google Scholar
Nelson, Benjamin. 1981b. “Science and Civilization ‘East’ and ‘West’: Joseph Needham and Max Weber.” In Huff 1981, 164–98.Google Scholar
Peurbach, Georg. 1987. “Theoricae novae planetarum: A Translation with Commentary by E. J. Aiton.” Osiris 2nd ser. 3:5–44.Google Scholar
Ravin, Shelomo. 1872. “Ha-Gaon Ba'al Gur Ariyeh ve-ha-Keisar Rudolf ha-Sheni.” Ha-Magid 16(14): 163–64.Google Scholar
Roth, Cecil. 1961. “The Amazing Abraham Colorni.” In Personalities and Events in Jewish History, 296–304. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Ruderman, David B. 1995. Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe. New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Georg. 1975. Sipahi: 400 Jahre Turkenzeit in Europa. Innsbruck.Google Scholar
Sedinova, J. 1972a. “Czech History as Reflected in the Historical Work by David Gans.” Judaica Bohemiae 8(2):74–86.Google Scholar
Sedinova, J. 1972b. “Non-Jewish Sources in the Chronicle by David Gans, ẓemah David,” Judaica Bohemiae 8(1):3–15.Google Scholar
Sedinova, J. 1978. “Old Czech Legends in the Work of David Gans (1592).” Judaica Bohemiae 14(2):89–112.Google Scholar
Shaw, Ezel Kural. 1972. English and Continental Views of the Ottoman Empire, 1500–1800. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Steinschneider, M. 1871. “Copernicus nach dem Urtheile des David Gans.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik 16:252–53.Google Scholar
Svitàk, Ivan. 1986. “John Dee and Edward Kelley.” Kosmas 5:125–38.Google Scholar
Tietze, Andreas. 1985. Habsburgisch-osmanische Beziehungen. Vienna.Google Scholar
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. 1991. Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517–1633. New York.Google Scholar
Twersky, Isadore. 1962. Rabad of Posqueres: A Twelfth-Century Talmudist. Cambridge, Mass.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weststein, P. 1904. “Le-Toldot Gedolei Yisrael.” In Sefer ha-Yovel le-Khevod Nahum Sokolov. Warsaw.Google Scholar
Yates, Francis. 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago.Google Scholar
Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. 1982. Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory. Seattle.Google Scholar
Ziv, Asher. 1971. Sheelot u-Teshuvot ha-Rama. Jerusalem.Google Scholar