Scholar's Award: The Invention of the History of Science: Bernardino Baldi's "Lives of the Mathematicians"

本项目将详细分析第一部伟大的数学-物理科学史——巴尔迪的《数学家的生活》，然后将该分析作为对过去500年来“科学”、“科学家”和“科学史”概念变化的总体评价的关键。巴尔迪的《生平》是1587年至1596年用意大利语写成的，由200多名数学科学家的传记组成，总共有2000多页的手稿。1972年，现作者在罗马重新发现了它。这项工作特别有价值，因为它是由一位与文艺复兴时期几位顶尖数学家有联系的执业物理学家撰写的。它揭示了一位数学物理学家如何在科学革命开始时，通过将其置于古代科学史的背景下，试图定义和证明他自己和他的同事的科学计划。自巴尔迪以来，科学的本质在不断变化的科学史语境中得到表达，正如科学史逐渐演变为一门独立的学科一样。本项目将首次以英文提供巴尔迪历史的重要部分，并呈现从文艺复兴到现在的科学家历史意识的出现和转变的一般知识史学描述。该项目注意到近年来对科学史学兴趣的增长，并探讨了一些主要主题（如科学事业中科学家的自我意识、科学与历史之间的关系以及历史的合法用途）。但是，它不是仅仅从意识形态或智力上看待这个主题，而是强调需要掌握不那么有形的方面，特别是“历史意识”或历史感的本质，科学史作为一种思维和意识模式的出现，以及科学与其历史之间的关系。它将追溯文艺复兴时期科学史写作的起源，通过启蒙运动对科学史的使用来说明理性的兴起和19世纪进步主义的解释。它还将研究科学史在20世纪作为一门独立学科的有效性，并使用自己的工具和概念，最后介绍该领域的最新发展，包括建构主义、语境、社会和性别方法。从对巴尔迪伟大历史的假设和看法的批判性分析和理解中获得的见解可能会有效地应用于历史和科学史学的后续版本和风格。该项目旨在综合指出从文艺复兴时期到现在一直主导科学史写作的各种解释的优缺点。迄今为止，还没有关于科学史学的一般叙述；这将是第一次对科学史进行一般性“史”的尝试。更广泛的影响该项目将始终强调科学及其当代文化和社会背景的共生关系，展示科学史学如何经历转变，以保持新的科学和文化趋势到今天，现代文化和社会的复杂性和碎片性反映在最近出现的新的有争议的科学史学方法和科学本身。这本书的目的是为了合理客观地描述他的科学工作的内部发展及其在文化和社会中更大的作用。它将阐明科学变化和进步的本质，以及科学发现的内在动力，以及科学运动和革命的连贯性。该项目的成果将通过两种不同的方式传播。一个是通过出版书籍的方式，另外两个是计划中的。其中一本是关于科学史学的变化面貌的书，它将有助于当前关于科学在社会中的作用以及现代生活中对科学的自主性和约束的讨论。那本书既适合普通读者，也适合专业读者。另一本书将收录大量重要人物传记的英文版本（首次提供英文版本）。这是为了使用学生和学者的科学史和文艺复兴时期的文化。另一种传播方式是利用网络；一个网站将提供原始手稿和巴尔迪其他作品的完整扫描。

IntroductionThis project will provide a detailed analysis of the first great history of the mathematical-physical sciences, Baldi's Lives of the Mathematicians, and then use that analysis as the lynchpin of a general evaluation of the changing concepts of "science" and "scientists" and of the "history of science" over the last 500 years. Baldi's Lives, written in Italian in 1587-96, consists of more than 200 biographies of mathematical scientists, amounting to a manuscript of over 2000 pages. It was rediscovered by the present author in Rome in 1972. The work is especially valuable since it was written by a practicing physicist who was connected to several leading mathematicians of the Renaissance. It reveals how a mathematical physicist sought to define and justify his own and his colleagues' scientific program at the outset of the Scientific Revolution by setting it in the context of the history of science since antiquity. Since Baldi, the nature of science has been expressed in changing contexts of the history of science, just as the history of science has gradually evolved as an independent discipline. This project will make available for the first time in English substantial portions of Baldi's history, as well as presenting a general intellectual historiographical account of the emergence and transformations of the historical consciousness of scientists from the Renaissance to the present.Intellectual MeritThe project takes note of the recent growth of interest in the historiography of science and pursues some of its main themes (such as the self-awareness of the scientist in the scientific enterprise, the relationship between science and its history, and the legitimating usefulness of history). But rather than merely looking at the subject ideologically or intellectually, it emphasizes the need to grasp less tangible aspects, particularly the nature of an "historical-mindedness" or sense of history, the emergence of the history of science as a mode of thinking and consciousness, and the relationship between science and its history. It will trace the origins of the writing of the history of science in the Renaissance through the Enlightenment's use of the history of science as illustrative of the rise of reason and nineteenth century progressivist interpretations. It will also examine the validation of the history of science as an independent discipline with its own tools and concepts in the twentieth century, and end with a presentation of the most recent developments in the field including constructivist, contextual, social and gender approaches. The insights gained from a critical analysis and understanding of the presuppositions and perceptions of Baldi's great history may fruitfully be applied to subsequent versions and styles of the history and historiography of science. The project aims at a synthesis that will indicate the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the various interpretations that have successively dominated the writing of the history of science from the Renaissance to the present day. To date, there is no general account of the historiography of science; this will be the first attempted general "history" of the history of science.Broader ImpactsThe project will throughout stress the symbiotic relationship of science and its contemporary cultural and social contexts, showing how the historiography of science has undergone transformations in keeping both with new scientific and cultural trends to the present day, where the complexity and fragmentation of modern culture and society are reflected in the emergence of recent new controversial approaches to the historiography of science and to science itself. It is intended to be of value as a reasonably objective description of his conception of both the internal development of his scientific work and its larger role in culture and society. It will illuminate the nature of scientific change and progress, as well as the internal dynamics of scientific discovery, and the coherence of scientific movements and revolutions. The results of the project will be disseminated by two distinct modes. One is by way of published books, and two of these are planned. One is a book on the changing face of the historiography of science, which will contribute to current discussion of the role of science in society and of the autonomy and constraints placed upon science in modern life. That book is intended for both general and specialized readerships. The other book will contain English versions of a large selection of the more important biographies in the Lives (making them available in English for the first time). This is intended to be of use to students and scholars of both the history of science and Renaissance culture. The other mode of dissemination will make use of the Web; a website will make available a complete scan of the original manuscripts and of Baldi's other works.