The present catalogue seeks to provide a comprehensive record of the 1,532 editions printed in the 15th and 16th centuries held in the legal historical section of the Biblioteca di Scienze Sociali of the Università degli Studi di Firenze. This library is the successor to that of the Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, the nucleus of which remains the historic collection of the Collegio degli Avvocati di Firenze acquired in 1924. Supplemented by further important acquisitions, including the library of the Corte di Appello di Firenze, the collection has come to be numbered among the foremost in its fi eld in Italy. It exhibits a wide range not only of the famous medieval authors of the ius commune, but also of the growing number of contemporary 16th century jurists.

The present catalogue is the second of three volumes which record the books printed before 1801 currently held by the legal historical section of the Biblioteca di Scienze Sociali of the Università degli Studi di Firenze. This volume encompasses 2,424 editions published between 1601 and 1700. The present Florence library is the successor to that of the Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, the nucleus of which is the historic collection of the Collegio degli Avvocati di Firenze acquired in 1924. Supplemented by further important acquisitions, including the library of the Corte d'Appello, the collection has come to be numbered among the foremost in its field in Italy. The 17th century volume reflects primarily the Jurisprudence of the Baroque, the vast production of the jurists of Spain and Italy, but is by no means lacking in editions of the foremost jurists of contemporary Northern Europe.

The present catalogue is the second of three volumes which record the books printed before 1801 currently held by the legal historical section of the Biblioteca di Scienze Sociali of the Università degli Studi di Firenze. This volume encompasses 2,424 editions published between 1601 and 1700. The present Florence library is the successor to that of the Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, the nucleus of which is the historic collection of the Collegio degli Avvocati di Firenze acquired in 1924. Supplemented by further important acquisitions, including the library of the Corte d'Appello, the collection has come to be numbered among the foremost in its field in Italy. The 17th century volume reflects primarily the Jurisprudence of the Baroque, the vast production of the jurists of Spain and Italy, but is by no means lacking in editions of the foremost jurists of contemporary Northern Europe.

The first in-depth study of the life and works of Augurello, Italian alchemist, poet and art connoisseur from the time of Giorgione.

Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East. Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences.

This volume surveys 150 law books of fundamental importance in the history of Western legal literature and culture. The entries are organized in three sections: the first dealing with the transitional period of fifteenth-century editions of medieval authorities, the second spanning the early modern period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and the third focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors are scholars from all over the world. Each ‘old book’ is analyzed by a recognized specialist in the specific field of interest. Individual entries give a short biography of the author and discuss the significance of the works in the time and setting of their publication, and in their broader influence on the development of law worldwide. Introductory essays explore the development of Western legal traditions, especially the influence of the English common law, and of Roman and canon law on legal writers, and the borrowings and interaction between them. The book goes beyond the study of institutions and traditions of individual countries to chart a broader perspective on the transmission of legal concepts across legal, political, and geographical boundaries. Examining the branches of this genealogical tree of books makes clear their pervasive influence on modern legal systems, including attempts at rationalizing custom or creating new hybrid systems by transplanting Western legal concepts into other jurisdictions.

The treatise De mundo offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity.

This book presents the extraordinary story of a Bolognese woman of the settecento. Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (1711-1778) defended 49 Theses at the University of Bologna on April 17, 1732 and was awarded a doctoral degree on May 12 of the same year. Three weeks before her defense, she was made a member of the Academy of Sciences in Bologna. On June 27 she defended 12 additional Theses. Several of the 61 Theses were on physics and other science topics. Laura was drawn by the philosophy of Newton at a time when most scientists in Europe were still focused on Descartes and Galen. This last set of Theses was to encourage the University of Bologna to provide a lectureship to Laura, which they did on October 29, 1732. Although quite famous in her day, Laura Bassi is unfortunately not remembered much today. This book presents Bassi within the context of the century when she lived and worked, an era where no women could attend university anywhere in the world, and even less become a professor or a member of an academy. Laura was appointed to the Chair of experimental physics in 1776 until her death. Her story is an amazing one. Laura was a mother, a wife and a good scientist for over 30 years. She made the transition from the old science to the new very early on in her career. Her work was centered on real problems that the City of Bologna needed to solve. It was an exciting time of discovery and she was at the edge of it all the way.

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology. Johannes de Sacrobosco compiled his Tractatus de sphaera during the thirteenth century in the frame of his teaching activities at the then recently founded University of Paris. It soon became a mandatory text all over Europe. As a result, a tradition of commentaries to the text was soon established and flourished until the second half of the 17th century. Here, readers will find an informative overview of these commentaries complete with a rich context. The essays explore the educational and social backgrounds of the writers. They also detail how their careers developed after the publication of their commentaries, the institutions and patrons they were affiliated with, what their agenda was, and whether and how they actually accomplished it. The editor of this collection considers these scientific commentaries as genuine scientific works. The contributors investigate them here not only in reference to the work on which it comments but also, and especially, as independent scientific contributions that are socially, institutionally, and intellectually contextualized around their authors.