Andrea Martocchia

Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy

Abstract

Guidelines for a social history of Astronomy

An analysis of the basic cultural, historical and social elements which allowed the re-discovery and transfer of astronomical knowledge, from the earlier Middle Age up to the birth of modern Astronomy, is presented in the new book Storia sociale dellAstronomia (A social history of Astronomy). The book describes the main factors which played a role in suppressing or re-awakening interest in astronomical observations and events down the centuries. Among such elements I include: the loss of Greek anguage knowledge as a vector of scientific knowledge; Christian and Islamic conceptions of Astrology; religious practices connected with observations; the birth of universities; the protestant paradigm and humanism; the evolution of the social figure of the scientist in the West, from monks to aristocrats, and from Renaissance lords to bourgeois entrepreneurs. I focus attention on the social phenomena which caused the development of astronomy as a science from the Middle Ages to the Copernican revolution, and claim that the ruling class attitude towards science is not only a matter for historical studies, but has much to do with the modern impoverishment and stagnation of astronomy.

 

Biographical Details

Andrea Martocchia is a physicist, specialising in High Energy Astrophysics and Gravitation. He has  dealt in particular with X-ray spectral analysis of compact binaries and active galactic nuclei (AGN) and, in a more theoretical approach, the problem of radiation transfer in the spacetime of spinning black holes (Kerr metric). Together with his collaborators, he has performed fully-relativistic computations and developed new software packages for fitting real data from accreting objects ,such as AGN and galactic black hole candidates (iron line profiles, Compton reflection). In recent years he hasconducted research on historical observations of supernovae and their identifications, the history of astronomy, and cultural Astronomy. He is currently working as an expert technician in the evaluation of physical agents (acoustics, vibrations, electromagnetic fields -EMF-, microclimate, optical radiation).

Website

http://digilander.libero.it/andreamartocchia/CUR/cureng.html