Hemelse tekenen. Nederlandse opvattingen over de komeet van 1618

Heavenly signs. Dutch conceptions of the comet of 1618 The seventeenth-century fear for comets is, since the enlightenment, generally considered as a 'superstition' due to ignorance about the workings of nature. A closer examination of the tracts devoted to the great comet of 1618 by the famous Dutch natural philosophers Snellius and Mulerius, the well-known theologian Maccovius, and the popular poet Cats shows that the observation of comets played a significant role in the proof of the existence of God, and so, did not involve superstition at all. The idea that comets, like other portents, we... Mehr ...