Description
Book SynopsisThis volume puts two biblical miracles - the Sun reversing its course in II Kings 20:8-11/Isaiah 38:8 (Horologium Ahaz) and the Sun standing still in Joshua 10:12 -, in the early modern period centre stage. We pay special attention to the development of related imagery, their role as anti-Copernican arguments (in text and image), their reception, their treatment in the mathematical sciences, and their various cultural layers, with a focus on the history of art and the history of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The material discussed spreads from rather prosaic mathematical reflections to highly appealing visual representations of the two miracles.
Table of ContentsList of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction Julia Ellinghaus and Volker Remmert Part 1 The Horologium Ahaz and Joshua Stopping the Sun in Early Modern Printed Material 1 The Prayer of Joshua and the Dial of Ahaz Paratactic Scriptural Illustration in the Lempereur, Vorsterman, and Van Liesveldt Bibles Walter S. Melion 2 Mathematical Certainty and Biblical Inerrancy Pedro Nunes and the Retrogradation of Shadows at the Dial of Ahaz Henrique Leitão 3 Appealing to Ahaz The Jesuits and the Sundial of Ahaz in the Era of Copernican Astronomy Brent Purkaple Part 2 The Horologium Ahaz and Joshua Stopping the Sun on Early Modern Scientific Instruments 4 Turning Back the Sun Christoph Schissler’s ‘Horologium Ahaz’ as ‘Kunststück’ Andrew Morrall 5 Manipulating the Sun in Depictions on Early Modern Scientific Instruments An Iconographic Study Julia Ellinghaus and Volker Remmert Part 3 The Horologium Ahaz and Joshua Stopping the Sun in Art and Architecture in Specific Locations 6 Stairway to Heaven The Marvellous Staircases of the Medici Villa at Pratolino Denis Ribouillault 7 Joshua Stopping the Sun in the Gesù A Hypothesis Evonne Levy Bibliography Index
