Stones, Snowflakes, and Insect Eggs: Conrad Gessner’s Figura and Geometric Nature

• Rebecca Zorach ^[1]
  1. [1] Northwestern University

     Northwestern University

     Township of Evanston, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Nuncius: annali di storia della scienza, ISSN 0394-7394, Vol. 35, Nº. 2 (Special Issue), 2020 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Section 1: Other Worlds within a Hand’s Reach; Section 2: Early Modern Geometries), págs. 341-363
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper takes as its broad context the evolution of the place of geometry in ways of thinking about nature and art in early modern Europe. Considering a set of questions about how Nature creates geometric forms, particularly in minerals but also in other kinds of natural beings, the paper explores the concept of “figure” as it appears in Conrad Gessner’s De rerum fossilium, where figure appears as a broad category that cuts across abstract geometry, artifactual images, and shape appearing within natural entities. Gessner is placed within changing ideas about the role of geometry as an intellectual pursuit or, rather, a mechanical property of nature conceived as inanimate and rule-bound.