Periodic Reporting for period 1 - JOPHIL (Re-orienting the foundations of 'new science': John Philoponus and the modern theories of space and void (1520-1604))
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-09-01 al 2025-08-31
JOPHIL opens a new window onto one of the most fundamental questions in the history of science: where do our modern ideas of space and emptiness come from?
Today, we hardly pause to think about it – we simply assume that objects occupy three dimensions, and that empty space exists all around us, whether in the natural world or inside a laboratory vacuum chamber. Yet for most of Western history, these ideas were far from obvious. In fact, the most influential philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle, believed that space had only two dimensions and insisted that a true void was impossible. His powerful worldview shaped European thought for nearly two thousand years.
Everything began to change with the bold insights of John Philoponus, a remarkable 6th-century scholar from North Africa who wrote in Greek. Philoponus challenged Aristotle head-on, proposing a radically different understanding of space and arguing that the void could indeed exist. But his writings disappeared from view in the Latin-speaking West for centuries. It was only in 15th-century Italy that his works were rediscovered, translated, and suddenly made available to Renaissance thinkers.
Their effect was nothing short of transformative. Philoponus’s ideas gave early modern scholars new conceptual tools with which to question inherited assumptions about the physical world. His works helped spark debates that would eventually contribute to the birth of the “new science” of the 17th century – the era of Galileo, Kepler, and Descartes.
JOPHIL is the first project to trace, in a systematic way, how Philoponus’s revolutionary ideas re-entered Europe and reshaped scientific thought. It follows the story from the physical recovery of his manuscripts in Renaissance Italy to their intellectual uptake by five key European thinkers who read and discussed his works between 1520 and 1604. In doing so, JOPHIL challenges long-standing Eurocentric narratives about the Scientific Revolution, showing how a thinker from outside Europe’s traditional canon played a crucial role in reimagining the nature of space and the possibility of the void.
By recovering this overlooked chapter of scientific history, JOPHIL reframes the origins of modern science in two important ways. First, it highlights the contributions of non-European scholars to the development of European thought, encouraging us to see Europe’s intellectual heritage as the product of many cultures, languages, and traditions. Second, it expands the cast of characters who shaped early modern science, opening the way to more inclusive historical research and educational practices.
In short, JOPHIL not only rewrites a key moment in the history of ideas—it also invites us to rethink who gets to be part of the story of science.
Today, we hardly pause to think about it – we simply assume that objects occupy three dimensions, and that empty space exists all around us, whether in the natural world or inside a laboratory vacuum chamber. Yet for most of Western history, these ideas were far from obvious. In fact, the most influential philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle, believed that space had only two dimensions and insisted that a true void was impossible. His powerful worldview shaped European thought for nearly two thousand years.
Everything began to change with the bold insights of John Philoponus, a remarkable 6th-century scholar from North Africa who wrote in Greek. Philoponus challenged Aristotle head-on, proposing a radically different understanding of space and arguing that the void could indeed exist. But his writings disappeared from view in the Latin-speaking West for centuries. It was only in 15th-century Italy that his works were rediscovered, translated, and suddenly made available to Renaissance thinkers.
Their effect was nothing short of transformative. Philoponus’s ideas gave early modern scholars new conceptual tools with which to question inherited assumptions about the physical world. His works helped spark debates that would eventually contribute to the birth of the “new science” of the 17th century – the era of Galileo, Kepler, and Descartes.
JOPHIL is the first project to trace, in a systematic way, how Philoponus’s revolutionary ideas re-entered Europe and reshaped scientific thought. It follows the story from the physical recovery of his manuscripts in Renaissance Italy to their intellectual uptake by five key European thinkers who read and discussed his works between 1520 and 1604. In doing so, JOPHIL challenges long-standing Eurocentric narratives about the Scientific Revolution, showing how a thinker from outside Europe’s traditional canon played a crucial role in reimagining the nature of space and the possibility of the void.
By recovering this overlooked chapter of scientific history, JOPHIL reframes the origins of modern science in two important ways. First, it highlights the contributions of non-European scholars to the development of European thought, encouraging us to see Europe’s intellectual heritage as the product of many cultures, languages, and traditions. Second, it expands the cast of characters who shaped early modern science, opening the way to more inclusive historical research and educational practices.
In short, JOPHIL not only rewrites a key moment in the history of ideas—it also invites us to rethink who gets to be part of the story of science.
JOPHIL has uncovered a fascinating and largely untold story about how an ancient thinker’s daring ideas re-entered Europe and helped reshape early modern science. Its findings fall into two major achievements:
1. Reconstructing the hidden journey of Philoponus’s manuscripts
One of JOPHIL’s central contributions has been to trace how John Philoponus’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics physically circulated across Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Through an in-depth investigation of every surviving manuscript, the project identified 21 handwritten copies of the work — significantly expanding the list established by the 19th-century scholar Girolamo Vitelli, who had documented only 16.
This meticulous research revealed far more than just numbers. By studying these manuscripts — their scribes, owners, annotations, and the places where they were produced or collected — JOPHIL has illuminated the networks of scholars, copyists, and patrons who played a key role in bringing Philoponus’s ideas back into European intellectual life. These findings help us understand how a forgotten ancient text travelled through Renaissance Europe and who made its rediscovery possible.
2. Uncovering how Philoponus shaped the scientific language of early modern Europe
JOPHIL also examined the two major Latin translations of Philoponus’s work, produced in the 1500s by Guglielmo Doroteo (1539) and Giovanni Battista Rasario (1558). By comparing all printed editions of these translations — spanning from 1539 to 1581 — the project showed how translators grappled with highly technical Greek terminology and, in doing so, helped shape the scientific vocabulary used by early modern thinkers to describe space, motion, and the void.
This is the first time researchers have been able to map the actual spread of Philoponus’s ideas in Latin, the scholarly language of the time. The evidence reveals that his Physics attracted sustained interest among Renaissance scholars, who read, edited, and reissued these translations for decades. Their engagement shows just how deeply Philoponus influenced the conceptual tools that paved the way for the scientific transformations of the 17th century.
In bringing these pieces together, JOPHIL paints a vivid picture of how an innovative thinker from late antiquity re-entered the European imagination—and how his ideas quietly but powerfully helped shape the foundations of modern science.
1. Reconstructing the hidden journey of Philoponus’s manuscripts
One of JOPHIL’s central contributions has been to trace how John Philoponus’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics physically circulated across Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Through an in-depth investigation of every surviving manuscript, the project identified 21 handwritten copies of the work — significantly expanding the list established by the 19th-century scholar Girolamo Vitelli, who had documented only 16.
This meticulous research revealed far more than just numbers. By studying these manuscripts — their scribes, owners, annotations, and the places where they were produced or collected — JOPHIL has illuminated the networks of scholars, copyists, and patrons who played a key role in bringing Philoponus’s ideas back into European intellectual life. These findings help us understand how a forgotten ancient text travelled through Renaissance Europe and who made its rediscovery possible.
2. Uncovering how Philoponus shaped the scientific language of early modern Europe
JOPHIL also examined the two major Latin translations of Philoponus’s work, produced in the 1500s by Guglielmo Doroteo (1539) and Giovanni Battista Rasario (1558). By comparing all printed editions of these translations — spanning from 1539 to 1581 — the project showed how translators grappled with highly technical Greek terminology and, in doing so, helped shape the scientific vocabulary used by early modern thinkers to describe space, motion, and the void.
This is the first time researchers have been able to map the actual spread of Philoponus’s ideas in Latin, the scholarly language of the time. The evidence reveals that his Physics attracted sustained interest among Renaissance scholars, who read, edited, and reissued these translations for decades. Their engagement shows just how deeply Philoponus influenced the conceptual tools that paved the way for the scientific transformations of the 17th century.
In bringing these pieces together, JOPHIL paints a vivid picture of how an innovative thinker from late antiquity re-entered the European imagination—and how his ideas quietly but powerfully helped shape the foundations of modern science.
JOPHIL has pushed far beyond existing scholarship, opening up an entirely new perspective on how modern ideas of space and the void emerged just before the Scientific Revolution. For the first time, the project has offered a complete picture of how John Philoponus’s bold rethinking of Aristotle influenced the intellectual world of early modern Europe — at the very moment when science was beginning to take a transformative new direction.
The findings of JOPHIL are already proving invaluable to historians of science and philosophy. By illuminating the pathways through which Philoponus’s works resurfaced, circulated, and inspired new debates, the project provides fresh tools for understanding the cultural history of Europe between the Renaissance and the dawn of modern science. So far, JOPHIL has produced two major scholarly contributions.
First, it has delivered a detailed study of how Philoponus’s writings on natural philosophy survived and circulated in the medieval Greek world, ensuring that his ideas were preserved long enough to be rediscovered centuries later.
Second, it has compiled the first comprehensive census of the manuscripts and printed editions that transmitted his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics — the very text in which he challenged the ancient belief that void space could not exist.
Together, these achievements allow researchers to trace, step by step, the remarkable journey of Philoponus’s revolutionary ideas from late antiquity into the heart of Renaissance Europe. They reveal how early modern scholars gradually absorbed a radically new conception of space and emptiness, one that helped set the stage for the scientific breakthroughs of the 17th century.
In doing so, JOPHIL also invites us to reconsider the diverse cultural roots of European identity. By highlighting the crucial role played by Mediterranean intellectual traditions — Greek, North African, and beyond — the project shows that Europe’s scientific heritage was shaped not only within its own borders, but through centuries of exchange, translation, and dialogue across the wider Mediterranean world.
The findings of JOPHIL are already proving invaluable to historians of science and philosophy. By illuminating the pathways through which Philoponus’s works resurfaced, circulated, and inspired new debates, the project provides fresh tools for understanding the cultural history of Europe between the Renaissance and the dawn of modern science. So far, JOPHIL has produced two major scholarly contributions.
First, it has delivered a detailed study of how Philoponus’s writings on natural philosophy survived and circulated in the medieval Greek world, ensuring that his ideas were preserved long enough to be rediscovered centuries later.
Second, it has compiled the first comprehensive census of the manuscripts and printed editions that transmitted his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics — the very text in which he challenged the ancient belief that void space could not exist.
Together, these achievements allow researchers to trace, step by step, the remarkable journey of Philoponus’s revolutionary ideas from late antiquity into the heart of Renaissance Europe. They reveal how early modern scholars gradually absorbed a radically new conception of space and emptiness, one that helped set the stage for the scientific breakthroughs of the 17th century.
In doing so, JOPHIL also invites us to reconsider the diverse cultural roots of European identity. By highlighting the crucial role played by Mediterranean intellectual traditions — Greek, North African, and beyond — the project shows that Europe’s scientific heritage was shaped not only within its own borders, but through centuries of exchange, translation, and dialogue across the wider Mediterranean world.