Copernicus and Meteorology

Galileo’s World at a Glance
Gallery at the Exhibit Website
Location: National Weather Center.

How does meteorology facilitate interdisciplinary discovery?

From antiquity to the present, meteorology has always been a meeting place of many disciplines. Astronomy, optics, chemistry and the geosciences are just a few of the disciplines once pursued in close association with meteorology. Throughout history, meteorologists have adopted innovative methodologies to address emerging research problems that require multidisciplinary expertise. 

Section 1: Meteorology

From antiquity to the present, meteorology has always been a meeting place of many disciplines. Astronomy, optics, chemistry and the geosciences are just a few of the disciplines once pursued in close association with meteorology. Throughout history, meteorologists have adopted innovative methodologies to address emerging research problems that require multidisciplinary expertise. 

1. Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888), “The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology.”
2. Aristotle, Meteorologicorum (Paris, 1556), “Meteorology.”
3. Erasmus Reinhold, Demonstratio halonis (Wittenberg, ca. 1550), manuscript, “Demonstration of the Halo.”
4. Pierre D’Ailly, Meterororum (Leipzig, 1506), “Meteorology.”
5. Seneca, Naturalium quaestionum (Venice, 1522), “Natural Questions.”
6. Paracelsus, Das Büch meteororum (Cologne, 1566), “The Book of Meteorology.”
7. Paracelsus, Prognostication (Augsburg, 1536), “Forecasts.”
8. René Descartes, Les Météores, in Discours de la Methode (Leiden, 1637), “On Meteorology,” in “Discourse on Method.”
9. Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Amsterdam, 1617), 3d. edition, “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.”
10. Leonard Digges, A Prognostication Everlasting of Right Good Effect…; Lately corrected and augmented by Thomas Digges his sonne (London, 1605).
11. Althanasius Kircher, Mundus subterraneus (Amsterdam, 1665), “Subterranean World.”
12. Ruder Boscovic, Sopra il Turbine (Rome, 1749), “On the Tornado.”
13. John P. Finley, Tornadoes: What they are and how to observe them (New York, 1887), copy 2.
14. John Dalton, Meteorological Essays (London, 1793).
15. Alfred Wegener, The Origin of Continents and Oceans (London, 1924).

Further reading:

• Stillman Drake, Galileo: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2001; originally printed 1983 in the Past Masters series), discussion guide.
• Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (Walker, 1999)
• Maurice Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo (Hackett, 2008)

Curators: Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple. Links are to the Exhibit Guide, also available from the iBook Store. Open Educational Resources are available at lynx-open-ed.org and ShareOK.