• Frontispiece; Preface; List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Abbreviations; Introduction J. V. Field and Frank A. J. L. James; 1. Greek science in the sixteenth-century Renaissance Vivian Nutton; 2. 'With the rules of life and an enema': Leonardo Fioravanti's medical primitivism William Eamon; 3. The cutting edge of a revolution? Medicine and natural history near the shores of the North Sea Harold J. Cook; 4. Science and technology during the Scientific Revolution: an empirical approach Richard S. Westfall; 5. Mathematics and the craft of painting: Piero della Francesca and perspective J. V. Field; 6. Johannes Hevelius and the visual language of astronomy Mary G. Winkler and Albert van Helden; 7. Mathematical sciences and military technology: the Ordnance Office in the reign of Charles II Frances Willmoth; 8. Between ars and philosophia naturalis: reflections on the historiography of early modern mechanics Alan Gabbey; 9. The conscience of Robert Boyle: functionalism, 'dysfunctionalism' and the task of historical understanding Michael Hunter; 10. Clandestine Stoic concepts in mechanical philosophy: the problem of electrical attraction Gad Freudenthal; 11. Alchemy in the Newtonian circle: personal acquaintances and the problem of the late phase of Isaac Newton's alchemy Karin Figala and Ulrich Petzold; 12. Newton's subtle matter: the Opticks queries and the mechanical philosophy R. W. Home; 13. Huygens's reaction to Newton's gravitational theory Roberto de A. Martins; 14. The reception of Newton's Opticks in Italy Paolo Casini; 15. Marsigli, Benedict XIV and the Bolognese Institute of Sciences Giorgio Dragoni; Afterword: retrospection on the Scientific Revolution A. Rupert Hall; Bibliography; Index.

"An excellent collection of essays on the history of science, 1400-1750...It especially shows how the history of science is closely related to the history of culture. Indispensable for covering previously marginalized but important material." Journal of Religious Studies