This project will provide a detailed analysis of the first great history of the mathematical-physical sciences, Baldi's Lives of the Mathematicians, and then use that analysis as the lynchpin of a general evaluation of the changing concepts of "science" and "scientists" and of the "history of science" over the last 500 years. Baldi's Lives, written in Italian in 1587-96, consists of more than 200 biographies of mathematical scientists, amounting to a manuscript of over 2000 pages. It was rediscovered by the present author in Rome in 1972. The work is especially valuable since it was written by a practicing physicist who was connected to several leading mathematicians of the Renaissance. It reveals how a mathematical physicist sought to define and justify his own and his colleagues' scientific program at the outset of the Scientific Revolution by setting it in the context of the history of science since antiquity. Since Baldi, the nature of science has been expressed in changing contexts of the history of science, just as the history of science has gradually evolved as an independent discipline. This project will make available for the first time in English substantial portions of Baldi's history, as well as presenting a general intellectual historiographical account of the emergence and transformations of the historical consciousness of scientists from the Renaissance to the present.
Intellectual Merit The project takes note of the recent growth of interest in the historiography of science and pursues some of its main themes (such as the self-awareness of the scientist in the scientific enterprise, the relationship between science and its history, and the legitimating usefulness of history). But rather than merely looking at the subject ideologically or intellectually, it emphasizes the need to grasp less tangible aspects, particularly the nature of an "historical-mindedness" or sense of history, the emergence of the history of science as a mode of thinking and consciousness, and the relationship between science and its history. It will trace the origins of the writing of the history of science in the Renaissance through the Enlightenment's use of the history of science as illustrative of the rise of reason and nineteenth century progressivist interpretations. It will also examine the validation of the history of science as an independent discipline with its own tools and concepts in the twentieth century, and end with a presentation of the most recent developments in the field including constructivist, contextual, social and gender approaches. The insights gained from a critical analysis and understanding of the presuppositions and perceptions of Baldi's great history may fruitfully be applied to subsequent versions and styles of the history and historiography of science. The project aims at a synthesis that will indicate the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the various interpretations that have successively dominated the writing of the history of science from the Renaissance to the present day. To date, there is no general account of the historiography of science; this will be the first attempted general "history" of the history of science.
Broader Impacts The project will throughout stress the symbiotic relationship of science and its contemporary cultural and social contexts, showing how the historiography of science has undergone transformations in keeping both with new scientific and cultural trends to the present day, where the complexity and fragmentation of modern culture and society are reflected in the emergence of recent new controversial approaches to the historiography of science and to science itself. It is intended to be of value as a reasonably objective description of his conception of both the internal development of his scientific work and its larger role in culture and society. It will illuminate the nature of scientific change and progress, as well as the internal dynamics of scientific discovery, and the coherence of scientific movements and revolutions. The results of the project will be disseminated by two distinct modes. One is by way of published books, and two of these are planned. One is a book on the changing face of the historiography of science, which will contribute to current discussion of the role of science in society and of the autonomy and constraints placed upon science in modern life. That book is intended for both general and specialized readerships. The other book will contain English versions of a large selection of the more important biographies in the Lives (making them available in English for the first time). This is intended to be of use to students and scholars of both the history of science and Renaissance culture. The other mode of dissemination will make use of the Web; a website will make available a complete scan of the original manuscripts and of Baldi's other works.
