From 1585 to 1843, the Dutch town Franeker housed the University of Franeker. It had its peak in the seventeenth century and attracted students from Protestant countries throughout Europe. A library was founded right from the start and its collection has been preserved almost entirely. Eleven catalogues were printed in the course of its existence, and as a result the development of the collection can be examined chronologically. The Library of Franeker University in Context, 1585–1843 discusses the relationship with education at Franeker University in detail, and makes a comparison with other similar libraries.
This issue of History of Universities, Volume XXXI / 2, contains the customary mix of learned articles and book reviews which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.
This issue of History of Universities, Volume XXXI / 2, contains the customary mix of learned articles and book reviews which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.
Containing many previously unpublished letters, this third volume of a six volume collection of the complete correspondence of John Wallis (1616-1703), documents an important period in the history of the Royal Society and the University of Oxford. By providing access to these letters, this painstakingly crafted edition will enable readers to gain a deeper and richer awareness of the intellectual culture on which the growth of scientific knowledge in early modern Europe was based. Wallis was Savilian Professor of Geometry of Oxford from 1649 until his death, and was a founding member of the Royal Society and a central figure in the scientific and intellectual history of England. In the period covered Wallis is engaged in scientific debates on techniques for determining areas contained by curves (quadratures) and figures (cubatures), as well as on the theory of motion and the nature of the tides. He also continues to attack the mathematical undertakings of Thomas Hobbes and to respond to attacks which the philosopher in turn levels against him. We also find evidence for the consolidation of mathematics as an academic discipline in the University of Oxford just fifty years after the establishment of the first mathematical lecturerships. Wallis is called upon more than once to deliver ceremonial lectures on mathematical topics to foreign dignitaries visiting the University. At the same time the volume allows us to witness the beginnings of a remarkable development in mathematical publishing. Many of Wallis's letters to Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, on a variety of topics in the mathematical and physical sciences, are transformed into articles and published in Oldenburg's journal, the Philosophical Transactions. Part of the reason for this development also becomes clear in the letters: the long and costly process of publishing mathematical books such as Wallis's three part Mechanica: sive de motu. This volume not only signals the modernization of mathematics in the second half of the seventeenth century but we also see two new figures emerge for the first time, whose careers are in different ways closely associated with Wallis: Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Winner of the Jewish Book Council Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship This book explores the reception history of the most important Jewish Bible commentary ever composed, the Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105). Though the Commentary has benefited from enormous scholarly attention, analysis of diverse reactions to it has been surprisingly scant. Viewing its path to preeminence through a diverse array of religious, intellectual, literary, and sociocultural lenses, Eric Lawee focuses on processes of the Commentary's canonization and on a hitherto unexamined--and wholly unexpected--feature of its reception: critical, and at times astonishingly harsh, resistance to it. Lawee shows how and why, despite such resistance, Rashi's interpretation of the Torah became an exegetical classic, a staple in the curriculum, a source of shared religious vocabulary for Jews across time and place, and a foundational text that shaped the Jewish nation's collective identity. The book takes as its larger integrating perspective processes of canonicity as they shape how traditions flourish, disintegrate, or evolve. Rashi's scriptural magnum opus, the foremost work of Franco-German (Ashkenazic) biblical scholarship, faced stiff competition for canonical supremacy in the form of rationalist reconfigurations of Judaism as they developed in Mediterranean seats of learning. It nevertheless emerged triumphant in an intense battle for Judaism's future that unfolded in late medieval and early modern times. Investigation of the reception of the Commentary throws light on issues in Jewish scholarship and spirituality that continue to stir reflection, and even passionate debate, in the Jewish world today.
Twelve original essays by an international team of scholars investigate the relation of John Locke's thought to Descartes and Cartesianism. They explore not only these philosophers' theories of knowledge, but also their views on natural philosophy, metaphysics, and religion.
