Talk:De sphaera mundi

message: For earlier discussion related to a now-deleted article on this book, see Talk:Sphaera Mundi.
The deleted article was the subject of a dispute regarding whether the author was entitled to insist on attribution to another wiki. I did not rely on that article for any of the information I used to create this one, so the issue is now moot. Frankly, the article was of poor quality in any case, as it focused on a specific edition of the book (and not even the first printing), rather than being about the book itself.
From the previous discussion and my brief research, it remains unclear what the most common title of the book is, as it carried several in its various editions. Although "De sphaera mundi" gives it the real flavor of astronomy, it may be that plain "De sphaera" is more accurate. Anyone who wants to pursue this further should probably get their hands on The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators by Lynn Thorndike, which was mentioned earlier and would probably make a great start to building a "References" section. --Michael Snow 05:33, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Earlier article 

message: This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 03:30, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  WikiProject class rating

message: I marked the claim that this book proves that the belief that "13th century people were mostly Flat Earthers is wrong" as original research.  We need a secondary source that makes such an attribution.  For example, just because this one book did not hold to a Flat Earth perspective, does not rule out the possibility that others did.  Now, if a reliable secondary source says, "De sphaera mundi shows us that the belief in the 19th century that...", then we can attribute that and give a reference.  Absent such sourcing, though, the info should probably be removed.  Qwyrxian (talk) 00:18, 29 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The principal secondary source is no doubt Jeffrey Burton Russell, Inventing the Flat Earth. He stated in his summary  that he could find only two to five early Christian fathers who denied a spherical Earth but "On the other side tens of thousands of Christian theologians, poets, artists, and scientists took the spherical view throughout the early, medieval, and modern church." and "No one before the 1830s believed that medieval people thought that the earth was flat." So De sphaera mundi would have been only one example in a long list of medieval sources refuting the late 19th- and early 20th-century view "that medieval scholars from the 13th century thought the Earth was flat". See Myth of the Flat Earth. However, I cannot provide a citation that specifically mentions De sphaera mundi until I consult Russell. — Joe Kress (talk) 19:43, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

text: I'm adding the promised reference. — Joe Kress (talk) 07:01, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent, thanks!  Qwyrxian (talk) 07:14, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  OR 

message: As pointed out above the whole section "Spherical Earth" should be removed because it is not factual. This part is also incorrect:
: ... which agrees with widespread opinion in Europe during the higher Middle Ages, in contrast to statements of some 19th- and 20th-century historians that medieval scholars thought the Earth was flat.
I can give two important proofs that the Copernicus and people like him were regarded as fools in the middle ages. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin condemned these theories and it can be seen from their comments, that the idea of the earth being a spinning sphere was laughable at this time. The historians in the 19th- and 20th century were correct and this new teaching is not.
Calvin's account:
: And let us not be similar to those dreamers, who have a spirit of bitterness and contradiction, who reprove everything and pervert the order of nature. We will see some so deranged, not only in religion, but who demonstrate in all things that they have a monstrous nature, that they will say that the sun does not move, and that it is earth that moves and turns. When we see such minds, it must be said that the devil possess them, and may God set them before us as mirrors, to make us remain in his fear.
from Sermon 8 on 1 Corinthians 10:19—24 (translated from French), Joannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, Volume 49, page 677
And here's what Martin Luther had to say about it:
: It was thought of a new astrologer [meaning Copernikus], who wanted to prove that the earth would be moving and going around, not the sky or the firmament, the sun and the moon; Just as if someone is sitting and moving in a car or in a ship, would say that he was sitting quietly and calm, but the earth and the trees went around and moved. But nowadays it works like that: who wants to be clever should not have pleasure in what others do, he has to create something of his own, and it has to be the very best, the way he makes it. The fool wants to reverse the whole art of astronomy. But as the Holy Scripture shows, Joshua called the sun to stand still and not the earth. Joshua 10.12-13.
from Martin Luther, Colloquia Oder Tischreden, Chapter LXX "Von der Astrologia", page 433, Issued 1568 Google Books  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Retonom (talk • contribs) 05:11, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: You are mixing up two different things: (1) whether the Earth revolves around the sun and spins (the "Copernican" theory, which was controversial at the time) vs. the Earth being fixed with the stars and sun revolving around the earth, and (2) whether the Earth is spherical (accepted as an obvious fact by all astronomers and other educated people from the 4th century BC to the present). –jacobolus (t) 19:34, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  In the middle ages they didn't believe in the spinning ball 

message: In the aspect of the Article that "medieval scholars thought the Earth was flat," medieval scholars don't exist. We don't know who 'medieval scholars' are because it is a collective. 2600:1700:9B01:1A0:51E9:F617:EA76:8350 (talk) 06:14, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Medival Scholars