The Age of Two-Faced Janus

This volume deals with the tracts, Latin and vernacular, published in the Netherlands on the comets of 1577 and 1618. Central to the book is the question how these cometary appearances influenced the Aristotelian world view.
Three introductory chapters on the historiography of cometology and the nature of sixteenth-century Aristotelianism are followed by a detailed examination of the Netherlandish authors' views on the nature and constitution of the universe. In the final chapter, their opinions on cometary prognostication are evaluated, and are linked to contemporary political developments.
This is the first lengthy examination of the decline of Aristotelian cosmology in the Netherlands. Its demonstration of the connection between cosmological and political views renders the book useful to historians of general Dutch history, as well as historians of science.

Tabitta van Nouhuys, Ph.D. (1997) in History, Leiden University, is a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. She studied History and Law at the University of Leiden.

"...a substantial new book."
Jane L. Jervis, ISIS, 2000.

"The reviewed book is a detailed and excellent study showing the variety of problems related to this process of intellectual development and it is thus valuable for readers interested in the history of science."
Alena Hadravová, Acta Comeniana, 2002.