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Quadrivium · VII

Astronomy

It begins with anyone’s sky — Mars halting and sliding backward among the fixed stars — and asks what motions could save such appearances. Ptolemy’s answer ruled for fourteen centuries; the lectures follow why it fell.

I. What the Studium has

Test a model against appearance.

Companion to the Seven Pillars certificate

Model and appearance

SunEarthMars

Ptolemy model

Ptolemy builds a geometric model around the observed appearances of the heavens.

The appearance to be saved: watched night by night against the fixed stars, Mars slows, halts, and slides backward before going on its way.

Beyond the model

Where astronomy continues.

A model answers to the sky it claims to save. One companion below is for observing that sky; the other is the course this lab accompanies. Both are hosted elsewhere and open in a new tab.

Leaves for tracingthesky.comTracing the Sky Tracing the Sky is Joseph Tabenkin’s free astronomy platform, built on “Exploration through Observation.” Its Student Star Journal has you sketch the constellations and record what you actually saw; its short episodes build one idea at a time; its Explorer shows the sky from anywhere on earth at any time of year; and a Teacher Portal serves the classroom. Clicking leaves the Studium for tracingthesky.com in a new tab.Leaves for artsofliberty.orgThe Seven Pillars of Wisdom This lab is a companion to the certificate: seven liberal arts across forty-two lectures, ascending from the power of words to the intelligibility of the heavens, with astronomy last. Clicking leaves the Studium for the official course page on artsofliberty.org in a new tab; the work you have saved here stays where it is.

II. From the Seven Pillars

The Heavenly Art of Astronomy: the six lectures on this art in the Institute’s certificate course, given on artsofliberty.org and heard there.

  1. 1Introduction and Observation
  2. 2Ptolemy’s Almagest
  3. 3Ptolemaic Astronomy
  4. 4Copernicus on the Revolutions
  5. 5Kepler’s Astronomia Nova
  6. 6From Mathematics to Natural Science
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom ↗

III. In the galleries

  1. Philosophy and the Seven Liberal ArtsFrom the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg, Twelfth century
  2. The School of AthensRaphael, 1511
  3. The Seven Liberal ArtsFrancesco Pesellino, Painted in the artist’s lifetime, 1422–1457
  4. The Seven Liberal Arts Persecuted by Pluto and BacchusJost Amman, Sixteenth century
  5. The Seven Liberal ArtsVirgilius Solis, Sixteenth century
  6. Philosophy Presenting the Seven Liberal Arts to BoethiusCoëtivy Master (Henri de Vulcop), 1460–1470

IV. In the Library

The Astronomy shelf →The Quadrivium shelf →

V. In the Atlas

Continue the inquiry

Explore sources, people, and connected ideas.

Resource libraryOpen the astronomy collection →Tradition AtlasTrace proof, ratio, and motion →Teacher StudioTurn this art into a lesson →