The Influence of Petrus Ramus

The volume originated in a workshop, held in the Bibelsaal of the Herzog August Library of Wolfenbüttel and devoted to an examination of the influence of Petrus Ramus. The papers, revised for publication, deal with the diverse use made of Ramus both by followers and adversaries in the religious and scholarly controversies that raged throughout (mainly) Protestant Europe during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In terms of organization the volume is divided along regional and thematic issues. The impact of Ramist ideas on Calvinism informs a first group of papers concentrating on various Reformed territories: Switzerland (Wolfgang Rother), the Netherlands (Theo Verbeek), Bremen and Gdansk (Thomas Elsmann). A second group examines Lutheran responses to Ramus: Joseph Freedman analyzes Melanchthon’s view, Riccardo Pozzo evaluates the criticism by the Helmstedt Aristotelians, and Erland Sellberg scrutinizes Ramus’ reception at the Swedish universities. Two further contributions probe the Ramist debate in the British Isles: in England (Mordechai Feingold) and in Ireland (Elizabethanne Boran). The section devoted to thematic issues places Ramus within Renaissance disciplines where his impact was most keenly felt: logic and literature (Kees Meerhoff), historiography and jurisprudence (Guido Oldrini), law and medicine (Ian Maclean), and astronomy (Nicholas Jardine and Alain Segonds). Content: Wolfgang Rother, Ramus and Ramism in Switzerland Theo Verbeek, Notes on Ramism in the Netherlands Thomas Elsmann, The Influence of Ramism on the Academies of Bremen and Danzig: A Comparison Joseph S. Freedman, Melanchthon’s Opinion of Ramus and the Utilization of Their Writings in Central Europe Riccardo Pozzo, Ramus’ Metaphysics and its Criticism by the Helmstedt Aristotelians Erland Sellberg, The Usefulness of Ramism Mordechai Feingold, English Ramism: A Reinterpretation Elizabethanne Boran, Ramism in Trinity College, Dublin in the Early Seventeenth Century Kees Meerhoff, “Beauty and the Beast”: Nature, Logic and Literature in Ramus Guido Oldrini, The Influence of Ramus’ Method on Historiography and Jurisprudence Ian Maclean, Logical Division and Visual Dichotomies: Ramus in the Context of Legal and Medical Writing Nicholas Jardine and Alain Segonds, A Challenge to the Reader: Ramus on Astrologia without Hypotheses