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Science in the Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

J. L. Heilbron
J. L. Heilbron
Affiliation:
Office for History of Science and Technology University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

A brief review of the Merton thesis shows that its restriction to England is arbitrary. An example from the historiography of modern physics suggests the possible payoff of an ecumenical Merton thesis and the means to explore it. A summary of the careers of men who practiced science literally in the church – men who built meridian lines in Italian cathedrals – indicates the range of social support of astronomical studies by Catholic institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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Article
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Science in Context , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 1989, pp. 9 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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