Abstract

Numerous early modern experimentalists, including Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon and Thomas Harriot, viewed one seemingly humble principle – that at a given volume, different substances can be identified by their particular weight, or specific gravity – as a fundamental key to the understanding of nature in general. Johannes Kepler’s Messekunst Archimedis of 1616 contains a striking summary of the experimental research on specific gravities in the long sixteenth-century. Counting himself amongst an extensive list of authors interested in this problem, Kepler mentions not only natural philosophers or mathematicians interested in Archimedes. His account surprisingly includes humanists, instrument makers, antiquarians and assayers. Received histories of specific gravities often focus on antecedents of modern disciplinary concepts and methodologies, where instead, Kepler’s account suggests the existence of a heterogeneous group of early modern experts involved in experiments on the quantification of matter, at the intersection between the history of science, practical mathematics and the humanities.

中文翻译：

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约翰尼斯·开普勒（Johannes Kepler）和16世纪漫长的物质重量探索

摘要

许多早期的现代实验主义者，包括伽利略·伽利莱，弗朗西斯·培根和托马斯·哈里奥特，都将一个看似卑微的原理视为：在给定的体积下，不同的物质可以通过其特定的重量或比重来识别，这是理解自然的根本关键。一般来说。约翰尼斯·开普勒（Johannes Kepler）的Messekunst Archimedis1616年的论文包含了16世纪漫长的比重实验研究的引人注目的摘要。开普勒在对这个问题感兴趣的众多作者中脱颖而出，不仅提到了对阿基米德感兴趣的自然哲学家或数学家。他的报告令人惊讶地包括人文主义者，仪器制造商，古生物和分析人员。收到的特定比重的历史通常集中在现代学科概念和方法的先例上，开普勒（Kepler）的说法相反，它们在科学史之间的交集处暗示着存在着一群从事物质定量实验的早期现代专家。实用数学和人文学科。