Reading Question Assignment #1: Butterfield
Answer each of the following questions simply and clearly. In each case, you are being asked to
give the answer contained in the excerpt from Herbert Butterfield’s book The Origins of Modern
Science, 1300-1800, revised ed. (New York: Free Press 1965), 29-33.
1. Which view of the medieval cosmos does Butterfield take for a typical pattern?
2. Approximately how long did it take the Copernican view to surmount the objections it faced?
3. What is the basic geometric idea of the medieval cosmos?
4. Where, in this system, does the earth lie?
5. What are the two parts that, taken together, make up one whole cosmos?
6. What are the principal differences between them?
7. What are the four elements that make up the things around us? Do we ever see them in pure
form?
8. What would be the consequences if the elements did not mix?
9. What are the heavens made of?
10. What sort of motion is natural for the heavens?