Abstract
This program aims to fill a gap in our understanding of the history of atomism by exploring Renaissance forms of vitalistic atomism. It opens with an analysis of the sixteenth-century humanist ?recovery? of Simplicius? commentary (published in Greek in 1526, in Latin in 1543) on Aristotle?s Physics. Using a multidisciplinary approach, it will examine the interactions between atomism and the Aristotelian commentary tradition in philosophy, science and medicine. More broadly, this research program will contribute to a revaluation of the impact of Renaissance humanism on early modern European thought through the rebirth of Presocratic philosophy and especially ancient atomism. This program will thus address the transmission, circulation and transformation of ideas as part of a broader sociology of knowledge. Project 1 is dedicated to the reception of corpuscular ideas spawned by the recovery of Simplicius? commentary. It then analyzes the interpretations of these ideas by major Renaissance authors (Italian and German). Finally, it traces the European dissemination of this current, especially its integration into the teachings of medical schools. Project 1 will generate three or four articles and one monograph. Project 2 is devoted to the reception of atomism in two Renaissance authors, Girolamo Fracastoro and Julius Caesar Scaliger, and will result in a number of scholarly articles. Project 3 addresses the case of a Renaissance philosopher, Giordano Bruno, and result in a doctoral dissertation. Project 4 is the concluding monograph on the rise of a vitalistic type of atomism in the Renaissance.