G. J. Rheticus and the Authorship of the Anonymous Epistola de terrae motu

Abstract

This thesis considers the anonymously published Epistola de terrae motu and the question of its authorship. The authorship of this treatise was attributed to G. J. Rheticus by Reijer Hooykaas in a publication released in 1984; however, that attribution is not decisive. The first chapter introduces De terrae motu and is followed by a second chapter that contains a review of the relevant historiography relating to scholarship on Rheticus. The third chapter presents Rheticus’ biography. The fourth chapter considers the inconclusive reasoning for the attribution of authorship to Rheticus. The fifth and sixth chapters consider the environment of scriptural hermeneutics in the early modern period, both theoretically and with recourse to specific texts, respectively. The seventh chapter concludes this thesis with a synthesis of the arguments herein which ultimately indicate that it is conceivable that Rheticus wrote De terrae motu but an early seventeenth-century Catholic author is more likely.