Portrait of Copernicus
Department of the History of Science
History of Science, Medicine, and Technology

Michael H. Shank

Professor, History of Science and Integrated Liberal Studies

Office: Room 326, Bradley Memorial Building
Mail: Department of the History of Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Room 326, Bradley Memorial Building
1225 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1528 USA
Tel: 608-262-3972
Fax: 608-262-3984
Email: mhshank@wisc.edu
C.V.: Shank CV.pdf
Photo of Michael H. Shank

Special interests and recent research:

Broad interests in the physical sciences (and their analogues and contexts) before 1700. Primary research interests focus on late medieval natural philosophy and astronomy, with special attention to the Viennese tradition and most specifically, of late, the work of Johannes Regiomontanus (d. 1476). Additional related interests: science and the medieval university, science and early printing, and Piero della Francesca.

Recent book publications:

  • Coeditor (with David C. Lindberg), The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 2: The Middle Ages (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
  • Coeditor (with Peter Harrison and Ronald Numbers), Wrestling With Nature: From Omens to Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
  • “Myth #2: That the Medieval Christian Church suppressed the Growth of Science” in Ronald Numbers, ed., Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion (Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press, 2009), pp. 18-27.
  • “Astronomia tra corte e università,” in Il Rinascimento italiano e l’Europa, vol. 5: Le scienze, Antonio Clericuzio and Germana Ernst, eds. (Treviso: Angelo Colla, 2008), pp. 3-20.
  • “Mechanical Thinking in European Astronomy (13th-15th Centuries),” in Massimo Bucciantini, Michele Camerota, and Sophie Roux, eds., Mechanics and Cosmology in the Medieval and Early Modern Period (Biblioteca di Nuncius, 64) (Florence: Leo Olschki, 2007), pp. 3-27.
  • "Setting the Stage: Galileo in Tuscany, the Veneto, and Rome," in Ernan McMullin, ed., The Church and Galileo (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 57-87.
  • Edited The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Readings from Isis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

Recent article publications:

  • "The Geometrical Diagrams in Regiomontanus’s Edition of his Own Disputationes (c. 1475): Background, Production, and Diffusion," Journal for the History of Astronomy 43 (2012), 27-55.
  • “Setting Up Copernicus? Francesco Capuano da Manfredonia's Expositio on the Sphere of Sacrobosco,” in Early Science and Medicine 14 (2009), 290-315.
  • “Regiomontanus as a Physical Astronomer: Samplings from the Defence of Theon against George of Trebizond,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 38 (2007), 325-49.
  • "Rings in Fluid Heaven: The Equatorium-Driven Cosmology of Guido de Marchia (fl. 1309)" Centaurus 45 (2003), 175-203.
  • "Goldsteinian Themes in Regiomontanus's 'Defense of Theon against George of Trebizond'," Perspectives on Science 10 (2003), 179-207.

Recent talks:

  • Plenary speaker, "Reflections on the scientia stellarum in the new universities (14th-15th centuries)," SIEPM workshop [Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale] (Univ. of Łodz, Łodz, Poland), 8-10 September 2011.
  • "Astrology and Politics in the Background to the Galileo Affair." Rava Memorial Lecture, Department of French and Italian, Washington University, St. Louis, 10 February 2011.
  • "Le raptus du primum mobile sur les éléments, de Sacrobosco à Galilée" in the workshop "Les effets du mouvement céleste sur les éléments" (Equipe CHSPAM du laboratoire SPHERE – Université de Paris 7/CNRS, Paris, 4 November 2010.
  • "The Mercury Diagrams of Regiomontanus’s Disputationes," for the workshop: The Production and Function of Astronomical Images, 1450-1650, Cambridge University, 25-26 June 2010.
  • Center for Medieval Studies and SLUUMM Project of the University of Stockholm), Berlin Text-editing Workshop, Berlin, 27 May 2010.
  • "Academic Debate in Late-medieval Vienna: Gleanings from the miscellany of Johannes Bremis (d. 1389) in Vienna, ÖNB 4371" and “The Problem of the Fifteenth Century for the Histories of the University and Science,” Center for Medieval Studies, University of Stockholm, 3-4 May 2010.
  • "How the Context of Copernicus is Changing our Image of Him," Conference: The Jews and the Science of the Stars, Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel), 2-4 February 2010.
  • "In the Wake of Bessarion's Greek Almagest: The Circulation of Ptolemy in the Fifteenth Century," Conference: Between Orient and Occident --- Transformation of Knowledge, Deutsches Museum, Munich, 7 November 2009.
  • "Galileo, Mover and Shaker," Astronomy Department, Board of Visitors Event at American Players Theater, Spring Green, Wisconsin, 20 July 2009.
  • "The Galilei, Father and Son," Madison Early Music Festival, 12 July 2009.
  • "Cross-cultural Aspects of Pre-Copernican Astronomy," Vatican Observatory Summer School, Sassone (Italy), 22 June 2009.
  • "Astrology and Politics in the Galileo Affair," University of Michigan, 12 February 2009; De Pauw University, 18 March 2009.
  • "The Interaction of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in Late-Medieval Astronomy," European Science Foundation Workshop. Mechanics and Cosmology, Granada (Spain), 18-20 October 2007.
  • "Rough Edges: Raptus and the Medieval Disturbances of the Celestial-Terrestrial Boundary," European Science Foundation Workshop. Mechanics and Cosmology, Max-Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, 8-10 November 2006.
  • "The Faces of Saturn: Images and Texts to 1650," INSAP V, The Adler Planetarium, Chicago, 29 June 2005.
  • "Preparing Copernicus: Regiomontanus's Fifteenth-Century Critique of Astronomy," Distinguished Faculty Lectures (Focus on the Humanities), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 9 March 2005.
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