Le déclin d'un savoir. La crise de la cosmographie à la fin de la Renaissance - article ; n°2 ; vol.46, pg 239-260

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1991 - Volume 46 - Numéro 2 - Pages 239-260
The Decline of Scienc:e the Crisis of Cosmography at the End of the Renaissance.
Cosmography or universal geography was born in the sixteenth century from the encounter between the newly rediscovered Ptolemean cartography and the progress of the Great Navigations registered portolar charts The rapid growth of this scien ce whose theoretical ambition was to describe the earth according to the celestial circles at first brought fruitful results manifest in the amount of free play accorded to the practician and in the role given to the so-called prospective imagination But the same rapid growth quickly led to decline precipitated towards the end of the Renaissance by the suspicion which catholic and protestant theologians cast upon the pride and the vain curiosity presiding over the constitution of any universal science type of science which according to them held authorities in little respect and proudly based itself on the supremacy of mere experience
22 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.