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Plate
2 from Nova Reperta |
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The
Magnetic Earth |
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In De magnete, William Gilbert describes numerous experiments with the magnet or lodestone. Gilbert's treatise is a key text in the development of the experiment as a means of discovering truths about the natural world. In twentieth-century scholarship, De magnete is the focal point of a discussion about the origins of the methodology that became central to the experimental philosophy in the seventeenth century. One issue involves the extent to which Gilbert derived his methods and views from earlier treatises such as the thirteenth-century "Letter on the Magnet" by Pierre de Maricourt, first published in 1558, and The Newe Attractive by the retired mariner and compass maker, Robert Norman, first published in 1581. For most of his experiments
Gilbert chose a natural lodestone, which he shaped into a sphere
by turning the stone on a lathe. He called this round stone a terrella,
or little earth. The many images of this "little earth"
(of which the image shown here is the first) thoroughly prepare
the reader to accept Gilbert's conclusion that the earth itself
is a magnet. Nine years later, Galileo created strikingly earth-like images of the moon which he claimed to have viewed through his new instrument, the telescope. Galileo was acquainted with Gilbert's De magnete and may have noticed how effectively Gilbert used visual images of magnets that looked like small earths to help persuade his readers that the earth itself was actually a magnet. Pamela O.
Long Suggested Reading
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