History of Physics

We engage in research on history of physical concepts and ideas, especially in pre-modern times and including non-European cultures. The aim of our research is to analyse the intellectual and cultural stimuli and constraints physicists were subject to in various periods of human history, from ancient, through medieval to modern times and in various cultural, religious, and ideological environments, and to explore the interrelationship between these ideas and the world-views prevailing at that time.

Special topics investigated at the moment:

• Medieval planetary astronomy, especially MS 38 from the University of Graz Library:
  The tabula astronomica included in this manuscript from the 12th century is very special, differing in peculiar features from other planetary diagrams.

• Astronomicum Caesareum of Peter Apian:
  Manuscript from the Library of "Stift Rein", author unknown, containing the drawings of Peter Apians famous Astronomicum Caesareum

• Leopold Biwald:
  German translation of Biwalds "Physica Generalis" (1769)