AUTOR · PERSONA
Lynn Thorndike
Firma los ocho tomos de *A History of Magic and Experimental Science*, que este corpus tiene fichados uno por uno, y la portada del primero lo presenta como «LYNN THORNDIKE, PH.D~ Professor of History in Western Reserve University» «Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (1923) · p. 3». Wouter Hanegraaff le da sus fechas y sitúa la obra entre 1923 y 1958 «Hanegraaff — Esotericism and the Academy (2012) · p. 329».
Su tesis está dicha en la primera plana del cuerpo del volumen I y es la que hace que el corpus entero lo cite: «magic and experimental science have been connected ill their development : that magicians were perhaps the first to experiment» «Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (1923) · p. 42». La palabra magia la usa «in the broadest sense of the word, as including all occult arts and sciences, superstitions, and folk-lore» «Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (1923) · p. 42», y se compromete a justificar ese uso desde las fuentes.
Es también un actor cuya obra el corpus discute. George Sarton, en la reseña de 1924 que Hanegraaff cita, le opone que «science is essentially progressive, while magic is essentially conservative» «Hanegraaff — Esotericism and the Academy (2012) · p. 331»; Lawrence Principe le objeta el trato que da a la alquimia de Boyle «Principe — The Aspiring Adept (1998) · p. 34»; William Newman, una atribución «Newman — Atoms and Alchemy (2006) · p. 49»; y Hanegraaff mismo, una tesis sobre la astrología medieval «Hanegraaff — Esotericism and the Academy (2012) · p. 184». Ninguna de las objeciones se adopta ni se armoniza con lo que él dice, y él mismo las había pedido: «I have no doubt there are other errors as well as omissions which other scholars will be able to point out and which I trust they will» «Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (1923) · p. 11».
L. Thorndike · Thorndike, Lynn
8 atribuciones recibidas · 18 afirmaciones
Obras que se le atribuyen
con el tipo de cada atribuciónThorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (1923) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science II [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science III (1934) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science IV (1934) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science V (1941) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science VI (1941) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science VII (1958) [DECLARADA]
Thorndike — A History of Magic and Experimental Science VIII (1958) [DECLARADA]
Afirmaciones
18 entradas — la voz del autor, con su fuente y su pasaje«y idea is that magic and experimental science have been connected ill their development : that magicians were perhaps the first to experiment : and that the history 0 f both magic and experimental science can be better understood l)y studying them together» — es su tesis, dicha en la primera plana del cuerpo del volumen I: magia y ciencia experimental van unidas en su desarrollo, los magos fueron quizá los primeros en experimentar, y la historia de las dos se entiende mejor estudiándolas juntas. La capa de texto de este escaneo está estropeada y la M inicial de *My* se pierde; va tal cual.
«Magic is here understood in the broadest sense of the word, as including all occult arts and sciences, superstitions, and folk-lore. I shall endeavor to justify this use of the word fr0111 the sources as I proceed» — declara en qué sentido usa la palabra magia: el más ancho, con todas las artes y ciencias ocultas, las supersticiones y el folclore dentro, y se compromete a justificarlo desde las fuentes.
«The subject of laws against magic, popular practice of magic, the witchcraft delusion and persecution lie outside of the scope of this book» — dice lo que deja fuera: las leyes contra la magia, la práctica popular y la persecución de la brujería.
«At first Illy plan was to limit this investigation to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the tittle of greatest medieval productivity, but r became convinced that this period could be best understood hy viewing it in the settingof the Greek, Latin, and early Christian writers to Wh01l1 it owed so much» — explica por qué el libro creció: el plan era limitarse a los siglos XII y XIII y se convenció de que ese periodo solo se entiende en el marco de los escritores griegos, latinos y cristianos antiguos. Dos avisos sobre este tramo: el escaneo lee *my* como *Illy*, *time* como *tittle* e *I* como *r*, y el impreso parte *setting of* a fin de renglón, de modo que aquí sale fundido como una sola palabra.
«This work has been long in preparation-ever since in 190 2 -19°3 Professor James Harvey Robinson, when my mind was still in the making, suggested the study of magic in medieval universities as the subject of my thesis for the master» — data el arranque de la obra en 1902-1903, cuando James Harvey Robinson le propuso la magia en las universidades medievales como tema de su tesis de maestría.
«My examination of manuscripts has been done especially at the British Museum, whose rich collections, perhaps because somewhat inaccessibly catalogued, have been less used by students of medieval learning than such libraries as the ix» — dice dónde trabajó y por qué privilegió el British Museum: colecciones ricas y, a su juicio, menos usadas por estar catalogadas de manera poco accesible.
«And I have so often caught myself in the act of misinterpretation, misplaced emphasis, and other mistakes, that I have no doubt there are other errors as well as omissions which other scholars will be able to point out and which I trust they will» — se adjudica a sí mismo malinterpretaciones, énfasis desplazados y otros errores, y pide que otros los señalen.
«Despite this prospect, I have been bold in affirming my independent opinion on any point where I have one, even if it conflicts with that of specialists or puts me in the position of criticizing my betters» — declara haber afirmado su opinión propia en todo punto donde la tenía, aun contra los especialistas.
«stant questioning, criticism, new points of view, and conflict of opinion are essential in the pursuit of truth» — enuncia su regla: cuestionamiento constante, crítica, puntos de vista nuevos y conflicto de opiniones son necesarios en la busca de la verdad. El verbatim arranca en la segunda mitad de *Constant*, partida por el guion de fin de renglón que el troceo conserva.
«In describing manuscripts I have employed quotation marks when I knew from personal examination or otherwise that the Latin was that of the manuscript itself, and have omitted quotation marks where the Latin seemed rather to be that of the description in the catalogue» — declara su convención de comillas: las usa cuando sabe por examen propio que el latín es el del manuscrito, y las omite cuando parece ser el de la descripción del catálogo.
«But in such cases I advise critics not to reject my rendering utterly without some further examination of the context and line of thought of the author or treatise in question» — pide a sus críticos que no rechacen sus traducciones sin examinar el contexto, porque el texto de los manuscritos suele estar corrupto y él cita para ilustrar la actitud general del autor.
«Usually I have let the faulty spelling and syntax of medieval copyists stand without comment» — declara que deja sin comentario la ortografía y la sintaxis defectuosas de los copistas medievales.
«Frankly, it is not for this contribution towards modernity that we most prize these writings of two remote centuries which we have been at some pains to decipher and to set forth. We have taken them as we have found them and we esteem them for what they are in their totality, their fourteenth and their fifteenth century complexio—a chapter in the history of human thought» — cierra el volumen IV diciendo por qué estima esos escritos: no por lo que aportan a la modernidad sino por lo que son en su totalidad, un capítulo de la historia del pensamiento humano.
«Read it and smile or read it and weep, as you please. We would not credit it with the least particle of modern science that does not belong to it, nor would we deprive it of any of that magic which constitutes in no small measure its peculiar charm» — se niega a acreditarles una partícula de ciencia moderna que no les pertenezca y también a quitarles la magia que les da su encanto.
«Perhaps it would be well to read it and think of what the future historian may say of the mentality and scholasticism of the present era and with what sympathy or antipathy he would be justified in regarding us» — devuelve la vara al presente: propone pensar qué dirá el historiador futuro de la mentalidad y la escolástica de nuestra era.
«Not only was the scientific still tinged with the magical in the six¬ teenth century, but opposition to what would today be regarded as superstition then often proceeded from the same motives as did hostility to the reign of natural law and of scientific method» — da la conclusión general que, dice, no quedó bastante clara en el cuerpo de los volúmenes V y VI: en el siglo XVI lo científico seguía teñido de lo mágico, y la oposición a lo que hoy se tendría por superstición salía a menudo de los mismos motivos que la hostilidad al imperio de la ley natural. El troceo imprime el guion de corte como ¬ y va dentro del verbatim.
«It was the fixed laws as much as, or more than, the divination to which objection was made» — precisa el punto: la objeción iba tanto o más contra las leyes fijas que contra la adivinación.
«I am indebted to many libraries and librarians but especially to Columbia University for providing a work-place for me in Low Memorial Library» — en el prefacio de octubre de 1956 agradece a Columbia el sitio de trabajo en la Low Memorial Library.
Sobre el autor
17 entradas — lo que otros dicen de él«LYNN THORNDIKE, PH.D~ Professor of History in Western Reserve University» — la portada del volumen I lo presenta como profesor de historia en la Western Reserve University; el escaneo estropea la abreviatura del grado.
«The American historian Lynn Thorndike (1882–1965) devoted his life to exploring the role of “magic” in the intellectual history of Europe, starting with his dissertation defended at Columbia University in 1905,217 at the age of twenty-three, and culminating in the monumental eight-volume work known as A History of Magic and Experimental Science, published between 1923 and 1958» — Wouter Hanegraaff le da sus fechas, data su tesis en Columbia en 1905 a los veintitrés años y sitúa la obra de ocho volúmenes entre 1923 y 1958.
«from 1924 until his retirement in 1950, at the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University were all in» — Hanegraaff data su cátedra de Columbia y su retiro; el verbatim se corta en el marcador de plana y la palabra *history* queda en la siguiente.
«Although the scope of Thorndike’s magnum opus might seem to make him into a specialist of the Renaissance and early modernity as much as of the Middle Ages, he in fact disliked the concept of a “Renaissance,” and emphasized the continuity of ancient and medieval thought into modernity» — Hanegraaff le adjudica aversión al concepto de Renacimiento y el énfasis en la continuidad del pensamiento antiguo y medieval hacia la modernidad.
«As rightly noted by the contemporary specialist of medieval magic Claire Fanger, his remarkable achievements in this domain will be appreciated – in spite of many gaps and errors that are evident from the more advanced perspective of contemporary research – by “anyone who has had the humbling experience of extracting evidence even from much smaller quantities of manuscript material» — Hanegraaff trae el juicio de Claire Fanger, que reconoce los huecos y errores y a la vez el tamaño de la faena de manuscritos.
«In spite of its obvious contribution to scholarship, Thorndike’s work was initially received with considerable harshness, even hostility, from the direction of classical philology and history of science» — Hanegraaff describe la recepción inicial de su obra como dura y aun hostil desde la filología clásica y la historia de la ciencia.
«science is essentially progressive, while magic is essentially conservative. There can be no compromise between them; they cannot possibly walk together – for one is going forwards, and the other backwards. All that they can do is to hinder and fight one another» — la objeción de George Sarton en su reseña de 1924, tal como Hanegraaff la cita: ciencia y magia no pueden andar juntas.
«He would make us believe that the magician . . . was the ancestor of the modern investigator; that reason is the fruit of unreason; and truth, of superstition and occultism» — Sarton, en la misma reseña, resume así la tesis de Thorndike para rechazarla.
«Contrary to Sarton, Thorndike was thinking not as a partisan of modern science, but as an intellectual historian interested in contextuality and complexity» — Hanegraaff opone las dos posiciones: Sarton como partidario de la ciencia moderna, Thorndike como historiador intelectual interesado en el contexto y la complejidad.
«Thorndike was willing to consider a constructive rather than antithetic relation between history of magic and history of science, in which elements of the former might have influenced the latter. By implication, “magic” was seen as a historical phenomenon capable of change and development; and as such, it would have to be taken seriously by historians of science» — Hanegraaff enumera lo que, a su juicio, cambia con él, empezando por tratar la magia como fenómeno histórico con desarrollo propio.
«Reacting to the standard post-eighteenth-century image of astrology as “pseudoscience,” Lynn Thorndike pointed out as early as 1955 that modern historians of science have been “strangely blind” to the fact that classical astrology was grounded in a concept of universal, immutable natural law» — Hanegraaff le adjudica haber señalado ya en 1955 que los historiadores de la ciencia estaban ciegos al fundamento de ley natural de la astrología clásica.
«Thorndike’s thesis that during the Middle Ages “even the most educated men believed in astrology” (Place of Magic, 5) is mildly misleading since the revival of astrology happened only with the translations from Arabic sources in the later Middle Ages» — Hanegraaff objeta una de sus tesis: la de que en la Edad Media aun los más instruidos creían en la astrología.
«in 1929 the pioneering historian Lynn Thorndike, who would go on to complete a monumental eight-volume history of magic and early science, dismissed Voynich’s ‘pet’ manuscript as ‘an anonymous manuscript of dubious value» — Owen Davies lo llama historiador pionero y registra su juicio de 1929 sobre el manuscrito Voynich.
«volume History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York, 1923–58) is an essential though expensive resource on the intellectual magical tradition up until the Enlightenment» — Davies lo recomienda en su ensayo bibliográfico como recurso esencial, y anota que es caro.
«Rather than framing explanations or apologia for the long-known signs of Boyle's alchemy, Lynn Thorndike rejects them dismissively» — Lawrence Principe le objeta el trato que da a la alquimia de Robert Boyle.
«which the historian Lynn Thorndike dubbed the “mercury alone” theory, only these subtle perfective corpuscles can penetrate deeply enough into the microstructure of a base metal to convert it into a precious one» — William Newman le adjudica el nombre con que se conoce la teoría del mercurio solo.
«Thorndike did not realize that Geber was the originator of the “mercury alone” theory; instead he attributed it to Arnald of Villanova» — Newman objeta, en la misma nota, la atribución que Thorndike hace de esa teoría a Arnaldo de Vilanova.