Modelli esplicativi delle maree nel Rinascimento: una rassegna

A comprehensive overview of the models proposed during the Renaissance to explain the phenomenon of sea tides is long overdue. This essay will examine the most important theories proposed by intellectuals ranging from astrologers, commentators on Aristotle, and eclectic natural philosophers to professors of medicine and physics, scholars in mechanics, geographers and mathematicians. It begins with the astrological accounts by Albumasar's heirs, in particular the physician and philosopher Federico Grisogono and the astrologer Annibale Raimondo. The thermic / thermal models put forward by philosophers such as Pico della Mirandola, Girolamo Borri, Bernardino Telesio and Francesco Patrizi are then analysed. Finally, Galileo's mechanical / mechanistic theory is interpreted against the background of these debates, and in particular is linked to the views of the eminent Pisan professor Andrea Cesalpino.