Muses and Patrons : Cultures of Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth Century Scandinavia

Abstract: This study analyses the development of natural philosophy in Scandinavia in the 16th and 17th century. Rather than dealing with individual natural philosophers and ideas, it evolves around groups of natural philsophers - the Bartholin family and the former assistants of Tycho Brahe in Denmark, the Rudbeck family in Sweden. The study of nature is put into a cultural, religious, social, and political context, and much attention is given to the phenomenon of patronage. General developments in the two countries, particularly political, are drawn upon to explain the different conext, national style, and development of natural philosophy in Denmark and Sweden