De Calore Solis, a Treatise on Heat by Robert Grosseteste

Author(s): Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

In this paper we are translating and discussing one of the scientific treatises written by Robert Grosseteste, the De Calore Solis, On the Heat of the Sun. In this treatise, the medieval philosopher analyses the nature of heat.

History of Science, Medieval Science

1. N. Lewis, Robert Grosseteste, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010
2. A.C. Sparavigna, On the Rainbow, a Robert Grosseteste's Treatise on Optics, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 108-113
3. A.C. Sparavigna, Robert Grosseteste and his Treatise on Lines, Angles and Figures of the Propagation of Light, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 101-107
4. A.C. Sparavigna, The Generation of Sounds According to Robert Grosseteste, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 10, Pages 1-5
5. A.C. Sparavigna, Robert Grosseteste and the Four Elements, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 12, Pages 42-45
6. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: A New Arrangement and Translation of the Fragments with Literary and Philosophical Commentary Cambridge University Press, Sept. 3, 1981
7. A.C. Sparavigna, Water, Air and Fire at Work in Hero's Machines, Archaeogate, 2011, January 24
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9. Vv.Aa., Wikipedia, wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_heat
10. A.C. Sparavigna, The Science of al-Biruni, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 12, Pages 52-60
11. Vv.Aa., Nature, Man and God in Medieval Islam, Islamic Philosophy Theology and Science, Texts and Studies, Edited by H. Daiber and D. Pingree, Volume XLV, Brill, 2002
12. The Latin text is that given at “The Electronic Grosseteste”, www.grosseteste.com
13. In the Latin text, Grosseteste defines the heat as “univocus”, and therefore I translated it as “univocal”, in the sense of “being of a single kind”
14. In the Latin text, there is the term “ageneratix”, which seems quite odd. I translated it as “source”. See also, A.C. Crombie, Science, Optics and Music in Medieval and Early Modern Thought, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990
15. The “equinoctial circle” is the great circle on the celestial sphere midway between the celestial poles. Then we have the two tropical circles. One of them is called the Tropic of Cancer. When this circle was named, the Sun passed through the Zenith at its latitude, when was also in the direction of the constellation Cancer (Latin for crab). However, this is no longer true due to the precession of the equinoxes. The word "tropic" comes from the Greek “tropei”, meaning “turn”, referring to the fact that the Sun appears to “turn back” on the solstices
16. G. Kish, A Source Book in Geography, Harvard University Press, 1978
17. R.C. Dales, The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973
18. P.M. Harman, Energy, Force and Matter: The Conceptual Development of Nineteenth-Century Physics, Cambridge University Press, Apr 30, 1982
19. A.C. Crombie, Grosseteste, in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Scribner, 1981, Pages 548-554
20. M.F. Dowd, Astronomy and Compotus at Oxford University in the Early Thirteenth Century: the Works of Robert Grosseteste. Dissertation, Notre Dame, Indiana, June 2003, available at www3.nd.edu
21. A.C. Sparavigna, Grosseteste’s Colours, arXiv:1212.6336, arXiv, 2012