Francesco Patrizi and the New Geometry of Space

Abstract

This chapter deals with the philosophy of space and the theory of geometry developed by the Renaissance philosopher Francesco Patrizi da Cherso. Patrizi’s metaphysics of space shares several common features with other similar constructions (by Bruno, Campanella, and others) aimed at radically rethinking the notions of space and place present in Aristotelian traditions. The uniqueness of Patrizi’s proposal, however, is to be found in his attempt to ground geometry in this new conception of space, thus claiming for the first time in history that geometry is the science of space rather than the “science of continuous magnitudes” as it had been conceived from Antiquity to his day and age.