Od niebieskich znaków do kosmosu nowej astronomii: komety i wszechświat w Prognostyku Jana Bohomolca
From the Blue Signs to the Space of New Astronomy: Comets and Universe in Jan Bohomolec’s Prediction

Author(s): Grzegorz Raubo
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Enlightenment; science popularisation; new astronomy; Newtonianism; comets; prognostic tradition
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses Prediction Good or Bad of the 1769 and 1770 Comet or Nature and the End of Comets with a Short Description of Celestial Rotation, the work of the Enlightenment writer, science populariser and Jesuit, Jan Bohomolec. The works critically analyses the views on comets present in science (based on the Aristotelian cosmology and referring to the idea of celestial spheres and the Cartesian theory of vortices) and culture (in fortune-telling and prognostic tradition). Against this background, the author shows the development of views on comets in new astronomy formed in the era of scientific revolution. The book popularises the achievements of new astronomy, emphasising the role of the heliocentric theory, the discoveries made through the telescopic exploration of the sky, and Isaac Newton’s law of gravitation. Bohomolec’s Prognosis explores other issues discussed in Enlightenment science and literature, including the notion of cosmic pluralism he is sceptical about. The Polish writer emphasises that the perfection of the world structure and mechanism shown by new astronomy is consistent with its religious genesis and relevant working principles.

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